From Inferred Personalities Toward Personality in Action

Abstract

Within the diversity of approaches in personality research, paradigms have shifted away from some generalized concept of personality as out there in the "real world" toward personality as perceived and inferred from behavior in vanous contexts, and even further toward personality as sequences of actions discernible in the moment-to-moment flow of behavior Some current approaches minimize such perennial problems m personality research as the fuzzmess of broad concepts and the vanance associated with contexts and with particular perceivers/observers for whom the words used in common measurement p)rocedures have individualistic meanings An assortment of research programs are discussed to illustrate the trend Particular attention is paid to the small behavioral units in most of these programs Although these investigators circumscnbe the domains of behavior they study, their findings and conclusions appear to possess substantial extemal validity ftrsonality research will progress as this slow shift in paradigms continues Over recent decades, personality research has slowly moved from descnbing the major components of each personality toward a concem with process, with looking at personality m action, as evidenced m behaviors Researchers are turning away from the total personality and focusing instead on what is going on at a given time m a specific situation Since the topics of published research reports have continued to be diverse, this movement is best seen in the relative frequency with which articles reflecting this new focus appear in the literature I am indebted to