SUMMARY
1. Personality psychology is concerned with the differences among people.
Although there is no agreed-upon definition, personality is defined here
as consistent behavior patterns and intrapersonal processes originating
within the individual.
2. For convenience, the many theories of personality are divided into six
general categories: the psychoanalytic, trait, biological, humanistic,behavioral/social learning, and cognitive approaches. Each approach pro-vides a different focus for explaining individual differences in behavior.
The six approaches can be thought of as complementary models for
understanding human personality, although occasionally they presentcompeting accounts of behavior.
3. Personality psychologists have become aware of the need to consider the
culture from which an individual comes. Most of the findings reported inthis book are based on research in individualistic cultures, such as the
United States. However, these results don’ t always generalize to people in
collectivist cultures.
4. A thorough understanding of human personality requires more than the
study of theory. Consequently, we ’ll also examine how each of the
It’s difficult to make it through college without taking a personality test somewhere
along the way. One reason that self-report inventories are frequently used in personality
research can be seen here —researchers can quickly collect information from a large
number of people.16 CHAPTER 1 What Is Personality?