Toward a Four-Factor Theory of Temperament and/or Personality

This article makes a case for a four-factor theory of temperament/personality, tracing its origin to Hippocrates, who first postulated a four-factor theory of temperament in 400 B.C. Historical developments are discussed as they relate to the postulation of a four-factor mode, continuing from Galen in the 2nd century A.D. to the present day. Theoretical formulations are discussed along with considerations of applications in the field of personality assessment.     

Toward a Process-Based Framework for Classifying Personality Tests: Comment on Meyer and Kurtz (2006)

We analyzed the contemporary empirical and theoretical literature concerning the two predominant approaches for scoring formal thought disorder on the Rorschach, the Comprehensive System special scores, and the methodology of Rapaport, Gill, and Schafer (1946/1968). The psychoanalytic research related to selected special scores is reviewed, and some linkages to psychoanalytic developmental theory and psychopathology are made. Recommendations are presented to bridge the gap between these two important avenues of Rorschach research, with an emphasis on empirical rigor and intrapsychic contextual meaning.     

人格心理学最新成果的展现--评黄希庭教授主译的《人格手册:理论与研究》

人格心理学是从整体视角研究人性的本质及其核心的心理学学科,亦即探讨人的主体的认知、情绪和行为的倾向及其模式的学科。它不仅在心理科学系统中占有重要地位,而且对从事哲学、伦理学、社会学、教育学、管理学、文学、美学、法学、医学等众多学科教学与研究均有广泛的意义。     

Toward a Structure of Preschool Temperament: Factor Structure of the Temperament Assessment Battery for Children

ABSTRACT Much of the research and thinking in the area of childhood temperament has been guided by the structural and measurement model of Thomas, Chess, and colleagues. Recently, researchers have called into question this structural conception and have explored the factor structure of the instruments based on the Thomas and Chess model. A review of the literature indicates that there are few studies at any one age level, and that much of the research is limited by small samples. The results of a large sample factor analysis of parent and teacher ratings of preschool children are reported. A five-factor solution was judged most appropriate for parent ratings, and a three-factor solution seemed most appropriate for teacher ratings. Relations of these factors to the Big Five personality factors found in adult personality research are discussed.     

Theories of Personality: Interpretations of Reality and the Formation of Personality

The history of humanity is the history of the human quest for the understanding of reality. While the quest continues, the reality remains ungrasped. This is so because we are contextual beings. We grasp reality from within our existential contexts. Hence, what we have is our interpretation, and we act in accord with the reality that we have come to embrace. With the hermeneutical process leading to the formation of personality, the actuality of reality is constantly being reinterpreted through human behavior.     

Stage and Non-stage Theories of Behavior and Behavior Change: A Comment on Schwarzer

Schwarzer characterises theories as being Continuum Models or Stage Models. We prefer the labels Theories of Behavior and Theories of Behavior Change. The stage concept is designed to represent the temporal dimension. In this way, individuals are viewed as evolving over time. Theories of behavior change also focus on dynamic variables, i.e. variables that are open to change while theories of behavior will focus on static variables. Schwarzer focuses on the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA), which distinguishes between pre‐intentional motivational processes and post‐intentional volition processes and makes a compelling case that theories of behavior change need to differentiate between at least two stages, motivation and action, if they are to fill the intention–behavior gap. In some HAPA studies, these two stages are expanded into three stages. The issue of how many stages there are and what are the best ways to represent, assess and treat the different stages represents an important research focus. This response discusses several reasons to believe that the stage differentiation of five stages included as part of the Transtheoretical Model is superior to the two‐ or three‐stage model included as part of HAPA. Schwarzer caractérise les théories comme relevant soit des modèles du continuum soit des modèles de processus de changement. Nous préférons les termes de théories du comportement et de théories des stades du changement. Le concept d’étapes est employé pour tenir compte de la dimension temporelle. Ainsi, les individus sont envisagés comme évoluant au cours du temps. Les théories des stades du changement se focalisent donc sur des variables dynamiques i.e. des variables tenant compte du changement alors que les théories du comportement se concentrent sur des variables statiques. Schwarzer se polarise sur l’approche des processus d’action pour la santé (HAPA) qui distingue les processus motivationnel pré‐intentionnel du processus de volition post‐intentionnelle. Il avance l’argument selon lequel les théories des stades du changement ont besoin de distinguer au moins deux étapes, la motivation et l’action, dans la mesure où elles doivent expliquer le lien entre intention et comportement. Dans certaines études HAPA, ces deux étapes sont étendues à trois. La question de savoir le nombre d’étapes et les meilleures façons de les représenter, évaluer et traiter constitue un champ de recherches important. Cet article avance plusieurs raisons soulignant que la différenciation en 5 étapes incluses dans le Modèle transthéorique est supérieur à celui en deux ou trois étapes établi par l’HAPA.     

Toward a four-factor theory of temperament and/or personality

This article makes a case for a four-factor theory of temperament/personality, tracing its origin to Hippocrates, who first postulated a four-factor theory of temperament in 400 B.C. Historical developments are discussed as they relate to the postulation of a four-factor mode, continuing from Galen in the 2nd century A.D. to the present day. Theoretical formulations are discussed along with considerations of applications in the field of personality assessment.     

Toward a Tripartite Model and Measurement of Proactive Personality

Although proactive personality (Bateman & Crant, 1993), as a relatively stable disposition to bring about change in one's environment, is a central construct in the management and organizational behavior literature, questions have arisen about its definition and structure. To answer these questions, we present a tripartite model of proactive personality consisting of 3 dimensions: perception (i.e., perceiving opportunities for change), implementation (i.e., planning and executing change), and perseverance (i.e., persisting until the change is realized). Exploratory factor analysis informed the construction of a 14-item scale, and confirmatory factor analyses supported the validity of the scale. The new scale demonstrated satisfactory reliability and accounted for significant variance in task performance above that of original proactive personality, personal initiative, conscientiousness, and social desirability. Tripartite proactive personality might provide a more nuanced view of dispositional proactivity and greater predictive power than the original unidimensional proactive personality.     

Personality and Racial/Ethnic Relations: A Perspective From Cognitive–Affective Personality System (CAPS) Theory

The five articles in this special section examine personality and racial/ethnic relations from the perspective of Mischel and Shoda's Cognitive–Affective Personality System (CAPS) Theory. In this introductory piece, we first provide a primer on CAPS theory. In particular, we try to highlight the role that context plays in the construction and manifestation of personality as well as the dynamic ways that people interpret and react to input from their environment. We then review research on race-based rejection sensitivity as a programmatic illustration of the role expectancies play in racial/ethnic relations. Finally, we summarize and tie together the articles that comprise this section via a set of emergent themes that are common to the present contributions.     

Toward a Value-Laden Theory: Feminism and Social Science

Marjorie Shostak's ethnography, Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman, is analyzed as a case study of feminist social science. Three principles of feminist research are suggested as standards for evaluation. After discussion of the principles and analysis of the text, I raise a criticism of the principles as currently sketched. The entire project is framed by the question of how best to resolve conflict between researcher and participant accounts.     

Structural Analysis: A Theory of Personality Based on Projective Techniques

A new theory, Structural Analysis, is presented which postulates that personality is mediated through two hypothetical structures, the Facade Self and the Introspective Self. Implications for understanding personality dynamics and psychopthology were discussed. Applications of the theory to the interpretation and integration of projective test data were considered.     

Some Reflections on the Psychoanalytic Theory of Motivation: Toward a Theory of Entelechy

The psychoanalytic theory of motivation needs to be recast in a vitalistic holistic (holographic) language that liberates it from its constraints to the drives and expresses that it constitutes an indivisible function of being- and continuing to being-alive. In the development of his thesis the author retraces the history of Freud's acquaintance with the idea and points out that Freud required a theory of unconscious motivation or intentionality to account for the creation of unconscious phantasies–and ultimately for psychic determinism. Psychic determinism became the template for the concept of psychic responsibility.

The author attempts to place the concept of motivation into the more all-inclusive and more vitalistic notion of entelechy so as to express its more holographic and numinous nature. A discussion of the relationship between motivation and its associated entities is made. These include volition, will, intentionality, agency, and autochthony. It is pointed out that motivation can be considered to be holographic in so far as one can consider the whole individual to be motivated, but along side this consideration one sees motivation within each portion of the psychic apparatus and also with each internal object. A case history is presented which demonstrates abulia (absence of motivation).     

Connecting DSM-5 Personality Traits and Pathological Beliefs: Toward a Unifying Model

Dissatisfaction with the DSM-IV model of personality disorders has led to the development of alternative conceptualizations, including pathological trait models and models linked to particular theoretical approaches, such as Beck and Freeman’s (1990) cognitive framework. An important issue involves the potential to interweave such models into a single, parsimonious system that combines their distinct advantages. In this study, pathological trait and dysfunctional belief data from 616 individuals in a non-clinical sample were evaluated for commensurability using structural equation modeling. These models can be integrated via five higher-order factors, and that specific dimensions of dysfunctional beliefs can be differentiated based on features of the DSM-5 trait model. Overall, these results suggest that traits provide scaffolding for individual differences in pathological personality, within which dysfunctional beliefs offer specific vectors for clinical intervention in a cognitive framework. Implications of the empirical commensurability of trait and cognitive models are discussed.     

SASB: A Bridge Between Personality Theory and Clinical Psychology

The World Wide Web has inarguably become an integral part of the daily lives of the majority of the world's population. Many people spend more time online than with any given person on any particular day, yet the cognitive impact of being online remains understudied in psychology. We examine the research that has been done, and relate other related research findings, in an effort to attract more research to this area. We analyze some of the key factors that may have an impact on what and how we learn online, whether we are interacting with the cloud mind interpreted by Google or with other people via text based communication. We investigate how this development changes our perception of reality and how we may evaluate online information in ways that differ from face-to-face encounters. Living our lives in cyberspace changes what kinds of information we most frequently process and how we habitually deploy our cognitive resources, for better and for worse. When people interact with the Internet they may adopt particular mind-sets, modulating basic psychological processes. We integrate disparate lines of research in an effort to provide avenues for future investigation.     

Introduction: Toward a Fully Human Theory of Evolution

During the 20th century two major ventures were launched to advance Darwinian evolution theory. Both involved historic visions and were vital steps for science and society, but then something happened on the way to the millennium. By mid-century the first venture had become a virtual scientific monopoly governed by the biology of the neoDarwinian paradigm. The second venture then set out in the 1980s to remedy the inadequacies of the neoDarwinian paradigm by widening the prospects for evolution theory. But overwhelmed by the underlying mismatch between scientific abstraction and evolutionary reality the first venture established, it soon settled into a fierce attempt to further expand the territory for the neoDarwinian monopoly into what became a militant ideology for sociobiology and evolutionary psychology. This special issue of World Futures contains the papers of a small "task force" of the General Evolution Research Group that set out in the summer of 2000 to try to put behind us what increasingly looms as the "old" paradigm, as well as the "old" story, of evolution.     

Personality Types and Vocational Choice: A Test of Holland's Theory

In order to test the adequacy of Holland's theory of vocational choice with reference to a broad segment of entering college students, a sample of the freshman class entering the Pennsylvania State University evaluated themselves in terms of the six personality styles of Holland's theory. Relationships between the personality styles and vocational choices were studied for groups of Decided, Tentative, and Undecided students. While several inversions in the data are evident, the data possess sufficient consistency to indicate that the personality identifications these students made in Holland's frame of reference were related to their initial vocational choices.