Individualizing psychological assessment using the five-factor model: A phenomenological, enactivist approach.

Abstract

In this article, we discuss two distinct approaches to the study of lived experience that have non-reductionism at their basis: the human science approach to psychology and the enactive approach to cognitive science. Specifically, we articulate an emerging confluence of the individualized approach to psychological assessment-which stems from the human science tradition in psychology-and the Enactivist Big-5 Theory (EB5T) of personality-which is grounded in the enactivist tradition in cognitive science. In the theoretical portion of our article, we leverage our demonstration of the philosophical continuity between the human and cognitive sciences through their shared commitment to phenomenology by discussing core phenomenological concepts shared by both traditions. We then propose a phenomenological reformulation of individual differences in traits as reflecting differences in styles of worldenactment. In the clinical portion of our article, we demonstrate the clinical utility of our theoretical contribution through a vignette in which a patient's lived struggles with anxiety were assessed phenomenologically and their styles of world-enactment thematized through an individualized application of EB5T's phenomenological principles for understanding personality as lived experience. Public Significance StatementThis article discusses the phenomenological underpinnings of enactivist cognitive science and the individualized approach to psychological assessment and argues for a mutual synthesis of the two approaches. It demonstrates a clinical application of enactively individualized psychological assessment using the five-factor model (FFM) of personality through a case presentation.