Customer Reviews

Personality Psychology: Science of Individuality

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A textbook of personality psychology, but not of a traditional "theories of personality (Freud-Jung-Rogers-Maslow)" type. This is good, because this way it represents what is really going on in personality psychology, instead of what has been going on. One might want a better integration, but this simply does not exist as yet. The two alternative books that one might consider (and there are only two of them) are "Personality" by Caprara and Cervone (social cognitive approaches are better represented but almost no biology at all), and "Personality traits" by Matthews and Deary (has a narrower scope). All other personality textbooks are just outdated (starting from the table of contents).

I have had an interest in personality for some time, but tired of books that seem to have simplistic theories based off 'folk knowledge' or just random speculation. MBTI theory is interesting, an (E/I)NFP myself, but this book was truly great b/c, as the authors state- Freud, Jung and others may have nice theories, but these authors are interested in the scientific approach- objective, tested by hard data, and controlled experiments. Not that the book is unreadable- I found it very easy to follow- and fascinating b/c - again- not just theories- but paradigms backed by experimental data. A must read for anyone seriously interested in personality!! Among the areas I found fascinating was the research on identical/fraternal twins reared apart/together to see the correlations btw the twins interests, career choices, extroversion etc...and tease out how much is driven by genes vs. nurture & choice. And the Big 5- the more scientific approach to arriving at and validating a view of personality akin MBTI. I read it cover to cover & enjoyed every piece of it! I discovered this gem of a book from the site- [..]- also an Excellent site & resource!

This book is a great book for people inturested in Personality Phsychology. It gives clear explanations and if it's still unclear it will give an example or two.