Integrating Process and Structure in Personality

描述(申请人提供)：个性心理学、发展心理学和社会心理学交叉领域的一个重要争论是，是否因为每个人的行为具有很大的变异性和情景反应能力，所以研究应该侧重于对情景的反应的个体差异，还是因为同一个人的行为方式随着时间的推移而稳定，所以研究应该侧重于特征。这项拟议的研究检验了这两者都是需要的假设，并且实际上是相互澄清的，具体体现在以下三个目标中：(1)使用独立的行为数据来测试假设的过程和结构的整合；(2)确定整个生命周期中的变化量；(3)绘制人内变异性、个体变异性的差异和变异性的年龄差异的偶然性和后果图。行为变异性和变异性的偶然性是心理健康的几个概念的核心。人格障碍，如临界性或戏剧性，其特征可能是难以控制的高变异性，而其他如分裂样、回避性或强迫症的特征则可能是严格的低变异性。一些人格障碍可能进一步表现为变异性的不适应偶发事件，如自恋中对批评的强烈反应，边缘障碍中对忽视的强烈反应，或反社会人格障碍中对危险的有限反应。理解行为灵活性背后的基本过程将有助于心理健康理论。此外，最近的研究将人格障碍与五大人格特质联系在一起。所提出的解释特质对情境反应的行为表现的过程模型可能有助于阐明这些联系的机制，并确定干预的机会。最后，拟议的研究将通过将灵活性的个体差异和灵活性的偶然性与心理健康的各种指标相关联来探索灵活性何时变得适应性以及何时变得不适应。这项应用中的研究之所以被提出，是因为它可以建立一种人格的方法，以一种综合的方式推动人格向前发展，越过人-情境的争论，因为它有助于验证心理学、心理健康和健康研究的两个重要方法工具(经验抽样方法论和自我报告)，并且因为它调查人内的行为变异性，这是自我调节和许多人格障碍的核心。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): An important debate at the intersection of personality, developmental, and social psychology is whether, because of large variability and situation-responsiveness within each person's behavior, research should focus on individual differences in reactions to situations, or because of stability in the way the same person acts over time, research should focus on traits. The proposed research tests the hypothesis that both are needed and in fact clarify each other, as specified in the following 3 aims: (1) Employ independent behavioral data to test the hypothesized integration of process and structure; (2) Determine the amount of variability across the life span; and (3) Chart the contingencies and consequences of within-person variability, individual differences in variability, and age differences in variability. Behavioral variability and the contingencies of variability are at the heart of several conceptions of mental health. Personality disorders such as borderline or histrionic may be characterized by unmanageably high variability whereas others such as schizoid, avoidant, or obsessive-compulsive may be characterized by rigidly low variability. Some personality disorders may further be characterized by maladaptive contingencies of variability, such as the strong reaction to criticism in narcissism, the strong reaction to neglect in borderline disorder, or the limited reaction to danger in antisocial personality disorder. Mental health theory would be aided by understanding of the basic processes underlying behavioral flexibility. Furthermore, recent research has linked personality disorders to the traits of the Big Five (5). The proposed process model that explains the behavioral manifestation of traits in reaction to situations may help clarify the mechanisms of these links and also identify) opportunities for intervention. Finally, the proposed research will explore when flexibility becomes adaptive and when it becomes maladaptive by correlating individual differences in flexibility and in the contingencies of flexibility with various indicators of mental health. The research in this application is proposed because it may establish an approach to personality that moves personality forward, past the person-situation debate in an integrative manner, because it helps validate 2 important methodological tools for psychology, mental health, and health research (experience-sampling methodology and self-report) and because it investigates within-person behavioral variability, which is at the heart of self regulation and many personality disorders.