Personality Processes

William Revelle
Northwestern University

Prepared as a chapter for the Annual Review of Psychology, 1995.

Adapted for the web as part of an experimental Personality Project to link personality theories and theorists together through out the web. This document will gradually be expanded to take advantage of other web sites as time permits.

• CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
  • Scope of the Review
  • A metatheoretic taxonomy of personality theories and processess: Figure 1
  • Three dimensions of personality theory
  • Levels of generality -- from the species to the individual
  • Levels of explanation -- from the gene to the society
  • Levels of functioning
• RECENT TRENDS IN PERSONALITY AND RELATED FIELDS
  • As exemplified in the Annual Review
  • As exemplified in other reviews
• ALL PEOPLE ARE THE SAME: THE STUDY OF SPECIES TYPICAL BEHAVIOR
  • Evolutionary Psychology
    • Evolutionary causes for individual differences
    • Sexual strategies
  • Sociology of generational effects
  • Psychodynamic theory
• SOME PEOPLE ARE THE SAME: THE STUDY OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES
  • Trait based differences and similarities
  • Cognitive abilities versus affective-temperamental traits
  • Descriptive taxonomies versus causal theory
  • Causal models of individual differences
    • Genetics of individual differences in behavior
    • Biological substrates
      • Behavioral approach, energetic arousal and positive affect
      • Behavioral inhibition, tense arousal, and negative affect
      • Fight Flight System, aggression, and anger
      • Localization of affective systems
      • Problems and promises of biological models
    • Temperament and development
      • Childhood temperament
      • Temperament grows up
  • Affective and cognitive processes--how traits relate to states
    • Affective states and traits
    • Affective-cognitive link
  • Life satisfaction, identity, and death
  • Situational based differences and similarities
  • Trait by Situation Interactions
• NO PERSON IS THE SAME: THE STUDY OF UNIQUE PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR
  • Personal Construals
  • Self schemas
  • Reversal theory-- dynamic conceptualizations of situation
  • Life histories and the study of lives
  • Life stories
• FUTURE DIRECTIONS: PROMISES AND CHALLENGES
  • Challenges
  • Promises