Behavioural Biology, Centre of Behaviour and Neuroscience, University of Groningen, PO Box 11103, 9700 CC, Nijenborgh 7, 9747 AG Groningen NL, The Netherlands.
Dev Psychobiol. 2011 Sep;53(6):641-55. doi: 10.1002/dev.20574.
We aim to stimulate an ontogenetic approach to personalities. We explain the importance of studying development for understanding proximate and ultimate aspects of personality and critically discuss, partly by perhaps provocative statements, our current lack of knowledge and potential approaches to the study of personality development. We first clarify some terminology and argue for a difference between behavioral profiles (BP; at the descriptive level) and personality (at the explanatory level). We then focus on the issue of temporal stability of personality, arguing that based on evolutionary theory, neurophysiological knowledge, and recent findings, personality is probably less stable than often thought. Next we consider the potential influence of genes, discussing gene by environment correlations and interactions and argue that developmental changes in the regulation of DNA expression are probably more relevant than individual differences in DNA sequence. We end by suggesting perspectives for future research.
我们旨在激发一种个体发生的方法来研究人格。我们解释了研究发展对于理解人格的近因和远因方面的重要性，并批判性地讨论了我们当前对人格发展研究的知识缺乏和潜在方法，部分内容通过或许有争议的陈述来表达。我们首先澄清了一些术语，并主张行为特征（BP；在描述性层面）和人格（在解释性层面）之间存在差异。然后，我们专注于人格的时间稳定性问题，认为基于进化理论、神经生理学知识和最近的发现，人格可能比人们通常认为的更不稳定。接下来，我们考虑了基因的潜在影响，讨论了基因与环境的相关性和相互作用，并认为 DNA 表达调控的发展变化可能比 DNA 序列的个体差异更重要。最后，我们提出了未来研究的展望。
