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Personality Research, Methods, and Theory

A Festschrift Honoring Donald W. Fiske

• Edited by Patrick E. Shrout, Susan T. Fiske

• Price: $59.95
• Binding: Paperback (also available in Hardback)
• Pages: 392
• Published by: Psychology Press
• Publication Date: 1st January 1995
• ISBN: 978-0-8058-1271-8

About the Book

Donald W. Fiske's professional life and collaborations are themselves a textbook in the development of the field of personality. From the field's early origins in personnel selection, rating accuracy, and psychotherapy outcomes, to its current status of theoretical and methodological maturity -- complete with mid-life crises -- the field has been fundamentally changed by Fiske's work, and the changes have influenced generations of scholars.

This festschrift is a celebration of Fiske's impact, but not merely of his impact on the history of personality research. Instead, the volume focuses on ongoing debates and issues that have been framed or influenced by Fiske's work. The festschrift's three sections are organized around three themes in Fiske's writings -- themes that also correspond to three periods in his career.

This volume examines current thinking about what can be known about personality, how constructs relevant to personality psychology are best measured, and how to approach specific research problems in personality and related fields. The contributors create an eminent cross-section of the development and current status of personality methods. In addition to Fiske's eminent contemporaries, the contributors to this volume include Fiske's former students, collaborators, and his two children, both of whom are behavioral scientists. The accomplishments of his students, colleagues, and children testifies to the range of psychologists who have benefited from his scholarly and practical wisdom.

This collection is a valuable textbook for an advanced graduate course as well as appealing as a scholarly resource. Many of the contributors are renown psychological leaders who have made available their latest original thoughts. The book concludes with an essay by Fiske offering his perspective on the central themes: behavioral and social science metatheory, methods, and strategies.

Table of Contents

Contents: Preface. Part I: Metatheory in Personality and Behavioral Research: Critiques of Theoretical Approaches to Behavioral Research. P. Holzman, J. Kagan, Whither or Wither Personality Research. D.T. Campbell, The Postpositivist, Nonfoundational, Hermeneutic Epistemology Exemplified in the Works of Donald W. Fiske. L.R. Goldberg, What the Hell Took So Long? Donald W. Fiske and the Big-Five Factor Structure. P.E. Meehl, Utiles, Hedons, and the Mind-Body Problem, or, Who's Afraid of Vilfredo? L. Fogg, The Validity of Scientific Quality. Part II: Measuring the Concepts of Personality: Analysis and Interpretation of Multitrait-Multimethod Matrices and Observer Consensus. P.E. Shrout, Measuring the Degree of Consensus in Personality Judgments. R.E. Millsap, The Statistical Analysis of Method Effects in Multitrait-Multimethod Data: A Review. D.A. Kenny, The Multitrait-Multimethod Matrix: Design, Analysis, and Conceptual Issues. W. Wothke, Covariance Components Analysis of the Multitrait-Multimethod Matrix. L.J. Cronbach, Giving Method Variance Its Due. Part III: Strategies for Personality Research: A Focus on Subjects' and Observers' Responses to the Measurement Process. L. Steinberg, D. Thissen, Item Response Theory in Personality Research. R.B. Kuncel, N.R. Kuncel, Response-Process Models: Toward an Integration of Cognitive-Processing Models, Psychometric Models, Latent-Trait Theory, and Self-Schemas. P.F. Secord, J.D. Greenwood, Self-Knowledge of Psychological States: The Status of Subjects' Accounts. S.T. Fiske, Words! Words! Words! Confronting the Problem in Observations. S. Duncan, Jr., Individual Differences in Face-to-Face Interaction. E. Klinger, Effects of Motivation and Emotion on Thought Flow and Cognition: Assessment and Findings. A.P. Fiske, The Cultural Dimensions of Psychological Research: Method Effects Imply Cultural Mediation. L. Luborsky, D.W. Fiske, Principles for Designing Studies of the Process and Efficacy of Psychotherapies. D.S. Butt, On the Measurement of Competence Motivation. P.A. Gaynor, J.K. Underwood, Conceptualizing and Measuring Sexual Self-Esteem. Part IV: Closing Remarks. D.W. Fiske, Reprise, New Themes, and Steps Forward.