Two-polarities models of personality propose that personality development evolves through a dialectic synergistic interaction between two fundamental developmental psychological processes across the life span--the development of interpersonal relatedness on the one hand and of self-definition on the other. This article offers a broad review of…

Theoretical and empirical research has linked poor emotion regulation abilities with dysfunctional frontolimbic circuitry. Consistent with this, research on borderline personality disorder (BPD) finds that frontolimbic dysfunction is a predominant neural substrate underlying the disorder. Emotion regulation is profoundly compromised in BPD.…

Self-inflicted injury (SII) in adolescence marks heightened risk for suicide attempts, completed suicide, and adult psychopathology. Although several studies have revealed elevated rates of depression among adolescents who self injure, no one has compared adolescent self injury with adolescent depression on biological, self-, and informant-report…

Foreclosure students have prematurely committed themselves to academic majors and future careers, but present themselves to academic advisors as very decided. From a developmental theory perspective, foreclosures represent an immature identity status and include students whose failure to explore their personal and vocational identities and achieve…

This article considers the desirability and legitimacy of denominational schools from the perspective of socialisation theory. It examines the popular criticism that nowadays the common reason for the existence of denominational schools--the religious socialisation of children--is endorsed by a dwindling number of parents, which renders the…

Introduction: Due to a considerable lack in empirical efforts and appropriate instruments, and theoretically rooted in a cognitive-motivational perspective on academic personality development, the present study analyzes a questionnaire for measuring EFL learners' self-perceptions of oral narrative competencies and perceived anxiety concerning oral…

In this article, we present vignettes from two projects--one in Cyprus and the other in South Africa--to show how some classrooms enact "heterotopic" affective spaces that oppose normal/ized identities, that is, identities grounded in polarized trauma narratives. The notion of heterotopia is a spatial concept developed by Foucault to…

The Five-Factor Model was used to examine personality organization in 211 six-year-old children (135 maltreated and 76 nonmaltreated). Longitudinal assessments were conducted at ages 7, 8, and 9. Six-year-old maltreated children exhibited lower agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience and higher neuroticism than did…

The purpose of this study was to apply psychobiography to the lives of Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice. Psychobiography can be applied as a method of teaching personality theory and it can also be used as a research method. Most political personas are crafted through 20 second sound bites from the radio, Internet, and television. However, a…

In this commentary I make three points. First, the four articles presented in this special issue are critical examples of the viability and importance of the idea of childhood personality. Second, I identify several concerns, including the narrow scope of the study of childhood personality, the lack of focus on environmental factors that might…

Personality psychology studies how psychological systems work together. Consequently, the field can act as a unifying resource for the broader discipline of psychology. Yet personality's current fieldwide organization promotes a fragmented view of the person, seen through such competing theories as the psychodynamic, trait, and humanistic. There…

We conceptualize personality and individual variation from the perspective of dynamical systems. People's thoughts, feelings, and predispositions for action are inherently dynamic, displaying constant change due to internal mechanisms and external forces, but over time the flow of thought and action converges on a narrow range of states--a…

We investigated the development of ego-control (EC) and ego-resiliency (ER) over a 13-year period in a cohort of Swedish children first assessed at 2 years of age. Children became more ego-controlled over time although individual differences in EC remained stable. Children's levels of resiliency increased from 2 to 3 years of age and then declined…

On the basis of psychologically and philosophically oriented scientific resources, this article analyses philosophical aspects of personality development in the context of an educology of vocation. A classification of philosophical trends of personality development in educology is presented, as they are involved in vocational education and…

As awarding bodies modernise their procedures and incorporate elements of e-assessment into their qualifications, e-portfolios are emerging as a popular method of allowing candidates to display their abilities. All major United Kingdom awarding bodies now accept evidence from e-portfolio products for at least some of their qualifications. Although…