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The Social Psychology of Personality - Robert W PSYCHOLOGY – Vol III -The Social Psychology of Personality - Robert W. Fuhrman THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSONALITY Robert W. Fuhrman Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at San Antonio, USA Keywords: Personality, social behavior, trait-situation debate, situationism, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, authoritarian personality, self-monitoring theory, personal constructs, self-schemas, self-guides, self-regulation, goals, self-efficacy, locus of control, motives, attachment theory, current concerns, personal projects, life tasks, personal strivings, narratives, need for achievement, need for power, need for affiliation, need for intimacy Contents 1. Introduction 2. A Brief History of the Person-Situation Debate 3. The Modern Trait Perspective 3.1. The Five-Factor Model of Traits 3.2. Single Trait Theories 3.2.1. The Authoritarian Personality 3.2.2. Self-Monitoring Theory 4. The Cognitive Perspective 4.1. Self-Schema Theory 4.2. Self-Guide Theory 4.3. Theories of Social Cognitive Learning 4.3.1. Self-Efficacy 4.3.2. Locus of Control 5. The Motivational Perspective 5.1. Attachment Theory 5.2. The Cognitive-Affective Personality System 5.3. Theories of Goal-Based Motives 5.3.1. The Feedback Model of Self-Regulation 5.3.2. Short-Term Motives 5.3.3. Long-Term Motives 5.3.4. Single-Goal Motives 6. Future Research Directions GlossaryUNESCO – EOLSS Bibliography Biographical SketchSAMPLE CHAPTERS Summary This article addresses the question of how personality is related to social behavior by surveying a number of theories that are prominent in contemporary personality research. The theories, and their respective research programs, are organized according to three general perspectives that characterize much of the current work on personality. These include the modern trait perspective, the cognitive perspective, and the motivational perspective. The modern trait perspective is discussed in the context of theories ©Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS) PSYCHOLOGY – Vol III -The Social Psychology of Personality - Robert W. Fuhrman pertaining to the five-factor model of basic traits, the authoritarian personality, and differences in self-monitoring. The cognitive perspective is discussed in the context of theories pertaining to self-schemas, self-guides, self-efficacy, and locus of control. The motivational perspective is discussed in the context of theories pertaining to adult attachment styles, the cognitive-affective personality system, the feedback model of self-regulation, and a number of other goal-based theories of motivation. Before surveying these more recent theories of personality, some discussion is devoted to the trait-situation debate that dominated personality research in the 1960s and 1970s. This debate influenced the shape and content of almost all the theories of personality addressed in this article. The article concludes with a discussion of several important issues that are still unresolved and should be addressed by future research in the area. 1. Introduction One topic of interest to many social psychologists concerns the nature of the link between personality and social behavior. The growing acknowledgment among social psychologists that personality can affect social behavior is hard won and comes only after years of intense debate about the relevance of personality variables to our general understanding of social phenomena. The resolution of this debate has contributed, in no small part, to the current popularity and proliferation of theories in contemporary personality research. Much of this recent work can be classified according to one of three broad perspectives. Each perspective addresses slightly different questions about the nature of the relationship between personality and social behavior. The modern trait perspective investigates general personality factors that influence behaviors across a wide range of situations. The cognitive perspective investigates personality factors that are manifested in the way people think about themselves and the world around them. The motivational perspective investigates personality factors that are manifested in the goals and motives that underlie certain classes of behaviors. Before surveying these perspectives, it is useful to begin by reviewing the issues that first precipitated the debate over the relevance of personality factors to social behavior. Many of the issues addressed during this debate were critical in determining the current content and shape of the theories encompassed by each of the three perspectives. 2. A Brief History of the Person-Situation Debate The debate over the role that personality variables play in social behavior began, appropriatelyUNESCO enough, with the ideas that – were EOLSS first advocated by the early founders of social psychology. Kurt Lewin argued in 1935 that human behavior was determined largely by a SAMPLEcombination of person and CHAPTERS situation variables, with the former encompassing a variety of personality characteristics and mental processes. Gordon Allport, in 1937, elaborated further on the concept of personality by proposing a comprehensive theory of traits that described how and why people differ from each other in the motives and perceptions that contribute to their behaviors. Abraham Murray, in 1938, proposed that behaviors were most directly influenced by behavioral intentions or motives. These motives, in turn, were influenced by a combination of internal, trait-like needs and an external set of social influences. Many social psychologists that followed in the 1940s and 1950s continued to acknowledge the potential influence of personality variables but were inclined to focus their own research ©Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS) PSYCHOLOGY – Vol III -The Social Psychology of Personality - Robert W. Fuhrman efforts on situational factors that they suspected had a significantly larger influence on behavior. At the same time, personality researchers concentrated much of their efforts on developing measures and statistical techniques that, in principle, could help them identify the most central and basic traits of personality. Unfortunately, little discussion occurred during this period about the joint and interactive nature of the influence that traits and situational factors may have on social behavior. Instead, many social psychologists grew increasingly skeptical about the importance of personality variables. Pivotal studies by researchers such as Asch and Milgram showed surprisingly strong situational influences on behaviors but little in the way of strong or reliable personality influences. The skepticism reached a high point in 1968 following the publication of Walter Mischel’s book, Personality and Assessment. Mischel presented a series of studies that indicated that a person’s behavior was not nearly as consistent across different situations as might be expected if personality characteristics had a large and continuous impact on behavior. The book’s message seemed clear, at least to many social psychologists: situational factors are the primary source of influence on social behaviors while personality factors are, at best, small and typically negligible sources of influence. Mischel’s argument, sometimes labeled situationism, did not convince many personality researchers to abandon their principal areas of investigation. The ensuing debate over the merits of this argument, however, led researchers to reevaluate and clarify their assumptions regarding the nature of the relationship between personality characteristics and social behavior. At least three distinct, alternative viewpoints about this relationship emerged over the course of the debate. They are often referred to as the modern trait perspective, the motivational perspective, and the cognitive perspective. These perspectives grew over the course of the 1980s and 1990s to encompass a wide range of diverse and highly active research programs. The major issues and most popular theories that characterize each perspective will be discussed below. The sheer volume of activity, however, necessitates some omission of ideas and potentially significant research programs. Interested readers are encouraged to pursue a more detailed and comprehensive examination of this work in the references listed in the article bibliography. 3. The Modern Trait Perspective Following the lead of Gordon Allport, the modern trait perspective acknowledges the influenceUNESCO of situational factors but rea–ffirms EOLSS the importance of studying general personality characteristics. The perspective argues that the impact of situational factors on social behaviorSAMPLE has frequently been overstated CHAPTERS because of the uniquely powerful situations in which behaviors have often been investigated. Moreover, it argues, the influence of general personality characteristics has often been underestimated because trait-relevant behaviors are difficult to measure and because researchers rarely look at the interactive effects of multiple personality factors. This perspective is a strong advocate of using a variety of measures to assess the influence of traits. A single measure of a specific behavior can be especially problematic because the expression of personality traits can vary in response to the unique demands of the situation. Chronic anxiety, for example, may encourage people to smoke cigarettes or tear napkins in a bar; however, a church environment does not permit such behaviors so the same trait
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