Personality Research
Personality research involves studies of emotional reactivity, interpersonal styles, and cognitive abilities. This paper explores the limitations of personality research. It will provide the types of research that would address the identified limitations. Further, the discussion involves the key areas of future research in personality psychology.
Personality research limitations
One of the challenges in this research includes the difficulty of measuring personality. Usually, the behaviors that constitute personality change from time to time (Lucas, 2018). For instance, extraversion, alongside other personality traits, may be changed. Personality research also requires personal observation. It may require subjective self-reports used to measure the traits. Therefore, individuals will be required to be introspective enough to understand their behavior. Besides, the research on personality may fail to explain why people behave in the given behavior. Biases from the respondents may also characterize personality research.
What types of research would address these limitations?
There are various contemporary approaches to studying personality. Different research methods will have certain advantages and limitations. Avoiding the limitations requires the use of multiple research types such as self-reports, which allows the study of traits classified as difficult to observe, including feelings, thoughts, and behaviors (Abernethy, 2015). The research method is easy to distribute across a large group. The observer report may be used to offset other challenges as it can capture spontaneous behaviors and avoid self-report bias.
Future research in personality psychology
Personality psychology should, in the future, seek to address the factors that predict personality change (Leszko et al., 2016). Future research can also address personality change effects on physical and mental health.
References
Abernethy, M. (2015). Self-reports and observer reports as data generation methods: An assessment of issues of both methods. Universal Journal of Psychology, 3(1), 22-27. DOI: 10.13189/ujp.2015.030104
Leszko, M., Elleman, L. G., Bastarache, E. D., Graham, E. K., & Mroczek, D. K. (2016). Future directions in the study of personality in adulthood and older age. Gerontology, 62(2), 210-215. DOI: 10.1159/000434720
Lucas, R. E. (2018). Reevaluating the strengths and weaknesses of self-report measures of subjective well-being. Handbook of subjective well-being. Noba Scholar Handbook series: Subjective well-being. Salt Lake City, UT: DEF Publishers. DOI:nobascholar.com