Primary divisions of personality and their scientific contributions: From the trilogy-of-mind to the systems set

lPersonality theories often identify sets of primary parts. These are sets of a few personality parts expansive enough to collectively describe the to tal personality. Examples of such sets include the trilogy of mind (motivat ion, emotion, and cognition), Freud's structural set (id, ego, superego), a nd the recently-introduced systems set (energy lattice, knowledge works, ro le player, and executive consciousness). These groups may be of unrecognize d importance in understanding human personality. The defining characteristi cs of such sets are identified, their history is reviewed, their theoretica l contributions considered, and then, criteria for distinguishing good from bad sets of primary parts are proposed. Finally, the potential contributio n of primary parts sets to personality psychology is revisited.