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The article announces that the Journal of Personality continues publication of series of occasional papers in quantitative methods for personality devoted to the memory of Jeffrey S. Tanaka.

The article announces the series of papers to be published in the journal using a statistical and methodology approach to personality commemorating the scholar Jeffrey S. Tanaka., including an article within the issue on this topic.

Extant theoretical models of personality coherence/incoherence do not sufficiently address the challenge of explaining personality coherence dynamics and the role of psychological mechanisms, including temperament and attention. To overcome these limitations, the Complex‐System Approach to Personality (C‐SAP) postulates that personality coherence is a within‐person structure that arises from the functional consistency/inconsistency between personality traits/types, underlain by specific attentional and temperament mechanisms that have integrative and regulatory potential. The dominant (reactive, regulative) function of stimulation processing in temperament types is the foundation for assessing personality coherence. This paper presents a revised, fine‐grained model of personality coherence—originally arising from the C‐SAP—that is enriched by a focus on personality coherence dynamics in relation to behavioral consistency. The methodological principles necessary for studying personality coherence dynamics are outlined in detail. This paper also addresses: (a) research methods for relating personality coherence/incoherence to behavioral consistency/inconsistency, and (b) situational contexts that are important to these personality dynamics. In addition, personality coherence dynamics in relation to the self and character and the impact of the C‐SAP assumption that behaviors are more stable than traits/types on the relation between personality coherence and behavioral consistency are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A call for papers on topics concerning the application of methodological and statistical approaches in improving the understanding of personality phenomena is presented.

In a previous experiment the author investigated the influence of color on reactions to ink blots by a technique in which two independent groups of subjects were presented matched chromatic and achromatic blots. This technique was used to demonstrate that when the color variable is completely isolated it has measurable effects, which show up as group differences or trends in both the reaction time and the content of the conceptual responses. But such a technique employing independent groups for chromatic and achromatic blots has serious limitations from the point of view of providing a solution to the major experimental and clinical problems in this area. From the standpoint of experimental design, a technique based upon independent groups can yield measures only of group trends, it cannot provide a valid method of measuring the effect of a given variable upon a particular individual's reactions. Measurement of the specific effect of a variable, like color, upon particular individuals is strictly possible only if each subject serves as his own control; comparable chromatic and achromatic data for each subject must be provided.

Objective Method Results Conclusions Entringer et al. used longitudinal data from a German panel study to examine reciprocal causal effects between personality and religiosity, along with cultural moderators of these effects. The current paper examines the robustness of the original effects to alternative model specifications.We reanalyzed the same four‐wave data spanning 12 years (total N = 46,316), first replicating the original cross‐lagged panel analyses and then extending these analyses in three ways: Using a random‐intercept cross‐lagged panel model, using observed rather than latent variables, and modeling each trait individually rather than simultaneously.Correlations between personality and religiosity were all small in size, even when aggregating over 12 years. Lagged effects were very small, and none was robust across all model specifications. Cultural moderators also depended on model specifications.The very small size of these reciprocal effects, along with their sensitivity to model specifications, suggest that conclusions about causal effects of personality and religiosity should be drawn very cautiously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a model of basic self‐regulatory mechanisms that integrates descriptive‐structural and dynamic‐explanatory approaches to personality. Using a structural way of thinking and based on a structural model of personality (the Circumplex of Personality Metatraits), we deduced two orthogonal (distinct) but interactive mechanisms: (a) Impulse Control responsible for controlling automatically activated impulses, urges, and affective reactions and (b) Self‐Motivation responsible for regulating intentions in goal‐oriented behaviors. Their operation depends on both situational and dispositional factors and optimal functioning of both mechanisms is needed for effective regulation of behavior. People can also be characterized by relatively stable levels of Impulse Control and Self‐Motivation as dispositions, which depend on temperamental predispositions but can develop incoherently with them due to the impact of environmental factors. Combinations of Impulse Control and Self‐Motivation as dispositions result in personality types, which differ in their adaptiveness. Importantly, Impulse Control and Self‐Motivation mechanisms reveal substantial similarities to other self‐regulatory constructs described in the literature, particularly those included in Block and Block's as well as Kuhl's theories. The contribution of our paper may serve as an example of how to apply the descriptive‐structural approach to develop a dynamic‐explanatory model of personality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Previous research suggests that people want to change their big five traits—and moreover, they may be able to do so. This paper extends these findings in three ways. First, I examined the extent to which people want to change their levels of the dark triad—Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Second, I tested whether desires to change the dark triad predicted actual changes in the corresponding traits across approximately four months. Finally, participants received an intervention designed to change their big five personality traits. Consequently, I tested whether this intervention could also facilitate changes in the dark triad. Method: The present study was a 16‐wave, weekly, intensive longitudinal design (N = 467). Results: Results revealed that participants generally did not want to change their levels of the dark triad. Nevertheless, individual variance in desires to change the dark triad did predict actual changes in the dark triad across four months. Moreover, interventions targeting agreeableness spurred changes in all three dark triad traits. Conclusions: This research suggests that taking small steps to become more agreeable may also reduce individuals' levels of the dark triad. These findings may have implications for future research, as well as therapeutic treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The goal of this paper is to promote the integration of two approaches to personality and assessment: Contemporary Integrative Interpersonal Theory (CIIT) and the Narrative Identity Approach (NI). Methods: We review CIIT and NI, describe their similarities and differences, and articulate opportunities to integrate the approaches to more fully account for personality dynamics and self‐regulation. Results: We identify several areas within which concepts from CIIT and NI could be synthesized and offer four concrete suggestions for integrating the assessment methods within each approach: (1) using narratives to explicate interpersonal perception, (2) using stories to clarify interpersonal context, (3), using the Interpersonal Situation as a framework for unpacking narrative elements, and (4) coding interpersonal sequences in narrative data. Conclusions: CIIT and NI have potential to augment one another both theoretically and methodologically in ways that would be fruitful for conceptualizing and studying personality dynamics and self‐regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an introduction to the articles published in the June 1985 issue of the "Journal of Personality."

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a relatively highly prevalent psychiatric disorder that is associated with very high personal and socioeconomic costs. This paper provides a state-of-the-art review of the relationship between complex trauma and key features of BPD, with a focus on problems with self-coherence and self-continuity. We first review evidence for the high prevalence of complex trauma in BPD patients. This is followed by a discussion of emerging knowledge concerning the biobehavioral mechanisms involved in problems related to self and identity in BPD. We emphasize three biobehavioral systems that are affected by complex trauma and are centrally implicated in identify diffusion in BPD: the attachment system, mentalizing or social cognition, and the capacity for epistemic trust-that is, an openness to the reception of social communication that is personally relevant and of generalizable significance. We formulate a new approach to personality and severe personality disorders, and to problems with self and identity in these disorders, rooted in a social-communicative understanding of the foundations of selfhood. We also discuss how extant evidence-based treatments address the above-mentioned biobehavioral systems involved in identity diffusion in BPD and related disorders, and the supporting evidence. We close the paper with recommendations for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The present paper tests the cross‐national stability of the HEXACO‐60 structure across 18 countries from four continents. Gender and age differences across countries will be examined. Finally, this is the first study to explicitly analyze the relationships between the HEXACO and social position. Method: Ten thousand two hundred and ninety eight subjects (5,410 women and 4,888 men) from 18 countries and 13 languages were analyzed. Confirmatory factor analysis techniques were used to test configural, metric and scalar invariance models. Congruence coefficients with the original structure of the HEXACO‐60 were computed for every culture. Effect sizes of gender, age, and social position factors across countries were also computed. Results: HEXACO‐60 demonstrates configural and metric invariance, but not scalar invariance. Congruence coefficients show a great equivalence in almost all countries and factors. Only Emotionality presents a large gender difference across countries. No relevant effect of age is observed. A profile of high scores on Honesty‐Humility, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience, and low scores on Emotionality increases the likelihood of achieving a higher social position, although the effect sizes are small. Conclusions: HEXACO‐60 is a useful instrument to conduct personality trait research and practice around the world. Implications of gender, social position, and country differences are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How might our expanding knowledge of gender contribute to a deeper understanding of personality? This paper offers a personological perspective for considering the import of contemporary work, and focuses on the ten substantive papers included in this issue of the Journal of Personality. An agenda for our future inquiry is proposed that includes (a) revising our ideology of science in a postpositivist era, (b) recognizing the complexity of personality as a domain distinguished from "human being theory," (c) developing richer and more comprehensive personality theory, and (d) studying persons over time. The papers reported in this issue contribute in various ways to the enrichment of personological understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We asked authors of this Special Issue to answer the following four questions: (1) Is there evidence that personality and psychopathology can be integrated? (2) Is integration important? (3) Can they be distinguished? and (4) How can the difference be measured? Method: We review each of the papers and place the special issue in a historical context. Results: Authors uniformly agreed that personality and psychopathology can be integrated within a common structure and that this is important. The third and fourth questions were more challenging. Though authors generally agreed that there is a distinction between the person and their mental health problems, articulations of that distinction were fuzzy and it is clear that current methods cannot adequately delineate these domains. Conclusions: We summarize the issue by offering five directions for future research: (1) develop measurement tools that distinguish between the person, the context, and their transaction, (2) measure behavior and context at multiple timescales, (3) distinguish behavior and dysfunction in measurement, (4) use multimethod data to tap different levels of behavior, and (5) examine person‐specific processes. Each of these directions comes with challenges, but the payoff of resolving them will be a more principled, evidence‐based, and clinically useful model for the distinction between personality and psychopathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The circular structure of values has been verified mostly at a between‐person level and on measures of general value preferences. In this manuscript, we argue that it is a simplification that neglected significant aspects of the value structures and distinguish four different types of structures: (a) between‐person structure of value traits, (b) within‐person structure of value traits, (c) between‐person structure of value states, and (d) within‐person structure of value states. We argue that the within‐person structure of value states addresses the circular structure of values most accurately. Method: To compare all four structures, we collected three partially dependent samples (N1 = 449, N2 = 293, N3 = 218) of adults (age 17–57, M = 24). At three time points, separated by 5–7 weeks, respondents completed a questionnaire measure (Portrait Values Questionnaire‐Revised [PVQ‐RR]) of value preferences (value traits) and reported the importance of values in their everyday actions (value states) for 1 week in an experience sampling study. Results: The four types of value structures were stable over time. All four were also consistent with Schwartz's value model to some degree, but at the same time, there were some deviations. Conclusions: It is important to distinguish four types of value structures and be aware of their different interpretations that we outlined in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reflects on case studies surrounding the mental health of King George III of Great Britain. Simonton's paper, however, is based on a reexamination of psychological factors. His contribution to further understanding is to test empirically the association between stress and health. The literature on King George is extensive and even though the greater part of it derives specifically from interest in his malady, there is also historical record and later study of the individual. It is a fallacy, however, to assert that because porphyria is a biochemical disorder, it is divorced from psychological factors and that stressors as well as other exogenous factors are therefore irrelevant. At the conclusion of his paper, Simonton states that investigations have thus far found only modest relations between life events and illness. Indeed, the case of King George should entertain a hypothesis integrating what we know about personality and its relations with physical and mental factors. Furthermore, the question should be constructed in such a way as to engender additional differentiated hypotheses--but the process of integration should not stop with the attempt to understand the king's malady.

Objective: The Acquired Preparedness (AP) model proposes that impulsive personality traits predispose some individuals to learn certain behavior‐outcome associations (expectancies), and that these expectancies in turn influence the escalation of risky behaviors. This theory has been applied to the development of behaviors such as drinking, drug use, gambling, and disordered eating. In the current study, we aimed to summarize empirical tests of this model over the 20 years since it was proposed. Method: We used a descriptive approach to summarize tests of mediation across 50 studies involving n = 21,715 total participants. Results: We observed a consistent effect of personality on expectancies (median effect size =.22), of expectancies on behavior (.24), and a small mediated effect (.05) of personality on behavior via expectancies. Impulsive traits that involve positive or negative affect showed the most consistent support for AP, as did positive expectancies. Most studies testing AP focused on alcohol, but research on other behaviors also showed support for AP. Conclusions: The literature appears to support a small mediated effect consistent with the AP model. Future research should continue to clarify which AP pathways are most influential in explaining risky behaviors, and supplement correlational research with experimental and quasi‐experimental designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the psychobiographical origins of Carol Gilligan's sensitivity to the importance of voice in human psychology, an awareness that, through her foundational written work, transformed the field. Method: Narrative inquiry and analysis. Results: Carol Gilligan's awareness of voice began at a young age with a self‐defining memory in which she learned to hold on to her own voice and experience. She never set out to be a social change agent, but she became one. Other scholars relied on her work, particularly the lyrical trope of "in a different voice" to change social (and psychological) attitudes toward women in many ways. This psychobiographical analysis traces Carol's personal struggles to sustain her own voice and knowledge, and these struggles met a culture that became able to hear something about how the patriarchal culture suppresses relational sensibilities. Rooted in a close and intense relationship with her mother, who expressed and imposed on her a duality between the voice of personal experience and the voice of meeting social expectations. Carol's understanding of the differing levels of what it means "to know" grounded a new conception of girls' development as well as of moral development. Conclusion: Carol Gilligan became an agent of social change because her inner world and life path coincided with sociocultural readiness to embrace her work as giving voice to an emerging awareness of the suppression and denigration of women's sensibilities in psychology as well as in the larger culture. Her lifelong conflicts about speaking her own truth versus conforming to a society in which she was well able to be successful attuned her to the ways in which others, particularly women, similarly discounted their own experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews published research and presents new analyses from the 1995 nationally representative sample from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study to investigate whether there is support for the paradox of race and health in the United States. Findings reveal that Blacks have lower rates of several common mental disorders, but Blacks also have higher rates of flourishing than Whites. Blacks are mentally resilient in the face of greater social inequality and exposure to discrimination as well as high rates of physical morbidity—all of which are distinctive risk factors for mental distress and mental illness in the general population. Findings also show that controlling for perceived discrimination increases the Black advantage in 12 of the 13 signs of flourishing, suggesting that Blacks would have even better mental health were it not for discrimination. This paper concludes by considering what mechanisms—both adaptive and maladaptive—might explain this particular example of resilience in the Black population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This paper investigated which value orientations (1) people associate with wisdom and (2) are actually correlated with measures of wisdom. Conceptions of wisdom suggest benevolence and universalism as likely candidates.Method: In Study 1, 160 university students reported their political orientation and completed a value survey for themselves and a very wise person; Study 2 used the same approach with a more diverse sample (N = 187). In Study 3, 170 participants completed a value survey and six measures of wisdom. In Study 4, 356 participants completed a wisdom measure and filled out a value survey for themselves and a very wise person.Results: People consistently believed that wise individuals value benevolence, universalism, and self-direction most; they also imagined wise individuals to be more universalistic but also more respectful of tradition than themselves. Several wisdom measures were uncorrelated with values; the positive correlations that were found were with benevolence, universalism, self-direction, and respect for traditions.Conclusions: Most people believe that wise individuals are concerned about the well-being of others, have respect for cultural, religious, and individual differences and traditions, and care deeply about self-direction, fairness, and equality as fundamentals of human society. Whether these relationships are also found empirically depends on which measure of wisdom is used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Diverse theoretical orientations on psychopathology, including the most recent phenomenological and neuroscientific approaches, consistently have viewed a core component of schizophrenia to be the loss, or distortion, of a person's sense of self as an effective agent in a shared, social world. How such a sense of self becomes lost or distorted and the questions of whether or not, and if so, how it can be recovered have received considerably less attention. These questions are taken up in the present paper.Method: A review of a substantial body of longitudinal research, enhanced by a growing trove of recovery narratives, provides ample evidence that many people recover a sense of self over time. Based on a review of this qualitative literature, this contribution describes the components and processes involved in the gradual reconstruction of an effective sense of social agency.Results: Processes of reconstructing a sense of self begin with acceptance and an instillation of hope, which together provide a foundation for rediscovering one's efficacy in seemingly small but concrete ways that then are incorporated into a sense of social identity as a worthwhile member of one's community.Conclusions: Implications of such an understanding for recovery-oriented practice are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Extending research on the incremental validity of life story variables and the importance of particular kinds of story contexts, this paper tested the hypothesis that a single theme (narrative redemption) in a specific life story episode (the low point-or an episode that challenges the self) can predict well-being, above and beyond covariates.Method: Two samples, an emerging adult (N = 144) and a late midlife sample (N = 158), provided life story episodes with different life story collection methods (written and interview) and completed self-report measures concurrently and longitudinally.Results: The findings indicated that low point redemption was associated concurrently and longitudinally with well-being when controlling for the Big Five factors of Extraversion and Neuroticism and narrative word count. These associations held for three months among emerging adults and four years among late midlife adults. Aggregating redemption in high and low points did not improve the concurrent or longitudinal association between redemption and well-being.Conclusions: The findings demonstrate the capacity of elements in a single challenging episode of the life story to predict well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a methodological approach for assessing the personality of a dyad or a group, a concept that is not equivalent to the sum, or mean, of the individual scores. We illustrate how the logic of the multitrait multimethod approach, which is a familiar technique for establishing construct validity, can be extended to assess the construct of a relationship “personality.” The model, which we call the latent group model, provides a decomposition and comparison of individual–level and group–level variance in a given trait, and the individual–level and group–level covariance or correlation between two traits. The model is also extended to the assessment of stability of the individual and group level traits. Throughout the paper, we draw connections between related methods and show how the latent group model can be estimated through hierarchical linear modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a rationale for research on personality as a contributing factor in the development of physical disease. A brief history of major developments from the 1930s to the present is then provided Special attention is given to shifts in conception regarding whether particular dispositions are related to specific physical disorders or whether these dispositions increase general illness susceptibility. The paper ends with a brief orientation to the other papers and commentaries in this special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the policy of the Journal of Personality on various issues. The so-called "policy" of the Journal has always been a nebulous compromise between the exigencies of the moment and the current editors' collective vision of what is appropriate. Both these factors are unstable and are likely to remain so. Still, authors contemplating the Journal as a publication outlet are evidently confused on occasion. There is an evident dimension of "editor-reviewers" on which journals can be arrayed when it comes to placing the onus for passing judgment on submitted articles. Some journals place the decision almost entirely in the hands of expert reviewers; this practice is based on the principle that the experts ought to know best. At the Journal of Personality, the practice has been, and will continue to be, to place the decision very clearly in the hands of the (associate) editor. Reviewers' comments and recommendations are solicited and appreciated. The role of the editors requires that the editor carefully assess both the paper and the reviews; s/he must be able, as a result of these evaluations, to defend the resultant decision.

This paper proposes that test-taking behavior can be regarded as a kind of self-presentation formally identical to that which goes on in most social interaction. It follows from this analysis that the success of such self-presentations should be affected by the actor's role-taking ability or empathy. Evidence is presented that supports this conjecture; the paper then suggests that role-taking ability may limit in a systematic manner validity coefficients in much assessment research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive styles have been described as the distinctive ways in which individuals come to grips with reality. This research paper holds that such styles are manifestations of different response probabilities or response strengths in certain types or classes of behaviors. A cognitive style may manifest itself as a directive influence on behavior, i.e., certain responses have a greater probability of occurrence in ambiguous situations, or as an ability to resist disruption under interference conditions such as distraction. It is assumed that these response characteristics are common to responses within certain classes of behavior. A specific style or pattern appears, then, whenever a particular class of behavior is elicited. The present paper describes certain behavioral classes within which specific cognitive styles may be expected. Researchers have previously demonstrated a cognitive style involving conceptual and perceptual-motor classes of behavior. Subsequent unpublished work, however, has suggested that this style, which is termed conceptual versus perceptual-motor dominance, is limited to conceptual and perceptual-motor tasks which are novel, difficult, or concentration-demanding.

In this article, two studies are summarized, that employ a previously developed experimentally validated measure of castration anxiety to test derivations from psychoanalytic theory. The first study compares homosexual males and normal males in a search for differences in castration anxiety. The second study makes the same comparison for normal men and women. S. Freud, in one of his earliest papers, suggests that castration anxiety, because of its role in the resolution of the Oedipus complex, is of crucial importance to subsequent object choice. Later papers repeat this statement without essential castration anxiety inhibits the boy's object choice and, if reinforced by organic factors, may result in exclusive homosexuality. The weight of psychoanalytic theory suggests castration anxiety is of differential importance in the personalities of normal men and women, Freud, speaking of castration anxiety in the female, states "She accepts castration as an established fact, an operation already performed. The castration dread thus being excluded in her case."

The disruptive influence of threat on the perceptual process has been demonstrated repeatedly in recent psychological literature. In an earlier paper the present authors reported that when subjects have been alerted to threat there is a significantly smaller discrepancy in perceptual reactivity to threat and nonthreat words than when they have not been alerted to threat. It was also found that under conditions of "threat-expectancy" threat words did not require a significantly greater number of trials and amount of time for report than nonthreat words The results of that phase of the study, while inconclusive statistically, were, nevertheless, in the expected direction. It should be noted that in contradiction to our previous study, it has been found here that even when subjects have previously been alerted to threat, they require significantly more trials and a significantly greater amount of time to report threat words accurately than to report nonthreat words. The scholars are now left with the datum that subjects, though alerted to the possible threat, nevertheless respond less accurately and less promptly to threat words than to neutral ones. This over-all result obtains, notwithstanding the fact that certain threat words are, in the process of the initial exposure, brought into figure and hence would be expected to be more readily available for subsequent recall.

This article in its first part describes the main hypotheses underlying E. Kretschmer's system of typology and of various ways in which Kretschmer and his associates and students have attempted to supply proof of its validity. It is also shown that while certain criticisms frequently made of this system rest mainly on ignorance or misunderstanding, yet the methods of proof used by Kretschmer, although ingenious and extremely interesting, are not completely convincing. In this part of the paper, an attempt is made to carry out an empirical test of Kretschmer's hypothesis, using the method of "criterion analysis" specially developed by the author for use with problems of typology and taxonomy generally. In order to use the hypothetico-deductive method in this field, it is particularly important to state the hypotheses to be tested quite clearly, and to make deductions from them which can be tested empirically. The article attempts to state Kretschmer's hypotheses in such a way that a statistical and experimental test of them becomes possible.

The paper is a report of some experiments, which were developed to test the hypothesis that a preference for tints on the one hand or for strong color on the other hand is associated with certain characteristics of personality. It was believed that individuals are fairly consistent in their choosing of either colors or tints and that these choices are associated with two different ways of experiencing life. The ideas underlying the research herein reported were brought sharply into focus while the authors were discussing some paintings. One author expressed the opinion that she would have used dark reds and blues and found the use of tints inconceivable. Preference for color or for tint would appear to have been fairly reliably measured in the first individual session of this experiment. Several interpretations of the data presented in the table of results appeared possible. The interpretations, however, did not seem to apply equally well when checked against the everyday behavior of a number of subjects known intimately.

Initial theorizing depicted self-complexity as the number of nonoverlapping self-aspects, such as traits, roles, and behaviors, and proposed that greater self-complexity is linked to better coping in response to stress and negative events. A review of the literature, however, finds inconsistent results. The inconsistency apparently arises from variation in the measurement of self-complexity. The different measures stem from disagreement over the definition of self-complexity, and the various definitions apparently result from theoretical disagreement about how to conceptualize the structure of self-knowledge. The present paper reviews the self-complexity literature and suggests directions for future research. The present paper suggests a positive, moderating relationship between self-complexity and coping, and additional research that includes careful measurement and definition of self-complexity may provide stronger support for this relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the field of personality and social psychology, there has been historical controversy over whether constructs such as self-esteem are stable over time and situation or whether they are changeable. One response to this question has been to invoke two types of self-esteem or self-worth, trait self-esteem and state self-esteem. Thus it has been asserted that adolescents, the participants in this paper, have both a baseline self-esteem as well as a barometric self-esteem that represents short-term fluctuations (Rosenberg, 1986). In this paper, we contend that constructs such as self-esteem are not, in and of themselves, trait-like or state-like in nature. Rather, certain individuals display trait-like behavior, whereas others demonstrate change in self-esteem or self-worth across relatively long periods of time, on a short-term basis, and across situations. Three studies document these claims. The first addresses self-worth as a function of the transition from high school to college. The second examines short-term fluctuations in self-worth. The third investigates variability in self-worth across relational contexts, namely, relational self-worth. In each study, findings reveal that certain adolescents report stability in self-worth whereas others report change, fluctuations, or variability. Social causes of these individual differences are identified in each study, as are mental health implications. It is argued that such approaches provide a clearer understanding of the complexity of self-processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author's one plea in connection with these papers would be for a more explicit statement of the neurological brain models which are implied to make such a statement with surprise because for many years one has objected to what the authors have conceived to be premature neurologizing. It seemed so obvious that psychology was handicapped and led astray by the narrow neurological concepts which it took over uncritically from, say, the physiologist's account of decorticate frogs. And so, for a long time, one has feared any attempt to bolster psychology by trying to base it on the as yet observed or postulated facts of neurology. The author still has qualms about present day neurology, even if it be called "Cybernetics." Nevertheless, under the influence of the Gestalt movement, the author says that he has come to realize that a tentative, hypothetical brain model is in fact inevitable and to be desired. A model provides a conceptual substrate-a substrate which is endowed by its author with certain intrinsic properties of its own.

An introduction is presented in which the editors discusses the theme of the issue, Transparency and Open Science at the Journal of Personality.

Time series analysis (TSA) is one of a number of new methods of data analysis appropriate for longitudinal data. Simonton (1998) applied TSA to an analysis of the causal relationship between two types of stress and both the physical and mental health of George III. This innovative application demonstrates both the strengths and weaknesses of time series analysis. Time series is applicable to a unique class of problems, can use information about temporal ordering to make statements about causation, and focuses on patterns of change over time, all strengths of the Simonton study. Time series analysis also suffers from a number of weaknesses, including problems with generalization from a single study, difficulty in obtaining appropriate measures, and problems with accurately identifying the correct model to represent the data. While careful attempts are made to minimize these problems, each is present in the Simonton study, although sometimes in a subtle manner. Changes in how the data could be gathered are suggested that might help to solve some of these problems in future studies. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of employing alternative methods for analyzing multivariate time series data, including dynamic factor analysis, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although much is known about the presence of themes of agency and communion in adults' autobiographical stories, little is known about the presence of these themes in children's autobiographical stories. In this paper we examine the extent to which children describe themselves and others as agentic and communal beings in ordinary conversational narratives. Subjects were 96 rural, working-class children between the ages of 4 and 9 years. Personal narratives were elicited in the course of informal conversations with an adult experimenter. Narratives were analyzed for the presence of storyworld participants, and for the presence of themes of agency and communion. For both genders, themes of agency were more common than were themes of communion. Girls, however, were more likely to describe themes of communion than were boys, and were more likely to include family members in their narratives than were boys. Finally, correlations between themes of agency and communion were generally low. The findings extend the age to which the concepts of agency and communion can be productively applied to personal narratives. Implications for future theoretical and empirical work are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article comments on three conceptualizations of the relationship between personality and disease as they relate to the papers in this issue. Despite the sophistication and promise of recent research in this area, conceptual and methodological difficulties present in earlier psychosomatic research have persisted. In this area, robust and convincing associations between traits and disease remain largely elusive, and stable, valid measures of psychological factors are relatively rare. In addition, the mechanisms relating behavior to health are sometimes sketchy or overstated. We suggest that the most productive research strategies will focus on mechanisms linking behavior to health, rather than merely correlating traits with measures of disease. Needed are continued close attention to these pitfalls by researchers as well as the maintenance of a critical attitude by readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article first provides a brief overview of some of the empirical and conceptual work in personality following Mischel's (1968) critique Strengths and weaknesses of traditional personality research designs including laboratory experiments, experimental personality designs, and preexperimental correlational studies are presented. Some more recent approaches to designing laboratory research that attempt to address issues of external validity and approaches to designing field investigations that attempt to address issues of internal validity are discussed Issues associated with the measurement of constructs, the broadening of measurement methods, and newer data analytic techniques are noted. Finally, a brief orientation to the other papers in the special issue is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three papers in the Journal of Personality (Oakes & Curtis, 1982; Tennen, Drum, Gillen, & Stanton, 1982; Tennen, Gillen, & Drum, 1982) report that behavioral deficits characteristic of learned helplessness occur independently of perceptions of and attributions for noncontingency. The present article discusses the problems for the cognitive mediational component of helplessness theory raised by these three papers. It is argued that while these papers do not seriously challenge helplessness theory because they fail to test adequately the central proposition of the model, they point to the theory's need for greater elaboration of the processes or mechanisms linking objective experiences, perceptions, attributions, expectations, and behavioral effects of uncontrollability. Suggestions for some of the additional mediational processes a revised helplessness theory should incorporate are offered, followed by a discussion of the role of these processes in leading to the relatively greater support found for perceptions and attributions as mediators of behavioral helplessness in natural vs. laboratory environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research conducted during the last few years has investigated the relationship between these personality variables and several dependent variables including performance on classroom tests, preference for certain degrees of risk, estimation of future success, persistence at tasks, and several others. The extent of these findings has seemed substantial enough to warrant the use of achievement-motivation variables as predictors of performance in applied as well as laboratory studies. This is not to imply that the reported findings are always consistent or that significant differences are always discovered. Since the theory of achievement motivation does appear to be of considerable potential use in several areas, any attempt at clarification would seem to be a contribution in a practical as well as a theoretical sense. In this paper one such attempt will be reviewed and data will be presented that seem to clarify some of the inconsistencies in the literature. In particular, control-of-reinforcement theory, originally devised by Julian Rotter, will be reviewed and an attempt will be made to show how a consideration of this theory along with the theory of achievement motivation can aid in understanding the conditions under which both theories apply.

This paper advances the claim that personality variables can explain peoples' behavior even though that behavior varies from situation to situation. The argument is developed in the course of a critique of several interpretative reviews of personality research. Scholar W. Mischel asserts that the hypothesis that persons exhibit large trans-situational consistencies in their behavior is simply and generally not supported by the available data. According to Mischel, the unenlightened proponents of trans-situational personality consistency include nonprofessional users of ordinary language trait names such as aggressive, honest and friendly who reify these attributions. Dynamic personality theorists who speak of some inner or intra-psychic features of personality such as ego strength or defensiveness, are likewise void of convincing empirical support. Both of Mischel's opponents are purportedly committed to the view that response constancies will emerge in spite of situational variation. In the course of the argument presented here the claim will be made that situational specificity of response itself is a personality variable. Mischel's assertion is thus regarded as a proposition that ultimately is a misleading summary of previous findings and an abortive guide for future personality research.

The thesis of this paper is that there are two styles of creativity; one a measured, problem-solving approach to the development of new knowledge, and the other, an emotional, and comparatively uncontrolled, free expression. This duality has a long tradition, for example, the distinction made in the 18th Century between Enlightenment (or Classicism) and Romanticism, in the 19th Century, and in the zone between the "two cultures," scientific and literary. This paper investigates whether corresponding styles of creativity can be discovered. A study was reported in which two types of behavior appeared a permissive, expressive type, and a controlled, coping type. Both of these correlated positively with self- reported creativity. A second study contrasted the correlates of originality on tests of divergent thinking with originality on projective tests. Two clusters emerged, one representing competent, stable, resourceful personalities who scored high on divergent thinking tests of originality, the other representing impulsive, emotionally expressive, imaginative persons who scored high on projective test originality. It was concluded that there are two creativity styles corresponding to the two types of cognitive process, and these styles were labeled "cold" creativity and "hot" creativity. Both styles play a part, in varying proportions, in any creativity process Performance on the divergent thinking tests of originality is more closely related to cold than hot creativity and, therefore, the distinction does not correspond with that between convergent and divergent thinking. Nor does it correspond with differences between scientific and artistic interests and creativity.

The article focuses on a study which examined the implications of symmetry and asymmetry in interpersonal relations for the concept of projection. A distinction between symmetrical and asymmetrical cases of projection has been fundamental since it was introduced by Murray and remains so in the recent review by Holmes. It is usually implied that the two types of cases require entirely different accounts in terms of different psychological processes. The implication of the present paper is quite different. Consider any cognitive process whereby once perceives the characteristics of oneself and the other person according to the likely relationship between them. It follows from the earlier argument that such a process will lead to symmetrical cognitions for certain characteristics and asymmetrical cognitions for others. The application to cases of asymmetrical projection is most direct. Murray used complementary projection to refer to an asymmetrical situation where children who were afraid attributed maliciousness to photographs. He suggested a process, similar to that just proposed, involving the attribution of characteristics to others that explain or justify one's own. This type on interpretation has traditionally bee applied only to asymmetrical cases. Murray used supplementary projection for the symmetrical cases dealt with by classical psychoanalytic mechanism of defense. It was in order to clarify such cases that the study included adjectives to represent both relatively strong and milder versions of the Freudian motives of sex and aggression all of which gave clearly evidence for symmetry.