What is it about?

Leading scholars from biological, physiological, genetic, psychiatric, medical and psychological fields reflect on current findings in research on the systematic study of individual differences. They criticise the shortcomings of methods that are currently popular in psychology, such as standardised assessment methods (e.g., rating scales) and methods of linear statistical analyses (e.g., factor analysis, regression analysis, structural equation modelling). These interdisciplinary scholars also highlight new avenues for conceptual and methodical developments. They discuss alternative methods established in other fields that allow for exploring the complexity of individuals and for modelling the nonlinear process dynamics occurring in individuals' functioning and development.

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Why is it important?

Popular psychological models of individual differences were derived from everyday language (e.g., Big Five Model of human personality) and application of statistical models that are not appropriate to study the peculiarities of biological systems. Therefore, these popular models do not adequately reflect how individuals actually differ and therefore do not allow to explore psychobiological factors underlying individual differences.

Perspectives

Psychology must get beyond the borders in thinking and analyzing that arise from a rather restricted range of methods that have become the field's standard method (e.g., rating scales). New approaches and methods are needed that match the non-linear dynamics and complexity of individuals and their lives.

Dr Jana Uher
University of Greenwich

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This page is a summary of: Diversity in action: exchange of perspectives and reflections on taxonomies of individual differences, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, February 2018, Royal Society Publishing,
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0172.
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