SAGE Reference - Encyclopedia of Social Psychology

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Personality and Social Behavior

In: Encyclopedia of Social Psychology
Edited by: Roy F. Baumeister & Kathleen D. Vohs
Subject:Social Psychology (general)
Keywords:personality; personality and social behavior

Definitions

Personality is an individual's typical way of feeling, thinking, and acting. Given that personality is typical, it is fairly stable over time. Social behavior refers to a person's feelings, thoughts, or actions as he or she relates to other people. These two definitions have a very close relationship. Knowing something about an individual's personality should allow psychologists to predict his or her social behavior. Similarly, knowing about a person's social behavior should give clues to aspects of his or her personality. In other words, an individual's personality and social behavior influence each other, and knowledge of one allows the inference of information about the other.

History and Background

People tend to describe others in terms of personality characteristics. Almost 20,000 English words can be used to describe ...

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  Baumeister, R. F., & Vohs, K. D. (2007). Personality and social behavior. In Encyclopedia of social psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 656-659). SAGE Publications, Inc., https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412956253.n392
  
  Baumeister, Roy F., and Kathleen D. Vohs. "Personality and Social Behavior." In Encyclopedia of Social Psychology, edited by Baumeister, Roy F., and Kathleen D. Vohs, 656-59. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2007. https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412956253.n392.
  
  Baumeister, R. F. and Vohs, K. D. 2007. Personality and Social Behavior. In: Roy F. Baumeister and Kathleen D. Vohs Editors, 2007. Encyclopedia of Social Psychology, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. pp. 656-659 Available at: <https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412956253.n392> [Accessed 22 May 2022].
  
  Baumeister, Roy F. and Kathleen D. Vohs. "Personality and Social Behavior." Encyclopedia of Social Psychology. Edited by Vol. 1. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2007, pp. 656-59. SAGE Knowledge. 22 May 2022, doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412956253.n392.
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