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Personality Processes

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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

Synonyms

Features of processes; Person; Personality; Processes; Situation; Time series of steps

Definition

A personality process is “a series of steps (elements, components, and actions) through which some phenomenon takes place or emerges” (Baumert et al. 2017, p. 27). Personality processes differ with respect to several features including function, course, duration, awareness, and person-situation interactions.

Conceptualizing Personality Processes

A process is a time series of steps (i.e., actions, changes, or functions) resulting in an outcome (Baumert et al. 2017). Likewise, a personality process is a time series of thinking, feeling, and behaving that leads to an outcome. Process-oriented research in personality science investigates the dynamic unfolding of momentary thinking, feeling, and behaving in concrete situations (i.e., states) as well as broad and enduring tendencies in thinking, feeling, and behaving across situations (i.e., traits).

Personality processes can be...

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Correspondence to Mathias Allemand .

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Lindner, S., Aschwanden, D., Allemand, M. (2018). Personality Processes. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_467-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_467-1

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