Integrating Process and Structure in Personality

描述（由申请人提供）：人格，发展和社会心理学交叉的一个重要争论是，由于每个人行为中的大变异性和情境反应性，研究是否应该集中在对情境反应的个体差异上，或者由于同一个人随着时间的推移行为方式的稳定性，研究应该集中在特质上。本研究的目的在于验证这两种假设：（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）确定整个生命周期的变异量;（3）绘制个体内变异性、变异性的个体差异和变异性的年龄差异的偶然性和后果。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，如边缘型或表演型，可能以不可控制的高变异性为特征，而其他人格障碍，如偏执型、回避型或强迫型，可能以严格的低变异性为特征。某些人格障碍可能进一步表现为适应不良的变异性偶然性，例如自恋中对批评的强烈反应，边缘性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有助于心理健康理论。此外，最近的研究将人格障碍与大五人格的特征联系起来（5）。所提出的过程模型解释了特质在对情境的反应中的行为表现，这可能有助于澄清这些联系的机制，并确定干预的机会。最后，拟议的研究将探讨当灵活性成为适应性，当它成为适应不良的相关个体差异的灵活性和灵活性的突发事件与各种心理健康指标。提出这项应用的研究是因为它可以建立一种人格的方法，使人格向前发展，以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个重要方法工具。（经验抽样方法和自我报告），因为它调查了人内行为的变异性，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.