Personality coherence in acts and texts: Searching for coherence within and beyond trait categories

This paper reports two studies that explore complementary aspects of personality coherence. Study 1 addressed cross-situational coherence in contextualized psychological response. Idiographically-tailored methods assessed individuals’ (i) beliefs about their personal attributes, (ii) subjective “mappings” of these attributes to everyday circumstances, and (iii) self-reported contextualized action tendencies. A novel index of idiographic–nomothetic relations gauged the degree to which the idiographic methods yield unique information. Participants’ mappings commonly deviated from the structure of nomothetic trait categories; people often grouped together contextualized action tendencies traditionally associated with different trait categories. The idiographic mappings predicted cross-situational coherence in action tendencies. Study 2 asked whether the contextualization of personal qualities would be evident when people merely are asked to describe their personal attributes in natural language. Participants wrote narratives describing positive and negative qualities. Narratives were coded for the presence of three linguistic features: conditional statements, probabilistic statements, and personality trait inconsistencies. All three occurred frequently. Furthermore, they co-occurred; among participants who described trait-inconsistent attributes, the large majority spontaneously cited conditions in which these attributes are manifested. People who recognize that they possess inconsistent personal qualities may nonetheless attain a coherent understanding of themselves by spontaneously developing a contextually-embedded sense of self.

Nomothetic and Idiographic Methods

This chapter looks at nomothetic and idiographic methods. Knowing the purpose helps the researcher define the scope conditions of the research, and will also reveal whether the research should be nomothetic or idiographic. Nomothetic research aims to identify laws about human behaviour — the Greek word ‘nomos’ means ‘law’. It assumes that it is possible to discover regularities of influence or behaviour, allowing experts to predict the likely outcomes of possible actions or innovations. As such, it looks for general principles, not special cases. Idiographic research, by contrast, is all about exploring individuality or uniqueness. Idiographic research tends to focus on a single example, which might be a person, an event, a phenomenon, or an organization, and to analyse that example in-depth. As a result, idiographic methods are often used in case studies, and are characteristic of ethnographic research.

On Method: The Fact of Science and the Distinction between Natural Science and the Humanities

This article examines Cohen’s “transcendental method”, Windelband’s “critical method”, the neo-Kantian distinctions between natural science and the humanities (i. e., human or cultural sciences), and Weber’s account of ideal-typical explanations. The Marburg and the Southwest Schools of neo-Kantianism have in common that their respective philosophies of science focused on method, but they substantially differ in their approaches. Cohen advanced the “transcendental method”, which was taken up and transformed by Natorp and Cassirer; later, it became influential in neo-Kantian approaches to 20th century physics. Windelband distinguished between facts and values, linking the former to the “genetic” method of history and the latter to the “critical” method of philosophy; and between the “nomothetic” and “idiographic” methods of the empirical sciences, a distinction further elaborated by Rickert. The distinction does not give rise to a sharp discrimination but is rather what Weber would later call an ideal type. All these approaches contribute in different ways to understanding the structure of scientific knowledge, focusing on different aspects of the general path of the empirical sciences between rationalism and empiricism.

Gordon Allport

Gordon W. Allport was a prominent Harvard University psychologist during the mid-20th century, notable both for his early and effective promotion of “personality” as an important psychological subdiscipline, and in his later career as a social psychologist for works on several issues of major social importance. In 1921 he and his older brother Floyd Allport jointly proposed the study and measurement of traits as the foundation of a new subdiscipline of personality psychology, with Gordon’s Harvard doctoral research a pilot study demonstrating the feasibility of the approach. On a subsequent postdoctoral fellowship in Germany Allport became impressed by William Stern’s “personalistic” psychology, which held that a person’s “individuality” could be defined in two ways: relational individuality, comprised of the particular combination of numerous measurable traits manifested by a subject in studies such as Allport’s thesis; and real individuality, a Gestalt-like conception of a personality that is more than just the sum of its parts, and discoverable only through a qualitative analysis of the traits’ role in an overall life history. These ideas inspired in Allport a conception of personality as a broad and independent psychological field that would incorporate both the “nomothetic,” experimental methods of the natural sciences in measuring and studying personality traits, and the non-experimental “idiographic” methods utilized in the historical and humanistic fields for providing conceptions of wholly integrated, unique personalities. Noting that Anglo-American psychology was heavily dominated by the former approach, he became an outspoken advocate of the latter as a necessary complement to it. Allport taught undergraduate seminars promoting this conception at Harvard and Dartmouth between 1924 and 1930, before returning permanently to Harvard in 1930. There, both independently and in collaborations with others, he conducted and promoted seminal personality research employing both nomothetic and idiographic methods. His comprehensive and authoritative 1937 textbook, Personality: A Psychological Interpretation, was a landmark in establishing personality as a major psychological discipline. With enhanced reputation, Allport became a leading institutional figure in American psychology. For the rest of his career he continued to advocate an inclusive, “eclectic” approach to personality psychology, while also turning attention to important social issues such as wartime morale and propaganda, the influence of radio as a mass medium, the role of religion in personality and society, and with particular impact the nature of prejudice.

Feasibility and Utility of Idiographic Models in the Clinic: A Pilot Study

Idiographic, or individual-level, methodology has been touted for its potential clinical utility. Empirically modeling relationships between symptoms for a single individual may offer both the client and therapist information that is useful for case conceptualization and treatment planning. However, few studies have investigated the feasibility and utility of integrating idiographic models in a clinical setting. Clients (n = 12) completed ecological momentary assessment regarding psychological symptoms five times per day for three weeks. Clients also generated predictions about the associative and directed relationships in their networks. Graphical vector autoregression was used to generate contemporaneous and directed networks from each client’s data, and both clients and therapists completed self-report questionnaires regarding the feasibility and utility of these methods. Results indicated that the idiographic model structures varied widely across participants and differed markedly from the client’s own predictions. Clients found the models useful, whereas their therapists demonstrated a more tempered response. These results echo previous findings suggesting that clients are willing to complete intensive data collection and are interested in the output, whereas therapists may be less open to idiographic methods. We provide recommendations for future implementation of personalized models in clinical settings.

Foundations of Idiographic Methods in Psychology and Applications for Psychotherapy

Researchers have long called for greater recognition and use of longitudinal, individual-level research in the study of psychopathology and psychotherapy. Much of our current research attempts to indirectly investigate individual-level, or idiographic, psychological processes via group-based, or nomothetic, designs. However, results from nomothetic research do not necessarily translate to the individual-level. In this review, we discuss how idiographic analyses can be integrated into psychotherapy and psychotherapy research. We examine and review key statistical methods for conducting idiographic analyses. These methods include factor-based and vector autoregressive approaches using longitudinal data. The theoretical framework behind each approach is reviewed and critically evaluated. Empirical examples of each approach are discussed, with the aim of helping interested readers consider how they may use idiographic methods to analyze longitudinal data and psychological processes. Finally, we conclude by citing key limitations of the idiographic approach, calling for greater development of these analyses to ease their successful integration into clinical settings.

Foundations of Idiographic Methods in Psychology and Applications for Psychotherapy

Researchers have long called for greater recognition and use of longitudinal, individual-level research in the study of psychopathology and psychotherapy. Much of our current research attempts to indirectly investigate individual-level, or idiographic, psychological processes via group-based, or nomothetic, designs. However, results from nomothetic research do not necessarily translate to the individual-level. In this review, we discuss how idiographic analyses can be integrated into psychotherapy and psychotherapy research. We examine and review key statistical methods for conducting idiographic analyses. These methods include factor-based and vector autoregressive approaches using longitudinal data. The theoretical framework behind each approach is reviewed and critically evaluated. Empirical examples of each approach are discussed, with the aim of helping interested readers consider how they may use idiographic methods to analyze longitudinal data and psychological processes. Finally, we conclude by citing key limitations of the idiographic approach, calling for greater development of these analyses to ease their successful integration into clinical settings.