INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
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Gender is whether you are experience the world and behave as a man (masculine) or a woman (feminine). "Sex" is a purely biological term (male or female) but gender covers beliefs, feelings and behaviour.
Gender differences include appearance, attitudes, relationships and a sense of what's appropriate for you to do and say.
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PERSONALITY DIFFERENCES
Personality is how you experience the world and behave as an individual. People's individual characteristics include their attitudes, needs and responses to situations.
A pattern of enduring, distinctive, thoughts, emotions and behaviors that characterize the way an individual interacts with and adapts to the world - Laura King (2010)
Personality differences include whether you are outgoing or reserved, friendly or cruel.
- From a nature viewpoint, personality is innate and determined by genes that we inherit from our parents
- From a nurture viewpoint, gender is learned through upbringing and role models
Psychologists agree on the "Big Five" stable personality traits - characteristics that tend to stay the same in different situations and as you develop. These are summed up in the initials O-C-E-A-N.
The most influential traits are Extraversion (E) and Neuroticism (N), researched by Hans Eysenck. Eysenck also proposed Psychoticism (P) to measure cold-heartedness and aggression, but this is not so widely accepted. |
Another theory of personality comes from Sigmund Freud. His psychodynamic theory suggests our personality is divided and in conflict. The id contains our desires, the ego is the rational side of us and the super-ego is judgmental and moral. This conflict goes on in the unconscious mind, so we are not consciously aware of it.
Freud argues our personality forms in childhood, through conflicts with our parents. We also have defence mechanisms to protect us from what's happening in our unconscious. |
11-minute video giving a packed overview of different theories about personality
OTHER INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
Pages on each of the Approaches and Applications will consider more specific individual differences, like people with "photographic memory" or personality disorders.
SITUATIONAL FACTORS
Individual differences are sometimes described as dispositional factors - they are explanations based on a person's own individual makeup.
The opposite would be situational factors - explanations based on the situation or environment. Social psychologists in particular prefer situational explanations to dispositional ones.
The opposite would be situational factors - explanations based on the situation or environment. Social psychologists in particular prefer situational explanations to dispositional ones.