Versatile Agents and Integrative Authors - in Context

Dunlop's article demonstrates the power of considering personality in the context of social roles and from three different perspectives or standpoints - personality as dispositional traits, personal goals and life narratives. The findings he reports suggest that high levels of inter-contextual variability are good for motivated agents (goals) but bad for autobiographical authors (narratives). Still, a fully contextualized understanding of personality needs to examine differential effects and meanings of a broader range of contextual variables - from social roles and family structures to history and culture.