Resurrecting the explanatory status of traits: A non-reductive account of explanation in personality psychology
Personality psychology has long been plagued by the apparent explanatory vacuity of trait constructs. The problem is that trait explanations are circular insofar as the traits are defined and measured in terms of the sort of behavioral regularities they are subsequently invoked to explain. To address this problem, researchers have typically either claimed that traits can be reduced to material cau
