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Personality Architecture: Within-Person Structures and Processes
Abstract
This chapter reviews theory and research on intraindividual personality structures and processes. Principles for modeling the architecture of personality, that is, the overall design and operating characteristics of intraindividual personality systems, are addressed. Research demonstrates that a focus on within-person structures and processes advances the understanding of two aspects of personality coherence: the functional relations among distinct elements of personality, and cross-situational coherence in personality functioning that results from interactions among enduring knowledge structures and dynamic appraisal processes. Also reviewed are recent conceptual and empirical advances, which demonstrate that the interindividual personality variables that summarize variability in the population are wholly insufficient for modeling intraindividual personality architecture.
... Theoretical models highlight that assuming stability may be a fool's errand. The Cognitive-Affective Personality System (CAPS; Mischel & Shoda, 1995) and the Knowledge and Appraisal Personality Architecture (KAPA; Cervone, 2005) provided the theoretical incentive for considering idiographic personality network to be informative, while the method also has clear parallels later dynamic systems accounts of personality (Danvers et al., 2020;DeYoung, 2015;Fajkowska, 2015;Nowak et al., 2005;Read et al., 2017;Sosnowska et al., 2019). Their core theoretical claim is that personality is best perceived as a complex system of interacting cognitions and emotions, which is continuously influenced by situational features in ways unique to individuals. ...
... The system of internal processes producing such behavioral patterns can vary between people, even when the observed patterns are identical. For one person, lack of self-esteem may cause an if-then pattern like John's, whilst for another the cause may be a strong professional self-schema (Cervone, 2005). ...
... Notably, the stability of traits here comes from selfreinforcement; a synchronized stability of the personality system resulting from the person's tendency to maintain a state of homeostasis relative to the environment (Mischel & Shoda, 1995;Fajkowska, 2015). More simply put, internal personality processes like self-schema's (Cervone, 2005) are not stable of themselves, but cause people to actively seek out situations that strengthen self-schema's. For example, excitement at parties leads John to blurt things out, leading to laughter with friends that reinforces this tendency due to positive feedback and a resultant lack of a (social) need to question this behavior. ...
Idiographic personality networks are gaining popularity for modeling individual differences. Their validity requires stability, which seems contradicted by theory and empirics. This study employs conventional idiographic personality network analysis to evaluate inter- and intra-individual variation in youngsters with a mild intellectual disability (N = 26; Mage=23) who completed 60 daily self-reports. Results show high between-person heterogeneity in network structures, even within subgroups with a similar personality profile. Repeatedly estimating idiographic networks in a sliding 30-day window revealed within-person network variability throughout the 60 days. Both theory and our study suggest non-stationarity, which invalidates aggregated network estimates. This is problematic because capturing individuals’ stable personality networks is required to subsequently assess individual differences. We discuss implications for modeling and theory building.
... It is worth noting, however, that studies have demonstrated that negative affectivity and effortful-control each reflect patterns of entangled interrelations between emotional and higher-order sociocognitive processes that are now known to be functionally, genetically, and developmentally dissociated De Fruyt, Van De Wiele, & Van Heeringen, 2000;Evans & Rothbart, 2007). Such evidence strongly indicates that these constructs do not reflect unitary latent components of human personality (Cervone, 2005), meaning they have little utility for understanding CAB "bottom up". ...
... These systems represent brain functions for intentionality, which emerged in primates, and self-awareness, which is present only in modern humans (Gardini, Cloninger, & Venneri, 2009;Van Schuerbeek, Baeken, De Raedt, De Mey, & Luypaert, 2011;Zwir et al., 2020a;Zwir, Arnedo, et al., 2021). It is now well understood that dynamic nonlinear interactions among these three developmentally and functionally dissociable brain networks for associative conditioning, intentionality and self-awareness are fundamental for models of withinperson functioning (Cervone, 2005). As basic of evidence of this, various studies have demonstrated that a person with any temperament can function adaptively or maladaptively, and experience high or low levels of wellbeing, dependent on their development of intentionality and selfawareness (e.g. . ...
... Acknowledging this robust evidence of human functioning resulting from an adaptive complex system comprising temperament and rational self-regulatory functions that capture what people make of themselves intentionally and creatively (i.e., their character; Kant, 1797), it is clear that temperament-based models can only offer a partial account of crime. As such, research in criminology may benefit by adopting a dynamic system approach that incorporates these interactions, particularly because such models are able to explain the experiences and actions of individuals (Cervone, 2005). Cloninger's biopsychosocial model of temperament and character (Cloninger, 2004;Cloninger et al., 1993) is ideal for this purpose, not only because it has received extensive validation as a model of typical and atypical human functioning (Cloninger, 2005(Cloninger, , 2006a(Cloninger, , 2006bCloninger & Svrakic, 2006Cloninger, Zohar, Hirschmann, & Dahan, 2012;Fountoulakis, Gonda, Koufaki, Hyphantis, & Cloninger, 2016;Hintsanen et al., 2019;Moreira, Inman and Cloninger, 2022b;Svrakic & Cloninger, 2010;Svrakic, Whitehead, Przybeck, & Cloninger, 1993;Zaninotto, Solmi, Toffanin, Cloninger, & Correll, 2016), but because it has the potential to satisfy growing demands for a fully integrative and comprehensive theory of crime (e.g. ...
Purpose: Robust evidence suggests that a full understanding of human functioning requires a model of personality
that acknowledges the dynamic nonlinear interactions between developmentally and functionally distinct
emotional and sociocognitive processes (i.e. between temperament and character). The purpose of the current
study is to provide the first description of prisoner personality acknowledging these interactions.
Methods: Personality was assessed in 184 Portuguese adult male prisoners using the Temperament and Character
Inventory (TCI).
Results: Prisoners were high in novelty seeking (impulsive and rule-breaking) and harm avoidance (pessimistic),
and low in self-directedness (helpless and blaming) and cooperativeness (revengeful and opportunistic).
Temperament profiles reflecting emotional dysregulation and immature character profiles were observed to be
typical of prisoners.
Conclusions: The observed personality features indicate that criminal and antisocial behavior is a manifestation of
personality incoherence where dispositional tendencies for emotional reactivity are weakly regulated by higher
order cognitive processes. The study highlights the need for theories of crime to incorporate nonlinear in�teractions between temperament and character. These results have implications for understanding why people
behave antisocially, for identifying those at higher risk of becoming involved in the criminal justice system, and
for informing interventions for those already incarcerated.
... Selfregulation is an important volitional competency that is relevant to our discussion on motivation and emotion because it integrates motivation and emotion research. Specifically, as Cervone (2004;2005) argues, selfregulation involves a system of cognitive and affective processes that are recruited in service of goal-directed behavior. Hence, self-regulatory processes shape a person's enduring and distinctive patterns of emotional experience and motivated action. ...
... Selfregulation is an important volitional competency that is relevant to our discussion on motivation and emotion because it integrates motivation and emotion research. Specifically, as Cervone (2004;2005) argues, selfregulation involves a system of cognitive and affective processes that are recruited in service of goal-directed behavior. Hence, self-regulatory processes shape a person's enduring and distinctive patterns of emotional experience and motivated action. ...
... A person may be engaged in the realization of multiple personal goals at the same time, and the realization of a specific goal may differ from the realization of other goals (Laguna et al., 2017;Milyavskaya & Werner, 2018;Nurmi et al., 2009;Salmela-Aro et al., 2000). Thanks to this, the analysis of multiple personal goals that guide purposive behavior opens an interesting perspective for understanding the "personality architecture" which manifests itself in within-person structures and processes (Cervone, 2005). This is possible because personal goals have a natural multilevel structure (Lüdtke & Trautwein, 2007), with a goal level (within-individual level) and a person level (between-individual level). ...
... As the multilevel approach has recently gained considerable popularity (Nezlek, 2012), this tool may be especially useful. The development of such research provides an opportunity to better understand "personality architecture" (Cervone, 2005) by investigating the within-person structures of personal goals and the within-person processes related to effective goal realization. Such research may not only extend knowledge concerning personality and motivation (Gollwitzer & Oettingen, 2015;Koestner et al., 2008;Pervin, 2015), but also uncover motivational patterns related to goal realization, which may contribute to well-being (Sheldon et al., 2010). ...
Background
This paper presents the results of three studies allowing the design and initial validation of the Daily Goal Realization Scale (DGRS). Goal realization refers to the engagement in goal-directed behavior that leads to progress in personal goal attain-ment; it is considered one of the adaptive personal characteristics.
Participants and procedure
Three studies, including an initial study to develop and select the items (Study 1), an intensive longitudinal study (Study 2), and a multiple goal evaluation study (Study 3), tested factorial structure, reliability and validity of the measure.
Results
Multilevel confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the unidimensional structure of the DGRS (obtained in Study 1) both at the individual and goal level, captured as daily goal realization (Study 2) and as multiple goal realization (Study 3). The va-lidity of the DGRS was supported by meaningful associations with other goal evaluations (Study 3). As expected, the DGRS was positively related to evaluations of progress in goal achievement, engagement, likelihood of success, and goal im-portance. The DGRS also demonstrated measurement invariance allowing for meaningful comparisons of scores between men and women.
Conclusions
The findings indicate that the DGRS is a brief and reliable idiographic measure of daily goal realization. The scale has excel-lent internal consistency and good criterion validity.
... The analysis of between-person differences has dominated academic psychology, with somewhat greater attention to within-person dynamics in clinical research (Block, 1971). However, multiple authors over the years have emphasized that within-versus between-person processes are ultimately complementary and need to be integrated (Block, 1971;Cervone, 2005;Eysenck, 1952;Funder, 2001). Attempts to integrate within-and between-person processes have accelerated in recent years (Baumert et al., 2017;Beckmann & Wood, 2017;Read et al., 2010), partially driven by the greater availability of appropriate methods and analytical tools that allow integration of both perspectives. ...
... Attempts to integrate within-and between-person processes have accelerated in recent years (Baumert et al., 2017;Beckmann & Wood, 2017;Read et al., 2010), partially driven by the greater availability of appropriate methods and analytical tools that allow integration of both perspectives. Statistically, within-person and between-person structures as special cases of multilevel systems are independent and may not need to follow the same trajectories and therefore may show nonisomorphism and nonhomology 1 (Cervone, 2005;Dansereau et al., 1984;Kievit et al., 2013;Molenaar, 2004). This statistical independence of patterns across levels is at variance with the often implicit or explicit expectation that state-like distributions of behavioral reaction norms within individuals give rise to stable interindividual differences, therefore, within-and between-person dynamics are assumed causally linked (Fleeson, 2001). ...
There have been long-standing debates on the relationships between values as important motivational goals and well-being. We used a longitudinal network perspective to examine how value states and well-being are related over time, separating within-person lagged, within-person contemporaneous, and between-person perspectives. A total of 227 young adults (1,007 observation points) participated in the study and rated their values states and well-being over a 6-day period. Value-well-being linkages varied across levels of analysis for participants who reported at least three times (N = 187). Momentary self-transcendence values predicted both simultaneous and subsequent well-being. The motivationally opposing self-enhancement values negatively related to well-being contemporaneously within person. This supports clinical research emphasizing that pursuing other-focused values increases well-being and highlights the importance of values for well-being. At the same time, individual differences in self-transcendence values were negatively related to well-being, supporting previous value models. In line with self-determination theory, openness to change values were related to well-being at both the within- and between-person level. These patterns unify diverging theoretical positions, and suggest that different dynamics operate across levels (within-person lagged or contemporaneous vs. between-person). We also provide new insights into value dynamics by describing how distributions of value states may give rise to more stable value differences between individuals. Overall, within- and between-person associations differed suggesting greater attention to person-level processes is needed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
... The analysis of between-person differences has dominated academic psychology, with somewhat greater attention to within-person dynamics in clinical research (Block, 1971). However, multiple authors over the years have emphasized that within-versus between-person processes are ultimately complementary and need to be integrated (Block, 1971;Cervone, 2005;Eysenck, 1952;Funder, 2001). Attempts to integrate within-and between-person processes have accelerated in recent years (Baumert et al., 2017;Beckmann & Wood, 2017;Read et al., 2010), partially driven by the greater availability of appropriate methods and analytical tools that allow integration of both perspectives. ...
... Attempts to integrate within-and between-person processes have accelerated in recent years (Baumert et al., 2017;Beckmann & Wood, 2017;Read et al., 2010), partially driven by the greater availability of appropriate methods and analytical tools that allow integration of both perspectives. Statistically, within-person and between-person structures as special cases of multilevel systems are independent and may not need to follow the same trajectories and therefore may show nonisomorphism and nonhomology 1 (Cervone, 2005;Dansereau et al., 1984;Kievit et al., 2013;Molenaar, 2004). This statistical independence of patterns across levels is at variance with the often implicit or explicit expectation that state-like distributions of behavioral reaction norms within individuals give rise to stable interindividual differences, therefore, within-and between-person dynamics are assumed causally linked (Fleeson, 2001). ...
There have been long-standing debates on the relationships between values as important motivational goals and wellbeing. We used a longitudinal network perspective to examine how value states and wellbeing are related over time, separating temporal, within-person and between-person perspectives. A total of 227 young adults rated their values states and wellbeing over a one-week period (1007 observation points). Value-wellbeing linkages varied across levels of analysis. Momentary self-transcendence values predicted both simultaneous and subsequent wellbeing. The motivationally opposing self-enhancement values negatively related to wellbeing within person. This supports clinical research emphasising that pursuing other-focused values increases wellbeing and highlights the importance of values for wellbeing. At the same time, individual differences in self-transcendence values were negatively related to wellbeing, supporting previous value models. In line with self-determination theory, openness-to-change values were related to wellbeing at both the within- and between-person level. These patterns unify diverging theoretical positions, and suggest that different dynamics operate at temporal, within-person and between-person levels. We also provide new insights into value dynamics by describing how distributions of value states may give rise to more stable value differences between individuals. Overall, within- and between-person associations differed suggesting greater attention to person-level processes is needed.
... Perhaps most problematically, this approach makes the implicit assumption that climate anxiety is constant across situations, which is unlikely (Dutriaux et al., 2023). Indeed, much research finds that an individual's experiences and behaviours depend more on situational than individual differences (e.g., Bandura, 1978;Cervone, 2005;Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2021;Mischel & Shoda, 1995;Mischel, 1968). Not only do traits vary extensively across situations, but individuals vary widely in how they express traits in the same situations (i.e., individual by situation interactions; Dutriaux et al., 2023). ...
Climate change increasingly affects mental health and wellbeing. Although recent research has begun to examine climate anxiety, little is known about the situations where it is experienced or situational factors that predict it. To help understand how climate anxiety is experienced in UK residents, we developed and evaluated a situated psychometric instrument for assessing climate anxiety in 31 relevant situations (e.g., hearing about climate catastrophes on the news). Of interest was how climate anxiety is experienced in the UK as largely the anticipation of climate disaster and environmental pollution, rather than as actually experienced climate disaster, as in it is experienced by populations in more vulnerable countries where significant climate disaster has occurred. In an online study (N = 303 UK residents), we investigated how much climate anxiety individuals experienced in each situation, along with how much they experienced 13 factors that potentially influence climate anxiety (e.g., expectation violation, threat, coping). An individual measure of climate anxiety averaged across situations exhibited high reliability, construct validity, and content validity. Large differences in climate anxiety were observed between situations, along with a large individual by situation interaction. In linear regressions for individual participants, the 13 factors tended to correlate with climate anxiety as predicted, explaining a median 75% of climate anxiety variance. By identifying factors that predict climate anxiety for individuals, our approach provides detailed understanding of climate anxiety in each individual across situations. These predictive profiles could support screening for climate anxiety, identifying situations where it occurs, and designing individualised support.
... Así, los enfoques orientados a los procesos en situación presentan una perspectiva funcional, en la cual se busca entender la arquitectura o el diseño funcional del proceso que ocurre dentro de los individuos (Cervone, 2005), conjugando componentes cognitivos, afectivo-emocionales y volitivos, como variables de personalidad, cuyos efectos son una resultante transaccional entre el contenido, el dominio y la tarea. ...
El objetivo fue poner a prueba un modelo hipotético de variables volitivas y emocionales, sobre el desempeño en habilidades matemáticas de aritmética y álgebra, en una muestra de 678 estudiantes de siete instituciones de Educación Superior de México. La recolección de datos se llevó a cabo mediante: a) un inventario de auto reporte sobre variables volitivas, de regulación y de emociones epistémicas y b) una prueba de ejecución en matemáticas, ambos validados previamente. El modelo resultante se validó mediante análisis de senderos y mostró índices altos de ajuste práctico donde, se identificaron dos efectos principales: las variables volitivas y de regulación emocional ejercen efectos indirectos sobre el desempeño en matemáticas; mientras que las emociones epistémicas de confusión ejercen un efecto directo sobre los diferentes niveles de desempeño matemático.
... Moreira and Inman (2021) argue that in taxonomic models, traits represent the stable patterns of qualities in which people differ from one another but fail to provide a causal explanation. Biologically based models, such as Zuckerman's AFFM, include psychological processes underlying personality and attempt to explain how the different domains of personality interact in shaping the experiences or actions of individuals (Cervone, 2005). ...
Psychological flexibility has attracted significant research interest but surprisingly, investigations about the relationships with personality traits from the biological models of personality have been neglected. The present study therefore aimed to shed more light on the nature of the relationship between psychological flexibility and personality dimensions from Zuckerman’s Alternative Five-Factor Model (AFFM) based on a sample of 398 adults. Psychological flexibility was negatively associated with neuroticism and positively associated with extraversion, aggressiveness, and sensation seeking. Lower neuroticism, higher extraversion, and being a woman significantly predicted approximately 39% of the variance in psychological flexibility. A joint exploratory factor analysis found psychological flexibility located in the neuroticism factor of personality. Findings show that the AFFM can be used as an adequate personality model in explaining the nature of psychological flexibility-inflexibility based on the associations between their sub-processes and lower levels of personality traits. The nature of the relationships between psychological flexibility with both sensation seeking and aggressiveness requires closer investigation.
... This ties in with recent theoretical work describing the phenomenon that being aware of a specific unknown-that is, an information gap-not only captures one's attention (i.e., a cognitive reaction) but simultaneously evokes emotions (i.e., an affective reaction) (Golman & Loewenstein, 2018). We deem it relevant to consider the co-occurrence of cognitive-affective processes because doing so offers a theoretical explanation for why certain events, such as encountering information gaps at work, can simultaneously trigger beneficial and adverse consequences for employees (Cervone, 2005;Koopman et al., 2016). ...
... Intraindividual personality assumes that individuals develop via interactions between the biological being and the environment. It also focuses on the possibility of complex and dynamic systems that exert an effect in the within-person development of personality and well-being (Cervone, 2005). Therefore, the first purpose of this study was to explore the effect of interactions of temperaments (NS, HA, RD, PS) and morningness on the well-being, which could enhance our comprehension of the specific connection among personality, morningness, and well-being. ...
Background
Morningness (morning-eveningness preference or chronotypes) and personality can be both associated with well-being, but few studies have directly compared these two constructs as correlates of well-being. Thus, the first purpose of this study was to test the effects of interactions between stable personality traits (temperaments) and morningness on well-being. Furthermore, personality factors are often composed of both stable biological factors (temperament) and socio-cultural factors (character), and little is known about personality interplay of temperament and character factors with respect to morningness and well-being. The second purpose of this study was therefore to examine the sequential mediating effects of temperament and character factors on the relationship between morningness and well-being.
Methods
The Composite Scale of Morningness, the Korean version of the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised Short Version (TCI-RS), and the Satisfaction with Life Scale were used to measure morningness, personality dimensions, and well-being, respectively, in 287 Korean university students. Moderating and sequentially mediating effects of temperament and character traits were determined using Hayes’ PROCESS macro in SPSS after controlling for sex and age.
Results
First, novelty-seeking (NS) and persistence (PS) temperaments have demonstrated the moderating effect in the association between morningness and well-being. The positive effects of morningness on life satisfaction increased with lower NS and PS, respectively. However, other temperaments such as harm avoidance (HA) and reward dependence (RD) have not shown the moderation in the relationship between morningness on well-being. Second, HA temperament and self-directedness (SD) character sequentially mediated the relationship between morningness and well-being. The combination of low scores of HA and high scores of SD have shown the positive effect on the relationship between morningness and well-being.
Discussion
This study demonstrated that both the interactions between temperaments and morningness, and combination of specific TCI-RS temperament and character traits play important roles in influencing the association between morningness and well-being. The significance of the mature SD character and its implications for well-being are discussed with limitation of the present study.
... Recent studies have used various versions of the TCI-R to describe and understand how the personality features of specific groups of people vary relative to the general population (Svrakic et al., 1993;Sievert et al., 2016;Moreira et al., , 2022. Such research is useful because the neurobiologically-grounded traits of Cloninger's psychobiological model allow for causal explanations of experiences and actions at the individual level (Cervone, 2005). However, for any meaningful interpretation of how the personality features of a subgroup or individual differ from normality it is necessary to have reliable normative data from a reference population. ...
Introduction
A common practice in research and clinical practice is to use data considered representative of a target population to compare and understand the personality characteristics of specific groups or specific individuals. To this end, numerous studies have presented normative data for the temperament and character traits outlined in Cloninger’s psychobiological model of personality. However, recent genomic evidence demonstrates that human personality is organized as a complex hierarchy that ascends beyond the individual traits to multi-trait profiles that regulate emotional reactivity (temperament profiles) or goals and values (character profiles), and then to three phenotypic networks, which integrate temperament profiles and character profiles, that regulate learning. Given this recent understanding, our aim was to provide a novel and more comprehensive description of personality features at a societal level (using a stratified sample representative of the Portuguese population) by considering personality at its higher levels of complexity.
Methods
Toward this goal, a stratified sample of 2,443 Portuguese adults responded to the Revised Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-R).
Results
We summarize the prevalence of (a) temperament profiles, (b) character profiles, and (c) integrated temperament-character networks within the whole sample, as well as for men vs. women and different age groups separately. Independent of age and education, women were more likely to be capable of resourceful productivity and helpful cooperation combined with being more intuitive, meditative and creative than men. Independent of age and gender, individuals with a degree were also more likely to present these biopsychosocial features. We also found that the organized character profile was most typical of adults in their 40s. Finally, the distribution of personality profiles across age differed as a function of gender: for men the oldest individuals had the most coherent personalities while high personality integration was most prevalent for women in their 30s.
Discussion
These results have strong implications for research and intervention. In particular, these results are relevant for understanding the epidemiology of interactions between personality, mental health and well-being, including their expressions in a national population as a function of demographic characteristics.
... Varying levels of a construct across situations. Considerable research shows that individuals do not exhibit a constant level of a construct, such as extroversion, across different situations [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47]. Instead, the construct's manifestation in behavior varies widely. ...
From the perspectives of grounded, situated, and embodied cognition, we have developed a new approach for assessing individual differences. Because this approach is grounded in two dimensions of situatedness-situational experience and the Situated Action Cycle-we refer to it as the Situated Assessment Method (SAM2). Rather than abstracting over situations during assessment of a construct (as in traditional assessment instruments), SAM2 assesses a construct in situations where it occurs, simultaneously measuring factors from the Situated Action Cycle known to influence it. To demonstrate this framework, we developed the SAM2 Habitual Behavior Instrument (SAM2 HBI). Across three studies with a total of 442 participants, the SAM2 HBI produced a robust and replicable pattern of results at both the group and individual levels. Trait-level measures of habitual behavior exhibited large reliable individual differences in the regularity of performing positive versus negative habits. Situational assessments established large effects of situations and large situation by individual interactions. Several sources of evidence demonstrated construct and content validity for SAM2 measures of habitual behavior. At both the group and individual levels, these measures were associated with factors from the Situated Action Cycle known to influence habitual behavior in the literature (consistency, automaticity, immediate reward, long-term reward). Regressions explained approximately 65% of the variance at the group level and a median of approximately 75% at the individual level. SAM2 measures further exhibited well-established interactions with personality measures for self-control and neuroticism. Cognitive-affective processes from the Situated Action Cycle explained nearly all the variance in these interactions. Finally, a composite measure of habitualness established habitual behaviors at both the group and individual levels. Additionally, a composite measure of reward was positively related to the composite measure of habitualness, increasing with self-control and decreasing with neuroticism.
... Historically, personality-and-culture studies were guided chiefly by psychodynamic theories (Malinowski, 1927;Whiting and Child, 1953), and any theory of personality-self-determination (Deci and Ryan, 2000), social-cognitive (Cervone, 2005), or evolutionary (Buss, 1991), just to name a few-could be examined in relation to culture. Even so, in most of what follows we are concerned with a trait model of personality, which is the dominant paradigm in personality psychology and widely used in studies of personality-and-culture. ...
Culture-and-personality studies were central to social science in the early 20th century and have recently been revived (as personality-and-culture studies) by trait and cross-cultural psychologists. In this article we comment on conceptual issues, including the nature of traits and the nature of the personality-and-culture relationship, and we describe methodological challenges in understanding associations between features of culture and aspects of personality. We give an overview of research hypothesizing the shaping of personality traits by culture, reviewing studies of indigenous traits, acculturation and sojourner effects, birth cohorts, social role changes, and ideological interventions. We also consider the possibility that aggregate traits affect culture, through psychological means and gene flow. In all these cases we highlight alternative explanations and the need for designs and analyses that strengthen the interpretation of observations. We offer a set of testable hypotheses based on the premises that personality is adequately described by Five-Factor Theory, and that observed differences in aggregate personality traits across cultures are veridical. It is clear that culture has dramatic effects on the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors from which we infer traits, but it is not yet clear whether, how, and in what degree culture shapes traits themselves.
... In brief, a person-oriented approach seeks to understand intraindividual content and processes as they occur at the organismic or individual level (Cervone, 2005). While variable-centered approaches have certainly advanced psychological understanding-evidenced by the variablecentered literature that underpins the current literature review-these approaches may overlook important configurations of behaviors within individuals. ...
The study of counterproductive work behavior (CWB), intentional actions by employees that are deleterious to the organization and/or its stakeholders, has produced research on the dimensionality of CWB, as well as its situational and dispositional antecedents. Absent from these advancements have been investigations into the potential utility of a taxonomy of counterproductive employee types—a “person-oriented” approach. Our latent profile analysis (N = 522) suggested a four-profile solution which included one profile with uniformly low rates across CWBs (here termed “Angels;” 14% of the sample), and three profiles with higher CWB rates but which were distinguishable by different CWBs being most frequent in each group. Specifically, one profile was distinguished from the Angels group by higher rates of less severe CWBs (misuse of time/resources and poor attendance; 33% of the sample). The other two of the three counterproductive profiles were similar to each other except that one was characterized by higher drug use than the other (14% of the sample). The profiles also differed significantly on narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, and on self-reports of prior arrest and censure by employers. Provided these distinctions among profiles, the treatment and assumptions of employee counterproductivity in research and practice should be revisited, particularly when using models assuming a homogenous, monotonic relationship between counterproductive behaviors across employees. Implications for our conceptual understanding of counterproductivity and applied interventions aimed at reducing CWBs are discussed, alongside recommendations for future person-oriented research on CWB.
... This ties in with recent theoretical work describing the phenomenon that being aware of a specific unknown-that is, an information gap-not only captures one's attention (i.e., a cognitive reaction) but simultaneously evokes emotions (i.e., an affective reaction) (Golman & Loewenstein, 2018). We deem it relevant to consider the co-occurrence of cognitive-affective processes because doing so offers a theoretical explanation for why certain events, such as encountering information gaps at work, can simultaneously trigger beneficial and adverse consequences for employees (Cervone, 2005;Koopman et al., 2016). ...
... Second, we explore value heterogeneity among social enterprise leaders. We adopt a person-oriented configurational approach (Cervone, 2005) which allows to assess heterogeneity within a population (Magun et al. 2016). Although rarely applied empirically, a configurational approach is consistent with the theoretical emphasis on values as hierarchies of integrated priorities (Schwartz, 1992). ...
... Aunado a ello, la consideración de estos aspectos (cognitivos, metacognitivos, autorregulatorios y afectivos), no sólo tiene influencia sobre el proceso de aprendizaje y sus resultados, también representan recursos viables para que el estudiante los utilice para responder a variadas demandas de ajuste a tareas en contextos académicos y sociales, a fin de buscar salvaguardar su bienestar psicológico. Esto es característico de los enfoques orientados a los procesos en situación, es decir, enfoques de estado cuya aproximación pretende entender un diseño funcional en los individuos, donde diferentes aspectos psicológicos pueden interactuar de manera diferenciada en función de la situación particular acontecida (Cervone, 2005). ...
Introducción
: se analizan variaciones del monitoreo intencional que realizan estudiantes universitarios sobre atributos y temporalidades del aprendizaje complejo. Objetivo: identificar relaciones estructurales entre atributos afectivos y cognitivos considerados en diferentes momentos del desempeño en dos tareas de habilidades académicas.
Método
: muestra intencional de 420 estudiantes de Educación Superior de México y Colombia, de ambos sexos, respondieron: a) un inventario del auto reporte sobre variaciones en atributos y momentos en dos tareas diferentes y b) dos pruebas, una de comprensión de textos y otra de habilidades matemáticas. Los modelos teóricos subyacentes al desempeño académico asumidos, fueron validados, empíricamente, mediante análisis de senderos.
Resultados
: altos índices de ajuste práctico en todos los modelos, lo que permite identificar influencias diferenciales dependientes de la condición temporal en la que operan los atributos, retrospectiva en lo afectivo y concurrente en lo cognitivo.
Discusión
: los hallazgos configuran avances teóricos sobre el impacto de la temporalidad sobre las disposiciones que el estudiante debe mostrar para actuar intencionalmente (es decir, para estar dotado de agencia), a fin de generar las transformaciones demandadas por sus metas. Estos pueden servir como marcadores eficientes para artefactos diagnósticos, tanto como para procedimientos didácticos al servicio del desarrollo de pericia.
... Individuals experience dissatisfaction and dissonance if there is disharmony with the social environment. One of the contemporary models of the self (Cervone 2005; McConnell 2011) rests on two basic assumptions. Firstly, self consists of two components, quality of unity of experiences through abstract generalizations and context specific schemas (McAdams 1997;Rosenberg 1997). ...
Over the past few decades, the world has witnessed wars and conflicts between the nations and even within a nation. Harmony is needed before anything as it is the ground on which the strong pillar of a nation stands. In India, Jammu and Kashmir over the decades has witnessed huge amounts of violence and terrorism. This study has been done with the intent to explore the relationship between self and other orientation, life satisfaction, coping strategies and educational background. In a sample of 378 individuals (187 males and 191 females), a moderated meditational model was tested using influence of (self and other) on life satisfaction mediated by coping strategies and moderated by educational background. Results showed that Orientation (Self and Others) had a direct positive association with life satisfaction, ways of coping strongly mediate the relation between orientation (self and other) and life satisfaction and the educational background reduces the strength of the relationship between orientation and life satisfaction. Individual orientation towards self and others strongly influence and associate with their ways of coping and the level of life satisfaction which further mold with educational background.
... The Big-Five has been validated across domains and cultures (Denissen et al., 2008;Kleinstäuber et al., 2018;Kohút et al., 2021). Despite this popularity, theoreticians urge a shift from measuring traits to measuring persons (Carlson, 1971;Mischel, 1973;Molenaar, 2004;Cervone, 2005;Beckmann & Wood, 2017;Renner et al., 2020). Cervone's (2004 KAPA method of personality architecture uniquely differs from trait-based approaches to measuring personality. ...
... See Table 5.1 for a detailed description of high/low scorers in each temperament and character dimension as assessed by Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory (Cloninger et al., 1993). Importantly, in contrast to most personality models, Cloninger's biopsychosocial model of personality makes a distinction between temperament and character, which addresses both between-person differences and within-person learning (Cervone, 2005)-that is, not only the way people differ from others but also the temperament-character interaction that motivates and regulates adaptive processes occurring within the individual (Garcia et al., 2022). Cloninger (2004) has suggested that character modifies the significance or meaning of what is experienced by regulating the automatic emotional reactions that have been encoded in our temperament. ...
Background: Conceptualizing affect as two separate signal sensitivity subsystems, defined as high/low positive affect and high/low negative affect, implies that (A) the study of affectivity needs the interaction between these two dimensions in a complex adaptive meta-system composed of combinations beyond the two-system approach and that (B) this meta-system is associated to individual differences in personality dimensions that are responsible for automatic emotional reactions (i.e., temperament) and for conscious goals and values (i.e., character). The affective profiles model coined by Archer and colleagues is a good representation of the affectivity meta-system that has generated a great amount of research for the past 20 years. Nevertheless, most research addressing differences in personality has been conducted among children and adolescents.
Aim: We aimed to replicate these past studies in two populations (Americans and Swedes) of adults by investigating differences in personality among individuals with distinct affective profiles. In this way, we want to expand our understanding of how the affectivity meta-system is regulated by automatic emotional responses (temperament) and conscious goals and values (i.e., character) across the lifespan and different cultures.
Method: We used data from two published studies consisting of 523 Americans ((Nima et al., PeerJ 8: e9193, 2020) and 524 Swedes (Fahlgren et al., 2015) who reported affect (Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule) and personality (Temperament and Character Inventory). For each population, we combined their percentiles scores in positive affect (high = PA/low = pa) and negative affect (high = NA/low = na) for profiling: Self-fulfilling (PAna), High Affective (PANA), Low Affective (pana), and Self-destructive (paNA). We used paired sample t-tests to compare differences in personality between individuals with profiles that were similar in one affectivity dimension but dissimilar in the other (i.e., matched differences) and we used independent sample t-tests to compare individuals with profiles that were diametrically different in both affectivity dimensions.
Results: In both populations, high positive affect was associated to low Harm Avoidance, high Persistence, and high Self-directedness and high negative affect was associated to high Harm Avoidance and low Self-directedness. Americans and Swedes with a self-fulfilling profile reported lower Harm Avoidance, higher Reward Dependence, higher Persistence, higher Self-directedness, and higher Cooperativeness compared to those with a self-destructive profile. In both populations, individuals with a high affective profile reported higher Novelty Seeking, higher Persistence, and higher Self-transcendence compared to those with a low affective profile. Most importantly, certain personality dimensions were associated to positive affect and negative affect depending on the specific affectivity combination and country of origin. For example, high Novelty Seeking was associated to high positive affect among Swedes but associated to high negative affect among Americans and while high Self-Transcendence was associated to high positive affect among Americans, among Swedes it was only associated to high positive affect when negative affect was low.
Conclusions: Besides replicating past adolescent studies, throughout person-oriented analyses (i.e., matched comparisons), we deepened our understanding about how and in what conditions specific personality dimensions help us to regulate the affective meta-system. In short, temperament dimensions target most of the times one or both affective subsystems and character dimensions target most of the times both subsystems to bring optimal self-regulation.
... Individuals experience dissatisfaction and dissonance if there is disharmony with the social environment. One of the contemporary models of the self (Cervone 2005; McConnell 2011) rests on two basic assumptions. Firstly, self consists of two components, quality of unity of experiences through abstract generalizations and context specific schemas (McAdams 1997;Rosenberg 1997). ...
Over the past few decades, the world has witnessed wars and conflicts between the nations and even within a nation. Harmony is needed before anything as it is the ground on which the strong pillar of a nation stands. In India, Jammu and Kashmir over the decades has witnessed huge amounts of violence and terrorism. This study has been done with the intent to explore the relationship between self and other orientation, life satisfaction, coping strategies and educational background. In a sample of 378 individuals (187 males and 191 females), a moderated meditational model was tested using influence of (self and other) on life satisfaction mediated by coping strategies and moderated by educational background. Results showed that Orientation (Self and Others) had a direct positive association with life satisfaction, ways of coping strongly mediate the relation between orientation (self and other) and life satisfaction and the educational background reduces the strength of the relationship between orientation and life satisfaction. Individual orientation towards self and others strongly influence and associate with their ways of coping and the level of life satisfaction which further mold with educational background.
... Notwithstanding the contribution of between-person approaches to showcase associations between overall levels of aggression and prosocial behavior, they do not shed light on the connection between behavioral characteristics within an adolescent (Cervone, 2005). For one thing, the between-person associations are statistically orthogonal to those at the within-person level (Molenaar, 2004). ...
Research has not adequately addressed a possible mutual co-regulatory influence of prosocial and aggressive behaviors in adolescents’ daily lives. This study explored bidirectional within-person associations between prosocial and aggressive behaviors in the daily school lives of early adolescents. The sample included 242 sixth-graders [Mage = 11.96 (SD = 0.18), 50% girls] and their teachers. Adolescents reported on daily prosocial behavior and reactive and proactive aggression for ten consecutive days. Teachers and adolescents reported on adolescents’ overall prosocial behaviors. Across-day prosocial behaviors increased after days when adolescents exhibited more reactive aggression but not among self-reported low-prosocial adolescents. Increased prosocial behaviors did not mitigate aggression the next day. The findings suggest prosocial behaviors are a plausible compensatory strategy after daily aggressive reactions.
... It is important to note that the current main descriptive models of personality (e.g., FFM or HEXACO model; Ashton & Lee, 2007) are based on findings from psycho-lexical research. Although they identify dimensions valid in describing interindividual variability, these dimensions do not have to correspond to intraindividual causal dynamics and provide a framework for explanation (Cervone, 2005;Saucier & Goldberg, 2001). Accordingly, research shows that identifying one-to-one mappings between biological mechanisms and major dimensions of personality (e.g., FFM) is unlikely to succeed (Yarkoni, 2015). ...
We propose a model of basic self‐regulatory mechanisms that integrates descriptive‐structural and dynamic‐explanatory approaches to personality. Using a structural way of thinking and based on a structural model of personality (the Circumplex of Personality Metatraits) we deduced two orthogonal (distinct) but interactive mechanisms: (a) Impulse Control responsible for controlling automatically activated impulses, urges, and affective reactions and (b) Self‐Motivation responsible for regulating intentions in goal‐oriented behaviors. Their operation depends on both situational and dispositional factors and optimal functioning of both mechanisms is needed for effective regulation of behavior. People can also be characterized by relatively stable levels of Impulse Control and Self‐Motivation as dispositions, which depend on temperamental predispositions but can develop incoherently with them due to the impact of environmental factors. Combinations of Impulse Control and Self‐Motivation as dispositions result in personality types, which differ in their adaptiveness. Importantly, Impulse Control and Self‐Motivation mechanisms reveal substantial similarities to other self‐regulatory constructs described in the literature, particularly those included in Block and Block’s, as well as Kuhl’s theories. The contribution of our paper may serve as an example of how to apply the descriptive‐structural approach to develop a dynamic‐explanatory model of personality.
... In taxonomic models, traits capture stable patterns of qualities in which people differ from one another but not the psychological processes underlying those traits within persons, instead reflecting patterns of entangled interrelations between emotional and sociocognitive processes. Consequently, such models cannot explain the experiences or actions of individuals (Cervone, 2005). A full understanding of inter-and intraperson differences in sense of humor requires describing how the emotional and rational domains of personality interact in shaping overall humor potential and comic style. ...
This study aimed to test how sense of humor is dependent on the complex and dynamic interactions between the emotional (temperament) and sociocognitive (character) components of personality. Specifically, we examined the relationship of temperament and/or character profiles to overall humor potential and comic style. In total, 665 adults responded to Cloninger’s Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) and the Comic Style Markers. Temperament profiles were associated with overall humor potential but not comic styles. People with positive development of all three character traits had the highest levels of fun, benevolent humor, and wit. Sense of humor depended on integrated profiles of both temperament and character. We conclude that temperament energizes overall humor potential while character shapes the comic styles. This study advances research by directing focus to the causal within-person psychobiological processes that underlie sense of humor.
... Between-level processes map onto within-person phenomena only when certain criteria are met, and in psychology it is rare that they do (Hamaker, 2012;Molenaar, 2004;Molenaar & Campbell, 2009). Given the centrality of correlations to inferential statistics, including those used to assess the structure of belief systems, this means that between-person inferences will typically fail to generalize to withinperson processes (for further examples see Cervone, 2005;Mischel, 1973;Molenaar, 1997;Molenaar et al., 2003). The results of aggregate-level analyses summarize the pattern of responses at the aggregate level, but do not describe associations as they exist within people. ...
Belief systems are individual-level phenomena that describe the interrelationships of the political attitudes of a person. However, the modal study of the structure of political ideologies and beliefs uses cross-sectional survey data to estimate what is central to the belief system or the dimensionality of the belief system, aggregating across many people. Cross-sectional data, however, are ill-suited to the task of studying individual-level phenomena because they contain an unobservable mixture of within-person and between-person variation. In this project, we use longitudinal datasets from the Netherlands (representative) and the United States (convenience), spanning between 6 months and 10 years, to we ask whether between-subjects methods can help us understand the within-person structure of belief systems. First, we use Bayesian STARTS models (Lüdtke et al., 2018) to assess what type of variance cross-sectional studies are likely tapping into. We find that variability in measures of ideology and political beliefs is primarily due to stable between-person differences, with relatively smaller amounts of variation due to within-person differences. Second, we estimate between-person, within-person, and cross-sectional correlations between all items in our study and find that between-person correlations are larger and in some cases differ in their direction from within-person correlations. Furthermore, cross-sectional correlations are most similar to between-person correlations. Taken together, these findings indicate that the modal study may help describe differences between people, but is ill-suited to tell us about the structure of individuals' belief systems. New methods are necessary for a complete understanding of political belief systems that clarify both between- and within-person processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
BACKGROUND:
About 9 million nurses will be needed by 2030. To face these unprecedented times, governments/institutions focus on educating as many nursing students as possible. This strategy is clouded by burnout and lack of both health and well-being among students and by the fact that personality is one of the major determinants of these health outcomes. Nevertheless, recent findings show that personality is a complex adaptive system (i,e., nonlinear) and that combinations of people’s temperament and character traits (i.e., joint personality networks) might provide further information to understand its development, academic burnout, and lack of health and well-being.
AIMS:
Our aims were to investigate the linear relationship between nursing students’ personality, burnout, health, and well-being; investigate the linear mediational effects of personality and burnout on health and well-being; and investigate differences in these health outcomes between/within students with distinct joint personality networks (i.e., nonlinear relationships).
METHOD:
Swedish nursing students (189 women, 29 men) responded to the Temperament and Character Inventory, The Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey for Students, and the Public Health Surveillance Well-Being Scale. We conducted correlation analyses and Structural Equation Modeling and, for the nonlinear relationships, Latent Profile Analysis and Latent Class Analysis for clustering and then Analyses of Variance for differences in health outcomes between/within students with distinct personality networks. This study was not pre-registered.
RESULTS:
High levels of health and well-being and low burnout symptoms (low Emotional Exhaustion, low Cynicism, and high Academic Efficacy) were associated with low Harm Avoidance and high Self-Directedness. Some personality traits were associated with specific health outcomes (e.g., high Self-Transcendence-high Emotional Exhaustion and high Persistence-high Academic Efficacy) and their effects on health and well-being were mediated by specific burnout symptoms. Cynicism and Emotional Exhaustion predicted low levels of health and well-being, Academic Efficacy predicted high levels, and Cynicism lead both directly and indirectly to low levels of health and well-being through Emotional Exhaustion. We found two joint personality networks: students with an Organized/Reliable combination who reported being less emotionally exhausted by their studies, less cynical towards education, higher self-efficacy regarding their academic work/skills, and better health and well-being compared to nursing students with an Emotional/Unreliable combination.
CONCLUSIONS:
The coherence of temperament-character, rather than single traits, seems to determine students’ health outcomes. Thus, nursing education might need to focus on helping students to develop professional skills and health-related abilities (e.g., self-acceptance and spiritual-acceptance), by supporting self-awareness.
We review Bandura's contributions to cognitive‐behavioural theory, research and practice. His basic research on the causal role of cognitive processes in social learning was a major factor in the emergence of cognitive ‐behavioural therapies in the 1970s. His investigations on observational learning and self‐efficacy beliefs led to the development of guided mastery therapy, a specific cognitive‐behavioural intervention for anxiety disorders. His research on self‐regulatory processes provided an empirical basis for the emergence of numerous therapies targeting self‐regulation. We conclude by discussing how Bandura's social cognitive theory, as well as more recent advances in social cognitive theorising, might be further applied to innovative approaches to therapeutic interventions, assessment and clinical case conceptualization.
Purpose-This paper examined the influence of tour-ists' personality traits, the perception of tourist destinations , and attitudes toward a destination on the behav-ioral intention of members of Generation Z in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/Methodology/Approach-A total of 682 responses were collected through an online survey using the convenience sampling method. After removing the input from respondents who did not meet the criteria and outliers, 619 responses were analyzed. Furthermore, six hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Findings and Implications-The results affirm that personality traits influence the perception of tourist destinations and attitudes toward a destination. This perception significantly affects attitude and behavioral intention. Likewise, attitude toward a destination determines behavioral intention considerably. Limitations-Respondents were selected using the non-probability sampling method, so the findings are not representative of the entire tourist population worldwide. Therefore, the generalizability of the conclusions is likely limited. Originality-This research study contributes to expanding the existing knowledge about how personality Sažetak Svrha-Ovim se radom ispitao utjecaj osobina ličnosti turista, percepcije turističkih destinacija i stavova prema turističkoj destinaciji na namjere ponašanja pripadnika Generacije Z u Indoneziji tijekom pandemije COVID-19. Metodološki pristup-Prikupljena su ukupno 682 od-govora putem internetske ankete, korištenjem prigod-nog uzorkovanja. Nakon uklanjanja podataka ispitanika koji nisu zadovoljili kriterije i outliera, analizirano je 619 odgovora. Nadalje, šest hipoteza testirano je modelira-njem strukturnih jednadžbi. Rezultati i implikacije-Rezultati potvrđuju da osobi-ne ličnosti dokazano utječu na percepciju turističkih de-stinacija i stavove prema njima. Ta percepcija značajno utječe na stav i namjeru ponašanja. Isto tako, stav prema destinaciji značajno određuje namjeru ponašanja. Ograničenja-Ispitanici su odabrani metodom uzor-kovanja koja nije temeljena na vjerojatnosti pa nisu re-prezentativni za cjelokupnu turističku populaciju diljem svijeta. Stoga je generalizacija zaključaka ograničena. Doprinos-Istraživanje doprinosi proširenju postoje-ćeg znanja o tome kako se osobine ličnosti, percepcija i stavovi kombiniraju za povećanje namjere ponašanja u slučaju turizma. To je korak u opisivanju i produbljivanju proučavanja osobina ličnosti i njihovih ishoda u kontek-stu zemalja u razvoju. Očekuje se da će rezultati pomoći traits, perception, and attitude are combined to increase behavioral intention in the case of tourism. It is a step in describing and deepening the examination of personality traits and their outcomes in the context of emerging countries. The findings are expected to help confirm the importance of using market segmentation as a marketing strategy and shape travel advertisements that focus on personality traits as well as the attitudes and behaviors that are relevant to personality traits.
Train driving is a demanding form of human performance where inattention or distraction can lead to serious errors and accidents. Train drivers, therefore, require a unique set of abilities to deal with these demands, especially when exposed to competing or conflicting performance expectations (e.g., on‐time performance and following safety rules). Cognitive abilities, in particular, are considered essential to safe and effective train driving. Selective attention is one such ability, however, other cognitive abilities can be equally important. Drawing on self‐control theory, this article examines the combined effect of selective attention, fluid intelligence, and verbal reasoning on train driving performance. The results of a study involving 101 experienced train drivers indicates that drivers with low selective attention, low fluid intelligence, and low verbal reasoning perform worse on a train simulator driving assessment than drivers who are higher in these cognitive abilities. The results from this study provide direction for future rail safety research and guidance for practitioners responsible for assessing and selecting train drivers.
This article reviews the development of theoretical concepts and applications of basic findings in personality psychology. It does so primarily by focusing on social-cognitive theories of personality structure and functioning. These include the foundational theories of Bandura and Mischel and the subsequent KAPA model of Cervone. Three central themes in social-cognitive conceptions are identified: (a) a focus on individuals rather than on summaries of individual differences in the population, (b) attention to causal mechanisms underlying action and experience and (c) the study of persons in context, including attention to psychological processes through which people assign meaning to diverse settings and life challenges. These emphases facilitate applications, as is illustrated by a review of applied efforts in developing societies that capitalise on principles of social-cognitive theory, including assessments guided by the KAPA model.
This study aims to examine influence of consumer self-efficacy on consumer brand identification, with a focus on the mediating role of consumer vanity and the moderating role of brand personality. A total of 384 participants, encompassing consumers of diverse brands, were included in the study. The variables of interest, consumer self-efficacy, consumer brand identification, consumer vanity & brand personality, were analyzed via PLS-SEM software. The results reveal a significant direct impact of consumer self-efficacy on consumer brand identification, highlighting the importance of individuals' belief in their abilities in fostering strong connection with a brand. Moreover, the study proves that consumer vanity acts as a mediator between consumer self-efficacy & brand identification, indicating that individuals with higher self-belief are more likely to engage in vanity-related behaviors, thereby enhancing their identification with brand. The study uncovers moderating effect of brand personality by strengthening relationship between consumer self-efficacy and brand identification.
Introduction:
Humanistic psychologists have conceptualized a tendency among humans to experience continual open-ended psychological growth. This study aims to measure the rate at which one grows psychologically using a novel growth curve modeling approach that addresses previous limitations. We also examine the effects of nine potential contributors to growth identified from the literature.
Method:
Throughout the freshman year, 556 college students responded six times. Increments of growth were added up to create cumulative growth, which was then fit to a growth curve model to produce an estimate of the growth rate. The growth rate was then regressed on the Time 1 predictors to examine their unique effects.
Results:
Models fit well. Five predictors significantly predicted the growth rate after controlling for the average of other predictors. When all predictors were entered simultaneously, three predictors (hope, meaning, and personal growth initiative) showed significant unique effects. The growth rate predicted well-being and satisfaction at Time 6.
Conclusion:
We successfully measured the rate of psychological growth and examined its antecedents. Follow-up analyses suggested that the predictors not showing unique effects may indirectly predict growth rates via the proximal role of the three significant predictors, an idea that awaits future corroboration using within-individual designs.
Objective
Personality can influence how we interpret and react to our day-to-day life circumstances. Temperament and character are the primary dimensions of personality, and both are influenced genetically. Temperament represents our emotional core, while character reflects our goals and values as we develop through life. Research shows that where people live, their social, economic, and physical environment can influence attitudes and behaviors, and these have links to variations in personality traits. There are few studies that focus on Australian personality as temperament and character. Using an Australian general population sample, we examined the psychometric properties of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCIR140) and investigated the associations between TCIR140 traits with both sociodemographic variables and measures of well-being. In addition, we investigated differences in temperament and character between our Australian general population sample and published results of similar studies from other countries.
Methods
Australians ( N = 1,510) completed the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCIR-140), the Positive and Negative Affect Scale and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. Cronbach’s alpha and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) examined the TCIR-140 psychometrics. Correlation analyzes, independent sample t -tests and ANOVA with post-hoc comparisons analyzed the sample.
Results
Cronbach’s alphas were high, ranging from α = 0.78–0.92, and the CFA confirmed two constructs of temperament and character. Females were higher in Harm Avoidance ( p < 0.001), Reward Dependence ( p < 0.001), and Cooperativeness ( p < 0.001) compared to males, who were higher in Self-Directedness ( p < 0.001). Age groups showed significant differences among all temperament and character traits ( p < 0.001) except for Reward Dependence ( p = 0.690). Young adults had the least resilient personality profile and poorest measures of well-being. Correlations with measures of temperament and character, well-being and affect were all in the expected direction.
Conclusions
Temperament and character are related to indicators of wellbeing and differs by age and sex. This Australian sample demonstrate a temperament that is high in Persistence and a character high in Self-Directedness and Cooperativeness with an overall postive affect and a general satisfaction with life. In comparison to other countries, Australians in this sample differ in levels of several traits, demonstrating a cautious and independent temperament with a character that is cooperative, industrious, and self-reliant. Young-adults in comparison to older groups have a temperament and character profile that is prone to negative emotions and a lower satisfaction with life.
Insider threats represent a serious threat to organizations but are considered to be difficult to predict and prevent. Although a growing body of research has examined personological antecedents to insider threats, this literature lacks a unifying theoretical perspective connecting the characteristics that have been researched. In addition to cataloging the personality factors that have been associated with insider threat behaviors, this review also proposes neo-socioanalytic theory as a useful framework for organizing these factors and for distinguishing insider threats from counterproductive work behaviors and workplace accidents. The majority of risk and protective factors related to insider threats were shared for both malicious and non-malicious insider threat behaviors. However, the prior literature strongly suggests that malicious threats are motivated by selfishness and the rationalization of immoral behavior, while non-malicious threats are better understood as being associated with maladjustment and curiosity.
The current body of research on leadership styles is plagued with the problem of a bewildering number of styles that overlap conceptually and empirically, and whose dimensionality is contested. In this paper, we use analogical reasoning to argue that recommendations based on the personality psychology literature could be used to overcome these and related problems to substantially advance the literature on leadership styles. We argue that scholarly understanding of leadership styles needs to be redeveloped by theoretically identifying root behaviours and then seeing how they aggregate into higher‐level dimensions and meta‐categories. We offer a roadmap that will help facilitate such progress and enable future research to cumulate into a more comprehensive, coherent, and empirically justifiable hierarchical model of leadership behaviours. We also discuss how personality research raises a variety of other interesting analogous questions about leadership behaviours, including how to incorporate situational influences and whether patterns of characteristic leader behaviours develop over time.
Recent genomic, psychological, and developmental research shows that human personality is organized as a complex hierarchy that ascends from individual traits in many specific situations to multi-trait profiles in two domains that regulate emotional reactivity (temperament) or goals and values (character), and finally to three integrated temperament-character networks that regulate learning to maintain well-being in changing conditions. We carried out person-centered analyses of the components of subjective well-being (positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction) to personality in both adolescents (N = 1739) and adults (N = 897). Personality was considered at each level of its organization (trait, temperament or character profiles, and joint temperament-character networks). We show for the first time that negative affect and life satisfaction are dependent on the personality network for intentional self-control, whereas positive affect is dependent on the personality network for self-awareness that underlies the human capacities for healthy longevity, creativity, and prosocial values.
Democracy was forged in the furnaces of oppression, whether combatting tyranny or affirming the rights of the individual. As democracy is under threat in many parts of the world, there has never been a more urgent need to understand political thoughts and behaviours. This lucid and accessible book brings together a global group of scholars from psychology, political science, communication, sociology, education and psychiatry. The book's structure, based on Abraham Lincoln's well-known phrase 'Of, by and for' the people, scrutinises the psychological factors experienced by politicians as representatives 'of' the electorate, the political institutions and systems devised 'by' those we elect, and the societies that influence the context 'for' us as citizens. From trust to risk, from political values to moral and religious priorities, from the personality and language of leaders to fake news and anti-democratic forces, this book provides vital new insights for researchers, politicians and citizens alike.
BACKGROUND: Personality is the major predictor of people’s subjective well-being (i.e., positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction). Recent research in countries with high-income and strong self-transcendent values shows that well-being depends on multidimensional configurations of temperament and character traits (i.e., Joint Personality Networks) that regulate the way people learn to adapt their habits to be in accord with their goals and values, rather than individual traits. To evaluate the prevalence and the associations of different Joint Personality (temperament-character) Networks with well-being in a low-income country with weak self-transcendent values, we tested their association in Bulgarian adults, a population known to have strong secular-rationalist values but weak self-transcendent values.
METHOD: The sample consisted of 443 individuals from Bulgaria (68.70% females) with a mean age of 34 years (SD = 15.05). Participants self-reported personality (Temperament and Character Inventory), affect (Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule), and life satisfaction (Satisfaction with Life Scale). The personality scores were used for profiling through latent profile analysis and latent class analysis based on temperament configurations (i.e., Temperament Profiles) of high/low scores of Novelty Seeking (N/n), Harm Avoidance (H/h), Reward Dependence (R/r), and Persistence (P/s); and character configurations (i.e., Character Profiles) of high/low scores of Self-Directedness (S/s), Cooperativeness (C/c), and Self-Transcendence (T/t).
RESULTS: We found two Temperament Profiles and two Character Profiles that clustered into two distinctive Joint Personality Networks. All individuals in Joint Personality Network 1 had a Reliable (nhRP) Temperament Profile in combination with an Organized (SCt) Character Profile (i.e., a stable temperament and a healthy character configuration). About 71.9% in Joint Personality Network 2 had an Apathetic (sct) Character Profile in combination with Methodical (nHrp) or Reliable (nhRP) Temperament Profiles, while 28.1% had a Methodical (nHrp) Temperament Profile in combination with an Organized (SCt) Character Profile. Few people with high self-expressive values (i.e., high in all three character traits; SCT) were found. Individuals with a Joint Personality Network 1 with strong secular-rationalist values reported higher levels of positive affect and life satisfaction (p < .001), while individuals with a Joint Personality Network 2 reported higher levels of negative affect (p < .001).
CONCLUSIONS: Although a stable temperament and a healthy character were separately important for well-being, it was clear that it was the interaction between such temperament and character configuration that yielded greater levels of subjective well-being. Nevertheless, future research needs to investigate this interaction further to evaluate other cultures with variable configurations of personality traits and values.
Personality is the way individuals learn to shape and adapt to changing conditions. The character domain of personality is what people make of themselves intentionally, whereas temperament involves automatic emotional reactivity. Prior studies assuming genes act independently failed to identify most personality‐related genes. Therefore, we used machine learning to identify naturally occurring clusters of genes. In independent genome‐wide association studies from different cultures, we found many replicable multigene clusters among 972 genes that accounted for nearly all the heritability expected from twin studies. Temperament depended on multigene clusters in molecular systems for associative conditioning of habits and emotional reactivity. Character depended on clusters in intentional networks: self‐control of goals via Inositol–Calcium signalling, and self‐awareness of values via long‐non‐coding RNAs unique to modern humans. These three systems of learning and memory allow the integration of habits, goals, and values via the regulation of gene expression to maintain healthy functioning despite variable environmental conditions.
Key Concepts
The ‘Hidden Heritability Problem’ with complex phenotypes. Human personality is moderately heritable (∼50%) according to many twin and adoption studies, but few of the specific genes for personality were recognised by studies that assumed the genes involved were acting independently.
Human character and temperament have a complex architecture: the same gene or cluster of genes can be associated with multiple phenotypes, and different genes or clusters of genes can have the same phenotype.
Empirical methods of pattern recognition based on machine learning allow efficient and replicable deconstruction of the complex architecture of human personality.
Human personality is a complex phenotype with multiple components. The temperament domain of personality is the disposition of a person to learn how to behave, react emotionally and form attachments automatically by associative conditioning of their habits.
Human character is the self‐regulatory domain of personality – that is, the way a person shapes and adapts their goals and values to ever‐changing external and internal conditions.
Human character and temperament are each comprised of multiple components that depend on how people function in different situations and environments.
Character and Temperament involve adaptive processes of learning, not fixed traits. Human personality is the integrated expression of three genotypic systems that regulate learning and memory by associative conditioning, intentional self‐control and creative self‐awareness.
Most of the genes for personality are unique to a single learning system, but there is sufficient overlap to permit integrated functioning.
The integration of human character and temperament allows flexible regulation of gene expression to maintain healthy functioning despite variable environments.
Personality changes across the lifespan, but strong evidence regarding the mechanisms responsible for personality change remains elusive. Studies of personality change and life events, for example, suggest that personality is difficult to change. But there are two key issues with assessing personality change. First, most change models optimize population-level, not individual-level, effects, which ignores heterogeneity in patterns of change. Second, optimizing change as mean-levels of self-reports fails to incorporate methods for assessing personality dynamics, such as using changes in variances of and correlations in multivariate time series data that often proceed changes in mean-levels, making variance change detection a promising technique for the study of change. Using a sample of N = 388 participants (total N = 21,790) assessed weekly over 60 weeks, we test a permutation-based approach for detecting individual-level personality changes in multivariate time series and compare the results to event-based methods for assessing change. We find that a non-trivial number of participants show change over the course of the year but that there was little association between these change points and life events they experienced. We conclude by highlighting the importance in idiographic and dynamic investigations of change.
This special issue of the European Journal of Personality, entitled Towards conceptualizing and assessing personality coherence and incoherence, was designed to call for new approaches to the understanding and assessment of personality coherence. Seven papers have been brought together as a result: three theoretical and four empirical Although these papers are devoted to portraying novel or expanded existing conceptual and methodological approaches to personality coherence, they also share a historic commitment to studying this phenomenon. Based on those contributions, I refer to the four topics: (1) novel, extended, validated models of personality coherence, (2) personality coherence and related constructs, (3) functional/adaptive meaning of personality coherence, and (4) assessment-related issues that help display advances in the theory, measurement, and research on personality coherence. In addition, I present four areas that have been identified as avenues for future research: (1) potentials for further developing the personality coherence field, (2) personality coherence, self, and character, (4) personality coherence and development, and (4) personality coherence across different cultures.
Democracy was forged in the furnaces of oppression, whether combatting tyranny or affirming the rights of the individual. As democracy is under threat in many parts of the world, there has never been a more urgent need to understand political thoughts and behaviours. This lucid and accessible book brings together a global group of scholars from psychology, political science, communication, sociology, education and psychiatry. The book's structure, based on Abraham Lincoln's well-known phrase 'Of, by and for' the people, scrutinises the psychological factors experienced by politicians as representatives 'of' the electorate, the political institutions and systems devised 'by' those we elect, and the societies that influence the context 'for' us as citizens. From trust to risk, from political values to moral and religious priorities, from the personality and language of leaders to fake news and anti-democratic forces, this book provides vital new insights for researchers, politicians and citizens alike.
Individual frequently experiences passive mood, a bad internal feeling state, in workplace. However, few researches focused on the negative effect of passive mood on work behavior. As a result, we know little about how to avoid this negative effect in the work, especially in Chinese context. Based on mood-congruent theory and cognitive-affective processing system theory, we proposed a cross-level model to explain the relation
between daily passive mood and three daily work behaviors, namly, Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB), Counterproductive Work Behavior (CWB) and task performance behavior, at within-person level, and how Zhong-Yong thinking style, a Chinese indigenous cultural thinking characteristic, at between-person level
moderated the negative effect of daily passive mood on work behaviors.
In oreder to verify our arguments, we collected the data by two phases. In the first phase, participants completed a questionnaire including demographic and individual-level variables. Two weeks later, we conducted daily surveys for daily passive mood and three daily work behaviors, namly, OCB, CWB and task performance behavior. As we treated passive mood as a within-person change, we used an Experience Sampling Method
(ESM) to capture dynamic within-person variance in daily-mood and daily-behaviors. Ninty-nine individuals responded to the same questionnare through our survey web at 2 time points on the morning and afternoon each day for 2 weeks (ten workdays in total). At the end of the survey, 72 participants completed the two phrases survey, generating 720 experience-sampling ratings (72 participants×ten days) with a 73 percent response rate.
Since our data contained a hierarchical structure in which daily assessments were nested within participants, we used hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to test our hypotheses.
Results of HLM analysis revealed that: 1) there was a great deal of within-person variance in daily OCB, CWB and task performance behavior; 2) Within-persons passive mood had an negative influences on OCB and task performance behavior, while there was no relationship between passive mood and CWB; 3)Zhong-Yong thinking mitigated the negative association between passive mood and OCB. This relation was weaker for
employees who had higher levels of Zhong-Yong thinking; 4) Zhong-Yong thinking moderated negative association between passive mood and task performance behavior. The employees who had higher levels of Zhong-Yong thinking had an positive influences on task performance behavior, while the employees who had lower levels of Zhong-Yong thinking had an negative influences on task performance behavior.
Our study implied several contributions to the literature. Although abound of studies found supports for the associate between positive mood and work behaviors as mood-congruent theory proposed, our findings about passive mood and work behaviors was not completely consistent with mood-congruent theory. These differences might extend our understanding of mood-behavior relationship beyond mood-congruent theory. Our study also emphasized the utility of individual cultural characteristic in the passive mood management. We found that Zhong-Yong thinking moderated the effect of daily passive mood on work behaviors. It implied that Zhong-Yong thinking could guide employees to pursue the harmony between internal mood and external environment, because it could arouse their self-regulation for the choice of behavior after experiencing passive mood.
This article evaluates theories of the origins of sex differences in human behavior. It reviews the cross-cultural evidence on the behavior of women and men in nonindustrial societies, especially the activities that contribute to the sex-typed division of labor and patriarchy. To explain the cross-cultural findings, the authors consider social constructionism, evolutionary psychology, and their own biosocial theory. Supporting the biosocial analysis, sex differences derive from the interaction between the physical specialization of the sexes, especially female reproductive capacity, and the economic and social structural aspects of societies. This biosocial approach treats the psychological attributes of women and men as emergent given the evolved characteristics of the sexes, their developmental experiences, and their situated activity in society.
Research on violent television and films, video games, and music reveals unequivocal evidence that media violence increases the likelihood of aggressive and violent behavior in both immediate and long-term contexts. The effects appear larger for milder than for more severe forms of aggression, but the effects on severe forms of violence are also substantial ( r = .13 to .32) when compared with effects of other violence risk factors or medical effects deemed important by the medical community (e.g., effect of aspirin on heart attacks). The research base is large; diverse in methods, samples, and media genres; and consistent in overall findings. The evidence is clearest within the most extensively researched domain, television and film violence. The growing body of video-game research yields essentially the same conclusions.
Short-term exposure increases the likelihood of physically and verbally aggressive behavior, aggressive thoughts, and aggressive emotions. Recent large-scale longitudinal studies provide converging evidence linking frequent exposure to violent media in childhood with aggression later in life, including physical assaults and spouse abuse. Because extremely violent criminal behaviors (e.g., forcible rape, aggravated assault, homicide) are rare, new longitudinal studies with larger samples are needed to estimate accurately how much habitual childhood exposure to media violence increases the risk for extreme violence.
Well-supported theory delineates why and when exposure to media violence increases aggression and violence. Media violence produces short-term increases by priming existing aggressive scripts and cognitions, increasing physiological arousal, and triggering an automatic tendency to imitate observed behaviors. Media violence produces long-term effects via several types of learning processes leading to the acquisition of lasting (and automatically accessible) aggressive scripts, interpretational schemas, and aggression-supporting beliefs about social behavior, and by reducing individuals' normal negative emotional responses to violence (i.e., desensitization).
Certain characteristics of viewers (e.g., identification with aggressive characters), social environments (e.g., parental influences), and media content (e.g., attractiveness of the perpetrator) can influence the degree to which media violence affects aggression, but there are some inconsistencies in research results. This research also suggests some avenues for preventive intervention (e.g., parental supervision, interpretation, and control of children's media use). However, extant research on moderators suggests that no one is wholly immune to the effects of media violence.
Recent surveys reveal an extensive presence of violence in modern media. Furthermore, many children and youth spend an inordinate amount of time consuming violent media. Although it is clear that reducing exposure to media violence will reduce aggression and violence, it is less clear what sorts of interventions will produce a reduction in exposure. The sparse research literature suggests that counterattitudinal and parental-mediation interventions are likely to yield beneficial effects, but that media literacy interventions by themselves are unsuccessful.
Though the scientific debate over whether media violence increases aggression and violence is essentially over, several critical tasks remain. Additional laboratory and field studies are needed for a better understanding of underlying psychological processes, which eventually should lead to more effective interventions. Large-scale longitudinal studies would help specify the magnitude of media-violence effects on the most severe types of violence. Meeting the larger societal challenge of providing children and youth with a much healthier media diet may prove to be more difficult and costly, especially if the scientific, news, public policy, and entertainment communities fail to educate the general public about the real risks of media-violence exposure to children and youth.
Contents: Facts and Theories of Adult Development. A Trait Approach to Personality. Measuring Personality. The Search for Growth or Decline in Personality. Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Personality and Aging. The Course of Personality Development in the Individual. Stability Reconsidered: Qualifications and Rival Hypotheses. A Different View: Ego Psychologies and Projective Methods. Adult Development as Seen through the Personal Interview. A Five-Factor Theory of Personality. The Influences of Personality on the Life Course.
Recently there has been considerable theoretical and empirical work attempting to identify specific cognitive dimensions that shape the emotional response. However, this work has almost universally neglected an important theoretical distinction between two types of cognition relevant to emotion: knowledge and appraisal. Knowledge has to do with the facts of an adaptational encounter, whereas appraisal defines the personal significance of an encounter for well-being. In the shaping of an emotion, knowledge is a distal variable which requires an additional process of appraisal to produce an emotion; appraisal is a proximal variable which directly influences whether an emotion will be generated, and if so, its kind and intensity.In this article we examine the distinctions between knowledge and appraisal that are relevant to the emotion process, and how the failure to consider them muddies theoretical and empirical work. We examine a number of putative appraisal dimensions prominent in current theoretical systems, examine why they often constitute knowledge rather than appraisal, and discuss some of the appraisal dimensions in the emotion process. In addition, the major techniques used to study the cognition-emotion relationship are examined and their potential for providing evidence of appraisal rather than knowledge is evaluated.
The scientific study of emotion has long been dominated by theories emphasizing the subjective experience of emotions and their accompanying expressive and physiological responses. The processes by which different emotions are elicited has received less attention, the implicit assumption being that certain emotions arise automatically in response to certain types of events or situations. Such an assumption is incompatible with data showing that similar situations can provoke a range of emotions in different individuals, or even the same individual at different times. Appraisal theory, first suggested by Magda Arnold and Richard Lazarus, was formulated to address this shortcoming in our understanding of emotion. The central tenet of appraisal theory is that emotions are elicited according to an individual's subjective interpretation or evaluation of important events or situations. Appraisal research focuses on identifying the evaluative dimensions or criteria that predict which emotion will be elicited in an individual, as well as linking the appraisal process with the production of emotional responses. This book represents the first full-scale summary of the current state of appraisal research. Separate sections cover the history of apraisal theory and its fundamental ideas, the views of some of the major theorists currently active in the field, theoretical and methodological problems with the appraisal approach including suggestions for their resolution, social, cultural and individual differences and the application of appraisal theory to understanding and treating emotional pathology, and the methodology used in appraisal research including measuring and analyzing self-report, physiological, facial, and vocal indicators of appraisal, and simulating appraisal processes via computational models. Intended for advanced students and researchers in emotion psychology, it provides an authoritative assessment and critique of the current state of the art in appraisal research.
Personality: Determinants, Dynamics and Potentials, first published in 2000, is a comprehensive survey of research and theory in personality psychology. The book provides balanced coverage of biological, cognitive, affective, social, and interpersonal determinants of personality functioning and individual differences. The authors organize these factors within an overarching theoretical framework that highlights the dynamic transactions between individuals and the sociocultural environment, and the human capacities for self-reflection and self-regulation. The book's broad, integrative approach to the study of personality reveals how advances throughout the psychological sciences illuminate the classic questions of personality psychology. The volume is designed as a textbook for advanced-level courses and as a reference for professionals in psychology and related disciplines. The book meets personality psychology's need for an integrative analysis of the field that reviews recent advances, places them in their historical context, and identifies particularly promising avenues for the discipline's future development.
This book presents a thorough overview of a model of human functioning based on the idea that behavior is goal-directed and regulated by feedback control processes. It describes feedback processes and their application to behavior, considers goals and the idea that goals are organized hierarchically, examines affect as deriving from a different kind of feedback process, and analyzes how success expectancies influence whether people keep trying to attain goals or disengage. Later sections consider a series of emerging themes, including dynamic systems as a model for shifting among goals, catastrophe theory as a model for persistence, and the question of whether behavior is controlled or instead 'emerges'. Three chapters consider the implications of these various ideas for understanding maladaptive behavior, and the closing chapter asks whether goals are a necessity of life. Throughout, theory is presented in the context of diverse issues that link the theory to other literatures.
Normative personality change over 40 years was shown in 2 longitudinal cohorts with hierarchical linear modeling of California Psychological Inventory data obtained at multiple times between ages 21-75. Although themes of change and the paucity of differences attributable to gender and cohort largely supported findings of multiethnic cross-sectional samples, the authors also found much quadratic change and much individual variability. The form of quadratic change supported predictions about the influence of period of life and social climate as factors in change over the adult years: Scores on Dominance and Independence peaked in the middle age of both cohorts, and scores on Responsibility were lowest during peak years of the culture of individualism. The idea that personality change is most pronounced before age 30 and then reaches a plateau received no support.
Beyond Individual and Group Differences: Human Individuality, Scientific Psychology, and William Stern’s Critical Personalism examines the history of psychology’s effort to come to terms with human individuality, from the time of Wundt to present day. With a primary emphasis on the contributions of German psychologist William Stern, this book generates a wider appreciation for Stern’s perspective on human individuality and for the proper place of personalitic thinking within scientific psychology. The author presents an alternative approach to the logical positivism that permeates traditional psychological thought and methodology making this an innovative, ground-breaking work. Beyond Individual and Group Differences is a dynamic book for academics and scholars in the areas of personality psychology, individual differences, and the history of psychology.
Three models of personality and its development are described in terms of their psychobiological mechanisms. Personality is the organization within the individual of the psychobiological processes by which we adapt to experience. Personality as temperament involves individual differences in heritable traits that influence the salience of stimuli to which we attend selectively. Temperament is superseded by a model of self that includes temperament and character. The organization of self is described by three character dimensions, which correspond to executive, legislative, and judicial functions. The development of these higher cortical functions is experience-dependent and influenced by social and cultural learning. Temperament and character together can account for some of the self-organizing characteristics of personality development but are incomplete models of human personality and intellectual development. They cannot explain uniquely human characteristics, such as creativity, freedom of will, or spirituality, which involve individual differences in personality coherence. Personality coherence refers to mind as a complex adaptive system functioning as a unified whole, much like the quantum coherence of superfluids. This hierarchy of models is discussed in relation to Baltes’s (1997) hypothesis about the incompleteness of human ontogeny when limited to its first two levels.
Clifford Geertz, one of the most influential thinkers of our time, here discusses some of the most urgent issues facing intellectuals today. In this collection of personal and revealing essays, he explores the nature of his anthropological work in relation to a broader public, serving as the foremost spokesperson of his generation of scholars, those who came of age after World War II. His reflections are written in a style that both entertains and disconcerts, as they engage us in topics ranging from moral relativism to the relationship between cultural and psychological differences, from the diversity and tension among activist faiths to "ethnic conflict" in today's politics. Geertz, who once considered a career in philosophy, begins by explaining how he got swept into the revolutionary movement of symbolic anthropology. At that point, his work began to encompass not only the ethnography of groups in Southeast Asia and North Africa, but also the study of how meaning is made in all cultures--or, to use his phrase, to explore the "frames of meaning" in which people everywhere live out their lives. His philosophical orientation helped him to establish the role of anthropology within broader intellectual circles and led him to address the work of such leading thinkers as Charles Taylor, Thomas Kuhn, William James, and Jerome Bruner. In this volume, Geertz comments on their work as he explores questions in political philosophy, psychology, and religion that have intrigued him throughout his career but that now hold particular relevance in light of postmodernist thinking and multiculturalism. Available Light offers insightful discussions of concepts such as nation, identity, country, and self, with a reminder that like symbols in general, their meanings are not categorically fixed but grow and change through time and place. This book treats the reader to an analysis of the American intellectual climate by someone who did much to shape it. One can read Available Light both for its revelation of public culture in its dynamic, evolving forms and for the story it tells about the remarkable adventures of an innovator during the "golden years" of American academia.
This chapter explores the mechanisms underlying motivation and self-regulation from a functional-design perspective. Traditional approaches emphasize the mediating role of beliefs and other cognitive contents. An example of this approach is classical expectancy–value theory according to which a student's motivation to invest time and effort depends on his or her expectation of success and on the perceived value of good achievement. Learned helplessness is a practical example that illustrates the difference between content-based and functional explanations: After exposure to uncontrollable failure, many people lose their motivation and show impaired performance just as depressed patients do in response to adverse life conditions. According to traditional theorizing, those motivational and cognitive deficits are attributable to negative beliefs, such as pessimistic beliefs about one's own abilities. In contrast, according to a functional account, pessimistic beliefs and motivational deficits are consequences rather than causes of performance deficits that occur when people are confronted with uncontrollable failure: Experimental evidence shows that generalized pessimistic control beliefs typically occur after, not before, people develop symptoms of helplessness and depression. According to these findings, learned helplessness and depression cannot be remedied through making people believe in their abilities as attempted in cognitive therapy until one has established the necessary abilities. Specifying the mechanisms that underlie self-regulatory abilities is the target of functional approaches to self-regulation.
Have men and women evolved sex-distinct mating preferences for short-term and long-term mating, as postulated by some evolutionary theorists? Direct tests of assumptions, consideration of confounds with gender, and examination of the same variables for both sexes suggest men and women are remarkably similar. Furthermore, cross-species comparisons indicate that humans do not evidence mating mechanisms indicative of short-term mating (e.g., large female sexual skins, large testicles). Understanding human variability in mating preferences is apt to involve more detailed knowledge of the links between these preferences and biological and chemical mechanisms associated with sexual motivation, sexual arousal, and sexual functioning.
People exhibit coherent patterns of experience and action that cannot be fully described or explained by personality trait models. Rather, personality coherence is expressed in dispositional tendencies that violate the structure of common trait categories. Across contexts, people display predictable patterns of behavioral variation that cannot be captured by trait constructs, which correspond to mean levels of response. In addition to these empirical findings, theoretical work in both psychology and philosophy challenges the conceptual strategies through which trait models explain personality coherence. These empirical and theoretical points can be addressed by alternative theoretical models that specify how underlying psychological systems give rise to both common and idiosyncratic patterns of personality consistency and variability.
A neural network model of personality is presented. The model has two goal systems: an approach system (BAS) and an avoidance system (BIS), as well as a system that governs the level of disinhibition/constraint (IS) in the two goal systems and the behavior system. Furthermore, within both goal systems, agentic and communal goals are specified. By tweaking the parameters of this system (e.g., chronic activation of goals, sensitivity of systems), and randomly or systematically varying situational arrays, distinct patterns of “behavior” by Virtual Personalities (VPs) across “situations” emerge that fit with classic distinctions (e.g., Big 5, temperaments). Various simulations demonstrate that VPs provide an exciting vehicle for integrating disparate approaches to personality to better understand the dynamics, situational responsiveness, and consistency of persons in situations.
This article presents a social-cognitive analysis of cross-situational coherence in personality functioning. Social-cognitive analyses are contrasted with those of trait approaches in personality psychology. Rather than attributing coherence to high-level constructs that correspond directly to observed patterns of social behavior, social-cognitive theory pursues a "bottom-up" analytic strategy in which coherence derives from interactions among multiple underlying causal mechanisms, no one of which corresponds directly to a broad set of responses. Research investigating social and self-knowledge underlying cross-situational coherence in a central social-cognitive mechanism, perceived self-efficacy, is presented. Idiographic analyses revealed that individuals' schematic self-knowledge and situational beliefs give rise to patterns of high and low self-efficacy appraisal across diverse, idiosyncratic sets of situations that do not, in general, correspond to traditional high-level trait categories. Bottom-up analyses in personality psychology are related to other disciplines' analyses of organization in complex, adaptive systems.
The implications of conceptualizing personality as a cognitive-affective processing system that functions as a parallel constraint satisfaction network are explored. Computer simulations show that from dynamic interactions among the units in such a network, a set of stable attractor states and functionally equivalent groups of situations emerge, such that IF exposed to situation group X, THEN the system settles in attractor Y. This conceptualization explicitly models the effect of situations on a given individual, and therefore can also be used to model the function of interpersonal systems. We demonstrate this possibility by modeling dyadic systems in which one partner's behavior becomes the situational input into the other partner's personality system, and vice versa. The results indicate that each member of the dyad will, in general, exhibit new attractor states. This suggests that the thoughts, affects, and behaviors that an individual typically experiences are a function not of that individual's personality system alone, but rather a function of the interpersonal system of which the individual is a part. Just as individuals have distinctive and stable IF-THEN signatures, so do interpersonal relationships. Understanding the structure of the cognitive-affective processing system of each relationship partner also should enable predictions of their distincitve relational signatures as emergent properties of the interpersonal system that develops.
This article presents a social-cognitive theory of personality assessment. We articulate the implications of social-cognitive theories of personality for the question of what constitutes an assessment of personality structure and behavioral dispositions. The theory consists of 5 social-cognitive principles of assessment. Personality assessments should (a) distin - guish the task of assessing internal personality structures and dynamics from that of as - sessing overt behavioral tendencies, (b) attend to personality systems that function as per- sonal determinants of action, (c) treat measures of separate psychological and physiological systems as conceptually distinct, (d) employ assessments that are sensitive to the unique qualities of the individual, and (e) assess persons in context. These principles are illustrated through a review of recent research. Social-cognitive theory is distinguished from an alternative theory of personality structure and assessment, 5-factor theory, by ar- ticulating the strategies of scientific explanation, conceptions of personality structure and dispositions, and the assessment practices that differentiate the approaches.
Personality, as a construct, has been largely ignored or misapplied in the clinical and/or cognitive-behavioral literature. This article discusses the history of the concept of personality in clinical psychology and in cognitive-behavioral approaches and provides the main rationale for this special series. The articles that comprise the series present perspectives on personality and personality science from a decidedly social-cognitive viewpoint. These articles share the overall goal of advancing understanding of how personality as a construct may be conceptualized within cognitive-behavioral paradigms. This article highlights dominant themes within the special series and suggests that work at the intersection of personality and cognitive-behavioral science has the potential to advance theory and research in both disciplines.
whereas the goal function occurs when a reference value represents a desired state for the self in the future. We argue that different factors influence the emotional, motiva-tional, and behavioral outcomes of these functions. The magnitude of any discrepancy with a "standard" is important, whereas for a "goal," the rate of discrepancy reduc-tion, relative to an "expected" rate, is important. A review of the empirical literature supports these propositions. Consequently, we propose that future research should in-corporate our distinction between these two functions.
Personality psychology explores personal determinants of social behavior, that is, psychological systems that causally contribute to the coherent patterns of experience and action that distinguish individuals from one another. This article explores two obstacles faced by evolutionary accounts of personality functioning. The first is the problem of act identification. Explaining social behavior by reference to an evolved mental module requires that one determine which module to invoke. This generally requires identifying the meaning of complex, culturally and socially embedded actions. Evolutionary psychology provides no tools for unambiguously making these identifications. The second obstacle derives from the fact that, in evolutionary psychology, behavior may reflect the joint action of multiple mental modules. Prediction and explanation would require assessment of the relative strengths of activation of the multiple modules. This commonly is not possible. Alternative accounts of personality structure and functioning, including that of social-cognitive theories of personality, are considered.
Behavior genetics has demonstrated that genetic variance is an important component of variation for all behavioral outcomes, but variation among families is not. These results have led some critics of behavior genetics to conclude that heritability is so ubiquitous as to have few consequences for scientific understanding of development, while some behavior genetic partisans have concluded that family environment is not an important cause of developmental outcomes. Both views are incorrect. Genotype is in fact a more systematic source of variability than environment, but for reasons that are methodological rather than substantive. Development is fundamentally nonlinear, interactive, and difficult to control experimentally. Twin studies offer a useful methodological shortcut, but do not show that genes are more fundamental than environments.
This article conceptualizes goals and strategies of personality assessment, and the relevance of personality assessment to the behavior therapist, in light of recent advances in personality science. Two assessment principles are presented: that personality assessment procedures should include in their purview those psychological systems that are unique to persons, and that assessments should tap psychological systems that are possessed by the individuals being assessed and that causally contribute to their overt experiences and actions. The limitations of traditional assessment strategies based on between-person factor-analytic constructs are discussed in light of these principles. The article then outlines an alternative strategy in which social-cognitive personality systems are tapped in a manner that is sensitive to the potentially idiosyncratic qualities of the individual. Illustrative research is summarized and implications for the practice of behavior therapy are considered.
This study investigated the similarity between the factor structure of longitudinal variations in states and the factor structure of individual differences in traits. On 90 consecutive days, 22 students self-administered 30 self-report items that were markers of the Big Five. Most participants showed good discrimination among the 90 measurement occasions. Correlations were computed between items across measurement occasions. These P-correlations were factored, and the factor matrices were target rotated toward a reference factor structure of individual differences, using orthogonal Procrustes rotations. A substantial match was obtained between the factor structure of longitudinal correlations that had been averaged across participants and the factor structure of individual differences. For individual participants, this factor match was worse. It is concluded that the Big Five are useful to describe longitudinal variations in states. A sharp distinction between the five-factor model and the trait approach is recommended.