Personality as continuous stochastic process: what Western personality theory can learn from classical confucianism

An important objective of personality psychology is to provide compelling descriptions and explanations of intraindividual personality dynamics that capture the unique qualities of persons. Among contemporary Western personality theories, the Five-Factor Model enjoys prominence in describing individual differences in personality traits. It falls short, however, in its ability to work with intraindividual personality function. This article argues that classical Confucianism, originating 2500 years ago in mainland China, offers Western personality psychologists important theoretical resources for capturing the complex and dynamic processes inherent in human personality. The Confucian perspective emphasizes a behaviorally anchored, continuous, stochastic, process-oriented understanding of the self as relationally constructed and proposes an elegant description of the relational virtuosity of exemplary persons. The article concludes with five characteristics of a Confucian inspired model of personality and questions the viability of a universal theory of personality.