Personality Architecture and the FFM in Organisational Psychology

Cervone, Shadel, Smith, and Fiori (2006 ) outline an approach to the study of self-regulation that is consistent with but extends research on self-regulation and motivation within organisational psychology. At the same time, their model represents a new perspective for the study of personality processes within organisations and one that conflicts with the existing personality research programmes focused on the five factor model (FFM). We outline the points of differentiation between the two approaches and suggest strategies that we believe will allow personality researchers to build the personality architectures for the trait behaviours derived from the FFM. We also categorise the mediating mechanisms studied in organisational psychology in the KAPA model of Cervone et al. and highlight the need for related frameworks covering affective units and personal competencies in personality architecture.     

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.     

Self-Regulatory Dysfunctions in Personality Disorders: The Role of Poor Self-Monitoring and Mindreading

To understand how persons self-regulate, we need, as Cervone, Shadel, Smith, and Fiori (2006 ) assert, to refer to personality science, with which it is possible to identify the multifarious psychological elements and processes helping or hindering action programming, overcoming difficulties, and error correction. Personality disorder research and personality science itself demonstrate that dysfunctions in two skills—self-monitoring and mindreading—worsen self-regulation and lead individuals to fail chronically to achieve goals in the social domain. Here we describe how poor self-reflection and biased mindreading impair self-regulation in personality disorders and other clinical conditions and make some suggestions about how to tackle them in psychotherapy.     

Putting Self-Regulation Theory into Practice: A User's Manual

Cervone, Shadel, Smith, and Fiori (2006 ) propose that theories of personality architecture may provide an integrative theoretical framework for self-regulation research. Building further on this argument, the present paper considers one comprehensive modern approach to personality architecture, personality systems interactions (PSI) theory. The authors provide a brief overview of PSI theory and discuss a simple, three-step "user's manual" that has guided applications of the theory to real-life behavior. Work on PSI theory highlights some of the integrative potential of personality science in the field of self-regulation. The authors conclude that theories of personality architecture may improve the quality and precision of the counselling, coaching, and training that psychologists in many diverse areas provide.     

Are Early Birds More Disciplined? A Social Jet Lag Perspective

The relationship between personality and morningness-eveningness orientation is attracting a lot of attention. The relationship between morningness-eveningness orientation and personality related to self-regulation, however, remains unclear. The present research adopted a general American adult sample to investigate the relationship among morning and evening types and the individual self-regulatory trait. More important was that we used social jet lag theory to explain this relationship. According to the different scales that were used to measure self-regulatory trait, Study 1 obtained the convergent result that morningness is positively related to high self-regulation. In Study 2, we found that misalignment of rising time between free and work days (reflecting social jet lag) could partly explain the positive relationship between morningness and self-regulation. More specifically, because morning types can work in accordance with their natural clock, they have more resources for self-regulation; therefore, they have higher-self-regulation than intermediate types and evening types do.     

Personality science and personal projects: Six impossible things before breakfast

Personality science pursues the paradoxical project of specializing in comprehensiveness, a pursuit that some may see as an inherently impossible undertaking. Accompanied by one such contrarian, a hypothetical “Reviewer C,” I explore six possible “impossibilities” in personality science. Together we examine our epistemological assumptions, conceptual units of analysis, assessment methodologies, psychometric techniques, social impact, and organizational viability. I focus on “personal projects” (Little, 1972, Little, 1983) as core integrative units of analysis that provide linkages with other integrative units. I propose that personality science will assume increasing importance at the very center of university curricula, as a hub of scientific progress and as a stimulant for a diversity of applied fields. Its paradoxes and perplexities notwithstanding, personality science is an audacious project that is already advancing our understanding of the depth and subtleties of human natures and nurturing attempts to enhance the quality of lives.     

The integrative challenge in personality science: Personal projects as units of analysis

Personality science pursues the rather paradoxical project of specializing in comprehensiveness. But with rapid increases in the breadth and depth of research in the field, the need for integration poses a clear challenge. The choice of unit of analysis is critical to this challenge. Personal projects, extended sets of personally salient action in context, are one example of integrative units of analysis. I review a social ecological framework for personality in which personal projects are pivotal units. I then examine twelve methodological criteria that have guided the development of research on personal projects and that stand in contrast to more traditional ways of assessing personality. I conclude by answering critical comments from a not totally hypothetical Reviewer C.     

New directions for research in personality and aging: A comprehensive model for linking levels,structures, and processes

A comprehensive lifespan model of personality is proposed that is based in developmental systems theory. The model integrates processes and structures within a level-of-analysis framework. The model builds on McAdams' (1995) delineation of three levels of personality but adds what is seen as necessary process constructs at each of the three structural levels he has identified. At Level I, the trait level, the parallel process construct is that of states. Level II constructs, or personal concerns, have their parallel in self-regulatory processes in service of individual goals. The Level III construct, the life story, has its process counterparts in social cognitive activities related to recounting life narratives, such as remembering, reminiscence, and storytelling. A brief overview of these six foci of personality demonstrates that each are firmly anchored in the aging research literature. It is argued that personality is most clearly revealed in later life and that this model allows examination of personality from both nomothetic and idiographic perspectives.     

Friends at last? Distributed cognition and the cognitive/social divide

Distributed cognition (d-cog) claims that many cognitive processes are “distributed” across groups and the surrounding material and cultural environment. Recently, Nancy Nersessian, Ronald Giere, and others have suggested that a d-cog approach might allow us to bring together cognitive and social theories of science. I explore this idea by focusing on the specific interpretation of d-cog found in Edwin Hutchins' canonical text Cognition in the wild. First, I examine the scope of a d-cog approach to science, showing that there are important disputes between cognitive and social theorists on which d-cog remains silent. Second, I suggest that, where social explanations can be recast in d-cog terms, this reformulation will not be acceptable to all social theorists. Finally, I ask how we should make sense of the claim that, on a d-cog analysis, social factors are cognitive factors.     

Longitudinal studies of personality disorders: four lessons from personality psychology

The three longitudinal projects described in this special section of the Journal of Personality Disorders raise a number of intriguing questions concerning the natural history of personality disorders and offer more than their share of surprises. In addition, they underscore several valuable lessons derived from the literature on normal-range personality traits. Drawing in part from the writings of the American trait psychologist Gordon Allport, I describe four such lessons: (1) change and continuity of personality traits and disorders can and do coexist, (2) the covariation among personality traits helps to account for the "comorbidity" among personality disorders, (3) personality traits and disorders influence how individuals interpret life events, and (4) personality traits must be distinguished from behavioral adaptations to these traits. These lessons remind us that the science of personality disorders must be informed by the basic science of personality.     

Further Confusion in the Study of Self-Regulation: Comments on Cervone, Shadel, Smith, and Fiori

We applaud Cervone, Shadel, Smith, and Fiori's goal to clarify the self-regulation literature and to show how intra-individual personality studies might help do this. Unfortunately, we do not believe the paper achieves its goal. Rather it only confuses matters further. This is due to the lack of clear definitions or explanation of key concepts and theories, false claims about certain personality measures and other issues, confusions about the relation between process and content, the offering as new insights ideas which are, in fact, not new, and the failure to make clear how intra-individual studies would actually be used.     

个人奋斗及其相关研究

个人奋斗作为个人目标概念中最有代表性的一种,是一种特定的、与情境目标有关的人格意向结构,指的是个体通过日常行为所努力达成的特性生活目标。根据目标理论的层次结构,个人奋斗及类似概念被统称为人格中的“中层”目标单元。文章选取Emmons的个人奋斗理论,从个人奋斗的基本概念及其测评开始,论述其与幸福感、人格特质的相关关系,并简要评述了几种不同的个人目标理论,呈现了一种与传统特质理论不同的人格研究方法     

Breaks are Better: A Tier II Social Behavior Intervention

Multi-tiered systems of social behavioral support in schools provide varying levels of intervention matched to student need. Tier I (primary or universal) systems are for all students and are designed to promote pro-social behavior. Tier III (tertiary or intensive) supports are for students who engage in serious challenging behavior that has not responded to other efforts. In between Tier I and Tier III are Tier II (secondary or targeted interventions), for students at risk for developing more serious problematic behavior. The purpose of this study was to evaluate Breaks are Better, a Tier II intervention designed for students who engage in problem behavior maintained by avoidance of instructional activities. Breaks are Better builds on an evidence-based Tier II intervention, Check-in/Check-out, but includes key components to enhance its effectiveness for students who avoid instruction. Working with three typically developing elementary school students, we documented changes in problem behavior during academic instruction following the implementation of Breaks are Better. Further, students and teachers rated the intervention as both feasible and valuable.     

Function and Functional Explanation in Social Capital Theory: A Philosophical Appraisal

Social capital is frequently offered up as a variable to explain such educational outcomes as academic attainment, drop-out rates and cognitive development. Yet, despite its popularity amongst social scientists, social capital theory remains the object of some scepticism, particularly in respect of its explanatory ambitions. I provide an account of some explanatory options available to social capital theorists, focussing on the functions ascribed to social capital and on how these are used as explanatory variables in educational theory. Two of the most influential writers in this field are Coleman and Bourdieu. I explore their commonalities and differences, both in respect of their writing and in respect of some of the many theorists they have influenced. I argue that social capital theorists have made substantial progress in responding to sceptically minded critics, but that significant questions remain, especially about the success of the more ambitious explanatory variants as these apply to educational outcomes—functional explanation in particular. Functional explanation, and its association with Bourdieu, is discussed in ‘Bourdieu and functional explanation’; thereafter I discuss the more modest ambition of identifying the functions associated with social capital. In ‘Coleman, intergenerational closure and educational outcomes’ I show how Coleman provides resources for revealing how social structure features in social explanation in an educational context, and in ‘Inequality, class and ethnicity’ I suggest that some of the questions raised in his account are most satisfactorily responded to by educational theorists who adopt Bourdieu’s emphasis on social class and inequality.     

内隐人格理论的实体论－渐变论维度研究述评

对内隐人格理论的实体论－渐变论维度的研究是近年来社会认知研究的一个新趋势。研究发现,人们对人的特性（如智力、品德和人格特征等）的内隐认知理论,制约调节着他们对人的行为的理解和反应。人们持有的不同内隐人格理论导致他们不同的社会认知模式和行为反应方式。实体论者由于认为人的特性是固定不变的,而倾向于用抽象概括化的和静态的内在特质来理解人的行为;而渐变论者由于认为人的特性是动态可塑的,而倾向于用影响心理动态过程的内外具体调节因素来理解人的行为。作者在综述有关研究的基础上,进而提出一些新的见解。     

Personality development: an introduction toward process approaches to long-term stability and change in persons

This special issue is concerned with the systematic transformation of persons and personalities as they move through their lives. The focus is on developmental processes early in the life course that influence both long-term stability and change. Contributors represent diverse topics and viewpoints, but offer new data on classical issues of personality, including trait structure, self-regulation and internalization, self-evaluation, and self-efficacy. In addition, the issue includes empirical contributions on newer approaches to bullying, developmental processes in psychopathology, the influence of racial and ethnic discrimination on subsequent adjustment, and cultural influences on personality development. The issue also includes a special contribution addressing methodological and statistical advances in dealing with prospective longitudinal data assessing personality over time.     

Personality and self-regulation: trait and information-processing perspectives

This article introduces the special issue of Journal of Personality on personality and self-regulation. The goal of the issue is to illustrate and inspire research that integrates personality and process-oriented accounts of self-regulation. The article begins by discussing the trait perspective on self-regulation--distinguishing between temperament and personality accounts--and the information-processing perspective. Three approaches to integrating these perspectives are then presented. These range from methodological approaches, in which constructs representing the two perspectives are examined in integrated statistical models, to conceptual approaches, in which the two perspectives are unified in a holistic theoretical model of self-regulation. The article concludes with an overview of the special issue contributions, which are organized in four sections: broad, integrative models of personality and self-regulation; models that examine the developmental origins of self-regulation and self-regulatory styles; focused programs of research that concern specific aspects or applications of self-regulation; and strategies for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of self-regulation.     

Coping strategies and quality of life in women with advanced breast cancer and their family caregivers

Abstract

This study examines the effects of personal resources of both heart patients and their close social partners on patients' coping and quality of life. Generalized personal resources (self-efficacy beliefs, dispositional optimism, self-regulation competence) and outcomes were assessed by questionnaire 1–3 days before surgery (n = 122) and again six months later (n= 50). Outcome variables were coping styles, social resources (social support and social integration), emotional states, and further measures of quality of life. Patients' personal resources were dominant in the prediction of most of the outcomes. Partners' resources were uniquely related to social support, social integration, and quality of life as perceived by the patients. Further, partners' personality resources predicted changes in patients' loneliness and energy levels during the six-month interval.     

Distinguishing among models and goals in personality science: comment on Ashton and Lee (2005)

This comment notes a misrepresentation of work by Caprara and Cervone (2000) contained in a recent contribution to this journal (Ashton & Lee, 2005 ). This occurrence is taken as an opportunity to highlight a positive development in personality science: investigators' increasing awareness of distinctions among alternative conceptual models that address qualitatively distinct scientific goals that each fall within the confines of the professional field. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.