Sidney Blatt's Contributions to Personality Assessment

Over a long, distinguished career, Sidney Blatt contributed to theory and research in personality development, personality assessment, and psychotherapy. Best known for his 2-configurations model of personality and author or co-author of more than 250 articles and 18 books and monographs, Blatt was also a master clinician, a psychoanalyst who was awarded the 1989 Bruno J. Klopfer Award by the Society for Personality Assessment (SPA) for his contributions to both self-report and performance-based assessment. He was also the president of SPA from 1984 to 1986. This special series contains papers by writers who participated in all aspects of Blatt's contributions to personality assessment, both self-report and performance-based. Topics covered include Blatt's 2-configurations model of personality, development, and psychopathology; boundary disturbance and psychosis in performance-based assessment; the interaction of gender and personality on narrative assessments; and the Object Relations Inventory and differentiation relatedness, especially as these relate to therapeutic outcome.     

Personality in Action: Assessing Personality to Identify an ‘Ideal’ Conscientious Response Type with Two Different Behavioural Tasks

Performance on achievement tests is characterized by an interplay of different individual attributes such as personality traits, motivation or cognitive styles. However, the prediction of individuals' performance from classical self-report personality measures obtained during large and comprehensive aptitude assessments is biased by, for example, subjective response tendencies. This study goes beyond by using behavioural data based on two different types of tasks, requiring different conscientious-related response behaviours. Moreover, a typological approach is proposed, which includes different behavioural indicators to obtain information on complex personality characteristics. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology     

Using Big Data and Machine Learning in Personality Measurement: Opportunities and Challenges

This conceptual paper examines the promises and critical challenges posed by contemporary personality measurement using big data. More specifically, the paper provides (i) an introduction to the type of technologies that give rise to big data, (ii) an overview of how big data is used in personality research and how it might be used in the future, (iii) a framework for approaching big data in personality science, (iv) an exploration of ideas that connect psychometric reliability and validity, as well as principles of fairness and privacy, to measures of personality that use big data, (v) a discussion emphasizing the importance of collaboration with other disciplines for personality psychologists seeking to adopt big data methods, and finally, (vi) a list of practical considerations for researchers seeking to move forward with big data personality measurement and research. It is expected that this paper will provide insights, guidance, and inspiration that helps personality researchers navigate the challenges and opportunities posed by using big data methods in personality measurement. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Behavioural Consistency Within the Prisoner's Dilemma Game: The Role of Personality and Situation

Mixed‐motive games represent situations that confront people with a conflict between cooperative and non‐cooperative alternatives. Despite this common basis, recent research has shown that the consistency of people's choices across different mixed‐motive games is rather low. The present research examined behavioural consistency within the same mixed‐motive game, by presenting participants with a series of one‐shot Prisoner's Dilemma Games. Across this set of games, payoffs were manipulated in order to intensify or weaken the conflict between self and the other party while maintaining the game's underlying structure. Our findings indicate that significant differences in choice behaviour are observed as a function of both situational (i.e. manipulations of the Prisoner's Dilemma Game's payoff structure) and personality differences (i.e. individual differences in personality and motivational traits). Moreover, our included situational variables and personality features did not interact with each other and were about equally impactful in shaping cooperation. Crucially, however, despite the significant behavioural differences across game variants, considerable consistency in choices was found as well, which suggests that the game's motivational basis reliably impacts choice behaviour in spite of situational and personality variations. We discuss implications for theorizing on mixed‐motive situations and elaborate on the question how cooperation can be promoted. © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology     

人格心理学的学科架构初探

人格心理学作为心理学体系中的重要分支之一,自创立以来却一直缺乏一个完整统一的学科架构。这种状况极大地限制了该学科的发展。文章回顾了人格心理学的起源和发展,探讨了学科发展的趋势,呈现了当下几种主要的学科架构。在综合比较的基础上,对其中有代表性的Clonlinger人格“描述—动力—发展”的“3D”模型进行了修正：（1）增加了人格理论;（2）把第一个“D”由“人格描述”改为“人格表现”;（3）对原有“3D”的内容进行补充和完善。得出了对人格心理学学科架构的“3D”修正模型：即理论加“3D”     

The Dynamics of Personality Approach (DPA): 20 Tenets for Uncovering the Causal Mechanisms of Personality

Over the last few decades, most personality psychology research has been focused on assessing personality via scores on a few broad traits and investigating how these scores predict various behaviours and outcomes. This approach does not seek to explain the causal mechanisms underlying human personality and thus falls short of explaining the proximal sources of traits as well as the variation of individuals' behaviour over time and across situations. On the basis of the commonalities shared by influential process-oriented personality theories and models, we describe a general dynamics of personality approach (DPA). The DPA relies heavily on theoretical principles applicable to complex adaptive systems that self-regulate via feedback mechanisms, and it parses the sources of personality in terms of various psychological functions relevant in different phases of self-regulation. Thus, we consider personality to be rooted in individual differences in various cognitive, emotional–motivational, and volitional functions, as well as their causal interactions. In this article, we lay out 20 tenets for the DPA that may serve as a guideline for integrative research in personality science. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology     

A Three‐Domain Personality Analysis of a Mentally Tough Athlete

The current study adopted McAdams' multilayer framework as the basis to develop a psychological portrait of an elite athlete who was identified as being particularly ‘mentally tough’. The aim was to use this single case as an exemplar to demonstrate the utility of McAdams' framework for understanding the complexity of sport performers across three domains of personality: dispositional traits, characteristic adaptations, and narrative identity. We operationalised these domains through the development of specific research questions and, subsequently, the collection and integration of the participant's Big Five traits, personal strivings, coping strategies, and response to a life story interview. The results offered a comprehensive insight into the nature of one athlete's personality that, in turn, informed conceptual perspectives of mental toughness in sport psychology literature and qualitatively supported emerging evidence of the validity of a three‐layer framework in personality psychology. Specifically, the study's design showed how a holistic approach to personality analysis can lead to a more complete psychological representation of competitors in sport, and people generally. It demonstrated how motivational, sociocultural, and meaning‐making aspects of personality can complement a trait profile to achieving a satisfying assessment of the whole person. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Personality and politics: introduction to the special issue

This special issue of Journal of Personality brings together 10 original articles addressing the intersection of personality and politics. Articles build on classic traditions in political psychology by presenting both idiographic and nomothetic work on the motivational, cognitive, ideological, attitudinal, and identity correlates of many different aspects of political behavior. This work is used to understand political activism and leadership as well as everyday political behavior. We hope this collection of articles will inspire our readers to explore new investigations in personality and political psychology.     

A Framework for the Classification of Personality Components

ABSTRACT Psychologists working within different theoretical traditions have proposed the existence of hundreds of personality components since the turn of the century. For example, psychoanalysts proposed such components as the id, ego, and superego, and trait theorists proposed such components as introversion and extraversion. Because each proposed component models a part of internal psychological functioning, it would make sense to combine the components into a single more meaningful set. Such components, however, are generally discussed only within the specific theoretical tradition in which they originated. This article presents a classification system that treats personality components together as a group. Personality components were first defined and then several hundred components were collected in a preliminary theory-by-theory classification. A new relational classification system was then developed that organized the components according to their interrelated nature, without regard to their originating theories. This classification system can be used to construct a relational table of personality components that is loosely analogous to a chemist's periodic table of the elements. The re-lational classification system's potential contribution to personality psychology is discussed.     

To "Correlate Psychology and Social Ethics": Gordon Allport and the First Course in American Personality Psychology

ABSTRACT This article explores the historical origins of what is widely regarded as the “first course in American personality psychology”: Gordon Allport's 1925 course entitled “Personality: Its Psychological and Social Aspects.” It argues that the professional focus and disciplinary context of Allport's course were much more complicated than is generally believed. Far from being a completely novel and distinctively psychological venture, Allport's course drew upon the moral concerns and the pedagogical and discursive practices of Harvard's Department of Social Ethics. Allport's course on “Personality” represented a subtle attempt to bring Victorian concerns with character development together with the newly emerging ideal of objectivity.     

Targeting Item-level Nuances Leads to Small but Robust Improvements in Personality Prediction from Digital Footprints

In the past decade, researchers have demonstrated that personality can be accurately predicted from digital footprint data, including Facebook likes, tweets, blog posts, pictures, and transaction records. Such computer-based predictions from digital footprints can complement—and in some circumstances even replace—traditional self-report measures, which suffer from well-known response biases and are difficult to scale. However, these previous studies have focused on the prediction of aggregate trait scores (i.e. a person's extroversion score), which may obscure prediction-relevant information at theoretical levels of the personality hierarchy beneath the Big 5 traits. Specifically, new research has demonstrated that personality may be better represented by so-called personality nuances—item-level representations of personality—and that utilizing these nuances can improve predictive performance. The present work examines the hypothesis that personality predictions from digital footprint data can be improved by first predicting personality nuances and subsequently aggregating to scores, rather than predicting trait scores outright. To examine this hypothesis, we employed least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression and random forest models to predict both items and traits using out-of-sample cross-validation. In nine out of 10 cases across the two modelling approaches, nuance-based models improved the prediction of personality over the trait-based approaches to a small, but meaningful degree (4.25% or 1.69% on average, depending on method). Implications for personality prediction and personality nuances are discussed. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology     

The State of the Story in Personality Psychology

Personality psychologists have been studying narratives for decades. Their work offers significant insights into the meaning of the stories people tell. This article highlights some historical antecedents as well as the latest research findings from the growing area of personality psychology that focuses on narrative approaches. First, narrative research in personality shows that imaginative stories reveal enduring implicit motivations linked to affect, thought, and behavior. Second, autobiographical stories play a significant role in self‐development and personal identity formation. The narration of one's story is a process influenced over the life span by age‐related capacities and various psychological needs that occur in social and cultural contexts.     

Personality Science, Self-Regulation, and Health Behavior

In their paper, Cervone, Shadel, Smith, and Fiori (2006 ) present a thorough analysis of self-regulatory behavior, understood as the most genuine expression of the agentic and purposive nature of human beings. Therefore, we can expect that research on personality could shed light on our understanding of self-regulatory processes and behavioral expressions. With this aim, Cervone et al. have carried out an updated analysis of personality psychology theory and research, resuming the debate between variable and person-centered approaches, and commenting on the contributions the Knowledge-and-Appraisal Personality Architecture (KAPA) can make to the design of idiosyncratic tools and strategies for personality assessment and to the understanding of the role of the personality system in different contexts of applied psychology, such as health, clinical and industrial/organisational psychology. Here, I would like to examine two topics, to which Cervone et al. pay substantial attention in their paper: self-regulation and personality dynamics, and the role of personality science in addressing central questions in health psychology.     

Development and Validation of an Adjective Check List to Assess the Millon Personality Types in a Normal Population

A 405-item experimental Personality Adjective Check List (PACL) was refined into a 153-item form to assess the personality types outlined by Millon (1969, 1981) in a normal population. Scale construction and validation followed a method outlined by Loevinger (1957, 1972). Nine scales were developed based on the responses of 459 men and women, one for each of Milton's eight basic personalities plus an Experimental scale measuring aspects of his three more severe types. Extensive reliability and validity analyses were conducted involving over 2,200 men and women from across the United States, including a factor analysis of scales. These revealed good internal consistency for each scale, good test-retest reliability over a 3-month period, adequate factor structure, and good convergent and discriminant validity based on self-report data. Results indicated that Millon's basic types exist in normal form much as they are postulated to exist as disorders. Research efforts focusing on Millon's theory as it applies to normals may bring a more complete understanding of the entire spectrum of personality.     

Personality,Childhood Experience,and Political Ideology

This article studies the relationship between the “big five” personality traits and political ideology in a large U.S. representative sample (N = 14,672). In line with research in political psychology, “openness to experience” is found to predict liberal ideology, and “conscientiousness” predicts conservative ideology. The availability of family clusters in the data is leveraged to show that these results are robust to a sibling fixed‐effects specification. The way that personality might interact with environmental influences in the development of ideology is also explored. A variety of childhood experiences are studied that may have a differential effect on political ideology based on a respondent's personality profile. Childhood trauma is found to interact with “openness” in predicting ideology, and this complex relationship is investigated using mediation analysis. These findings provide new evidence for the idea that differences in political ideology are deeply intertwined with variation in the nature and nurture of individual personalities.     

How Are Personality States Associated with Smartphone Data?

Smartphones promise great potential for personality science to study people's everyday life behaviours. Even though personality psychologists have become increasingly interested in the study of personality states, associations between smartphone data and personality states have not yet been investigated. This study provides a first step towards understanding how smartphones may be used for behavioural assessment of personality states. We explored the relationships between Big Five personality states and data from smartphone sensors and usage logs. On the basis of the existing literature, we first compiled a set of behavioural and situational indicators, which are potentially related to personality states. We then applied them on an experience sampling data set containing 5748 personality state responses that are self-assessments of 30 minutes timeframes and corresponding smartphone data. We used machine learning analyses to investigate the predictability of personality states from the set of indicators. The results showed that only for extraversion, smartphone data (specifically, ambient noise level) were informative beyond what could be predicted based on time and day of the week alone. The results point to continuing challenges in realizing the potential of smartphone data for psychological research. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology     

Personality traits in leadership behavior

Correlational analyses of the personality traits measured by the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992) and three leadership styles, that is, Change, Production, and Employee (CPE) measured by Ekvall and Arvonen's (1991) CPE questionnaire, were performed. The sample was 106 Norwegian leaders. Three common factors comprising leadership styles and personality domains were interpreted as "looking for new possibilities,"hard working," and "dealing with people." Considering personality traits as behavior tendencies in unspecified situational contexts and leadership styles as behavioral tendencies in the leadership context, and due to the self-report nature of the data, it is argued that the factors show consistency in self-perceptions independent of context. The strongest predictors of the CPE total score were Conscientiousness and Extraversion; Openness and Agreeableness were specific predictors of Change and Employee, respectively.     

Assessing Personality States: What to Consider when Constructing Personality State Measures

Repeated assessments of personality states in daily diary or experience sampling studies have become a more and more common tool in the psychologist's toolbox. However, and contrary to the widely available literature on personality traits, no best practices for the development of personality state measures exist, and personality state measures have been developed in many different ways. To address this, we first define what a personality state is and discuss important components. On the basis of this, we define what a personality state measure is and suggest a general guideline for the development of such measures. Following the ABC of test construction can then guide the strategy for obtaining validity and reliability evidence: (A) What is the construct being measured? (B) What is the intended purpose of the measure? And (C) What is the targeted population of persons and situations? We then conclude with an example by developing an initial item pool for the assessment of conscientiousness personality states. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology