Psychology

Eysenck's analysis of personality was originally based on two factors, extroversion and neuroticism, however, he later added a third dimension to the model, psychoticism (P). Those who score high on the P scale tend to be solitary, insensitive, hostile, and...

Many psychologists attempted to define and assess personality, by seeing it in terms of how others see us. George A. Kelly believed instead that we perceive our own personalities from the inside. He believed that we do so subjectively and that this shapes the way that...

While most theories about personality assume them to be stable and permanent, Allport suggested that’s not the case. Personality is not constant; it is dynamic. Allport recognized that personality is not static. Because personality is not constant, the behaviors...

In accordance with Situationist theories of personality, it is possible to exhibit inconsistent and even contradictory personality characteristics. A person who is generally considered to be cold and emotionless, for instance, might unexpectedly demonstrate...

Personality is often viewed as an underlying tendency to act in a particular way, but we also have feelings, emotions, and moods that can change in response to our surroundings. Dutch psychologist Nico Frijda explained that we have spontaneous reactions to certain...

According to most psychologists, common sense suggests that because our emotions are involuntary, any action taken must come after the emotion. For example, if you're afraid of bears, you'll run away from them. But according to many psychologists, the order is...

A major concern for scientists investigating individual differences is this: is there such a thing as psychological normality or abnormality? If so, how can we judge whether someone is psychologically healthy or not? Intelligence, for example, is routinely measured as...

The 20th-century science of psychology emerged from the 19th-century attitude to mental health as an illness requiring medical intervention, the province of psychiatry instead of psychology. This model was increasingly questioned, however, with some psychologists...

The history of classifying mental disorders began with a man named Emil Kraepelin. He studied medicine at the University of Munich, where he earned his degree. After working for two years in a hospital, he became interested in studying mental illnesses, especially...

The term dementia praecox (literally meaning early madness) was coined by Emil Kraepelin in 1884 and refers to a group of neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by chronic disturbances of thought processes, particularly delusions and hallucinations. Today, these...