Final Examination For The Psychology Of Personality

Final Examination for the Psychology of Personality Summer 2015 Due Date: 7-28-15 at 11:59pm Seham Azzamel @02773623 Seham_z@hotmail.com Dr. Elbedour College of School of Psychology Washington, DC 2015 Question 1 Personality Traits Personality is defined as â€Å"consistent behavior patterns and intrapersonal processes originating within the individual† (Burger, 2010, p. 4). In order to measure personality, psychologists focus on personality traits. Personality traits are simply actions, attitudes, and behaviors an individual possess. These traits are the elements that make up each individual’s personality. There are five most widely accepted traits of personality (Pappas, 2013): †¢ Openness †¢ Conscientiousness †¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¦show more content†¦153). Basic Types of Personality Proposed by Eysenck Eysenck, a British psychologist, proposed a model of personality based upon just three universal streams: 1) Introversion/Extraversion, 2) Neuroticism, and 3) Psychoticism (Cherry, n.d; Burger, 2010). Introversion is concerned with directing attention on inner experiences, whereas extraversion focuses attention outward on other people and the environment (Cheery, n.d). Neuroticism indicates an individual’s tendency to respond emotionally (Burger, 2010). Eysenck’s third element of personality model, that was added later, is psychoticism. People, high on this trait – psychoticism, tend to have difficulty dealing with reality, and are usually anti-social, non-empathetic, and hostile (Cherry, n.d). Question 2 The Nature-Nurture Controversy Nature versus nurture debate (also written as nature-nurture) is one of the oldest and enduring controversy in the history of psychology. Nature relates to hereditary factors that influences who we are – from our physical appearance to our personality characteristics. On the other hand, Nurture is related environmental variables that impact who we are, such as early childhood experiences, the way of being raised, and social relationships. The nature-nurture debate is concerned with the degree to which specific aspects of behavior are a product of either hereditary or acquired (learned) characteristics (McLeod, 2007). Plato and Descartes proposed