La psychologie contemporaine des « traits » dans le cadre de la recherche néogaltonienne : comment elle est censée fonctionner et pourquoi en réalité elle ne fonctionne pas

For its epistemic integrity as a framework for scientific personality studies, contemporary trait psychology requires the assumption that aggregate statistical patterns gleaned from correlational studies of individual differences constitute an epistemic “window” onto what is transpiring with the individuals comprising that aggregate. This assumption is the cornerstone of the “neogaltonian” paradigm for psychological research (Danziger, 1987) in terms of which Cronbach (1957) famously called for a merger of scientific psychology's experimental and the correlational disciplines. In the present contribution, this perspective on personality studies is submitted to close critical scrutiny and shown to be scientifically untenable. It is argued that a viable science of personality will be one focused on persons and not on individual differences variables.