In this book Frank Dumont presents personality psychology with a fresh description of its current status as well as its prospects. Play, sex, cuisine, creativity, altruism, pets, grieving rituals, and other oft-neglected topics broaden the scope of this fascinating study. This tract is imbued with historical perspectives that reveal the continuity in the evolving science and research of this discipline over the past century. The author places classic schemas and constructs, as well as current principles, in the context of their socio-political catalysts. He further relates this study of the person to life-span developmental issues and to cultural, gender-specific, trait-based, genetic/epigenetic, and evolutionary research findings. Personality psychology has recently reconciled itself to more modest paradigms for describing, explaining, and predicting human behaviour than it generated in the 19th and 20th centuries. This book documents that transformation, providing valuable information for health-service professionals as well as to teachers, researchers, and scientists.

Personality Psychology: The Basics provides a jargon-free and accessible overview of the discipline, focusing on why not all individuals think, feel, speak, or act the same way in the same situation. The book offers a brief history of the area, covering a range of perspectives on personality including psychodynamic, behaviourist, humanistic, and cognitive approaches. Also featuring fascinating case studies to richly illustrate the theories discussed, the text looks at influential theories and related research within each of the major schools of thought in personality psychology. Rigorously examining the fundamental principles of personality psychology, the author concludes by outlining the future of the area in relation to cutting edge research and potential future trends. Exploring the major personality theories that seek to explain why people behave as they do in eight reader-friendly chapters, and written in accordance with British Psychological Society (BPS) guidelines regarding content in Individual Differences, this is an essential introduction for students who are approaching personality psychology for the first time.

The most comprehensive single volume ever published on the subject, the Handbook of Personality Psychology is the end-all, must-have reference work for personality psychologists. This handbook discusses the development and measurement of personality as well as biological and social determinants, dynamic personality processes, the personality's relation to the self, and personality in relation to applied psychology. Authored by the field's most respected researchers, each chapter provides a concise summary of the subject to date. Topics include such areas as individual differences, stability of personality, evolutionary foundations of personality, cross-cultural perspectives, emotion, psychological defenses, and the connection between personality and health. Intended for an advanced audience, the Handbook of Personality Psychology will be your foremost resource in this diverse field.Chapter topics include:* Nature of personality psychology* Conceptual and measurement issues in personality* Developmental issues* Biological determinants of personality* Social determinants of personality* Dynamic personality processes* Personality and the self* The Five Factor Model* Applied psychology

Research on personality psychology is making important contributions to psychological science and applied psychology. This second edition of The Cambridge Handbook of Personality Psychology offers a one-stop resource for scientific personality psychology. It summarizes cutting-edge personality research in all its forms, including genetics, psychometrics, social-cognitive psychology, and real-world expressions, with informative and lively chapters that also highlight some areas of controversy. The team of renowned international authors, led by two esteemed editors, ensures a wide range of theoretical perspectives. Each research area is discussed in terms of scientific foundations, main theories and findings, and future directions for research. The handbook also features advances in technology, such as molecular genetics and functional neuroimaging, as well as contemporary statistical approaches. An invaluable aid to understanding the central role played by personality in psychology, it will appeal to students, researchers, and practitioners in psychology, behavioral neuroscience, and the social sciences.

Capturing a scientific change in thinking about personality and individual differences, this volume provides theories and empirical evidence which suggest that personality and individual differences are central to evolved psychological mechanisms and behavioural functioning.

This book presents personality from the perspective of existing research. It provides an overview of personality research and demonstrates the relationship between research and real individuals. Readers are encouraged to explore the relationship between the research and their own personalities. It also introduces primary source literature in personality psychology by covering the content, methods, and issues in the journals with minimal jargon. Personality Psychology: The Science of Individuality presents content on its own merits rather than forcing it to fit existing theories. Readers avoid the sometimes inaccurate connections to historical theories found in other books on personality. The book also includes discussions often neglected in other books, such as entire separate chapters on intelligence and cognitive style, the unconscious, and evolutionary personality psychology. Readers will learn important areas in enough depth to appreciate the issues and complexities. The book always attempts to make clear why a particular study is important. This may facilitate the readers' ability to study the subject further. Chapter Two includes a short personality questionnaire designed to measure the Big 5 factors. Since discussions of methodology refer back to the Big 5 factors throughout the book, readers benefit by having a personal involvement through their scores on the questionnaire. It may also help to make some of the material personally relevant. A valuable book for any reader interested in understanding the existing research into personality, or who wishes to understand more about his or her own personality.

Personality Psychology: Foundations and Findings is an evidence-based text with integrated cultural references and excellent coverage of the key building blocks of the subject matter--namely, the "foundations"(traits, genetics, self and identity, neuroscience, intrapsychic aspects, regulations and motivation, and cognition as it applies to the human personality) and the "findings" (the cutting edge research in each of these areas in which personality psychologists are actively engaged every day).