ABSTRACT
Different theoretical systems were founded upon diverse philosophical, theoretical, and methodological frameworks. Interest in grand theorizing began to wane, and researchers began to focus their energies on more local problems in the study of personality processes. The trait approach was challenged with the rise of behaviorism in the mid-20th century. The consensus emerging from the person–situation debate had many effects on the study of personality. It prompted the development of integrative models that embrace roles of both the person and situation in the production of action. The consensus that individuals indeed exhibit stable patterns of behavior produced renewed interest in trait conceptions of personality. Higher-order psychological processes are mediated by various psychological and socio-cultural tools. The capacity for sign use, is made possible by the uniquely human forms of intersubjectivity. Traditional conceptions of psychological functioning tend to place the individual as prior to the social.
