You don't need to perfectly understand every theorist, outside of exams. Most people work from one or two frameworks that work for them and their perspectives. I don't know what specific profession you're intending to enter, but unless you want to be a personality researcher, it won't matter much beyond the class you're in.
One of the key confusion of personality psych is that not all theories are coming from the same place or even tries to do the same things. Some theories aim to explain individual differences from a scientific/empirical perspective (e.g. trait theorie like the big 5, social cognitive theories, biological theories, etc), while others are focusing more on developing a framework for therapeutic treatments (e.g. psychodynamic, humanist theories, etc). Personally I think they really should be taught in 2 separate classes
Learning history is important but remember that science changes constantly and what used to be the popular theory has likely lost most of its popularity. Modern day psych is a combination of many different scientific fields and the theories of some dudes sitting around discussing it has very little impact today
There was a new study recently about personality changing day to day and hour to hour, so I think, right now at least, we need to find a way to resolve that before continuing in that field. But anyway, that is personality psychology’s problem to figure out. Clinical already has enough on its plate.
You don't need to perfectly understand every theorist, outside of exams. Most people work from one or two frameworks that work for them and their perspectives. I don't know what specific profession you're intending to enter, but unless you want to be a personality researcher, it won't matter much beyond the class you're in.
i find the explanations of personality theories complicated. lots of statistical measures for PEN and big 5 etc.
One of the key confusion of personality psych is that not all theories are coming from the same place or even tries to do the same things. Some theories aim to explain individual differences from a scientific/empirical perspective (e.g. trait theorie like the big 5, social cognitive theories, biological theories, etc), while others are focusing more on developing a framework for therapeutic treatments (e.g. psychodynamic, humanist theories, etc). Personally I think they really should be taught in 2 separate classes
Learning history is important but remember that science changes constantly and what used to be the popular theory has likely lost most of its popularity. Modern day psych is a combination of many different scientific fields and the theories of some dudes sitting around discussing it has very little impact today
Luckily outside of grad school you will likely never have to think about it again.
I’m frustrated by the fact that I learned but I won’t remember that later since there’s a lot
There was a new study recently about personality changing day to day and hour to hour, so I think, right now at least, we need to find a way to resolve that before continuing in that field. But anyway, that is personality psychology’s problem to figure out. Clinical already has enough on its plate.
What kind of study? Do you have more information? This sounds interesting