essence

n. in philosophy, the presumed ontological reality at the core of something that makes it what it is and not something else. There have been various philosophical attempts to define the difference between what something necessarily is and what it merely coincidentally is (see accidental property; essential property). In psychology, the concept of essence is relevant to discussions of personhood, including questions of human agency and of the self. It is thus important for personality theories. The view that human beings have certain important essential characteristics is known as essentialism. —essential adj.

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Psychology term of the day

January 18th 2025

hierarchical model of personality

a model of either within-person dynamics or individual differences in personality in which some psychological constructs are viewed as high-level variables that organize or govern the functioning of other lower level variables. For example, a hierarchical model of personality traits might view the construct sociability as being at a lower level in a hierarchy than the construct extraversion: Sociability would be seen as a form or example of the higher level trait of extraversion.