Psychology is caught between the fluidity of everyday life phenomena and the need for generalizable knowledge that transcends the particulars of our common sense. The concept of personality as it is used in psychology is an example of the work of two linked meaning-making processes : (1) the tension of relations between everyday life events, their (common sense) signification, and the abstraction of meanings of person's characteristics, and (2) socio-institutionally suggested prioritization of the intra-individual reference frame over the individual-socioecological frame. Evidence for the work of these processes is given through an analysis of items from the study of the Authoritarian Personality by Theodor Adorno and others in the 1950s. An alternative path to conceptualizing personality emerges through treating it as a semiotic invention-a hyper-generalized sign that sets constraints upon the person's conduct (see The Guided Mind, 1998). Rethinking personality through the lens of the individual-socioecological reference frame allows for the study of consistency of the person over time as it is expressed in the uniqueness of everyday life conduct.

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