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Personality

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Personality refers to the enduring characteristics and behavior that comprise a person’s unique adjustment to life, including major traits, interests, drives, values, self-concept, abilities, and emotional patterns. Various theories explain the structure and development of personality in different ways, but all agree that personality helps determine behavior.

The field of personality psychology studies the nature and definition of personality as well as its development, structure and trait constructs, dynamic processes, variations (with emphasis on enduring and stable individual differences), and maladaptive forms.

Adapted from the APA Dictionary of Psychology

Resources from APA

Road rage, traffic jams and why driving stresses us out

Dwight Hennessy, PhD, talks about what’s going on when we get behind the wheel

Social and Personality Pillar

Resources to broaden diversity and representation across the social and personality pillar of APA’s National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula

How to use psychology to write a best seller

Jennifer Lynn Barnes, PhD, talks about why we’re drawn to fictional worlds and the psychology of fandom and fan fiction

How to motivate yourself and others

Frank Worrell, PhD, and Wendy Grolnick, PhD, discuss what science says about motivation and how misconceptions about it get in the way of accomplishing goals

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