CHAPTER 18
THEORY AND RESEARCH IN
CONTEMPORARY
PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY
Heuristic Value of the Grand Theories in Five Important Areas
•
Focus by investigators on the special impact of biological factors on
human development and behavior.
– behavior genetics - scientific discipline that seeks to document the
relative influences of heredity and environment on behavioral
differences observed among individuals.
Heuristic Value of the Grand Theories in Five Important Areas (cont.)
•
Evolutionary theory - position that seeks to understand the
development of human behavioral tendencies by focusing primarily on
our animal heritage.
– broad-based temperaments - traits that we share with other
primates.
• emotionality refers to high physiological arousal and
generalized negative affect.
• fearfulness involves the tendency to be wary, run away, or
cower, as well as the accompanying physiological arousal.
• activity refers to total energy output, as expressed in vigor or
tempo.
• nurturance is the tendency to help others; it includes altruism.
Heuristic Value of the Grand Theories in Five Important Areas (cont.)
– broad-based temperaments (cont.)
• sociability is a preference for being with others rather than
remaining alone.
• impulsivity is the tendency to act on the spur of the moment
without pause or reflection.
• aggressiveness consists of attacking or threatening.
• dominance refers to seeking and maintaining superior status
over others.
Heuristic Value of the Grand Theories in Five Important Areas (cont.)
– evolutionary psychologists endorse an interactional temperament
model, which states that environment and temperament traits
mutually influence each other.
– differential parental investment hypothesis - the conjecture that
males and females will employ different mating strategies because
of their differential investments in parenting.
Heuristic Value of the Grand Theories in Five Important Areas (cont.)
•
Necessity of incorporating a multicultural perspective into personality
theory and research and psychotherapy.
– multiculturalism - efforts by racial/ethnic groups to gain
recognition and respect for their distinctive cultural identities from
the larger society.
• individualistic societies - cultures which place heavy
emphasis on inculcating the traits of independence, selfreliance, ambition, determination, aggression, competition, and
the achievement of personal success in its members.
• collectivistic societies - cultures which teach their members
to be more harmoniously interdependent, to share resources, to
see success as depending on help from others, and to focus
largely on trying to fit in with the group and to place the needs
of the group above their own needs.
Heuristic Value of the Grand Theories in Five Important Areas (cont.)
•
Multiculturalism (cont.)
– gender differences shaped by culture
• Freudian view
• Chodorow's view
• Gilligan's view
• looking to the future - androgyny-idea that males and females
can possess both masculine and feminine characteristics.
Heuristic Value of the Grand Theories in Five Important Areas (cont.)
•
Multiculturalism (cont.)
– sensitivity to gender differences in therapy
– racial/ethnic differences shaped by culture
• majority group - most dominant and powerful group in a
society whose members typically enjoy more privilege and
advantages than members of minority groups.
• minority groups - stigmatized groups of people who face
negative stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination by
members of the larger society because of their physical or
cultural characteristics.
Heuristic Value of the Grand Theories in Five Important Areas (cont.)
•
Multiculturalism (cont.)
– sensitivity to racial/ethnic differences in therapy
– contributions of religion to personality
• immature religious orientation - use of religion as a means to
an end.
• mature religious orientation - use of religion as an end in
itself.
– sensitivity to religious differences in therapy
Heuristic Value of the Grand Theories in Five Important Areas (cont.)
•
Use of a trait taxonomy (classification system) to increase our
understanding of the role of traits within personality.
– Big Five Factors - major, broad dimensions of personality, which
have been derived largely from analyses of the language people
use to describe themselves and others.
• surgency (extraversion)
• agreeableness
• conscientiousness
• neuroticism
• openness to experience (intellect)
– Criticisms of the Big Five factors
• more than five factors are needed.
• meaning of some of the Big Five are unclear.
Heuristic Value of the Grand Theories in Five Important Areas (cont.)
•
Use of the concept of personal goals to organize, describe, and explain
individual differences in cognition, affect (feelings and motivation), and
behavior.
– cognitive variables - concepts, beliefs, or mental representations
occurring within us that are used to analyze and interpret both the
world around us and our own thoughts and behavior.
– cognitive strategies - use of self-knowledge and knowledge about
the social world to make goals into reality.
• defensive - optimism - attempts to cope with stress and
anxiety by not thinking about possible negative outcomes
before beginning a task.
• defensive - pessimism - attempts to cope with stress and
anxiety before a performance, by setting low expectations for
success in spite of good past performances.
– motivational variables - internal concepts within people that initiate
persistent activity to reach goals.
Heuristic Value of the Grand Theories in Five Important Areas (cont.)
•
Emergence of a positive psychology that will help us to understand
virtuous behavior better and to identify the conditions under which such
behavior in people is facilitated.
– positive psychology - science of positive subjective experience,
positive individual traits, and positive institutions that would attempt
to improve the quality of life for everyone. It would be a science
that seeks to promote human strengths and virtues; courage,
humility, gratitude, loyalty, generosity, altruism, compassion, hope,
optimism, social responsibility, politeness, forgiveness, and selfcontrol.
Future of Personality Psychology
•
Personality psychology is currently a thriving discipline. Much of its
foundation rests on, and will continue to rest on, the wisdom embedded
in many of the current grand theories of personality. Personality
psychology will continue to borrow knowledge, principles, and
procedures from other disciplines within psychology, including cognitive
psychology, social psychology, developmental psychology, clinical
psychology, and biological psychology. By drawing on these sources,
personality psychologists will continue to enjoy a much-needed infusion
of energy and enthusiasm and to expand the range of ideas, issues,
and phenomena that they study.
Future of Personality Psychology (cont.)
•
This expansion has created many challenges for personality
psychologists in their quest for a fuller understanding of personality
development and functioning. For example, most researchers in
personality psychology use primarily sel-report data to study personality
because it is convenient and economical. While the data collected
using such a procedure are invaluable, the method is limited because
people are imperfectly trustworthy when it comes to describing
themselves. There is a need to use other actual life - outcome
techniques to gather data (e.g., health records, job performance
evaluations, criminal records, peer reports, life story techniques,
diaries, and direct behavioral observations) to supplement self-report
data.
Future of Personality Psychology (cont.)
•
These methods will help personality psychologists know what people
actually do, think, or feel in various situations in their lives. Personality
psychologists are already beginning to tackle this challenge as they use
life; outcome techniques to obtain a broader and more valid
understanding of human personality. Given the many exciting
conceptual and methodological developments and tremendous
research activity in the discipline in the past few years, the future of
personality psychology in the 21st century looks promising indeed.