Personality: Determinants, dynamics & potentials/ Gian Vittorio Caprara

1 The Domain of Personality Psychology
Common Themes
Definitions, Aims, and Assumptions
Theories and Explanations
Distinguishing Among Theoretical Approaches
What Is a Personality Theory to Do?
Dispositions as Phenotypes and Genotypes
Related Metatheoretical Issues
Methodological Issues
Summing Up
2 Origins, History, and Progress
The Origins of Personality Psychology Within the
History of Ideas
Problems and Perspectives in the History of
Psychology
The Challenge of Cultural Diversity
The Constmction of Histories
The Matrices of Western Thought
Conceptions of the Person in Ancient Greece
Roman Thought
The Birth of the Sciences
Social Science and Social Change
The Founding of Personality Psychology
Structuralism and Functionalism
Paradigms
Research Traditions
Continuities and Discontinuities in the Progress of the
Discipline
The Progress of Personality Psychology
Freedom, Resources, and Critical Mass
Developments in the United States
A Period of Transition
Substantive Challenges, Rhetoric, and Debate in the
Advancement of Knowledge
Facing the Present and Looking to the Future
The Case of Psychoanalysis
Freud's Metapsychology
Secessions and New Directions of Research
Is There Still a Place for Psychoanalysis in Personality
Psychology?
Forecasting the Future
Summing Up
PART TWO. DESCRIPTION AND EXPLANATION
Introduction: Description and Explanation
3 Individual Differences: Traits, Temperament,
and Intelligence
Dispositions: Debate and Unresolved Issues
On the Varieties of Trait Theory
Describing Individual Differences: Lexical Approaches,
Questionnaire Approaches, and the Five-Factor Model
Five Basic Factors
Lexical Studies
The Questionnaire Tradition
Comprehensive Individual-Difference Structures
Generalizability of the Five-Factor Structure Across
Languages and Cultures
Five-Factor Instruments
Merits and Limits of the Five-Factor Model
Factor Analysis in the Study of Personality
The Technique
Interpreting the Method
Temperament and Personality
Early 20th Century Contributions
Defining Temperament
Dimensions of Temperament
Context and Categories
General Conclusions
The Intelligences: General, Practical, Social, and Emotional
Components and Expressions of Intelligence
Social Intelligence, Emotional Intelligence, and Wisdom
Summing Up
4 Personality Coherence and Individual Uniqueness:
Interactionism and Social-Cognitive Systems
Interactionism
Theoretical Models and Research Strategies
Beyond Separate Person and Situation Factors
Situations
A Functional Analysis of Situations
A Lexical Analysis of Situations
Mental Representations of Social Episodes
Situation Cognition and Personality Coherence
Universal Forms?
Social-Cognitive Theories of Personality Structure,
Process, and Functioning
Brief History
Defining Features of Social-Cognitive Theory
Banduras Social Cognitive Theory
Alternative Strategies of Explanation
Trait and Dispositional Constructs as Causes
Social-Cognitive and Affective Systems as Causes
Top-Down and Bottom-Up Strategies of Explanation
A Bottom-Up, Social-Cognitive Analysis of
Cross-Situational Coherence
Summing Up
PART THREE. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY
Introduction: The Development of Personality
5 Personality Development Across the Course
of Life
Assumptions in the Study of Development
Mechanistic Perspectives
Organismic Perspectives
Developmental Contextualism
Superordinate Assumptions
Contemporary Views of Development
The Domain of Developmental Inquiry
Ages and Stages
Developmental Tasks and the Seasons of the Life Cycle
Stages of Ego Development
The Development of the Self System
Mental Representations of Personal Attributes
Feelings of Self-Worth
Self-Efficacy Beliefs
Metacognitive Knowledge of Self-Control Strategies
Standards for Self-Evaluation
Stability, Continuity, and Change
Stability
Continuity
Developmental Continuities and Discontinuities in their
Sociohistorical Context
Optimal Development through Selection and Compensation
Psychosocial Transitions, Personal Determinants of Life
Trajectories
Psychosocial Transitions and Personal Agency
Summing Up
6 Genetics, Brain Systems, and Personality
The Role of Genetics in Personality Development
The Long Road from Genes to Behavior
Strong and Weak Biologism
Definitional Issues in the Study of Genetics and
Personality
Behavior Genetic Analyses of Individual Differences
Assessing the Traditional Behavioral-Genetic Paradigm
Moving the Behavior-Genetic Paradigm Foi-ward
Brain Systems at the Basis of Personality Development
and Functioning
Conceptualizations of Brain and Personality
Brain Structures and Processes
Brain Functions
Brain Systems and Personality Functioning
The Seminal Contributions of Pavlov
Contemporary Models of Brain Systems and Individual
Differences
Sex Differences
Sex Differentiation and Development
Evolutionary Psychology and Sex Differences
Summing Up
7 Interpersonal Relations
Interpersonal Relations: Theoretical Frameworks
Attachment
Attachment Styles
Temperament of the Child and Sensitivity of the Mother
Cultural Differences and Social Networks
Stability and Pervasiveness Across Generations
Interpersonal Orientations
Communication
Peer Relations and Friendships
Peer Relations in Younger and Older Childhood
Early Friendships and Prosocial Capabilities and Later
Psychosocial Outcomes
Peer Relations and the Development of Self-Concept
Friendships and Maladjustment
Group Influences
Peers, Parents, and Adolescent "Storm and Stress"
Summing Up
8 Soci^ Contexts snd Social Constructions! lA^ork,
Education, Family, Gender, and Values
Work
Marxist Analysis
Social Status, Action, and the Development of Capacities
Education
Social and Cognitive Processes in Educational
Attainment
Rectifying Educational Inequalities?
Family
The Contemporary Western Family
The Family System
The Life Cycle of the Family
Facing Adversities and Change
The Social Development of Gender
Sex and Gender
History and Change
Gender Differences in Cognitive Abilities, Social
Behavior, and Traits
Gender Differences in Aggression
Gender and Personality Traits
Gender Differences in Developmental Continuities,
Self-Construals, and Vulnerabilities
Gender Development: Theories and Research Paradigms
Psychoanalytic, Social Learning, and Early Cognitive
Approaches
The Centrality of Gender: Masculinity, Femininity,
and Androgeny
Contemporary Frameworks: Evolutionary Psychology,
Sex Role Theory, and Social Cognitive Theory
Social Values and the Symbolic Environment
The Structure of Values
The Media and the Social Transmission of Values
Social Change and Materialistic and Postmaterialistic
Values
Summing Up
PART FOUR. THE DYNAMICS OF PERSONALITY
Introduction to Part IV
9 Knowledge Structures and Interpretive Processes
General Considerations
Recurring Themes
The Relation between Personality and Social Psychology
Historical Background
The Contemporary Field: Alternative Models of
Knowledge Representation
Knowledge Activation: Temporary and Chronic Sources
of Accessibility
Temporary Sources of Construct Accessibility
Chronically Accessible Constructs
Spontaneous Trait Inference
Individual Differences in the Associations Among
Concepts
Schematic Knowledge Structures and Self-Schemas
Schemas: Three Features
Self-Schemas
Relational Schemas
Knowledge Structures, Personal Standards, and
Emotional Experience
Internalized Standards
Standards, Discrepancies, and Vulnerability to Distinct
Emotional States
Knowledge, Encoding, and Individual Differences in
Aggressive Behavior
Coherent Systems of Self-Knowledge
Multiple Self-Aspects and Self-Complexity
Idiographic Representations of Self-Knowledge
and Social Knowledge
Beyond Discrete Attributes: Narrative and Dialogue
Narrative
Internal Dialogue
The Narrative Turn: Expansion of or Challenge to
Psychology's Analysis of Knowledge and Meaning?
Summing Up
10 Affective Experience: Emotions and Mood
Historical and Contemporary Analyses of Emotional
Experience
The Varieties of Affective Experience
Moods Versus Emotions
The Structure of the Emotion Domain
The Components and Functions of Emotional Experience
Cognitive Appraisal and Emotional Experience
Physiological Substrates of Emotional Experience
The Behavioral Expression of Emotional States
Subjective Emotional Experience
Coherence Among the Components of Emotional
Response
Summing Up
11 Unconscious Processes and Conscious Experience
The Elusive Unconscious and Self-Evident
Consciousness - or Vice Versa?
Unconscious Processes
Conscious Experience
Paradigm Shifts in Psychology's Understanding
of Conscious and Unconscious Processes
Differentiating Among Conscious and Unconscious
Phenomena
Defensive Processing
Repression and Repressive Coping Style
Development of Defense Mechanisms
Social-Cognitive Bases of Defense: Transference and
Projection
Inhibition, Expression, and Health
Defensive Processing: Summary
Implicit Cognition
The Reality and Variety of Implicit Cognition
Implicit Individual-Difference Measures
Conscious Processes
Conscious Processes and Personality Functioning
Individual Differences: Public and Private
Self-Consciousness
Rumination and Coping
States of Flow and the Experience Sampling Method
The Control of Consciousness
Affective States and Conscious Thought
Summing Up
12 Motivation and Self-Regulation
Motivation, Cognition, and the Self-Regulatoiy System
Standards and Affective Self-Evaluation
Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Perceived Control
Goals and the Self-Regulatory System
Temporal and Cross-Situational Coherence in the
Self-System
Personal Agency
Historical and Contemporary Theoretical Frameworks
Instinct, Drive, Need, and Motive Theories
Contemporary Cognitive Frameworks
Control Beliefs and Perceptions of Self-Efficacy
Distinguishing Among Control Beliefs
Perceived Self-Efficacy
Behavioral, Cognitive, and Affective Consequences of
Efficacy Beliefs
Boosting Efficacy Beliefs
Goals and Self-Motivation
Variations Among Goals and Goal Systems
Task Goals and Self-Regulatory Processes
Moderators of Goal-Setting Effects: Feedback and
Task Complexity
Self-Referent Cognition and Affect as Mediators
of Goal-Setting Effects
Nonconscious Goal Mechanisms
Qualitative Variations in Goals and Personal Standards
Coherence in Goal Systems
Implicit Theories
Middle-Level Goal Units
A Methodological Caveat: Do People Know What They're
Doing?
Distraction and the Challenge of Carrying Out Intentions
Action and State Orientations
Initiating Goal-Directed Action
Controlling Impulses
Ego Dimensions
Mischel's Delay of Gratification Paradigm
Summing Up
PART FIVE. EPILOGUE
Looking to the Future: Is Personality Psychology
in Good Health?
Reasons for Optimism?
Toward a Common Paradigm?