Taxonomic models of individual differences: a guide to transdisciplinary approaches

Abstract

Models and constructs of individual differences are numerous and diverse. But detecting commonalities, differences and interrelations is hindered by the common abstract terms (e.g. 'personality', 'temperament', 'traits') that do not reveal the particular phenomena denoted. This article applies a transdisciplinary paradigm for research on individuals that builds on complexity theory and epistemological complementarity. Its philosophical, metatheoretical and methodological frameworks provide concepts to differentiate various kinds of phenomena (e.g. physiology, behaviour, psyche, language). They are used to scrutinize the field's basic concepts and to elaborate methodological foundations for taxonomizing individual variations in humans and other species. This guide to developing comprehensive and representative models explores the decisions taxonomists must make about which individual variations to include, which to retain and how to model them. Selection and reduction approaches from various disciplines are classified by their underlying rationales, pinpointing possibilities and limitations. Analyses highlight that individuals' complexity cannot be captured by one universal model. Instead, multiple models phenotypically taxonomizing different kinds of variability in different kinds of phenomena are needed to explore their causal and functional interrelations and ontogenetic development that are then modelled in integrative and explanatory taxonomies. This research agenda requires the expertise of many disciplines and is inherently transdisciplinary.This article is part of the theme issue 'Diverse perspectives on diversity: multi-disciplinary approaches to taxonomies of individual differences'.

Systema Temporis: A time-based dimensional framework for consciousness and cognition

“…According to Uher (2016Uher ( , 2018, a transdisciplinary approach to taxonomic models of any psychical phenomena is constrained by three meta-theoretical and methodological factors: (1) non-spatiality or non-physicality (i.e., psychical phenomena have no spatial extension); (2) fundamental imperceptibility (i.e., psychical phenomena are not perceptible by others); and (3) variable temporal extension (i.e., psychical phenomena are observable over a range of durations, some long and some short). Temporal extension is therefore the only one of these three meta-theoretical factors able to serve as a metric for a dimensional account of a psychical phenomenon like consciousness (J.…”

Data generation methods across the empirical sciences: differences in the study phenomena’s accessibility and the processes of data encoding

“…Rather, methods should be adapted to the properties of the phenomena under study. In the TPS-Paradigm, this epistemological principle is applied in several ways, such as to the body-mind problem as already suggested by Bohr (1937) and others (Fahrenberg 2013), and to develop a solution for the nomothetic-idiographic controversy intensely debated in individual differences and personality research (Uher, 2015c(Uher, , 2018.…”

Taxonomies of psychological individual differences: biological perspectives on millennia-long challenges

“…The model most publicized in personality psychology, the FFM of human personality [5,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36], capitalizes on the stability and biological correlates of two dimensions that are well-known from temperament research (Emotionality and Arousal level), labelled in the FFM as Neuroticism and Extraversion. FFM proponents defend the blending of temperament and personality concepts in their model by referring to the interaction of biologically-based aspects of individual differences with socio-cultural factors (e.g.…”

“…Models derived from human language therefore cannot constitute models of biologically-based traits as FFM proponents often claim. Instead, they likely represent dimensions of socio-cultural perception and appraisal, as noted by many authors [3,5,16,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][39][40][41]46].…”