Brian R. Little

Personal projects: A Rationale and Method for Investigation

The personal project is proposed as a new unit of analysis for the study of personality in its social, physical and temporal context. A sequential model of personal projects is proposed in which the major stages of project inception, planning, action, and termination are described in detail and related to dimensions of individual differences. A new methodology for assessing personal project content and structure is introduced, including techniques for assessing interproject impact and linkages with values and actions. The relevance of a projectanalytic approach to recent issues in environmental psychology is discussed. It is proposed that personal projects methodology might serve as a coupling device between the fields of personality and environmental psychology.

Personal Projects Analysis: Trivial Pursuits, Magnificent Obsessions, and the Search for Coherence

Personal projects are extended sets of personally relevant action, which can range from the trivial pursuits of a typical Tuesday (e.g., “cleaning up my room”) to the magnificent obsessions of a lifetime (e.g., “liberate my people”). They may be self-initiated or thrust upon us. They may be solitary concerns or shared commitments. They may be isolated and peripheral aspects of our lives or may cut to our very core. Personal projects may sustain us through perplexity or serve as vehicles for our own obliteration. In short, personal projects are natural units of analysis for a personality psychology that chooses to deal with the serious business of how people muddle through complex lives (Little, 1987a).

Affective and cognitive components of global subjective well-being measures

A study was conducted to replicate some of the findings of Andrews and McKennell (1980), who examined affective, cognitive, and other components of global subjective well-being measures among respondents from the United States and Britain. Using data collected from 1068 Canadians, linear structural relations (LISREL) estimates of affective, cognitive, and error components of three global well-being measures provided general support for Andrews and McKennells findings. Implications of the results, such as impact on the design of future studies and measures of subjective well-being, are discussed.

Persons, Contexts, and Personal Projects

Our research program on personality and social ecology is based explicitly on a set of assumptive propositions about the nature of persons, the nature of contexts, and the transactional features of persons in context (Little, 1976, 1983, 1989; Little & Ryan, 1979). Our perspective shares many of the assumptions of other transactional or social ecological approaches (e.g. Altman & Rogoff, 1987; Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Endler, 1983; Moos, 1973; Wapner, 1987) but those commonalities will not be the primary concern of this chapter. Rather, I wish to emphasize the most distinctive feature of our approach: its emphasis on ways of measuring person-context relations This approach assumes the need for isomorphism between conceptual units of analysis and their measurement operations. This methodological transactionalism is the superordinate assumptive theme in our work and undergirds each of the other core themes to be discussed in this chapter.

Androgen-induced changes in rat ovarian granulosa cells in vitro

Ovarian granulosa cells collected from small antral follicles from immature rats were cultured in McCoys 5A medium, for 1-6 days in the presence of delta 4-androstenedione, testosterone, dihydrotestosterone, and dehydroepiandrosterone (10(-5) M and 10(-7) M). Granulosa cells examined by electron microscopy demonstrated many lipid droplets, mitochondria with tubular cristae and profiles of smooth endoplasmic reticulum, all suggestive of active metabolism in the cell. Cells cultured in androstenedione, testosterone, dihydrotestosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone produced estrogen and progesterone as measured by radioimmunoassay. By day 4, cells cultured in androgen had almost completely degenerated. The control cells acquired none of the aforementioned characteristics and survived up to beyond 6 days, at which time the experiments were terminated. This study supports the hypothesis that high concentrations of androgens in cultured granulosa cells contribute to their degeneration through altered structure, which is associated with functional change.

Well-doing: Personal projects and the quality of lives

‘What are you doing?’ and ‘How is it going?’ are foundational questions we can ask of agents. They elicit answers that illuminate aspects of well-doing, or felicitous action, by directing attention to an agent’s personal projects. Personal projects are constitutive elements of daily existence and are consequential for a happy and virtuous life. They have been studied within philosophy, especially in critiques of consequentialist theory. They have been studied by personality psychologists with a methodology, Personal Projects Analysis that measures the content, appraisal, dynamics, and impact of the projects being pursued by individuals. In contrast with more traditional ways of measuring personality, Personal Projects Analysis provides ‘thick’ descriptions of how happiness and virtue are embodied in daily action and embedded in social, physical, temporal, and value contexts. The methodology is designed to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration in contributing to the explanation and the enhancement of well-doing and the quality of lives.

Amniotic fluid evaluation and the management of erythroblastosis fetalis

Amniotic fluid has been examined from 102 Rh-sensitized, 3 ABO incompatible, and 14 control pregnancies. The absorbance at 450 mμ (ΔOD 450 ) has been related to fetal outcome. A classification of the ranges and rates of change of ΔOD 450 in patients has been made to facilitate management (I, IIA and IIB, and III). Of 29 Class I babies, 7 underwent exchange transfusion but all 7 had hematocrit values of greater than 44 per cent. Of 9 Class IIA babies, one was transfused. Of 17 Class IIB, 13 were transfused, 3 died neonatally. Of 39 in Class III, 11 of 13 babies died without intrauterine transfusions; of 26 transfused, 14 were live-born and 9 survived neonatal life. The effect of light, heat, cold, and other possible factors which might influence the handling and results of amniotic fluid evaluation were also examined. The management of patients falling into each class has been discussed.

Biosynthesis of 4-14C- and 7α-3H-labeled 20α-hydroxypregn-4-en-3-one and 7α-3h-3β, 20α-dihydroxypregn-5-ene

Abstract A procedure is described for the preparation of 4-14C- and 7α-3H-labeled 20α-hydroxypregn-4-en-3-one and 7α-3H-3β, 20α-dihydroxypregn-5-ene. The method employs the soluble 20αhydroxysteroid dehydrogenase from human placentae. The radioactive 20α-hydroxysteroids free of any 20β-epimers are recovered in greater than 40% yield after partition column chromatography. The radiochemical purity of the products has been demonstrated using countercurrent distribution.

Well-Doing: Personal Projects and the Social Ecology of Flourishing

Has research by psychologists truly advanced our understanding of human flourishing and the quality of lives? Some philosophers (e.g. Nussbaum, J Leg Stud 37(52):S81–S113, 2008)) are sceptical and believe that the models and methods of psychology obscure or ignore those features of lives constitutive of flourishing. I engage this debate by calling for a reformulation of how we study the quality of lives by focusing upon well-doing or felicitous action. Well-doing comprises the sustainable pursuit of core projects in our lives. A social ecological model of project pursuit is presented in which the stable and dynamic features of individuals and the contexts of their daily lives are highlighted. Research on the social ecology of well-doing provides a thickly textured and granular level of analysis of how people craft their lives. It opens up a research agenda in which philosophers and psychologists can find congenial intellectual company and common purpose.

Personality Science: Exploring Boldly, Integrating Creatively

The study of personality is burgeoning. Within psychology, researchers are exploring a remarkable range of topics, using analytic units that extend from polypeptides to personal projects to the political contexts of daily lives. Personality psychologists have been joined by researchers in fields as diverse as molecular genetics, evolutionary biology, behavioral economics, and cultural theory to create a transdisciplinary personality science. Considered as a collective intellectual venture, the research agendas advanced by personality scientists have three overarching concerns: exploring the nature of human nature, the sources of variability in thought, feeling and action, and the roots of human individuality. These are audacious aspirations and Frontiers in Personality Science and Individual Differences is committed to stimulating and facilitating their pursuit. Exploring the frontiers of personality science poses major challenges. Perhaps the most central of these is the enduring task of personality psychology of providing the integrative center for psychology (Little, 1972, 2005; Revelle, 2008). Within the human sciences, psychology, too, has a key integrative function (Cleeremans, 2010). If psychology is a hub science then personality psychology has been a hub within a hub, the central nexus through which the diverse processes of human behavior come into common focus. An even more expansive and demanding task now presents itself for personality science – to explore boldly and integrate creatively in theory, methods, applications, and institution building. Theoretical perspectives in personality science facilitate both our exploratory and integrative aspirations. Conceptual frameworks for exploration are likely to be tight, focused, and guided by the shared assumptions and aspirations of the different research guilds that have made personality science their intellectual home. It is entirely likely, perhaps necessary, that members of one guild will not be on speaking terms with those of another. But the integrative aspirations of personality science will require theories that explicitly seek to bridge the isolated islands of research and this will require an ecumenical attitude toward colleagues of diverse faiths. We now have several metatheoretical frameworks for personality science that will remain an important force for synoptic thinking and integration (e.g., McAdams, 1996; Sheldon, 2004). Like theories, the methods of personality science also face the challenge of facilitating bold exploration while providing possibilities for integration. Some methodologies have been created with just such possibilities in mind. Personal Projects Analysis (Little, 1983) for example, was explicitly developed to explore the cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects of action in context as well as providing information on the physical, social, and political contexts through which the doings of daily life are pursued. Such methods, based on measurement assumptions that differ radically from those undergirding traditional methods, allow us to test alternative theoretical models, grounded in specialist inquiry. But they also render those inquiries commensurable and therefore capable of integration. Although personality psychology has had important applied implications since its inception it has seldom seen itself as an applied field. That seems to be changing and the shift will be even more apparent in an expanded personality science. Much of the recent intellectual excitement in the study of personality arises from applied psychologists in organizational, clinical, and counseling psychology, among others, who are discovering that the insights of personality research can be pivotal for enhancing the effectiveness of their applied activities. Trait psychology provides increasingly sophisticated guidelines for matching individual dispositions to treatment regimens. The study of personal action, goals, tasks, and projects creates a powerful framework, perhaps the most effective one we have, for enhancing the quality of lives (Sheldon and Lyubomirsky, 2006). Narrative perspectives in personality research are similarly informing and enhancing clinical practice. Finally, a major challenge for personality science, implicit in the above, is the need for institution building. Organizations such as the Association for Research in Personality and the European Association of Personality Psychology have been incubators for a broadly based personality science and their memberships are likely to continue to expand rapidly. Importantly, the Frontiers community promises to be a major contributor to both exploration and integration in our field. It encourages and rewards audacious, focused, exploratory research – no holds barred. But it also pursues the grander project of breaking down barriers of providing access to and building bridges across the different domains of science. The prospects for a flourishing personality science are extremely promising. The very breadth of its scope together with its integrative mission means that there may be the odd internecine squabble and some gnashing of teeth as we expand our frontiers and make sense of what we find. And there is no doubt that some of our challenges involve the most basic and profound questions we can ask about psychological science, such as the limits of reductionism in a world of emergent selves and contextual contingencies. But it is out of such contrasting modes of doing science that truly creative insights are likely to emerge. The timing could not be more propitious for the study of personality. Advance boldly, integrate creativity, and stir as needed!