Part I    Introduction10
fei75766_ch01_001-018.indd 10  02/06/20 10:41 AMTheorists’ Personalities and Their Theories of Personality
Because personality theories grow from theorists’ ownpersonalities, astudy ofthose 
personalities isappropriate. Inrecent years asubdiscipline ofpsychology called 
psychology of science hasbegun tolookatpersonal traits ofscientists. Thepsychology 
ofscience studies bothscience andbehavior ofscientists; thatis,itinvestigates the
impact ofanindividual scientist’s psychological processes andpersonal characteristics 
onthedevelopment ofhisorherscientific theories andresearch (Feist, 1993, 1994, 
2006; Feist &Gorman, 1998; Gholson, Shadish, Neimeyer, &Houts, 1989). Inother 
words, thepsychology ofscience examines howscientists’ personalities, cognitive 
processes, developmental histories, andsocial experience affect thekindofscience 
theyconduct andthetheories theycreate. Indeed, anumber ofinvestigators (Hart, 
1982; Johnson, Germer, Efran, &Overton, 1988; Simonton, 2000; Zachar &Leong, 
1992) havedemonstrated thatpersonality differences influence one’s theoretical ori-
entation aswellasone’s inclination toleantoward the“hard” or“soft” sideofa
discipline.
Anunderstanding oftheories ofpersonality restsoninformation regarding the
historical, social, andpsychological worlds ofeachtheorist atthetimeofhisorher
theorizing. Because webelieve thatpersonality theories reflect thetheorist’s personal -
ity,wehaveincluded asubstantial amount ofbiographical information oneachmajor 
theorist. Indeed, personality differences among theorists account forfundamental 
disagreements between those wholeantoward thequantitative sideofpsychology Perspective Primary Assumptions Focus/Key Terms Key Figures
Learning-  
(Social) Cognitive• Only explanation forbehavior 
istheconditions thatcreate 
behavior
• Learning occurs through 
association andconsequences 
ofourbehavior
• Learning alsooccurs through 
succeeding orfailing and
watching other people 
succeed orfailintheirtasks
• Personality develops as
aninteraction between 
theinternal andexternal 
characteristics ofaperson
• Thecognitive constructs 
wedevelop toperceive the
world andothers mold our
personalitiesConditioned responses
Shaping 
Reinforcement
Observational learning
Modeling
Self-efficacy
Cognitive-affective units
ConstructsSkinner
Bandura
Rotter
Mischel
KellyTABLE 1.1  ContinuedFinal PDF to printer