Unit 10-Personality

AP Psychology College Board Learning Objectives

• Compare and contrast the major theories and approaches to explaining personality: psychoanalytic, humanist, cognitive, trait, social learning, and behavioral.
• Describe and compare research methods (e.g., case studies and surveys) that psychologists use to investigate personality.
• Identify frequently used assessment strategies (e.g., the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory [MMPI], the Thematic Apperception Test [TAT]), and evaluate relative test quality based on reliability and validity of the instruments.
• Speculate how cultural context can facilitate or constrain personality development, especially as it relates to self-concept (e.g., collectivistic versus individualistic cultures).
• Identify key contributors to personality theory (e.g., Alfred Adler, Albert Bandura, Paul Costa and Robert McCrae, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers).

Unit Study Guide Based on APA National Standards

Use these standards as a checklist to make sure you've mastered this unit.

• Perspectives on personality
  • 1.1 Evaluate psychodynamic theories.
  • 1.2 Evaluate trait theories.
  • 1.3 Evaluate humanistic theories.
  • 1.4 Evaluate social-cognitive theories.
• Assessment of personality
  • 2.1 Differentiate personality assessment techniques.
  • 2.2 Discuss the reliability and validity of personality assessment techniques.
• Issues in personality
  • 3.1 Discuss biological and situational influences.
  • 3.2 Discuss stability and change.
  • 3.3 Discuss connections to health and work.
  • 3.4 Discuss self-concept.
  • 3.5 Analyze how individualistic and collectivistic cultural perspectives relate to personality.