PSY234 Lecture 7: Integration and Future Directions
2 Jun 2018
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PSY234 – Week 7 Lecture: Integration and Future Directions
Outline –
1. Current status of personality research
a. Mayer’s ‘system approach’
b. McAdams ‘personality triad’
2. Criticisms of personality theories
a. The role of culture
b. Individualism vs. collectivism
3. Future directions for research
The mission of personality theories – to provide an integrative force in an era of
scientific specialization and fragmentation → brings together contributions of
developmental, social, cognitive and biological psychology into an understanding of
whole persons and the dimensions of difference that allow them to be psychologically
distinguished from one another (Funder, 2001)
Integrating psychology:
• Recent calls for a ‘unified psychology’
• Personality seen by some as an integrative perspective for psychology
• The study of the ‘whole person’ and how the past fit into the whole
Current status of personality research –
• Which perspectives should we take?
o ‘conflicting world views’ (Mayer, 2005)
o Similarities but major differences
o Incompatible approaches or different levels of analysis?
o Different parts of the whole?
o Different strengths and weaknesses?
o How do we integrate the perspectives?
o Mayer (2005) → looking at personality as an ‘organised functional
unit’
McAdam’s Personality Triad:
• McAdams (1996, 2001, 2013)
• Personality structure/hierarchy
o 1. Dispositional traits
o 2. Characteristic adaptations
o 3. Narrative identity as ‘life story’
• Nomothetic and idiographic
• Dispositional traits
o Dimensions of personality
▪ Eysenck’s E, N and P
▪ Five-Factor Model
o OCEAN = nomothetic approach, personality stability
o Limit of trait psychology: “Psychology of the stranger” (McAdams) →
does not allow us to understand individuals, rather it is a broad
approach
• Characteristic adaptations
o Personal goals and motives
o Defence mechanisms and coping strategies
o Values and beliefs
o Attachment and relationship styles
o Domain-specific skills and interests etc.
o Includes psychoanalytic, social-leaning, humanistic, evolutionary
components, personal constructs etc.
o Still does not address INDIVIDUAL IDENTITY
• Identity as life story
o “lives may be viewed as narrated texts, known and ‘read’ as stories,
framed through discourse, & told in culture” (McAdams)
o Stories central to identity throughout life
o Through our stories we define ourselves and achieve a sense of identity
o Identity provides a sense of unity and purpose
o Personality change
o Idiographic and humanistic
• Stories “provide the person with a purposeful self-history that explains how
the self of yesterday became the self of today & will become the anticipated
self of tomorrow” (McAdams, 1996)
• Our stories connect our past, present and future
Modern personality –
• “If the psychologist seeks to describe and explain the personality of a typical
adult living in modern society, then the answer to this question is identity. The
answer stems from the characteristic mind set of modernity, within which
individuals are expected to create, discover, explore, control and ‘work on’
personalized selves as reflexive projects that define who they are over time
and how they are similar to as well as different from other individuals”
(McAdams, 1996)
Criticisms of personality theories –
• Western origins of personality theories
• Theories of personality: rooted in Western philosophical and religious
assumptions about persons
• Most research conducted on WEIRDos – Western, educated, industrialised,
rich and democratic cultures (Jones, 2010)
• These assumptions are then imposed upon different cultures
• Theories ignore cultural differences
Assumptions:
• Western traditions…
o Person is distinct from the (social) environment
o Person/situation debate
o Assumed ‘universality’ of personality
Western culture model of self –
• Individualist: values independent and unique self
• Indepdnent, egocentric self-construal
• Most psych theories value ‘individualist’ selves (Markus, 2004)
Document Summary
Psy234 week 7 lecture: integration and future directions. Outline : current status of personality research, mayer"s system approach", mcadams personality triad", criticisms of personality theories, the role of culture, individualism vs. collectivism, future directions for research. Integrating psychology: recent calls for a unified psychology", personality seen by some as an integrative perspective for psychology, the study of the whole person" and how the past fit into the whole. Mcadam"s personality triad: mcadams (1996, 2001, 2013, personality structure/hierarchy, 1. Characteristic adaptations: personal goals and motives, defence mechanisms and coping strategies, values and beliefs, attachment and relationship styles, domain-specific skills and interests etc, includes psychoanalytic, social-leaning, humanistic, evolutionary components, personal constructs etc, still does not address individual identity. Modern personality : if the psychologist seeks to describe and explain the personality of a typical adult living in modern society, then the answer to this question is identity.
