Introduction

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Page ID: 76937

Rose M. Spielman, William J. Jenkins, Marilyn D. Lovett, et al.
OpenStax

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Chapter Outline

11.1 What Is Personality?

11.2 Freud and the Psychodynamic Perspective

11.3 Neo-Freudians: Adler, Erikson, Jung, and Horney

11.4 Learning Approaches

11.5 Humanistic Approaches

11.6 Biological Approaches

11.7 Trait Theorists

11.8 Cultural Understandings of Personality

11.9 Personality Assessment

11.1.png — Figure 11.1 What makes two individuals have different personalities? (credit: modification of work by Nicolas Alejandro)

Three months before William Jefferson Blythe III was born, his father died in a car accident. He was raised by his mother, Virginia Dell, and grandparents, in Hope, Arkansas. When he turned \(4\), his mother married Roger Clinton, Jr., an alcoholic who was physically abusive to William’s mother. Six years later, Virginia gave birth to another son, Roger. William, who later took the last name Clinton from his stepfather, became the \(42^{nd}\) president of the United States. While Bill Clinton was making his political ascendance, his half-brother, Roger Clinton, was arrested numerous times for drug charges, including possession, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and driving under the influence, serving time in jail. Two brothers, raised by the same people, took radically different paths in their lives. Why did they make the choices they did? What internal forces shaped their decisions? Personality psychology can help us answer these questions and more.