Personality Psychology
David M. Buss Nancy Cantor Editors
Personality Psychology Recent Trends and Emerging
Directions
With 15 Illustrations
Springer-Verlag New York Berlin Heidelberg
London Paris Tokyo
David M. Buss Nancy Cantor Department of Psychology University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Personality psychology: recent trends and emerging directions/ editors, David M. Buss, Nancy Cantor.
p. cm. Papers from a conference held at the University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, April 15-17, 1998. Includes bibliographies. ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-0636-8 1. Personality-Congresses. 1. Buss, David M. II. Cantor,
Nancy. [DNLM: 1. Personality-congresses. 2. Personality Assessment-
trends-congresses. 3. Psychological Theory-congresses. BF 698 P4679 1988] BF698.P3713 1989 155.2-dc20 DNLM/DLC
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© 1989 by Springer-Verlag New York Inc. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1 st edition 1989
89-6442
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ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-0636-8 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-0634-4 DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4684-0634-4
Preface Scientific disciplines sometimes reach critical junctures in their development-points of departure that can radically alter their subsequent course. We believe that the field of personality psychology has reached such a juncture.
In the 1930s, the seminal books by Allport (1937) and Murray (1938) set an agenda for decades to come. The 1940s and 1950s were marked by talented researchers carrying out that broad agenda. The study of personality flourished, and a basic textbook by Hall and Lindzey (1957) established personality psychology as an essential part of psychology's curriculum. During the 1960s, however, fundamental assumptions of the field were questioned, and limitations in predictability from trait measures were noted. The decade ofthe 1970s and the early years ofthe 1980s were marked by internal debate consisting of defenses of the basic paradigm, further attacks, and yet more defenses.
During the 1980s, however, the intense internal debate waned, and new approaches to substantive issues in the field began to emerge: new middle-level units of analysis were advanced; new forms of personality coherence were proposed; advances in assessment yielded more powerful methods. A dimensional structure began to receive consensual endorsement, and the explanatory tools used by researchers expanded beyond their earlier confines to include neighboring disciplines such as cognitive psychology, evolutionary biology, and sociology.
In 1988, we decided to organize a conference to articulate these emerging issues in personality psychology. Four goals were central to the conference: (1) to identify interesting and promising emerging issues; (2) to stimulate debate and intellectual exchange among active researchers in the field; (3) to begin to consolidate the otherwise scattered gains in the field; (4) to reinforce our burgeoning group identity and shared sense of purpose.
To accomplish these goals, we decided to invite only young personality psychologists. Informally, the conference was referred to as "the small fry conference." Unfortunately, financial constraints imposed a limit of twenty-five participants. Clearly, there are many more outstanding young personality psychologists, here and abroad, and we regret that our limited resources forced this restriction.
The conference, which took place over three days (April 15-17, 1988), provided several formats: (1) symposia with brief presentations; (2) workshops and round table discussions; (3) free-wheeling coffee breaks, lunches, dinners, and parties. We believe that the sense of excitement shared by the participants augurs well for accomplishing our goals. Of
vi Preface
course, the true test of success can only be evaluated in the next decade by accomplishments in the field.
To realize a conference ofthis scope requires dedicated teamwork. The Chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan, Professor Al Cain, gave intellectual support to the conference from its inception, and provided the financial support needed to make it a reality. Judy Mackey, our Personality Area Secretary, provided the structural core of the conference. Without her tireless efforts, organizational expertise, social skills, and imperturbable good humor, the conference could not have occurred.
Our personality area faculty functioned as a team in preparing this conference, and deserve special recognition: Abigail Stewart worked closely with us from the outset; David Winter and Warren Norman transported people, as well as ideas throughout; Don Brown, Janet Landman, Mel Manis, Hazel Markus, Dick Nisbett, Carolyn Phinney, George Rosenwald, Mac Runyan, Claude Steele, and Joe Veroff added valued support.
The nuts and bolts of the conference were assembled by the tireless devotion of our graduate students. Their contributions, which spanned many months, began in our graduate seminar, continued throughout the actual conference, and beyond. We would like to extend special thanks to: Scott Bunce, Armen Asherian, Mike Botwin, Rose Pacini, Bill Peterson, Richard Doty, Kaz Kato, Ethel Moore, Jeanne Oggins, Chris Langston, Sabrina Zirkel, Will Fleeson, Avonne Mason, Liisa Kyl-Heku, Doug Leber, Dave Ametrano, Cheryl Peck, Rob Sellers, Steve Byers, Eric Stone, and Mike Morris.
Finally, we thank the twenty-five participants who provided the intellectual core of the conference. This book is the product of their efforts.
David M. Buss Nancy Cantor
Contents
Preface .................................................................................. v Contributors .......................................................................... xi Introduction............................................................................ 1 DAVID M. Buss and NANCY CANTOR
Part I New Middle-Level Units in PersonaUty Psychology
Chapter 1 Personal Projects Analysis: Trivial Pursuits, Magnificent Obsessions, and the Search for Coherence.......................................................... 15 BRIAN R. LITTLE
Chapter 2 Exploring the Relations Between Motives and Traits: The Case of Narcissism............................... 32 ROBERT A. EMMONS
Chapter 3 Cognitive Strategies as Personality: Effectiveness, Specificity, Flexibility, and Change ............................................................... 45 JULIE K. NOREM
Chapter 4 An Alternative Paradigm for Studying the Accuracy of Person Perception: Simulated Personalities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 JACK C. WRIGHT
viii Contents
Part D New Forms of Personality Coherence
Chapter 5 On the Continuities and Consequences of Personality: A Life-Course Perspective.................... 85 AVSHALOM CASPI
Chapter 6 Life Paths of Aggressive and Withdrawn Children............................................................. 99 DEBBIE S. MOSKOWITZ and ALEX E. SCHWARTZMAN
Chapter 7 Emotional Adaptation to Life Transitions: Early Impact on Integrative Cognitive Processes ............. ......... ...... ...... ......... ............... 115 JOSEPH M. HEALY, JR.
Chapter 8 Performance Evaluation and Intrinsic Motivation Processes: The Effects of Achievement Orientation and Rewards...................................... 128 JUDITH M. HARACKIEWICZ
Chapter 9 The Problem of Life's Meaning ............................. 138 Roy F. BAUMEISTER
Chapter 10 Conditional Patterns, Transference, and the Coherence of Personality Across Time ................... 149 AVRIL THORNE
Chapter 11 The Development of a Narrative Identity................ 160 DAN P. McADAMS
Part ID Advances in Assessment
Chapter 12 A Process Approach to Personality Psychology: Utilizing Time as a Facet of Data .......................... 177 RANDY J. LARSEN
Chapter 13 Metatraits: Interitem Variance as Personality Assessment ....................................................... 194 DIANNE M. TICE
Chapter 14 Socially Desirable Responding: Some New Solutions to Old Problems ...... ...... ...... .................. 201 DELROY L. PAULHUS
Contents ix
Chapter 15 Accuracy in Personality Judgment and the Dancing Bear ................................................................. 210 DAVID C. FUNDER
Chapter 16 Construct Validity in Personality Assessment .......... 224 DANIEL J. OZER
Part IV Advances in Identifying the Structure of Personality
Chapter 17 Why I Advocate the Five-Factor Model: Joint Factor Analyses of the NEO-PI with Other Instruments....................................................... 237 ROBERT R. MCCRAE
Chapter 18 The Optimal Level of Measurement for Personality Constructs......................................... 246 STEPHEN R. BRIGGS
Chapter 19 Towards a Taxonomy of Personality Descriptors...... 261 OLIVER P. JOHN
Part V Expansion of Levels of Explanation in Personality
Chapter 20 Identity Orientations and Self-Interpretation............ 275 JONATHAN M. CHEEK
Chapter 21 Using Traits to Construct Personality..................... 286 SARAH E. HAMPSON
Chapter 22 Personality Theory and Behavioral Genetics: Contributions and Issues...................................... 294 DAVID C. ROWE
Chapter 23 A Biosocial Perspective on Mates and Traits: Reuniting Personality and Social Psychology........... 308 DOUGLAS T. KENRICK
Chapter 24 The Evolutionary History of Genetic Variation: An Emerging Issue in the Behavioral Genetic Study of Personality............................................ 320 STEVEN W. GANGESTAD
x Contents
Chapter 25 Levels of Explanation in Personality Theory........... 333 JEROME C. WAKEFIELD
Subject Index..................................................... 347
Contributors
Roy F. BAUMEISTER
Department of Psychology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA
STEPHEN R. BRIGGS
Department of Psychology, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74104, USA
DAVID M. Buss Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
NANCY CANTOR
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
A VSHALOM CASPI
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
JONATHAN M. CHEEK
Department of Psychology, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts 02181, USA
ROBERT A. EMMONS
Psychology Department, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA
xii Contributors
DAVID C. FUNDER
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois 61820, USA
STEVEN W. GANGESTAD
Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA
SARAH E. HAMPSON
Oregon Research Institute, Eugene, Oregon 97401, USA
JUDITH M. HARACKIEWICZ
Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA
JOSEPH M. HEALY, JR.
Psychology Department, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut 06457, USA
OLIVER P. JOHN
Institute of Personality Assessment and Research, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
DOUGLAS T. KENRICK
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA
RANDY J. LARSEN
Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
BRIAN R. LITTLE
Department of Psychology, Carlton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada KIS 5B6
Contributors
DAN P. McADAMS
Department of Psychology, Loyola University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60626, USA
ROBERT R. MCCRAE
xiii
Personality, Stress and Coping Section, Gerontology Research Center, The National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, Maryland 21224, USA
DEBBIE S. MOSKOWITZ
Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1B1
JULIE K. NOREM
Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
DANIEL J. OZER
Department of Psychology, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
DELROY L. PAULHUS
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Y7
DAVID C. ROWE
School of Family and Consumer Resources, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
ALEX E. SCHWARTZMAN
Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1M8
AVRIL THORNE
Department of Psychology, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts 02181, USA
xiv Contributors
DIANNE M. TICE
Department of Psychology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA
JEROME C. WAKEFIELD
The Columbia University School of Social Work, New York, New York 10025, USA
JACK C. WRIGHT
Hunter Laboratory of Psychology, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA