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In this paper, I argue that the most important task confronting the field of personality is the task of capturing the dynamic, process-oriented nature of personality in a parsimonious fashion. I propose that this may best be accomplished by understanding people's predominant goals and their strategies for pursuing those goals. Such a motivational analysis allows us to express coherent cognition-affect-behavior patterns that distinguish individuals from each other. However, because it also illuminates the underpinnings of important psychological phenomena in all individuals (e.g., helplessness, aggression), this analysis would be of interest even if everyone had the same personality. I illustrate these points by identifying major classes of goals and the cognition-affect-behavior patterns that are associated with them. I close by proposing that goals can provide a common language for those who take a process-oriented approach to personality, as well as common ground between personality and other fields of psychology.
Carol S. Dweck (Sun,) studied this question.