Beyond stability: Predicting inter-individual differences in intra-individual change

Demonstration of a high longitudinal stability of inter-individual diferences in behaviour has been one traditional goal of personality psychology. In recent years, impressively high longitudinal correlations have been reported for self-and other-ratings of behaviour in adulthood, indicating a high overall stability of personality differences in that period of development. However, even 5-year correlations around 0.70 do not exclude major deviations of some of the subjects from this overall stability (i.e. differential stability in the sample). Furthermore, the younger a sample is, the lower will be the longitudinal stability observed, and the less suficient is the explanation of inter-individual diferences by static traits. This article goes beyond the notion of stability at the sample level by asking from a developmental perspective (a) whether systematic inter-individual differences in intra-individual change exist, (b) how they can be assessed, and (c) whether these inter-individual differences can be explained by characteristics of the person or of the environment.     

Self-Knowledge of Personality: Do People Know Themselves?

The intuition that we have privileged and unrestricted access to ourselves – that we inevitably know who we are, how we feel, what we do, and what we think – is very compelling. Here, we review three types of evidence about the accuracy of self-perceptions of personality and conclude that the glass is neither full nor empty. First, studies comparing self-perceptions of personality to objective criteria suggest that self-perceptions are at least tethered to reality – people are not completely clueless about how they behave, but they are also far from perfect. Second, studies examining how well people’s self-perceptions agree with others’ perceptions of them suggest that people’s self-views are not completely out of synch with how they are seen by those who know them best, but they are also far from identical. Third, studies examining whether people know the impressions they make on others suggest that people do have some glimmer of insight into the fact that others see them differently than they see themselves but there is still a great deal people do not know about how others see them. The findings from all three approaches point to the conclusion that self-knowledge exists but leaves something to be desired. The status of people’s self-knowledge about their own personality has vast implications both for our conception of ourselves as rational agents and for the methods of psychological inquiry.     

人格心理学研究中新的探索——从模拟情境中寻找个体行为无序背后的有序

个体自身内在行为变异（个体在不同情境中行为的变化）蕴含着有关个体特征的大量信息,并且具有时间稳定性。这种稳定的变化模式被称为个体的“行为识别标志”,它刻画了个人行为的稳定性和独特性。相对于特质范式的静止性和流于现象学描述而言,自身内在变异规律可能从另一个侧面反映了人格的内在机制和动力过程。作者以模拟情境研究为例,介绍了人格学家在使用系统化、数量化方法揭示上述内在机制和动力过程方面所做的尝试。     

Are you a “bad driver” all the time? Insights from a weekly diary study on personality and dangerous driving behavior

Research concerning dangerous driving behavior has often favored studying inter-individual differences at the expense of intra-individual ones (especially when verifying its associations with personality factors). Using a 7 weeks diary approach, we aimed at exploring the intra-individual variation of dangerous driving behavior (Errors, Violations and Aggressive driving). Also, we verified if our outcomes could be predicted by both situational variables (weekly km, felt traffic pressure and traffic mood) and dispositional ones (Big-Five personality factors, age and gender). Our findings revealed that Violations, Verbal & Physical aggression and Vehicle aggression had similar intra- to inter-individual variation ratios, with approximately 45% of variance at the intra-individual level. In contrast, Errors had only about 30% of variance at the intra-individual level. Traffic mood was the only significant intra-individual predictor, negatively correlating with all outcomes. Excepting Agreeableness, all personality factors were related to at least one dangerous driving behavior (especially consistent for the association between Extraversion and Aggressive driving). Also, women reported lower levels than men on all outcomes but Errors. Overall, this study raises some questions about the assumed stability of driving behavior, while at the same time confirming several relational patterns between personality factors and dangerous driving.     

Assumptive Worlds,Self-Definition,and Striving Among Women

It is clear that we all have beliefs about the social world and how it works that we rely on as we make sense of and negotiate within that world. Although the importance of assumptions about ourselves and the world has been demonstrated in relation to crisis and trauma, their relevance to more proactive activities such as goal striving has not yet been established. To do this, I first present a conceptual framework and then offer (a) a profile of women's vulnerability-related assumptive worlds, (b) correlations of these assumptive worlds and identification with four societal reference groups (political orientation, religion, gender, cultural identity), and (c) regression data concerning the combined and unique ability of social referents and assumptive worlds to explain goal striving. I conclude by discussing implications for empowerment goals in work with women as well as future research.     

Systèmes de personnalité au niveau de l'individu : vers une évaluation de l'architecture sociocognitive de la personnalité

This paper addresses conceptual strategies in the assessment of intra-individual personality architecture, including the assessment of those social-cognitive structures and dynamics that contribute to personality coherence. The paper also relates social-cognitive analyses of intra-individual personality architecture to trait-theoretic analyses of inter-individual differences in the population. An overarching theme is that these alternative research traditions should be understood as approaches to different scientific problems. Unlike, for example, the lexical Big Five tradition of personality research, social-cognitive theories are concerned fundamentally with mental structures and dynamics that causally contribute to personality functioning and coherence, and with understanding how these cognitive and affective systems develop and function in interaction with the social environment. As has been explained by Lamiell (2003) and others, inter-individual analyses cannot substitute for the study of intra-individual personality dynamics and dispositions.     

Japanese‐American confinement and scientific democracy: Colonialism,social engineering,and government administration

During World War II, the U.S. Indian Service conducted social science experiments regarding governance among Japanese Americans imprisoned at the Poston, Arizona, camp. Researchers used an array of techniques culled from anthropological culture and personality studies, psychiatry, psychology, medicine, and public opinion research to probe how the personality traits of the confined Japanese‐Americans and camp leaders affected the social interactions within each group and between them. The research drew on prior studies of Indian personality in the US Southwest, Mexico's Native policies, and indirect colonial rule. Researchers asked how democracy functioned in contexts marked by hierarchy and difference. Their goal was to guide future policies toward US “minorities“ and foreign races in post‐war occupied territories. We show how researchers deployed ideas about race, cultural, and difference across a variety of cases to create a universal, predictive social science, which they combined with a prewar romanticism and cultural relativism. These researchers made ethnic, racial, and cultural difference compatible with predictive laws of science based on notions of fundamental human similarities.     

Measuring Relationships between Personality,Knowledge, and Performance using Single‐response Situational Judgment Tests

We report two studies that investigate single‐response situational judgment tests (SJTs) as measures of job knowledge. Study 1 examines relationships between job knowledge measured by a single‐response SJT, personality, and performance for museum tour guides. Study 2 extends Study 1's findings with a sample of volunteers using a single‐response SJT about volunteerism. In both studies, personality was related to knowledge, and knowledge predicted performance. In Study 2, knowledge accounted for incremental variance in performance beyond personality, but personality added no incremental variance beyond knowledge. Results suggest that knowledge of effective behavior and knowledge of ineffective behavior are separate constructs. These studies demonstrate the validity of single‐response SJTs and provide evidence that knowing what to do and what not to do are separate domains.     

Interactions With Men and Whites Matter Too

We propose that individual differences in personality should be studied during periods of environmental change because these periods provide an opportunity to discern the general mechanisms that govern the functions and processes of personality. We delineate the circumstances wherein personality differences are accentuated and then specify the conditions whereby change is produced. Personality differences are likely to be revealed during transitions into unpredictable new situations, when there is a press to behave but no information about how to behave adaptively. Dispositional differences are thus accentuated as each person seeks to transform novel, ambiguous, and uncertain circumstances into familiar, clear, and expectable social encounters. Our theory also accounts for turning points in behavioral development: Systematic change is likely to occur during transitions into new situations, when there is a press to behave and when previous responses are actively discouraged while clear information is provided about how to behave adaptively.     

Explaining intra-individual variability in social behavior through idiographic assessment: The case of humor

Much variability in social behavior is intra-individual; people vary their actions strategically across contexts. Yet most personality assessment methods are inter-individual; they chart between-person differences in average behavioral tendencies. The present research advanced novel idiographic assessment methods to predict intra-individual variability in a behavioral domain of long-standing interest to personality psychologists: humor. Individuals participated in three assessment sessions. Personal beliefs about reasons for using humor were assessed either idiographically or with respect to a nomothetic system of humor-related reasons for action. The subjective relevance of nomothetically- and idiographically-identified reasons to everyday social situations was assessed. Subsequently, participants reported their perceived likelihood of using humor in specific social contexts. As predicted, likelihood of humor use varied substantially as a function of the relevance of situations to idiographically-identified reasons, but did not vary as a function of the relevance of situations to reasons identified nomothetically. Implications for personality and assessment are discussed.     

Alterations of social attention in mental disorders: Phenomenology,scope, and future directions for research

Mental disorders often involve changes in the way subjects attend to other people. However, the nature of these modifications and how they unfold in different pathologies are not sufficiently clear. This article addresses these issues from the perspective of phenomenological psychopathology. The primary goal of the article is to suggest a new way of assessing and distinguishing the alterations of social attention in subjects with mental disorders. The first part of the article characterizes the essential properties of a capacity for social attention based on multidisciplinary evidence. This model is then used to examine anomalies in social attention in autism, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, and social anxiety disorder. The analysis of alterations in the way subjects with different types of pathologies attend to and with others is followed by a threefold typology, which clarifies the phenomenal nature of impairments of social attention in mental disorders.     

创造性人格与员工创造力:一个被调节的中介模型研究

本文基于动机行动和成就动机理论,构建一个被调节的中介模型以检验创造性人格对员工创造力产生的作用机理。以251套来自主管-下属配对的问卷数据为样本,实证分析结果表明:创造性人格可预测员工创造力产生,学习目标导向与绩效证明目标导向在两者之间起部分中介作用;内在动机能够强化个体目标导向对创造力的作用,并显著正向调节创造性人格对员工创造力的间接效应。最后,论文讨论了研究发现对员工创造力产生的理论和实践意义。     

Conceptual Issues in Studying Continuity and Discontinuity in Personality Development Across Life

In this article, we argue that the continuity-discontinuity of personality development is not just an empirical issue, but is also a metatheoretical and theoretical issue. Stances taken in regard to one of three metatheories (or models)--the organismic, the mechanistic, and the developmental contextual--determine theoretical ideas about (a) the units of analysis thought to be relevant to personality development; (b) the processes believed to govern these units; and (c) whether changes in these units are continuous or discontinuous. Theories associated with the models also differ in regard to whether they describe and/or explain intra-individual personality changes as quantitatively or qualitatively continuous or discontinuous. Developmental contextual theories seek to identify the organismic and contextual conditions under which any instance of continuity-discontinuity occurs. These conditions involve both nomothetic and idiographic processes. Organism-context relations must be studied longitudinally in order to understand how these processes function across life.     

A longitudinal study of basal cortisol in infants: Intra-individual variability, circadian rhythm and developmental trends

Mothers with normally developing babies were visited in their homes during 13 consecutive weeks, when the babies were around 5–8 months of age. Basal salival cortisol measures were taken for both the baby and the mother on arrival.The infants’ basal cortisol decreased linearly with age, was negatively related to sleep, and did not show adult-like circadian declines from morning to mid-afternoon. Furthermore, while the infants showed relative stability across individuals, they displayed great intra-individual variability across assessments. Contrarily, the mothers displayed important inter-individual variability, together with a relative stability across assessments. The infants’ important intra-individual variability was not affected by gender, nor time of visit, nor was it related to the mothers’ basal cortisol. Daily measures of basal cortisol taken in a subgroup of infants indicated the day-to-day intra-individual variability to be of the same magnitude as the week-to-week variability.The question of how the intra-individual variability in basal cortisol affects assessments of cortisol in infancy is addressed. The aggregation of data with the goal of increasing the reliability of the assessments is shown to be inadequate for infant basal cortisol.     

The emerging self: the convergence of mind,personality and thinking styles

This paper aims to integrate research and theorizing about problem solving, self and personality into a comprehensive theory. With this purpose, the paper attempts to answer three questions: how do humans become aware of themselves and how do the products of self-awareness interrelate to produce an integrated self-system, which includes the domains of cognition and personality? How do persons know and influence each other? How do these processes change with development? The answers given to these questions by self, personality and cognitive developmental psychology are critically examined. It is concluded that an overarching model would have to assume a multilevel and multidimensional architecture. This would involve three main levels: the first includes general-purpose processes and functions, such as processing efficiency and working memory, which define current cognitive potentials; the second includes several domain-specific systems directed to different aspects of the environment; the third includes self-oriented processes that register, represent and regulate processes at the other two levels. Each person’s self-concepts result from the application of the third level on the other two and they differentially reflect their condition. Personality reflects the interaction between these self-concepts and dispositions to act in particular ways. Because humans share this architecture they can negotiate and affect each other’s self- and reflected representations. Thus, the formation of mind, self and personality results from a continuous flow of interactions between the levels and domains of mind within and across persons. The article summarizes a series of studies lending support to this general model.     

未来情景思考对目标达成的双刃作用及其机制

未来情景思考指个体想象并预先感受某个可能在未来发生的自我相关情景事件的心理加工,它对目标达成可产生双刃影响:一些思考方式会妨碍目标达成,如想象理想的结果或过程;而另一些思考方式则会促进目标达成,如过程模拟和想象较为消极的目标相关场景。对于未来情景思考是促进还是妨碍目标达成,动机水平的高低和执行意向的清晰程度可能是关键调节因素,相应的干预策略可通过增强这两者而将未来情景思考对目标达成的妨碍作用转化为促进作用。进一步的研究需系统探讨不同方式的未来情景思考影响目标达成的认知神经机制,并对目标特征和人格特点如何调节未来情景思考对目标达成的影响进行探讨。     

Polarized Opinions on Racial Progress and Inequality: Measurement and Application to Affirmative Action Preferences

This study presents new measures of opinion about progress toward racial equality and provides a multifaceted rationale for preferring the new measures to the old ones. To reduce several sources of measurement error and improve analytic bite by breaking progress into its constituent elements, surveys should ask about past, present, and ideal conditions, not “progress.” These questions reveal racially polarized opinions: Black and White Americans agree on the goal of equality and agree that conditions were worse in the past, but Blacks think conditions were much worse than Whites do. They especially differ in opinions on current conditions and thus in how much change is required to achieve the goal of equality. Blacks see much more current inequality than Whites do. These opinions help explain preferences for affirmative action (AA). Contrary to previously published findings, reactions to AA do not depend on opinions on progress but depend strongly on something related but distinct: how much current racial conditions differ from the ideal. Implications for theories of policy preferences, racial attitudes, progress, and equality are discussed.     

Comparing Idiothetic, Ipsative, and Normative Indices of Consistency

ABSTRACT Lamiell's (1981) “idiothetic” index has been praised for raising significant conceptual and methodological issues, but Paunonen and Jackson (1986a) indicated that it might not provide any unique information The current study demonstrates that the unique value of the idiothetic index relative to the ipsative, normative, and normative-ipsative indices is dependent in part upon what information is collected and how it is analyzed Subjects completed inventories on three occasions that assessed seven dispositional variables Interindividual analyses indicated a high correlation between the idiothetic method and two of the other models, whereas intra-individual analyses indicated a much lower degree of correlation Intra-individual analyses indicated that the idiothetic method produced higher temporal stability coefficients The idiothetic index provides information not contained in a normative index and it may be more useful to personality researchers for the assessment of temporal stability and for the assessment of traits with extreme base rates     

Modes and methods of personality research

Advances in knowledge about personality will be fostered by improved research methods, but corresponding improvements in our theories will be needed also, better methods will not be enough Theory itself can have methodological functions, and some methods provide strong impetus toward greater theoretical clarity and rigor Distinctions between methodological developments in research design, measurement, and analysis need to be maintained, and we badly need more research directed specifically toward improving methodologies Some papers in this volume point quite clearly to the need for all aspects of our research to be better rationalized and deliberate, casual and opportunistic decisions about how to carry out research simply will not do These papers indicate, for example, that the trait vs situation controversy would likely never have occurred had the issues been addressed with greater methodological, and logical, rigor This volume is not complete in its coverage of the potentially useful methods for personality research, and attention should ultimately be devoted to such methods as life histories and case studies and cross-cultural comparisons In general, however, the papers in this volume offer an opportunity to raise the level of research in personality to a new plane of sophistication and revealingness