Critical Perspectives on Personality and Subjectivity (original) (raw)
Theories of Personality: An In-Depth Look
An in-depth look and analysis of theories of personality, spanning from Freud to modern day theorists. Covers theories of Freud, Jung, Adler, Erikson, Seligman, Anna Freud, Melanie Klein, and Karen Horney, referencing the integration of feministic theory.
THE CONSTRUCTION OF PERSONALITY
The construction of personality The structure of constructed The origins of the constructivist personality approach to personality The dynamics of personality The actor in personality construction construction Summary and conclusions The observer in personality Further reading construction
Scientists exploring individuals, as such scientists are individuals themselves and thus not independent from their objects of research, encounter profound challenges; in particular, high risks for anthropo-, ethno- and ego-centric biases and various fallacies in reasoning. The Transdisciplinary Philosophy-of-Science Paradigm for Research on Individuals (TPS-Paradigm) aims to tackle these challenges by exploring and making explicit the philosophical presuppositions that are being made and the metatheories and methodologies that are used in the field. This article introduces basic fundamentals of the TPS-Paradigm including the epistemological principle of complementarity and metatheoretical concepts for exploring individuals as living organisms. Centrally, the TPS-Paradigm considers three metatheoretical properties (spatial location in relation to individuals’ bodies, temporal extension, and physicality versus “non-physicality”) that can be conceived in different forms for various kinds of phenomena explored in individuals (morphology, physiology, behaviour, the psyche, semiotic representations, artificially modified outer appearances and contexts). These properties, as they determine the phenomena’s accessibility in everyday life and research, are used to elaborate philosophy-of-science foundations and to derive general methodological implications for the elementary problem of phenomenon-methodology matching and for scientific quantification of the various kinds of phenomena studied. On the basis of these foundations, the article explores the metatheories and methodologies that are used or needed to empirically study each given kind of phenomenon in individuals in general. Building on these general implications, the article derives special implications for exploring individuals’ “personality”, which the TPS-Paradigm conceives of as individual-specificity in all of the various kinds of phenomena studied in individuals.
Dialogue with Autobiography: Integrating Through the Study of Personality
1983
The growth of disciplines that offer knowledge of the human personality in the past century is startling when one measures that interest against previous centuries. Perhaps it is an expression of an emerging consciousness in our civilization that to be human requires a critical dimension of self-understanding previously absent as a norm. The fields that study personality range from areas of the natural sciences, through the social sciences, and, of course, the humanities. The experimental psychology of the nineteenth century, which focused on physiology, chemistry, and physics in approaching personality, still exists in the work of behaviorists. New knowledge in biochemistry continues the nineteenth century aspiration to explain temperament and mental health through the organic functioning of the human system. Medical psychiatry draws upon these traditional natural scientific methods, but since Freud has included as a dominant focus the study of personality. Personality is seen as a...
The Human and Transpersonal Dimensions of Personality
Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity
Contemporary psychology is in a state of confusion, claims this perennialist author and mental health clinician, because it cannot identify the 'self' or 'the unity of the personality'. This is because it "attempts to study what is beyond its epistemological and ontological scope and trespasses upon the domain of metaphysics". Drawing attention to the materialistic biases in contemporary psychology, which focuses on the empirical ‘self’ and its pathology without the normative criterion of a 'healthy personality', the author contrasts contemporary psychology with traditional pneumatology, which acknowledges the transpersonal Self as the source of normative personality.
Shifting Paradigms in the Study of Personality : A Retrospective Survey of Western Ideas
Journal of Islam in Asia, Vol.11, No. 2 ,pp.158-183, 2014
The birth of the Renaissance movement in the West ushered the scholars as well as the masses into a broader perspective of learning and knowledge seeking. The spirit of the Renaissance paved the way forward for scholars to gain freedom of speech and liberation from their old mindset. Europe that was bursting with new philosophical and scientific ideas also gave its people a wide range of perspectives in understanding man and personality. Secularism and modernism that came as a result of the Renaissance movement caused a shift in the understanding on man and his personality from a religious to a scientific one. In this study, the researchers would like to venture into the areas of man and personality from the Western perspective. Very precisely, the researchers would like to conduct a survey on the shifting paradigms in the field of Western psychology, pertaining to the study on man and personality. Upon performing the survey, the researchers would like to identify and analyze the underlying factors that caused the emergence of the different paradigms in Western psychology.
Personality Development - Class Notes
The Science of Yoga claims to have discovered the laws that govern the personality of man, says Swami Vivekananda. Based on the book 'Personality Development' published from Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, these class notes try to explain how personality transformation can occur in us.
In M. Han & C. Cunha (Eds.), The Subjectified and Subjectifying Mind (pages 173–190). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. This chapter starts with a defi nition of the constructs self and subjectivity. This seems important because both concepts can be understood in many diff erent ways, depending on the field of interest and favored paradigms. On the basis of this theoretical positioning, we will show that the development of the self is subjective in itself. We will give examples—not an exhaustive overview—for subjectifying processes that can be observed throughout the life course to prove this point. Even if some of these exemplary processes can be considered universal with regards to their content (what individuals are faced with/have to achieve at certain points in their lives = e.g., developmental tasks), they are never alike with regards to their dynamics (how and if the individuals achieve what is requested = meaning-making of the individuals), and become even more diverse with time (pluralisation of possible influences). The discussion will focus on the methodological implications of these findings.
Profiles of Personality: Integration, Paradox, and the Process of Becoming (Second Edition)
2021
Personality textbooks come in two forms, each with their own style of organizing content. They will either be organized in terms of historical affiliation (e.g., Freud and those theories that are historically affiliated with Freud, etc.) or they will offer a series of disparate research foci. Both approaches make it difficult for students to attain a coherent, synoptic grasp of the subject matter. Profiles of Personality offers an alternative. It presents personality theories on the basis of a meta-narrative that guides the student through an unfolding story of personality and personal becoming. The meta-narrative of the text reflects the whole person emphasis that gave rise to the study of personality in the first place. As Walter Mischel once noted, the study of personality was intended to become the meta-discipline for integrating the findings and general principles of psychology as a whole as they speak to the person as a whole. Profiles of Personality moves progressively deeper into the world of macro-integrative theorizing, increasingly exposing the role of paradox in the differential-integrative process of personality formation. Highlights of this new edition (from University Professor's Press) include brief discussions of gerotranscendence, gender, and education, additions to the analysis of narrative, and an expanded section on multiculturalism and the ecopsychological culture of place.
Character, Personality, and Identity: On Historical Aspects of Human Subjectivity
From a hermeneutic viewpoint, human beings are self-interpreting creatures. History involves a development of the interpretive resources that humans have available for understanding themselves. Building on Charles Taylor's interpretive approach to human subjectivity, this article attempts to outline some significant changes in such interpretive resources. It is argued that different forms of subjectivity go hand in hand with changing modes of self-interpretation: From a premodern notion of character, through a modern notion of personality, to a postmodern idea of identity. In a culture of character, people primarily interpret themselves according to a moral and religious perspective; in a culture of personality, a psychological (scientific as well as romantic) perspective becomes prominent, stressing individual personality and its development; and, in a contemporary culture of identity, more fluid self-interpretations centred on a consumerist perspective gain in importance.
Against consensus: Embracing the disunity of personality theory
Personality and Individual Differences, 2020
Theories of personality traits refer to qualitatively different explanatory mechanisms, limiting prospects for a consensual paradigm. This article presents a trilevel cognitive science analysis that distinguishes multiple, qualitatively different explanations for expressions of personality. Stable individual differences in processes and content associated with traits are distributed within and between levels of explanations. A unitary and coherent account of traits is thus problematic. The Cognitive-Adaptive Theory of Traits (CATT) provides a conceptual framework that interrelates theories at different levels, and identifies trait coherence with individual differences in strategies for managing adaptive goals. It exemplifies a spirit of explanatory pluralism that accepts disunity in personality theory. That is, it is preferable to work with multiple, conceptually rigorous theories at different levels than to aim for a universal paradigm prematurely.
This essay is concerned with personality as influenced by environment on both natural, geographical, social, that has a bearing on human personality. It is through emphasis of environmental as being responsible for behaviour change where it sets limits to personality and provide opportunities to development. As a result of differences of person’s attitudes, characters, tendencies, ways of thinking, inclination, temperament etc develops changes in personalities. Children copy from their close surrounding environment more especially from their parents, friends and what they observe, hear, which has taken their understanding and behaviour to different levels in the present century as compared to previous centuries. The young generation criticise the previous generations in terms of what has taken their attention and understanding. Given example of respect, many young people these days have low respect to elderly. When they meet elderly persons outside their relatives, they have limited respect to them as compared to what was happening during the early centuries. They call themselves dotcom generations meaning modern generation of computerised technology. The essay therefore intends to understand what personality is according to other theories, understand what the environment is or the surroundings of an individual, how the surroundings have always influenced persons behaviour and created impact. I will also identify advantages and disadvantages of environmental factors that have always influenced personal behaviours.