Chapter 1 – Essay Questions

1. Define personality and explain the factors that influence one’s personality.

 Personality is a collection of behaviors, attitudes, characteristics, feelings, and thoughts

that define a person.
 Common factors that influence a person's personality include genetics, upbringing by
parents, and relationships with peers. Some characteristics of our behavior are genetic,
meaning we inherit them. Some traits such as height, slenderness, intellectual capacity,
learning ability, reasoning ability, etc. are also inherited. The socio-economic status of
the family, the education of the parents and other family members shape the personality
of a person to a considerable extent. Family members also try to influence children's
behavior in a desperate attempt to embody their own values, roles, etc. People also
influence each other, and these influences shape personality. For this reason, we can
often say that a person's personality is constantly evolving and being shaped throughout
his or her life.

2. How can personality be considered a hub topic in the social sciences? Explain what
fields of study go into trying to understand personality.

 Personality encompasses moods, attitudes, and opinions and is most clearly expressed
in interactions with others. It includes innate and acquired behavioral characteristics that
distinguish one person from another and can be observed in people's relationships with
the environment and social group.
 There are different fields of personality psychology under it which includes: Clinical
Psychology which is focused on personality disorders and psychological assessment,
Neuroscience which studies personality neuroscience, Developmental Psychology which
studies personality development and child temperament, Social Psychology which
focuses on self-esteem and self-concept and lastly, the Industrial-Organizational
Psychology which is more focused on leadership and assessment.

3. Dissect the person–situation dynamic. How does each contribute to our understanding of
behavior, and what are the four factors that we need to consider as we negotiate the
interaction between the two.

 Person-situation dynamic refers to to the issue concerning whether the person or the
situation is more influential in determining a person's behavior. Eventually, researchers
came to recognize that both personality and situations influence behavior.
 The 4 factors that we need to consider are the following: Personality can be impacted by
experiences; people respond differently to the same situation; people choose their
situations and people change the situations they enter.