A dynamic systems approach to personality: The Personality Dynamics (PersDyn) model

Abstract

In the present paper, we offer an integrative approach to personality that combines withinperson and between-person differences. By drawing on the principles of dynamic systems theory, we present Personality Dynamics model -a novel framework that captures people's typical pattern of changes in personality states using three model parameters: baseline personality, reflecting the stable set point around which one's states fluctuate, personality variability, or the extent to which one's personality states fluctuate across time and situations, and personality attractor force, pertaining to the swiftness with which deviations of one's baseline are pulled back to the baseline. We argue that the dynamic approach to personality represented in the PersDyn model has the potential to integrate different perspectives on individual differences. We also demonstrate that the dynamic approach to personality offers a consensual paradigm of personality with the potential to advance our understanding and knowledge of individual differences, by detailing the factors and processes included in the model, as well as links to existing theories and applications in various research lines. Personality as a dynamic systemThe dynamic character of personality has been acknowledged in research for a very long time already. Even in early writings on the topic (e.g., Allport, 1937), it was emphasized that personality is a dynamic, psychological organization that coordinates our experiences and actions. Yet, despite this awareness, personality research has focused almost exclusively on the study of stable, between-person differences in broad dispositions that are invariant over time and unaffected by situational influences. Such an approach, although undoubtfully useful, strips personality from its dynamic character. In the present paper, we argue that the

Revisiting the neuroticism – performance link: A dynamic approach to individual differences

“…To this end, we draw on the recently developed Personality Dynamics (PersDyn) model, a model that captures individual differences in the momentary expressions of personality traits using three building blocks: (1) one’s baseline level on the personality dimension [trait baseline], (2) the extent to which one exhibits variability around this baseline [trait variability], and (3) the swiftness with which individuals return to their baseline once they deviated from it [trait attractor strength]. A more detailed account of the PersDyn model can be found in Table and in Sosnowska, Kuppens, De Fruyt and Hofmans ().…”

Social Interaction Processes and Personality

“…A number of dynamic system approaches focusing on the closely related fields of personality dynamics (Cervone, 2005;Fajkowska, 2015;Jeronimus, 2019;Nowak, Vallacher, & Zochowski, 2005;Pervin, 2001;Read et al, 2010;Richardson, Dale, & Marsh, 2014;Sosnowska, Kuppens, De Fruyt, & Hofmans, 2019;Vallacher, Michaels, & Nowak, this volume), affective dynamics (Hollenstein et al, 2013;Kuppens, Oravecz, & Tuerlinckx, 2010;Kuppens, & Verduyn, 2017), and social interaction dynamics (Hollenstein & Lewis, 2006;Gottman, Murray, Swanson, Tyson, & Swanson, 2003;Pennings et al, 2014) have been introduced in recent years. Some of these approaches already provide mathematically formalized generic models of how personality systems stabilize and change and that show clear links to the social interaction dynamics outlined in this chapter.…”

“…Most current applications in personality psychology that can be summarized under the broad umbrella of dynamic system approaches, however, do not provide fully fledged-out formalized models but focus on deriving resulting system-like parameters such as variability PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL INTERACTION 54 (the range or amplitude of state fluctuations), inertia (the degree with which a state carries over from one moment to the next), and attractor force (the swiftness with which state deviations from one's average state are pulled back to this average) from intensive longitudinal within-person or within-dyad data (e.g., Sosnowska et al, 2019). These current efforts to describe personality via dynamic system parameters are, however, short on explaining how individual and dyadic differences in these parameters develop and what they exactly reflect.…”

Subjectifying the personality state: Theoretical underpinnings and an empirical example

“…Other investigations (e.g., Dunlop, 2015;Geukes & Back, 2017;Geukes, van Zalk, & Back, 2018;Revelle & Condon, 2015;Sosnowska, Kuppens, De Fruyt, & Hofmans, 2019) go beyond state manifestations of broad traits, and instead address a range of state-like variables (incl. momentary goals, affects, experiences, behaviors, and evaluations) as well as the dynamic interactions that unfold between these variables.…”