SOME PROBLEMS OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH

Abstract

The content and methodology of personality development research, like those of the total field of child development research, vary tremendously. Past personality development studies have ranged from empirical normative surveys to theory-oriented hypothetical-deductive ones, and from naturalistic observational investigations to controlled laboratory experiments. No attempt will be made in the present paper to survey all, or even most, of the current theoretical and methodological problems in this area of child development research. Rather, a limited number of these problems will be selected for discussion, with special emphasis on their implications for future research. A number of personality development studies in the recent past have employed projective techniques as research tools. While some of these techniques have been very useful for studying certain problems, projective techniques have often, unfortunately, been employed in an uncritical fashion. Too frequently the tail has wagged the dog, with research problems being determined by available projective methods rather than by specific theoretical questions. It is the belief of the writer that this state of affairs can be, and probably will be, eradicated as research in this area becomes less empirical and more theoretically oriented. Ideally, in theory-oriented research, hypotheses under consideration should dictate behaviors to be studied and thus, indirectly, determine the choice of assessment techniques to be used. Existing projective techniques may or may not be appropriate for such investigations. In sheer number there is no shortage of potentially useful projective tests; the growth of these assessment methods has been almost weed-like. However, since many of these techniques were originally developed with little regard for existing personality theories, few may be found useful in future personality development research in their present form. New techniques will have to be developed and/or old ones modified. As the writer suggested in a recent symposium on the use of projective tech