Sociogenomic personality psychology

Back to the Future: Personality and Assessment and Personality Development

In this essay I consider the future of personality development in light of the past effects of Personality and Assessment on the field of personality in general and personality development in particular. The essay is organized around 1) the effect of Mischel's book on the foundational theories informing personality development; 2) definitions of personality traits; 3) an alternative model of personality traits, described as the sociogenomic model of personality traits, that can bridge the divide that still characterizes the field of personality development; 4) the application of the sociogenomic model of personality traits to issues of personality trait development, and 5) a "Newtonian" vision for the future of personality psychology.

Parental Monitoring, Personality, and Delinquency: Further Support for a Reconceptualization of Monitoring

Stattin and Kerr (2000) suggested reconceptualizing "parental monitoring" and presented evidence from a Swedish sample that challenged current operational definitions. We replicate and extend their findings. Parental knowledge ("monitoring") related more strongly to child disclosure than to parental solicitation of information in a more ethnically-diverse U. S. sample. We then addressed whether adolescents' personalities accounted for the links between child disclosure, parental knowledge, and delinquency. Solicitation, knowledge, and disclosure generally did not predict delinquency when controlling for adolescent personality. Personality contributed significant incremental validity to the statistical prediction of delinquency above and beyond solicitation, knowledge, and disclosure; the reverse was generally not true. Adolescents' personalities largely account for the "parental monitoring"-delinquency association, which supports reconceptualizing monitoring.