Personen og hendes daglige livsførelse

Abstract

This article is divided into four parts. In the first part basic problems in personality psychology are analyzed. It is pointed out that central theoretical approaches and empirical research findings in present-day personality psychology have shown that we must expand the foundation for theories of persons to consider the interplay between person, situation, and activity as fundamental in understanding human personality and its attributes. It is also pointed out that limitations in the existing theories and empirical studies give us substantial reasons to expand their focus on particular attributes of situations to encompass many other attributes of situations and to take into account their connections with settings and with other situations in the everyday courses of activity of persons. In the second part a theory of persons is presented in which they are conceptualized as participants in social practices that are arranged in a societal structure of practice. The implications thereof for understanding persons are spelled out and central concepts in this theory presented. In the third part an empirical research project is presented which had crucial

significance for developing this theory. Those challenges are highlighted, which were faced in becoming able to analyze its empirical materials, and which stimulated the development of this theory. In the fourth part it is argued that these challenges also make it necessary to expand the theory of persons with a concept about the everyday conduct of life of persons in social structures of practice and this expansion is then presented. The article is rounded off with some remarks about the character of the presented theory and about some of its implications for future research on persons.