Personality Science: Exploring Boldly, Integrating Creatively

that members of one guild will not be on speaking terms with those of another. But the integrative aspirations of personality science will require theories that explicitly seek to bridge the isolated islands of research and this will require an ecumenical attitude toward colleagues of diverse faiths. We now have several metatheoreti-cal frameworks for personality science that will remain an important force for synoptic thinking and integration (e. Like theories, the methods of personality science also face the challenge of facilitating bold exploration while providing possibilities for integration. Some methodologies have been created with just such possibilities in mind. Personal Projects Analysis (Little, 1983) for example, was explicitly developed to explore the cognitive, affec-tive, and behavioral aspects of action in context as well as providing information on the physical, social, and political contexts through which the doings of daily life are pursued. Such methods, based on measurement assumptions that differ radically from those undergirding traditional methods, allow us to test alternative theoretical models , grounded in specialist inquiry. But they also render those inquiries commensurable and therefore capable of integration. Although personality psychology has had important applied implications since its inception it has seldom seen itself as an applied field. That seems to be changing and the shift will be even more apparent in an expanded personality science. Much of the recent intellectual excitement in the study of personality arises from applied psychologists in organizational, clinical, and counseling psychology, among others, who are discovering that the insights of personality research can be pivotal for enhancing the effectiveness of their applied activities. Trait psychology provides increasingly sophisticated guidelines for matching individual dispositions to treatment regimens. The study of personal action, goals, tasks, and The study of personality is burgeoning. Within psychology, researchers are exploring a remarkable range of topics, using analytic units that extend from polypep-tides to personal projects to the political contexts of daily lives. Personality psychologists have been joined by researchers in fields as diverse as molecular genetics, evolutionary biology, behavioral economics , and cultural theory to create a transdis-ciplinary personality science. Considered as a collective intellectual venture, the research agendas advanced by personality scientists have three overarching concerns: exploring the nature of human nature, the sources of variability in thought, feeling and action, and the roots of human individuality. These are audacious aspirations and Frontiers in Personality Science and Individual Differences is committed to stimulating and facilitating their …