| This study identifies and analyzes the view of the person which emerges from the writings of Alfred North Whitehead, especially Process and Reality, with the goal of extracting a personality theory from that viewpoint. Part I establishes the criteria for a personality theory, and Part II develops a Whiteheadian "process personality theory" formulated according to those criteria.; The evaluation of criteria in Part I is based on Salvatore Maddi's model, or "frame of reference", for personality theories as presented in his work Personality Theories: A Comparative Analysis. Here he structures personality according to three categories: "core" (innate and universal elements of pervasive influence), "periphery" (learned elements reflecting individual difference and of circumscribed influence), and development (the impact of environment on core elements to produce peripheral elements.) An examination of this frame of reference concludes that while the basic structure is sound, it is "underdeveloped", i.e., it lacks adequate differentiation to account for certain distinctive elements of personality which do not fit neatly into one of the three basic categories (for example, innate personality elements which are individualistic rather than universally shared.) Part I identifies the kinds of differentiations among personality elements which the model should permit, and integrates these into the model as subdivisions of Maddi's basic categories, resulting in a reformulated frame of reference. Part I also includes an analysis of Maddi's classification of models, and a summary of the most significant core and peripheral features of personality which Maddi believes all good theories should include.; Part II presents the major elements of Whitehead's philosophy from which his view of the person can be derived, and then identifies and organizes the theory of the person according to the reformulated frame of reference for personality theories. The process personality theory is shown to meet the criteria for a personality theory in that it supplies content for all categories and subdivisions in the frame of reference, and further, that it includes all of those features considered by Maddi to be most significant in theorizing about personality. |
