Pigeons, People, and Pigeon-Holes

Abstract

Contemporary theorizing about the nature of personality has neglected typological formulations. Instead, reliance has been placed on multidimensional geometric models that fail to capture the crucial configural nature of personality structure and functioning. As a result, there has been little progress in the development of a comprehensive taxonomy of human personalities or in the establishment of a personological systematics. There is evidence that many psychodiagnostic formulations rely on implicit sets of categories or taxa of individuals together with the various forms of psychopathology that are associated with these types. Some reasons for this neglect are pointed out, related to a general aversion to "pigeon-holing" people and the risk of applying stereotypes rather than theorotypes. However, the recent development of powerful taxometric procedures for locating personological taxa is noted and the potential benefits for the science and art of personality assessment to be gained from a comprehensive personological taxonomy are discussed.