Being or Becoming: Toward an Open-System, Process-Centric Model of Personality

Mainstream personality psychology in the West neglects the investigation of intra-individual process and variation, because it favors a Being over a Becoming ontology. A Being ontology privileges a structural (e.g., traits or selves) conception of personality. Structure-centric models in turn suggest nomothetic research strategies and the investigation of individual and group differences. This article argues for an open-system, process-centric understanding of personality anchored in an ontology of Becoming. A classical Confucian model of personality is offered as an example of a process-centric approach for investigating and appreciating within-person personality process and variation. Both quantitative and qualitative idiographic strategies can be used as methods of scientific inquiry, particularly the exploration of the Confucian exemplar of psychological health and well-being.