Personality as a fundamental concept in scientific psychology
- 1 December 1983
- journal article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Australian Journal of Psychology
- Vol. 35 (3) , 289-304
- https://doi.org/10.1080/00049538308258745
Abstract
It is argued that the concepts of individual differences and personality are an indispensable part of any scientific psychology, by virtue of the fact that stimulus‐response sequences are inevitably mediated by an organism the structure of which, partly determined genetically and partly by its reinforcement history, critically affects the sequence. Theories in this field, to be useful, must be linked with the theories and findings of experimental psychology, and reflect advances in conceptualization and thinking there. Personality theories are both descriptive and causal, and it is argued that without the causal element descriptive patterns, usually arrived at by correlational and factor analytic methods, possess an element of subjectivity which is so strong as to make any definitive statements impossible. It is further argued that such a paradigm, embracing both descriptive and causal factors, is already in existence, and is capable of integrating well with many different areas of experimental psychology.Keywords
This publication has 38 references indexed in Scilit:
- Das HLA-System in der psychiatrischen ForschungFortschritte der Neurologie · Psychiatrie, 1981
- Covariation of two‐flash threshold and autonomic arousal for high and low scorers on a measure of psychoticismBritish Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 1979
- Bishop, Eysenck, Block, and psychoticism.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1978
- Stimulus- or response-induced excitation. A comparison of the behavior of introverts and extravertsJournal of Research in Personality, 1978
- The Eysencks and psychoticism.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1977
- The P scale and psychosis.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1977
- The effect of a low rate of regular signals upon the reaction times of introverts and extravertsJournal of Research in Personality, 1974
- Severity and Type of Psychotic Illness as a Function of PersonalityThe British Journal of Psychiatry, 1973
- The Schizophrenias as Nervous TypesThe British Journal of Psychiatry, 1972
- Criterion analysis--An application of the hypothetico-deductive method to factor analysis.Psychological Review, 1950