Book: The Story of Psychology
Discussion: Personality Psychology isessentially the study of traits. Personality psychologists want toknow “What accounts for the differences in individuals and in theirbehavior?†and laypeople want to know “How can I correctly predictothers’ behavior and make judgments accordingly?†Is human naturedetermined from within or from without? Are our minds and behaviorthe products of inner forces, or are we shaped and prodded intothought and action by the stimuli of the environment? This is, oncemore, the classic nature versus nurture question. These debateshave always been a part of psychology, since Plato, and likelyalways will be. Most psychologists now lean toward theinteractionist view of nature/nurture question- that mosteverything a person does results from an interaction between theirpersonality and the situation they happen to be in.
Questions/ Discussion: Discuss how we came tothis conclusion, specifically when it comes to personality, citingboth historical thought and empirical data on both biological andenvironmental influences.
Can we now predict behavior based on personality? How could alayperson go about trying to do this?
