ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Contextualizing personality: Personality within and across social roles and conceptual levels
William L. Dunlop,
Grace E. Hanley,
Corresponding Author
William L. Dunlop
Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California
Correspondence
William L. Dunlop, Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorGrace E. Hanley
Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California
Search for more papers by this authorWilliam L. Dunlop,
Grace E. Hanley,
Corresponding Author
William L. Dunlop
Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California
Correspondence
William L. Dunlop, Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorGrace E. Hanley
Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California
Search for more papers by this authorFUNDING INFORMATION
Support for the project was provided by a fellowship given to the first author (Dunlop).
Abstract
Objective
Personality psychologists have begun to consider the predictive ability of comparable personality characteristics at the levels of traits, goals, and narrative identity. Here, we build upon and extend this work by adopting a contextualized personality approach. Doing so entailed exploring the implications of personality characteristics within three social roles and at each level of personality in relation to role-specific and generalized measures of psychological adjustment.
Methods
Undergraduates (N = 155) rated traits and specified goals and narratives pertaining to their roles as friends, students, and sons/daughters. Measures of trait-based, goal-based, and narrative-based approach orientation were subsequently derived.
Results
Within personality levels, mean-levels of approach orientation differed significantly across social roles. Goal-based and narrative-based approach orientation showed inconsistent associations with role-specific psychological adjustment. When approach orientation was aggregated across roles, however, it demonstrated positive relations with adjustment at each personality level.
Conclusions
There exists contextual variability among and between personality characteristics and adjustment. In addition, in certain cases, aggregating across contextualized personality measures (within conceptual levels) may provide a more reliable indicator of the underlying psychological construct. These results contribute to an evolving understanding of personality coherence and the relation between personality characteristics and context.
CONFLICT OF INTERESTS
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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