特质、动机和叙事:人格研究的三种范式及其整合

人格心理学以整体的个人为研究对象,以人性问题为核心关切。在对人性的研究过程中,先后出现了三种研究范式:特质、动机和叙事。特质研究考察的是人格的静态结构,即人格由哪些因素构成,回答的是人格的"所有"问题;动机研究考察人格的动力机制,回答的是人格的"所为"问题;叙事研究考察人格的发展过程,回答的是人格的"所成"问题。近年来,研究者们提出,人格叙事研究范式能够将人格特质范式和人格动机范式整合起来一同去理解人格。但叙事研究刚刚兴起,还面临着许多困难和局限,有待进一步完善。

Three approaches of Personality Research and Their Integration

Personality psychology is only one field that aims at to view the human being as a complex whole. In the process of studying human nature, it successively appears three kinds of research paradigms which includes trait approach, motive approach and life narrative. Integration of three aspects can provide a full account of human individuality. Firstly, traits are various concepts proposed by personality psychologists, which can reveal and explain people’s behavioral consistencies across situations and time. In other words, trait approach devotes to answer what personality is “having”. Since the establishment of personality psychology, many scholars have put forward various traits categories, forming outline of personality’s static structure. Some of the most influential theories have been widely accepted all over the world, such as Cattell’s concepts of surface traits and source traits. Another pioneer of personality, Eysenck concludes three traits to generalize one’s personality profile, which are extraversion-introversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism. On the other hand, some researchers based on lexical hypothesis suggest that personalities can be grouped into five basic categories, whose well-known labels are extraversion-introversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. Meanwhile, these psychologists have developed many different methods with well-established reliability and validity, in order to evaluate individual difference on traits, Secondly, motive reflects personality’s dynamic or mechanism, which puts more emphasis on personality’s power or dynamic, hence answering the question of what personality is “doing”. If researchers have employed traits to outline one’s personality profile, we may still feel that it has missed something specific and detailed contents of one’s individuality. That is what motive approach purpose to fill up with. One’s motivation can tell us what people fundamentally want or desire in contextualized time, place and role. There are many greatest theories of human motivations, which have revealed one’s needs, motivations, goals, and plans from different standpoints. Such as, Sigmund Freud suggested that humans are motivated by deep urges regarding sexuality and aggression. Murray has provided a list of 20 basic psychological needs or motives. By contrast, other humanistic psychologists, such as Rogers, Deci and Ryan, Maslow placed more importance on needs for self-actualization and other growth-promoting human tendencies. Accordingly, narratives approach concerns personality’s development which study personality development or process and aim at answering what personality “will to be”. Recent years, researchers have proposed that personality narratives can be foundation to integrate trait and motive paradigm, so as to more profoundly understand personality. According to an integrated life story, one can integrates the past, present, and future into a meaningful whole with unity and purpose. How to interpret one’s life according story? From years of exploration, researchers have been especially interested in identifying the central thematic lines in life stories. Maybe, one person is greatly different from others, but all their stories suggest that people are searching for some form of power or love, or both. More generally, thematic lines often reflect what has been called agency and communion. Life narrative approach tends to investigate one’s life across long time, emphasizing thorough and deep study about the whole person. However, narrative approach is just emerging which haven’t been accepted with wide recognition nowadays. It may be faced with many difficulties and limitations, which needs improvement.