Embedded Files
Much of this book deals with personality. Other parts and units consider biological influences on personality; personality development across the life span; how personality relates to learning, motivation, emotion, and health; social influences on personality, and disorders of personality. This part focuses on personality itself—what it is and how researchers study it.
We begin with two historically important theories of personality that have become part of Western culture: Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and the humanistic approach. These sweeping perspectives on human nature laid the foundation for later personality theorists and for what this part presents next: newer scientific explorations of personality.
Today’s personality researchers study the basic dimensions of personality, and the interaction of persons and environments. They also study self-esteem, self-serving bias, and cultural influences on our concept of self—that sense of “Who I am.” And they study the unconscious mind—with findings that probably would have surprised even Freud.
Myers' Psychology
Readings
Module 60, Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Theories, pages 617-30.
Module 61, Humanistic Theories, pages 631-35.
Module 62, Trait Theories, pages 636-45.
Module 63, Social-Cognitive Theories, pages 646-50.
Module 64, Exploring the Self, pages 651-60.
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