Integrating Process and Structure in Personality

描述（由申请人提供）：在人格心理学、发展心理学和社会心理学的交叉点上，一个重要的争论是，由于每个人的行为有很大的可变性和情境反应性，研究应该关注个体对情境反应的差异，还是因为同一个人的行为方式随着时间的推移保持稳定，研究应该关注特征。本研究检验了两者是必要的，实际上是相互澄清的假设，具体如下3个目标：(1)使用独立的行为数据来检验假设的过程和结构的整合；(2)确定整个生命周期内的变异性；(3)绘制个人变异、个体变异和年龄变异的偶然性和后果图。行为变异性和变异性的偶然性是几个心理健康概念的核心。人格障碍，如边缘型人格障碍或戏剧型人格障碍，其特征可能是难以控制的高变异性，而其他人格障碍，如分裂型人格障碍、逃避型人格障碍或强迫性人格障碍，其特征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适应不良，如自恋者对批评的强烈反应，边缘型人格障碍者对忽视的强烈反应，或反社会人格障碍者对危险的有限反应。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征联系起来(5)。提出的过程模型解释了对情境的反应中特征的行为表现，可能有助于阐明这些联系的机制，并确定干预的机会。最后，本研究将通过将灵活性的个体差异和灵活性的偶然性与各种心理健康指标相关联，探讨灵活性何时成为适应性和何时成为不适应性。之所以提出本应用程序中的研究，是因为它可能建立一种人格研究方法，推动人格向前发展，以一种综合的方式超越人与情境的争论，因为它有助于验证心理学、心理健康和健康研究的两种重要方法工具（经验抽样方法和自我报告），因为它调查了个人内部的行为可变性，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.