Learning Objectives

Following the completion of this chapter, students will be able to:

1. Define personality and explain the aspects of personality that characterize a person.
2. Explain how researchers measure personality and describe the aspects of personality that have been substantiated across investigations.
3. Define temperament and explain the relative contribution of heredity and environment to it.
4. Describe characteristics of four models of adult personality. Discuss explanations from each model used to draw conclusions about patterns of stability versus change in personality across the lifespan.
5. List and describe the five elements of Costa and McCrae's five-factor model of personality, and discuss the research supporting their assertions.
6. Explain the differences in personality research resulting from cross-sectional versus longitudinal research, cross-cultural research, and subjective evaluations of personality development.
7. Identify and discuss the elements of Susan Krauss Whitbourne's self-concept model.
8. Compare and contrast the stage models of personality development explained by Erikson, Vaillant, Levinson, and Hinduism.
9. Discuss the timing-of-events model of personality development.
10. Define gender stereotypes and describe how they develop from the perspectives of social learning, cognitive-developmental, and gender-schema theorists.
11. Define gender roles and describe how they develop from the perspectives of social learning, cognitive-developmental, and gender-schema theorists.
12. Define gender identity and describe how it develops from the perspectives of social learning, cognitive-developmental, and gender-schema theorists.
13. Discuss the changes in gender roles that occur across adulthood.
14. Describe the purpose and methods of the Mills studies, and summarize the results.
15. Compare and contrast Costa and McCrae's and Helson's models in describing personality development.