Personality

Abstract

This chapter examines the history of American personality psychology, focusing on a puzzling question: In a field defined as the scientific study of individual persons and differences among persons, how can we explain the history of ambivalence toward case studies and life histories? Adopting a multidisciplinary perspective, we suggest that the marginal status of these methods in personality psychology was related to their identification between 1900 and 1930 as preferred methods in psychiatry, psychopathology (considered primarily a medical specialty at the time), and sociology. In contrast, psychologists interested in personality adopted psychometric measures that could establish their scientific expertise in meeting practical goals. These preferences persisted during the emergence of personality psychology as a separate subdiscipline in the 1930s, despite calls for more attention to case study methods. To illustrate the lasting effects of these methodological choices, we trace the efforts of Gordon Allport and Henry Murray to promote the study of individual lives in personality psychology, and we examine psychologists' responses to their work. Finally, we reconsider the historical course of personality psychologists' ambivalence toward the study of individual lives and suggest an interpretation of the revival of interest in case studies, life histories, and psychobiography in recent years.

Factors explaining variation in self-esteem among persons with type 1 diabetes and elevated HbA1c

“…Self-esteem has been regarded as an essential part of building the individual’s personality, and personality has been regarded somewhat immutable [ 47 ]. At the same time, continuity or change of personality traits during a life course has been heavily discussed [ 48 ]. Thus, it is interesting that those with a higher level of self-esteem at baseline experienced a significant decrease in self-esteem at follow-up.…”

The (ab)normal-social-personality catena: Exploring The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology during the interwar years.

“…Under Moore's editorship, the flavour of JASP's shifted away a traditional aspect of medicine, psychoanalysis, and abnormal psychology: the case study. Moore apparently applied a rigid standard for accepting manuscripts; they would ideally make use of statistics on group data, such as experimental or psychometric work (Barenbaum & Winter, 2003).…”

Does the relationship between personality and divorce change over time? A cross-country comparison of marriage cohorts

“…Personality research is a sub-field of psychology, and has used personality traits to explain variation in individual behavior. Personality traits, on which this article focuses, are consistent patterns of behavior that are seen as stable, internally caused, long lasting, and observable in a wide range of situations (Barenbaum and Winter, 1999; John and Srivastava, 1999). They contrast with ‘states’, which are seen as temporary, brief, and externally caused (John and Srivastava, 1999), and ‘motives’.…”

“…Motives are the goals one wants to achieve, and therewith provide an explanation for behavior. However, for a given motive there are a large range of behaviors that could lead to fulfilling such a goal (Barenbaum and Winter, 1999). Personality traits, in contrast, predict particular behavior in a variety of contexts.…”