ABSTRACT
Personality psychology is concerned with the nature of individuals. The study of the nature of individuals rests on the philosophy (implicit or explicit) that individuals are the basic agents or causes of their behavior. This individualistic philosophy contrasts with other social sciences, which may focus on the society (sociology) or the culture (anthropology), and other areas of psychology, which may focus on the relationships among individuals (social psychology). Of course, other issues besides individualism distinguish personality psychology from other social sciences such as economics and from other areas of psychology such as cognitive or developmental psychology, but these issues are not relevant to our discussion here. The point is that if personality psychology is concerned with the nature of individuals, why dowe need to be concernedwith situations?Why not leave such issues to the sociologists, the anthropologists, or even the social psychologists?
