bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Health Psychology
Authors: Belar Cynthia D. , McIntyre Teresa Mendonca , Matarazzo Joseph D.
Published: November 2003

This chapter reviews the history of health psychology from its philosophical roots in human history to its current formalization as a specialized area of research and practice in psychology. Historic landmarks in its development are noted, as well as relevant scientific and professional organizations, education and training, and major journals.
International Psychology
Authors: David Henry P. , Buchanan Joan
Published: November 2003

In developing this chapter, two approaches are followed. The first part, a narrative, summarizes the international roots of psychology, beginning more than 2000 years ago, followed by selected highlights and vignettes retrieved from reports and personal observations. Anecdotal at times, the intent is to show the human side of international psychology by reflecting on the interactions of colleagues seeking international consensus and to demonstrate how political events can gradually force psychologists to move beyond the sheltered world of academia to confront questions of professional ethics and public policies impinging on personal freedom. To illustrate these dilemmas and successes several U.S.‐influenced events are recalled, ending with a commentary on the increasing internationalization of psychology. The second part of the chapter consists of a chronology of events influencing international psychology, including the founding of laboratories and institutes, national psychological organizations, journals and first congresses, as well as some unique events of historical interest that reflect the tenor of a given era.
Professional Organizations
Authors: Pickren Wade E. , Fowler Raymond D.
Published: November 2003

The organization of psychology has proceeded in an irregular fashion. Beginning in 1889, international congresses of psychology were the first efforts to bring together psychologists. Three years later the first national association was formed in the United States. Over the course of the twentieth century, national psychological organizations were formed on every continent except Antarctica. By mid‐twentieth century, the International Union of Psychological Sciences was formed with 20 initial national associations as members and experienced continued growth as national organizations were formed. The largest national organization was the American Psychological Association, whose growth was facilitated by its reorganization in the 1940s into numerous divisions that represented specific areas of psychological science and practice. Increasingly, psychological organizations were formed to represent such specific areas and by the end of the century there were organizations that represented almost every scientific specialty and practice. The chapter provides a descriptive history of the events and processes of organizations from the broad, international level to the scientific society devoted to particular research topics. The chapter concludes with a brief analysis of historical forces at work in the formation of psychological organizations.
Exploratory Data Analysis
Authors: Behrens John T. , Yu Chong‐Ho
Published: November 2003

In contrast to statistical approaches aimed at testing specific hypotheses, Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) is a quantitative tradition that seeks to help researchers understand data when little or no statistical hypotheses exist, or when specific hypotheses exist but supplemental representations are needed to ensure the interpretability of statistical results. In this way, EDA seeks to answer the broad scientific questions of “what is going on here” and “how might I be fooled by my statistical results.” The techniques of EDA are discussed following the “4 Rs” of Revelation (graphics), Re‐expression (scale transformation), Residuals (model building and assessment), and Resistance (using summaries unaffected by unexpected values). The philosophical justification for EDA is presented in terms of C.S. Pierce's concept of abduction and the recognition of a broad range of analytic needs that arise throughout the research process. Several previously published datasets from psychological literature are re‐analyzed to illustrate the interpretive errors that can occur when techniques of EDA are omitted. In general, these errors occur because researchers unwittingly assume the existence of structure that is not supported by the data. Using the techniques of EDA, however, underlying structure is brought to the researcher's attention and appropriate interpretation can be obtained.
Power: Basics, Practical Problems, and Possible Solutions
Authors: Wilcox Rand R.
Published: November 2003

The chapter gives a broad overview of power issues when testing hypotheses based on measures of location. Typically, power analyses are performed assuming normality and homoscedasticity (equal variances), and the goal is to determine an appropriate sample size, but it has long been known that violating these assumptions can render such analyses highly misleading. The chapter describes why and covers the most recent results regarding how these problems might be addressed. A theme of the paper is that a plethora of issues need to be considered when dealing with power.
Animal Learning
Authors: Church Russell M.
Published: November 2003

The purpose of the chapter is to describe how research in animal learning has been conducted. It describes each of the stages of the research process from the identification of the problem, the conduct of the experiment, and the analysis of the data. These sections are designed to answer such questions as: What is the problem? What apparatus is required? What animals should be used? How should the independent and dependent variables be measured? What procedure should be used? What experimental design should be used? How should the data be analyzed? and How should the results be explained? Because computers are being used in all stages of the research process, a separate section is devoted to the use of computers in research in animal learning. The final section is a case study of an experiment that illustrates how each of the questions arose, and how they were answered.
Neuropsychology
Authors: Bauer Russell M. , Leritz Elizabeth C. , Bowers Dawn
Published: November 2003

This chapter provides a broad overview of contemporary experimental methods in neuropsychology. It begins with a brief discussion of neuropsychological inference, focusing on basic assumptions and on ways that neuropsychogical research can yield useful information about brain‐behavior relationships. Then, a brief description of major approaches to neuropsychological research, beginning with the traditional lesion approach and its application to the evaluation of brain dysfunction through group and single case experiments. Descriptions of additional techniques, including reversible lesion methods (repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, WADA technique), human laterality paradigms (dichotic listening, tachistoscopic visual presentation, dual task framework), electrophysiological approaches (ERP, autonomic psychophysiology), and functional neuroimaging (PET, SPECT, fMRI, MEG) are then undertaken. Each section considers the rationale for the technique, outlines its strengths and weaknesses, and provides some examples of how it has been used in addressing today's problems in neuropsychology. Opportunities and promises of cross‐platform approaches to neuropsychological research are highlighted.
Growth Curve Analysis in Contemporary Psychological Research
Authors: McArdle John J. , Nesselroade John R.
Published: November 2003

The term “growth curve” is used to describe data where: (1) the same entities are repeatedly observed, (2) the same procedures of measurement and scaling of observations are used, and (3) the timing of the observations is known. Growth curves are now common in many areas of psychological research, and some of these are presented here. The term “growth curve analysis” denotes the processes of describing, testing hypotheses, and making scientific inferences about the growth and change patterns in a wide range of time‐related phenomena. In this sense, growth curve analyses are a specific form of the larger set of developmental and longitudinal research methods, but the unique features of growth data permit unique kinds of analyses. Formal models for the analysis of growth curves which have been developed in many different substantive domains are described here in five sections: (1) An introduction to growth curves, (2) linear models of growth, (3) multiple groups in growth curve models, (4) aspects of dynamic theory for growth models, and (5) multiple variables in growth curve analyses. We conclude with a discussion of future issues raised by the current growth models.
Meta‐Analysis
Authors: Schmidt Frank L. , Hunter John E.
Published: November 2003

The small sample studies typical of most research literatures produce seemingly contradictory results, and reliance on statistical significance tests causes study results to appear even more conflicting. Meta‐analysis is needed to integrate the findings across such studies to reveal the simpler patterns of relations that underlie the studies, thus providing a basis for theory development. Meta‐analysis can correct for the distorting effects of sampling error, measurement error, and other artifacts that produce the illusion of conflicting findings. This chapter discusses these artifacts and the meta‐analysis procedures used to correct for their effects. Several different approaches to meta‐analysis are discussed. Applications of meta‐analysis in different areas of psychological research are discussed and evidence is presented that meta‐analysis is transforming research in psychology in general.
Time Series Analysis
Authors: Velicer Wayne F. , Fava Joseph L.
Published: November 2003

Time‐series analysis is a statistical method of analyzing data from repeated observations on a single unit or individual at regular intervals over a large number of observations. Time‐series analysis can be viewed as the exemplar of longitudinal designs. The most widely employed approach is based on the class of models known as Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) models. ARIMA models can address several major classes of research questions, including an analysis of basic processes, intervention analysis, and analysis of the pattern of treatment effects over time. Technical aspects of ARIMA models are described, including definitions of important terms, statistical estimation of parameters, and the model identification process. Examples are employed to clarify the technical discussion. Recent extensions of ARIMA modeling techniques include multiunit time‐series designs, multivariate time‐series analysis, the inclusion of covariates, and the analysis of patterns of intra‐individual differences across time.
Structural Equation Modeling
Authors: Ullman Jodie B. , Bentler Peter M.
Published: November 2003

In this chapter we will present a tutorial on the fundamentals of structural equation modeling (SEM). In recent years structural equation modeling (SEM) has grown enormously in popularity. Fundamentally, SEM is a term for a large set of techniques based on the general linear model. The goal of this chapter is to present an introduction to the field of structural equation modeling. The chapter begins with an overview of SEM that includes the purpose and goals of this statistical analysis as well as terminology unique to this technique. Following the brief overview, the process of modeling will be discussed and illustrated with an example using data from a recent D.A.R.E. evaluation. After the basic modeling process is illustrated and discussed, an extension (multilevel modeling) of the basic model is presented. Finally, we present a section that discusses future trends in SEM.
Ordinal Analysis of Behavioral Data
Authors: Long Jeffrey D. , Feng Du , Cliff Norman
Published: November 2003

This chapter discusses statistical methods that make use of ordinal information. There are two main sections, the first covers ordinal measures of correlation and the second covers ordinal measures for group comparisons. The correlation section focuses on descriptive and inferential methods for the bivariate case. There is also a discussion of the comparison of ordinal correlations and a type of ordinal multiple regression. The group comparison section focuses on dominance analysis using the delta measure. Two‐group and multiple‐group situations are discussed as well as factorial designs and designs with correlated data. The methods of the chapter have many desirable properties that argue for their general use. Much data in the social sciences has only ordinal justification and ordinal methods are based on operations consistent with ordinal data. Many research questions in the social sciences are ordinal in nature and ordinal methods provide answers to ordinal questions. The ordinal methods have the advantage of invariance under monotonic transformations so that results obtained on raw data are exactly the same under any order‐preserving transformation. Finally, the ordinal methods have desirable statistical qualities, including few distributional assumptions, resistance to extreme values, and applicability to nonlinear but monotonic relationships.
Visual Processing in the Primate Brain
Authors: Pasternak Tatiana , Bisley James W. , Calkins David
Published: November 2003

The visual system is the most widely studied and perhaps the best understood mammalian sensory system. Not only have the details of its anatomical features been well described, but the behavior of it neurons have also been characterized at many stages of the neural pathway. This chapter focuses on the visual system of nonhuman primates and deals with the way the primate visual system performs the analysis of various attributes of the visual image and then integrates these attributes into a percept of a visual scene. It shows how such fundamental dimensions of visual stimuli as spatial and temporal variations in luminance and chromaticity are first encoded at the level of the retina, and the manner in which the encoding of other more complex stimulus features, such as motion, complex form and depth, emerge at the level of visual cortex. Finally, modulation of visual cortical activity by such cognitive phenomena as memory and attention are discussed.
Auditory Processing in the Primate Brain
Authors: Hackett Troy A. , Kaas Jon H.
Published: November 2003

The auditory system makes it possible to identify and localize sounds and their sources from a complex and dynamic acoustic environment. To accomplish these tasks, the auditory system must encode the relevant cues and appropriately distribute that information among a myriad of auditory processing centers in the brain. These events are accomplished in multiple parallel pathways involving an extensive array of interconnected nuclei and fields in the brainstem, thalamus, and cerebral cortex. Both ascending and descending channels contribute to a dynamic exchange in which the response properties of neurons at every level of processing can be modified as needed. Among mammals, the organization of subcortical auditory nuclei and associated pathways is highly conserved. By comparison, the number and organization of auditory fields in cortex varies across taxonomic groups. In nonhuman primates, three major regions containing some 12 subdivisions occupy the superior temporal region where auditory inputs are processed in serial and parallel. Outputs target multiple auditory‐related domains in temporal, prefrontal, and posterior parietal cortex. From these many interactions information concerning the identity and location of acoustic objects is extracted and used to guide behavior.
The Biological Psychology of Pain
Authors: Coderre Terence J. , Mogil Jeffrey S. , Bushnell M. Catherine
Published: November 2003

The chapter provides a comprehensive review of the current knowledge concerning the anatomical, physiological, and neurochemical substrates that underlie both physiological and pathological pain. Thus, we describe in detail the pathways that underlie the transmission of inputs from the periphery to the CNS, the physiological properties of the neurons activated by painful stimuli, and the neurochemicals that mediate or modulate synaptic transmission in somatosensory pathways. A special effort has been made to identify critical advances in the field of pain research that point to the processes by which pathological pain develops following tissue or nerve injury, as well as how pain is modulated by various brain mechanisms. The review of the peripheral nervous system concentrates on differences in the properties of the primary afferent neurons that transduce and relay painful messages to the CNS, and how their responses are affected by injuries that produce inflammation. The review of spinal cord dorsal horn concentrates on what is known about the neurochemical influences on synaptic transmission, and how they are affected by inflammatory and nerve injuries in the periphery. The review of pain processing in the brain focuses on the role of various brain regions in the determination of the multidimensional nature of pain, as discerned by anatomical connectivity, physiological function, and brain imaging. Finally, insights are provided into the future of pain research, with a focus on molecular biology, and behavioral genetics as a means to understand individual differences in pain sensitivity and expression.
Food and Fluid Intake
Authors: Moran Timothy H. , Sakai Randall R.
Published: November 2003

The ingestive behaviors of eating and drinking play primary roles in the maintenance of fluid homeostasis and energy balance. Eating and drinking occur intermittently, they both renew and anticipate depletions, and their controls are complex and redundant. The physiological controls of food intake can be divided into systems that mediate: (1) signals related to metabolic state, especially the degree of adiposity stores, (2) affective signals related to taste and nutritional consequences that serve to reinforce aspects of ingestive behavior, and (3) signals that arise within an individual meal that produce satiety. Interactions among these systems permit the appropriate patterning of feeding that lead to the overall regulation of energy balance. The controls of fluid balance depend on interactions among three relatively well characterized systems related to: (1) neural and hormonal signals arising from the detection of plasma osmolality and extracellular fluid volume, which influence the initiation of bouts of fluid ingestion; (2) neural and hormonal signals related to myriad factors that lead to satiety and thus terminate bouts of drinking; and (3) brain sites that receive and integrate these signals and which elicit appropriate physiological and behavioral responses.
Sleep and Biological Clocks
Authors: Latta Federica , Van Cauter Eve
Published: November 2003

Human behavioral and physiological processes are under the dual control of circadian rhythmicity and sleep‐wake homeostasis. In mammalian species, the underlying mechanism for the generation of most circadian rhythms is located in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the hypothalamus. Sleep‐wake homeostasis is an hourglass‐like mechanism relating sleep propensity and intensity to the duration of prior wakefulness. Studies under “constant routine conditions” have facilitated the detection of circadian and sleep regulation and have delineated the temporal variations over the 24‐hr day of subjective alertness (or its antonym, subjective sleepiness), cognitive performance (i.e. objective alertness), and mood, as well as endocrine, metabolic, and cardiovascular function. Subjective and objective alertness vary in parallel, with detectable decreases starting around the usual bedtime until a minimum is reached in the early morning hours, and then increase during the daytime hours. Decreased sleep quality and sleep loss due to voluntary behavioral alterations or to pathological conditions are associated with disturbances of a variety of neurobehavioral, physiological parameters, as well as of subjective alertness, mood, and cognitive performance. Aging is commonly associated with pronounced alterations of both the homeostatic process and the circadian pacemaker. Strategies to improve sleep quality may have beneficial effects on mental and physical well‐being.
Foundations of Visual Perception
Authors: Kubovy Michael , Epstein William , Gepshtein Sergei
Published: November 2003

This chapter consists of three tutorial overviews of important theoretical and methodological issues in the field of visual perception:

First we discuss eight foundational questions that have shaped the principal theoretical approaches to visual perception. We consider the functions of vision, the relationship between percepts and visual neurons, the concept of information, the notion of representation and representational transformation, the relationship between perception and cognition, the concept of modularity and the place of illusions in perceptual theory.

Second we consider psychophysics, taking the reader from the simplest threshold theory to the theory of signal detection. We compare four threshold models: fixed energy threshold—naive observer, fixed energy threshold—guessing observer, variable energy threshold—guessing observer, and variable energy threshold—variable guessing rate. Then, we review the concept of receiver operating characteristic and conclude by examining the application of psychophysical methods in contemporary investigations.

Third we discuss environmental regularities, how they may be discovered and related to perceptual regularities. We trace how the notion of redundancy reduction has evolved into the notion of redundancy exploitation, leading to the method of covariational analysis. Then we examine how covariational analysis is used to link the statistics of contours in natural images to the characteristics of perceptual organization.
Audition
Authors: Yost William A.
Published: November 2003

Hearing allows an organism to use sound to detect, discriminate, and segregate objects in the world. Sound has the physical properties of frequency, level, and time. The auditory periphery codes for the spectral and temporal properties of the complex sound field made up of the sound from all of the surrounding sources. The inner ear of the auditory periphery contains haircells which serve as the biological transducers for generating neural impulses from the biomechanical vibrations of the inner ear. These neural impulses provide the peripheral code that is relayed to the central auditory nervous system. The central auditory nervous system analysis this neural code allowing for the determination of the sources of sound. Sounds over a large range of frequencies and levels can be detected and small differences in frequency and level are discriminable. Sounds from one source can mask and interfere in other ways with the detection and perception of sounds from other sources. The location of a sound source can be determined in three‐dimensional space by the sound produced by the source. The subjective perceptions of pitch, loudness, and timbre are correlated with the physical properties of frequency, level, and time. Several aspects of the sound from sources may provide the basis for the auditory system's ability to segregate sounds in complex acoustic environments. Understanding the normal processes of hearing is critical for dealing with hearing impairment and in improving our understanding of behavior and the ability of organisms to cope with their complex worlds.
Depth Perception and the Perception of Events
Authors: Proffitt Dennis R. , Caudek Corrado
Published: November 2003

Three fundamental questions are addressed: (1) What are the effective sources of optical information for perceiving spatial relationships and events? Complex natural environments provide a plethora of information potentially related to spatial layout. Psychophysical research investigates the efficacy and perceptual processing of these potential cues to depth and events. (2) How is this information combined by the perceptual system? Viewed in isolation, individual cues typically do not fully specify the environmental properties to which they relate. In general, the rules for projecting three‐dimensional layout onto the retina are unambiguously defined, whereas the inverse operation—from the image to the three‐dimensional projected scene—is not. (3) Do people perceive space and events accurately? Certainly, people act in the environment as if they represent its spatial relationships accurately; however, effective action can often be achieved without geometrically correct representations. From a pragmatic perspective, perceptual representations are accurate to the degree that they provide effective guidance for behavior. This issue is developed and discussed throughout the chapter.
Action Selection
Authors: Proctor Robert W. , Vu Kim‐Phuong L.
Published: November 2003

Chapter 11 provides an overview of research on action selection, which is typically studied in tasks that measure the speed and accuracy with which one of two or more actions is selected in response to a stimulus. Action selection is an important aspect of information processing in both the laboratory and everyday environments. It has been a topic of interest in experimental psychology since its inception and continues to be an active area of research at present. The chapter covers fundamental methodological issues, models, and theories, including the speed‐accuracy tradeoff and discrete versus continuous models of information processing. Topics in action selection that are discussed include the Hick‐Hyman law, stimulus‐response compatibility, sequential effects, and advance information. Effects of irrelevant information are also reviewed, including the Stroop effect, the Eriksen flanker effect, the Simon effect, and negative priming. Action selection effects in multiple task situations, including task switching effects, the psychological refractory period effect, and stop signal effects, are considered as well. Action‐selection effects occur in a range of tasks and environments, and the insights these effects provide regarding human performance are only now coming to be fully appreciated.
Motor Control
Authors: Heuer Herbert
Published: November 2003

Skilled movements require the determination of motor outflow which is appropriate for a certain intended motor pattern; this poses an intricate control problem because of the complex transformations on the way from neural activity to actual limb movements. Solutions are reached by combinations of feedforward and feedback processes. Feedforward processes start before the physical movement and embrace a representation which anticipates it. This anticipatory representation is involved in control and can be modeled in different ways, for example, as a generalized motor program or as a neural network. Sensory information is required both to adapt the anticipatory movement representation to the environment and for feedback‐based corrections, but it is not necessarily the same kind of information on which perceptual awareness is based. Many tasks require the coordinated action of different limbs. While the interactions between the limbs involved are largely tuned to the task requirements, there are constraints which are hard or even impossible to overcome. These constraints originate at different levels of motor control. Overall motor control reveals a remarkable degree of flexibility in adjusting to new visuo‐motor transformations and force fields.
Semantic Memory and Priming
Authors: McNamara Timothy P. , Holbrook Jon B.
Published: November 2003

The purpose of this chapter is to review theoretical and empirical developments in the scientific understanding of semantic memory, semantic priming, and repetition priming. We begin by summarizing the classical models of semantic memory and the major empirical findings that were used to test those models. We also summarize two contemporary models of semantic memory, distributed network models and high‐dimensional spatial models. In the second section of the chapter, we examine semantic priming. We review the most influential models of semantic priming; viz., spreading‐activation, compound‐cue, and distributed‐network models. We then summarize the major empirical findings on semantic priming, focusing in particular on issues that have turned out to be important for testing models of semantic priming and on findings published since Neely's (1991) review. In the third section, we examine repetition priming. We summarize the most influential models of repetition priming, such as the logogen model, the counter model, instance theory, and distributed network models. We then review some of the major issues and findings on repetition priming. We close the chapter with a summary of our conclusions and a discussion of promising directions for future research.
Episodic and Autobiographical Memory
Authors: Roediger Henry L. , Marsh Elizabeth J.
Published: November 2003

Episodic memory is about recollection of events in one's past. Autobiographical memory is one's personal history that may include episodic memories in addition to other facts about oneself (such as one's place and date of birth). The concepts are related but not identical and have been studied in different research traditions. In discussing both episodic and autobiographical memory, we consider sets of factors that occur (a) prior to the to‐be‐remembered events, (b) during encoding of the event, (c) during the retention interval between encoding and retrieval, and (d) during retrieval of the event in response to some query or test. Despite the fact that the types of research on these concepts arise from different methods, there is convergence in many outcomes and principles that emerge from both types of research. However, results from the two research traditions do not always converge and the methods have different strengths. Episodic memory tasks allow for manipulation of prior events, whereas autobiographical memory methods allow for investigations in more natural contexts. Episodic and autobiographical memory are best viewed as overlapping concepts with both similarities and differences in their operation. Each domain of inquiry provides an important contribution to the larger understanding of human memory.
Psychological Experimentation Addressing Practical Concerns
Authors: Nickerson Raymond S. , Pew Richard W.
Published: November 2003

In this chapter we focus on experimental research that has been motivated explicitly by practical concerns or that has yielded results the practical implications of which are relatively direct. Following some comments about the distinction between basic and applied research, and about indications of a recently growing interest in applications, we describe the historical roots of applied experimental psychology and the status of the field today. We note studies in several applications areas illustrating the broad range of topics that applied experimentation has addressed. We give examples of challenges for applied experimentation that come from psychological, social or technological concerns, and we argue the necessity of clearly communicating the practical implications of experimentation if they are to applied to good effect.
Cultural Perspectives on Personality and Social Psychology
Authors: Miller Joan G. , Schaberg Lynne
Published: November 2003

The chapter highlights insights for understanding personality and social psychology that emerge from a consideration of the cultural grounding of basic psychological processes. In the first section, reasons are identified for why culture has been downplayed in mainstream social psychology, including the field's adoption of culture‐free approaches to situations, natural science ideals of explanation, and its default assumptions of cultural homogeneity. Through a brief review of early research in cross‐cultural psychology, it is also shown that work in this tradition lay important foundations for contemporary theory and research in cultural psychology. In the second section, consideration is given to key conceptual premises that have contributed to the emergence of cultural psychology, including the recognition of the role played by culture in the constitution of higher‐order psychological processes. Also, a select review is offered of findings from cultural psychological research on cognition, the self, emotions, and motivation and challenges are identified for future research, including those of developing more process‐oriented views of culture and more contextually sensitive models of cultural influences on basic psychological phenomena. In conclusion, implications are drawn regarding the importance of cultural research in contributing new constructs, research questions, and theoretical insights to enrich basic psychological theory.
Biological Bases of Personality
Authors: Zuckerman Marvin
Published: November 2003

This chapter describes the biological pathway from the genetic to the neurological to the biochemical to the physiological and finally to their interaction with the environment in the learning of behavioral traits. Four basic personality traits are discussed in terms of the evidence of their biosocial bases: extraversion/sociability, neuroticism/anxiety, aggression/agreeableness, and impulsivity/sensation–seeking/psychoticism. Methods of research include: EEG and brain imaging studies of cortical arousal and various peripheral measures of autonomic arousal, indices of activity in brain neurochemical systems, particularly the monoamines, hormonal systems, and twin studies of genetics for impulsive sensation seeking and aggression factors. Although most connections between the biological levels of personality are not yet established, it is clear that we can establish coherent pathways from genes to behavioral traits via biological mechanisms in the spirit of Wilson's “consilience,” the integration of knowledge across disciplines within scientific explanation.
Self‐Regulatory Perspectives on Personality
Authors: Carver Charles S. , Scheier Michael F.
Published: November 2003

Self‐regulatory models of personality emphasize the system of goals that make up the self, the relationships among goals at different levels of abstraction, and the processes by which people try to move toward goals and away from threats. Our view is that actions are managed by one set of feedback processes, and that feelings arise from a different set of feedback processes. Another element in this view is that when people encounter obstacles to goal attainment, their expectancies of success help determine whether they continue to try, or disengage from further effort. Disengaging can create problems for people, but giving up the unattainable is an important part of life. The view discussed here also assumes that people's aspirations tend to recalibrate over experience, such that successes tend to promote higher goals and failures tend to promote lowering of goals. Sometimes goals conflict, so that trying to attain one means suppressing another. This effort sometimes backfires, though, bringing the suppressed desire even more into awareness. Efforts to suppress also sometimes fail, producing a loss of self‐control. Finally, the self‐regulatory models discussed here continue to grow. One direction for growth is provided by ideas in recently emerging bodies of thought known as dynamic systems theory and connectionism.
Interpersonal Theory of Personality
Authors: Pincus Aaron L. , Ansell Emily B.
Published: November 2003

The interpersonal theory of personality, originating with the works of Sullivan, Leary, and Schaefer, is reviewed, and it is suggested that an interpersonal focus can serve as the basis for integrating diverse theoretical approaches to personality. Interpersonal theory's emphasis on the “interpersonal situation” includes both proximal description of overt behavioral transaction and covert psychological processes that mediate interaction, including the formation and function of internalized mental representations of self and other. Interpersonal theory's unique contributions to personality include well‐articulated structural models to describe interpersonal behavior and the patterned regularity of human transaction and recognition of the reciprocal field regulatory functions of interpersonal behavior. Motivational and developmental concepts and processes require further development. We assert that a comprehensive interpersonal theory requires integration with attachment, object relations, and cognitive theories of human behavior and development. Recent theoretical developments such as Kiesler's “impact message” and Benjamin's “gift of love” theory of psychopathology begin such integrative steps. We argue that an even broader range of human motives across the lifespan be linked to interpersonal functioning than is currently found in the literature. In addition, identification of the catalysts that stimulate internalization of relational experience into influential mental representations is needed in an interpersonal theory of personality development.
Justice, Equity, and Fairness in Human Relations
Authors: Montada Leo
Published: November 2003

The chapter starts with the crucial question what “concern for justice” does mean. Theoretical arguments and empirical evidence are offered for the conception of the justice motive as a primary motive. Theories that reduce the concern for justice to self‐interest are criticized, though tradeoffs between the justice motive and self interest are not denied.

Whereas the justice motive seems to be universal, the views about what is just and what is unjust diverge a lot, especially in the domain of distributive justice where a large number of conflicting principles do exist. The most frequently used justice principles are reviewed also for the domains of social exchanges and retributions. Special sections are provided for the function of social comparisons as a basis for justice appraisals, for justice in close relationships, and for victims' needs for retribution.

Starting with examples of imbalances with respect to justice at the societal level, two topics are discussed: conflicts about injustice and ways to settle justice conflicts: Research to procedural justice is shortly reviewed and devices are outlined how to deal with justice conflicts in mediation.

Finally, the personal and social construction of justice appraisals is analyzed: Topics are intuitions versus moral reasoning, relevant personality traits, socialization processes, persuasive tactics by social movements as well as ways of coping with experienced or observed injustices.
Aggression, Violence, Evil, and Peace
Authors: de Rivera Joseph
Published: November 2003

The attainment of peace requires an understanding of aggression, violence, and evil, as well as a knowledge of the various paths that may lead to peace. This chapter begins by examining different ways to conceptualize and comprehend aggression and how it may be involved in peaceful as well as violent behavior. The chapter then reviews the extensive literature on many forms of direct (aggressive) and indirect (structural) violence. Violence is considered as a matter of fact. However, evil is considered as involving moral judgment. The literature describes how this judgment may be distorted by an attempt to distance evil from the self, how there are different ways to conceive of evil, and how religions attempt to contain it. Peace is considered as a goodness that is the opposite of evil. The literature on peace is described in terms of the advantages and disadvantages of four different paths towards peace. These may be characterized as involving: strength, negotiation, justice, and personal transformation. Each path may be considered as a way of developing peaceful cultures. Such cultures are described. The literature suggests that if cultures of peace are to develop in contemporary society, people must master different types of negotiation and nonviolent action.
Personality in Political Psychology
Authors: Immelman Aubrey
Published: November 2003

This chapter outlines the history of personality inquiry in political psychology, examines the current state of personality in politics, and charts a course for the study of personality in politics in the post‐cognitive revolution era, informed by contextually adjacent scientific fields such as behavioral neuroscience and evolutionary ecology.

The chapter offers a comprehensive, generative, theoretically coherent framework for studying personality in politics that is consonant with established principles in the adjacent sciences and integrative with respect to accommodating a diversity of politically relevant personal characteristics. It attempts to bridge conceptual and methodological gaps between current formulations in the source disciplines of personology and personality assessment and the target discipline of contemporary political personality—specifically the psychological examination of political leaders—and proposes a set of basic standards for personality‐in‐politics modeling.

The personality‐in‐politics model formulated in this chapter accounts for structural and functional personality attributes at behavioral, phenomenological, intrapsychic, and biophysical levels of analysis; permits supplementary developmental causal analysis; provides an explicit framework for personality‐based risk analysis in politics; provides an assessment methodology; explicitly links personality with political performance outcomes; acknowledges the impact of situational variables and the cultural context on political performance; and allows for personological, situational, and contextual filters that modulate the impact of personality on political performance.
Development Across the Life Span
Authors: Overton Willis F.
Published: November 2003

This chapter explores the impact of metatheories and metamethods on the construction of concepts and on the formulation, elaboration, and empirical assessment of theories, issues, and applications both in the broad field of Psychology and in the specific domain of Developmental Psychology. Psychology and Developmental Psychology grew up contextualized by metatheories that identify scientific knowledge with procedures that dichotomize the object of inquiry (e.g., nature vs. nurture, mind vs. body, subject vs. object), and introduce a reductionistic strategy to assert the foundational primacy of one or the other of these dichotomized elements. The models of explanation—;referred to as “mechanical” explanation—that resulted from this broad strategy ultimately proved to be inadequate. Recently, relational metatheories, which refuse the temptation of dichotomization, and introduce a strategy entailing a synthesis of opposites, have begun to emerge. The specific nature of relational metatheories is detailed here, and implications of relational metatheories for the acquisition of scientific knowledge are discussed. Finally, embodied development as a concrete illustration of a relational approach to human development is described. Embodiment entails an overarching synthesis among biology‐person‐culture relations and, thus, embodiment creates a seamless bridge between the biological, the psychological, and the sociocultural.
Language Development in Childhood
Authors: Hoff Erika
Published: November 2003

The field of language development is marked by serious disagreement with respect to both what the correct explanation of language development will look like (when we know what it is) and how best to discover that explanation. There is, however, an abstract level at which all researchers in the field are trying to answer the same question: What is the nature of the human capacity to acquire language? This chapter describes current theory and research within four different approaches to answering this question: the biological, the linguistic, the social, and the domain general cognitive. Topics include the neurobiological and genetic bases of language development, learnability theory and Universal Grammar, the social bases of language development, and the contribution of general learning capacities to the acquisition of language. For each approach, the chapter outlines the associated theoretical premises and arguments, provides illustrative examples of the research generated, and evaluates its contribution to our understanding of how children learn to talk.
Emotion and Personality Development in Childhood
Authors: Cummings E. Mark , Braungart‐Rieker Julia M. , Du Rocher‐Schudlich Tina
Published: November 2003

Various current directions in the study of emotions place increased emphasis on the significance and role of emotions in social functioning and personality development. This chapter provides state‐of‐the‐art coverage of widely ranging research directions pertaining to advances in understanding of the role of emotions in children's development. The chapter begins by considering the role of emotion in children's individual development, including emotional expression and emotional understanding, emotional regulation and children's coping with stressful situations, and relations between emotional functioning and temperament, psychobiological functioning, and the development of personality. Next, relational influences on emotional and personality development are examined, including the influences of parent‐child relationships, marital relationships, and familial and cultural influences. The chapter closes by considering normal and abnormal emotional and personality development from a developmental psychopathology perspective. This work is seen as calling special attention to the promise for future conceptual and clinical advances of investigating emotional and personality development from a process‐oriented perspective.
Positive Behaviors, Problem Behaviors, and Resiliency in Adolescence
Authors: Perkins Daniel F. , Borden Lynne M.
Published: November 2003

This chapter examines risk and protective factors within adolescents and their environments and the manifestation of those factors in terms of risk behaviors or resiliency. A detailed exploration of four major risk behaviors in adolescents (i.e., teenage sexual activity, alcohol and/or substance use/abuse, delinquency and antisocial behavior, and school failure) is presented along with the risk factors found to be associated with them. Evidence is presented with regard to the co‐morbidity of those risk behaviors and risk factors. Understanding risk behaviors forms a foundation to understand the influence of risk behaviors on the developmental trajectory of young people. Moreover, specific attention to major risk behaviors also offers a basis for understanding the importance of multiple ecological influences, multiple constitutional influences, and the interactions that occur between them.

The chapter then investigates the beginning of resiliency research and follows the field's development through to its current status and theoretical understanding of resiliency. Empirical findings related to protective factors and their interaction with risk factors are also presented. These interactions are critical to the overall development of adolescents, both in positive and negative directions. Understanding why so many are able to overcome adversity provides us with some direction in intervention efforts.