This I Have Learned from over 40 Years of Personality Research

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Abstract

During the over 40 years in which I have conducted personality research, I have had a number of insights about the research process that I thought would be worth sharing: an awareness of the human side of science; lessons from the person-situation debate; lessons from comparing research on highly ego-involving natural events, such as sport parachuting, with laboratory analogues; the realization of what is wrong with the concept of the Freudian unconscious and what should be done to replace it; and awareness of pervasive biases in the journal-reviewing process. Perhaps the one most general lesson I have learned is that the advancement of psychology as a cumulative, integrative science is hampered not so much by its conceptual complexity as by the difficulty of humankind to view itself objectively, with honesty, courage, and a willingness to surrender illusions.

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Epstein, S. (1997). This I Have Learned from over 40 Years of Personality Research. Journal of Personality, 65(1), 3–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1997.tb00527.x

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