Recent years have witnessed the ascendance of a new way to conceptualize and investigate the nature of dynamism at different levels of psychological reality. Areas of inquiry as diverse as cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology, organizational behavior, and political sociology are being reframed in terms that allow rigorous and precise insight into basic dynamic processes. There are signs that this new approach to dynamics is emerging as a potentially integrative paradigm for personality and social psychology as well. This special issue highlights this new paradigm and illustrates its relevance to a broad spectrum of topics in personality and social psychology.

The Handbook of Personality Dynamics and Processes is a primer to the basic and most important concepts, theories, methods, empirical findings, and applications of personality dynamics and processes. This book details how personality psychology has evolved from descriptive research to a more explanatory and dynamic science of personality, thus bridging structure- and process-based approaches, and it also reflects personality psychology's interest in the dynamic organization and interplay of thoughts, feelings, desires, and actions within persons who are always embedded into social, cultural and historic contexts. The Handbook of Personality Dynamics and Processes tackles each topic with a range of methods geared towards assessing and analyzing their dynamic nature, such as ecological momentary sampling of personality manifestations in real-life; dynamic modeling of time-series or longitudinal personality data; network modeling and simulation; and systems-theoretical models of dynamic processes. - Ties topics and methods together for a more dynamic understanding of personality - Summarizes existing knowledge and insights of personality dynamics and processes - Covers a broad compilation of cutting-edge insights - Addresses the biophysiological and social mechanisms underlying the expression and effects of personality - Examines within-person consistency and variability

Traditional approaches to social psychology have proven highly successful in identifying causal mechanisms underlying human thought and behavior. With the recent advent of the dynamical approach, it is now possible to assemble sets of such mechanisms into coherent systems. This book uses innovative concepts and tools to illuminate the processes by which individuals, groups, and societies evolve and change in a systemic, self-sustaining manner, at times seemingly independent of external influences. Readers learn how the dynamical approach facilitates novel predictions and insights into such social psychological phenomena as attitudes, social judgment, goal-directed behavior, attraction, and relationships. Featuring a wealth of charts and figures derived from original research and computer simulations, the volume is grounded in classic and contemporary theories of social psychology.

A dynamical system refers to a set of elements that interact in complex, often nonlinear ways to form coherent patterns. Because of the complexity of these interactions, the system as a whole may evolve over time in seemingly unpredictable ways as new patterns of behavior emerge. This metatheory has proven useful in understanding diverse phenomena in meteorology, population biology, statistical mechanics, economics, and cosmology. The book demonstrates how the dynamical systems perspective can be applied to theory construction and research in social psychology, and in doing so, provides fresh insight into such complex phenomena as interpersonal behavior, social relations, attitudes, and social cognition.

Personality can be understood from at least two perspectives. One focuses on stable, between-person differences, or traits. The other perspective focuses on within-person differences and dynamics, i.e., fluctuations in personality in response to situations and across time. This Research Topic reflects recent developments in personality research to integrate both trait and dynamic perspectives. An integrated view on personality recognizes both stability in between-person differences and within-person change. Contributors are drawn from research teams across Europe, North America and Australasia, and from basic and applied fields, including organizational, educational, and clinical. The studies reported provide new evidence in support of an integrative approach, highlight currently active areas of research and propose new directions of research. Current streams of research include the study of contingent units of personality and within-person processes underlying traits, the comparisons of findings based on within- vs. between-person data, the conceptualisation and operationalization of perceived and objective change in situation variables, the malleability of personality and the potential for personality interventions. Integrative approaches using within-person designs provide new, bottom-up insights into general principles of personality that explain differences between people while reflecting the complexities of within-person personality dynamics at the level of the individual.

This antiquarian volume contains a fascinating collection of originally independent articles which were written at different times, for quite different reasons. These articles were selected in order to give a picture of the psychology of people, and of the environment. At the same time, it also hopes to indicate their connections with the various applied fields, especially child psychology, pedagogy, psychopathology, characterology, and social psychology. The chapters of this book include: 'The Conflict Between Aristotelian and Gilileian Modes of Thought in Contemporary Psychology', 'On The Structure of The Mind', 'Environmental Forces in Child Behavior and Development', 'The Psychological Situations of Reward and Punishment', 'Education for Reality', etcetera. We are republishing this book now in an affordable, modern edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

How does his social environment change an individual, and why do these changes occur? Can social institutions be shaped and molded profoundly enough to afford each member of a society his maximum potential for happiness, effective functioning, and complete development? In this new work a distinguished psychologist evolves a theory of personality and society designed to help guide the work of institutions responsible for individual growth and development. Drawing on his vast experience--as an educator, a prison psychologist, a practicing psychoanalyst, and as the director of major studies in child development, personality assessment, the social psychology of higher education, and alcoholism and related problems--Professor Sanford has designed a developmental model intended to guide work in institutions which mold the individual: from family through schools, colleges, child guidance clinics, and mental hospitals. With exceptional lucidity, he examines the central issues in furthering desirable change through intervention in individual and group processes. He achieves notable advances in integrating personality theory and sociological theory: he joins psychoanalytic "ego psychologists" and other personality theorists in developing a dynamic-organismic theory broader than that of classical psychoanalysis and more in keeping with contemporary social theory. The author's clear style and firm grasp of his subject add further to the significance of Self and Society. It will be a stimulating textbook in social psychology, personality, and culture, and personality, and will make indispensable reading for behavioral scientists, psychiatrists, and educators, as well as for all professionals who work to promote mental health, education and social welfare.