Introductory Psychology Open Course: Unit 10
Personality Psychology
In addition to differences in cognitive abilities, which we looked at in the previous unit, people also differ in their personality traits and their characteristic patterns of thinking and behaving. In this unit we'll consider how we can categorize and interpret the ways that people differ in their traits and how these relate to their ways of perceiving and acting in the world.
What do we mean by personality?
Freudian Personality Structure: the Id, Ego, & Superego
Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Personality Development
Freudian defense mechanisms for managing anxiety
Other Psychdynamic theorists: Adler, Horney, & Jung
The projective approach for assessing personality
The trait-based approach for assessing personality
The Forer Effect in assessing accuracy
The MMPI for assessing personality
Considering the relative importance of traits for behavior
Costa & McCrae's Five-Factor model of personality traits
How well do trait scores predict actual behavior?
What might cause differences in personality?
How do genes relate to personality?
The socio-cognitive approach to personality
How meaning & knowledge of death may influence personality
The humanistic approach & drives to improve
How views of ourselves & our abilities influence personality
How views of ourselves & our abilities influence personality
The flaws of the popular Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Additional Resources:
