Structures and Processes in Personality Psychology

Personality psychology may play a critical role in redirecting the focus of psychological research on the complex patterning of elements which characterize individual development and functioning. Conceiving of personality as an emergent self-regulatory system provides new hints for understanding the coherent patterns of affect, cognition, and behavior which distinguish each person across time and situation. Thus it is crucial to explain how elementary components gradually cluster into functional units as personality develops. This leads to clarifying how processes (that transform elements) end in structures (that organize processes), and how processes and structures serve reciprocally as causes and effects. Recent findings from research on aggression are reported to substantiate this line of thought.