Personality psychology is the study of how people differ. It attempts to identify the factors that cause one person to think, feel, and behave differently from another person within a given situation.

Unlike some of the others areas of psychology, personality psychology has no single accepted theoretical framework. There is, of course, a consensus within the field about the important questions (that's what makes it a field in the first place), but the kinds of answers that satisfy one personality researcher can, and often do, differ radically from the kinds of answers that satisfy another. Why is this? One reason may be that the goal of personality psychology--to make sense of the whole person--is inherently controversial.

The disparity in methods and theories in personality psychology is reflected in the fact that most classes and textbooks focus on four or five broad theoretical approaches to personality that have become popular over the course of the last century. Not all of these approaches are currently popular, but each of them has importantly influenced the way we think about personality today.

The approaches that we cover in this SparkNote are psychodynamic (Topic I), humanistic- existential (Topic II), trait theoretic and biological (Topic II), and behaviorist and social cognitive (Topic IV). The major differences between these approaches are briefly summarized in this general introduction, and covered in more depth in each of the individual Topics. In this general introduction, we also consider briefly the methods used in personality research.