The actor, agent, and author across the life span: interrelations between personality traits, life goals, and life narratives in an age-heterogeneous sample

What Do We Know When We Know a Compulsive Buying Person? Looking at Now and Ahead

Over the last few decades, research has seamlessly confirmed the marked multicausal nature of compulsive buying, since variables from different realms (e.g., family, social, and contextual domains) have demonstrated their explanatory capacity. However, it has been personality variables that have, to a greater extent, aroused the interest of researchers, leading to what is now a cumbersome richness of personal constructs of different nature that seem to require some arrangement under integrative frameworks. The proposal by McAdams under the suggestive title of "What do we know when we know a person?" is, in this regard, especially attractive and thought-provoking. McAdams approaches us to the person as a whole by establishing three differentiated levels (dispositional traits, personal concerns or characteristics adaptations, life story), and it will be precisely these levels that will become the structure we will use to address the state of the art on compulsive buyers. The location of the multiple personal variables analyzed at each of the levels with a common grammar will allow us to identify what it is known, as well as what remains to be done in each space. Lastly, suggestions for the future are given, with particular emphasis on advancing our understanding of the person from each of the academic vantage points but also the suitability of designing studies that integrate and/or build bridges between dispositional traits, characteristic adaptations, and life narratives. The hope is that research in the coming years satisfactorily integrates the different visions of the person to achieve a more comprehensive, nuanced portrait of a person with compulsive buying problems.

Understanding personality pathology in a clinical sample of youth: study protocol for the longitudinal research project 'APOLO'

INTRODUCTION

We propose that a dimensional, multilayered perspective is well suited to study maladaptive personality development in youth. Such a perspective can help understand pathways to personality pathology and contribute to its early detection. The research project 'APOLO' (a Dutch language acronym for Adolescents and their Personality Development: a Longitudinal Study) is designed based on McAdams' integrative three-layered model of personality development and assesses the interaction between dispositional traits, characteristic adaptations, the narrative identity and functioning.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

APOLO is a longitudinal research project that takes place in two outpatient mental healthcare centres. Participants are youth between 12 years and 23 years and their parents. Data collection is set up to build a data set for scientific research, as well as to use the data for diagnostic assessment and systematic treatment evaluation of individual patients. Measurements are conducted half-yearly for a period of 3 years and consist of self-report and informant-report questionnaires and a semistructured interview. The included constructs fit the dimensional model of personality development: maladaptive personality traits (dispositional traits), social relations, stressful life events (characteristic adaptations), a turning point (narrative identity) and functioning (eg, achievement of youth specific milestones). Primary research questions will be analysed using structural equation modelling.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

The results will contribute to our understanding of (the development of) personality pathology as a complex phenomenon in which both structural personality characteristics as well as unique individual adaptations and experiences play a role. Furthermore, results will give directions for early detection and timely interventions. This study has been approved by the ethical review committee of the Utrecht University Faculty for Social and Behavioural Sciences (FETC17-092). Data distribution will be anonymous and results will be disseminated via communication canals appropriate for diverse audiences. This includes both clinical and scientific conferences, papers published in national and international peer-reviewed journals and (social) media platforms.