Theories of
Personality
10 th
Edition
Chapter 1 |NOTES
, CHAPTER 1|Introduction to Personality Theory
What is Personality?
Personality – is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique
characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person’s
behavior.
Traits – contribute to individual differences in behavior, consistency of
behavior overtime, and stability of behavior across situations. Traits
may be unique, common to some group, or shared by the entire
species, but their pattern is different for each individual.
Characteristics - are unique qualities of an individual that include
attributes such as temperament, physique, and intelligence.
What is a Theory?
In science, theories are tools used to generate research and organize
observations, but neither “truth” nor “fact” has a place in scientific
terminology.
Theory – A scientific theory is a set of related assumptions that allows
scientists to use logical deductive reasoning to formulate testable
hypotheses.
1. A theory is a set of assumptions
2. A theory is a set of related assumptions
3. Assumptions – are not proven facts, however, accepted as if they
were true.
4. Logical deductive reasoning is used
5. Testable
Theory and its Relatives
a. Philosophy –means love of wisdom, and philosophers are
people who pursue wisdom through thinking and reasoning.
Epistemology, or the nature of knowledge
Difference – theories do not deal with “oughts” and
“shoulds” ; only if-then. While philosophy deals with
what ought to be or what should be
b. Speculation – they do not flow forth from the mind of a great
thinker isolated from empirical observations. They are closely
tied to empirically gathered data and to science.
Science is a branch of study concerned with the
observation and classification of data and with the
Personality
10 th
Edition
Chapter 1 |NOTES
, CHAPTER 1|Introduction to Personality Theory
What is Personality?
Personality – is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique
characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person’s
behavior.
Traits – contribute to individual differences in behavior, consistency of
behavior overtime, and stability of behavior across situations. Traits
may be unique, common to some group, or shared by the entire
species, but their pattern is different for each individual.
Characteristics - are unique qualities of an individual that include
attributes such as temperament, physique, and intelligence.
What is a Theory?
In science, theories are tools used to generate research and organize
observations, but neither “truth” nor “fact” has a place in scientific
terminology.
Theory – A scientific theory is a set of related assumptions that allows
scientists to use logical deductive reasoning to formulate testable
hypotheses.
1. A theory is a set of assumptions
2. A theory is a set of related assumptions
3. Assumptions – are not proven facts, however, accepted as if they
were true.
4. Logical deductive reasoning is used
5. Testable
Theory and its Relatives
a. Philosophy –means love of wisdom, and philosophers are
people who pursue wisdom through thinking and reasoning.
Epistemology, or the nature of knowledge
Difference – theories do not deal with “oughts” and
“shoulds” ; only if-then. While philosophy deals with
what ought to be or what should be
b. Speculation – they do not flow forth from the mind of a great
thinker isolated from empirical observations. They are closely
tied to empirically gathered data and to science.
Science is a branch of study concerned with the
observation and classification of data and with the
