Conflict, consistency and fulfillment revisited: approaches to modelling the person

Abstract

The issue of consistency in human personality is reviewed. Attention is given to personality both as a fixed entity and as something mediated by situational factors. Mischel's reinvention of the person-situation debate is noted as well as the seminal contributions of Allport, Eysenck and the 'forgotten figure' of Henry Murray. The discussion is resolved largely in favour of 'the whole person' in psychology but not before central issues of conflict, consistency and fulfillment are accounted for. In particular, the manner by which an evolving 'scientific' psychology chooses to ignore person psychology is seen to be pertinent. The topic is especially relevant to those psychiatric practitioners who espouse a whole person or 'fulfillment psychology' in their practice. However, the overall intention is to reintroduce material that extends the usual humanistic confines of the discussion.