Product Description
While personality disorders traditionally have been conceptualized only in adults, it is not uncommon to encounter children and adolescents with the classic diagnostic signs. Youngsters with personality disorders may come across as strikingly arrogant, defiant, and manipulative, yet their demeanor typically masks devastating experiences of vulnerability and pain. This groundbreaking volume offers a framework to make sense of childhood personality disorders, distinguish them from more frequently diagnosed childhood conditions, and respond appropriately to the challenges this population presents. Interweaving neurobiological, psychodynamic, and developmental perspectives, Efrain Bleiberg presents an effective treatment model grounded in research and extensive clinical experience. All therapists working with children and adolescents will find vital insights and strategies in this lucidly written book.

The author first explores the nature and clinical presentation of childhood personality disorders. Diverse theoretical and empirical literatures are integrated to show how a combination of constitutional vulnerability, attachment difficulties, and trauma may impair the child's capacity to interpret and respond to the world in human, meaningful terms. Elucidated are the processes by which specific personality disorders develop when children--and caregivers--become trapped in rigid, maladaptive patterns of feeling, coping, and relating. The book then takes the clinician step-by-step through offering multimodal interventions that incorporate individual psychotherapy, family treatment, and pharmacotherapy. Compelling case vignettes and transcripts bring to life the inner worlds of these frightened young people and the clinicians who work with them, showing how treatment can help achieve intrapsychic change, free inhibited development, and modify the child's family context. Emphasizing the importance of the therapeutic alliance, the book gives particular attention to ways that therapists can understand and work with their own emotional reactions in highly charged clinical situations.

Providing a unique, research-based approach to working with a notably difficult-to-treat population, this book belongs on the desks of psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and other clinicians working with children and adolescents. Rendering complex ideas accessible, it will also be an invaluable resource for graduate-level students and trainees in these fields.
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Customer Reviews (5)

Excellent resource for the practitioner
I have thoroughly enjoyed my reading of this book. I am largely a youth and family counselor and have found this book enormously useful in assisting me to frame treatment for many of the adolescents that I am blessed to work with.

Bleiberg gives us an in depth look into the patterns and cycles that form in the minds of these young men and women with the apparent onset of severe personality disorders. My memories of working my internship in a youth detention center came back clearly. While the book does a great job in opening our eyes to the formation of severe personality disorders, I find the material extremely helpful in treating a good majority of all the kids that I work with.

I am a big follower of Attachment Theory and appreciate the authors like viewpoint. His explanation and construction of narcissistic traits and features is well worth the cost of he book in itself.

If you work with adolescents, this is a must for your library of resources.

EXCELLENT, WELL THOUGHT OUT BOOK
This book presents an excellent and thought-provoking discussion of a controversial subject. I have been a practicing child psychiatrist for 23 years. As a group, we child psychiatrist are reluctant to diagnose personality disorders in children and adolescents. There are many reasons for this. As we become primarily prescribers of psychotropic medications, which are helpful in many cases. we may have developed a bias toward diagnosing Axis I disorders which frequently do respond to psychotropic medications. This is not the case with personality disorders.

i particularly appreciated the authors use of the term "dramatic" personality disorders because these individuals lives are filled with drama, often precipitated by their own behavior and emotional reactions.Like adults with personality disorders, these children do not function well in any environment and always blame others for their distress and dysfunction.

As the authorr thoughtfully pointed out, they lack reflective capability. I thought the vignettes were excellent in making the author's point; he chose examples that are familiar to any provider involved in the care of these severely disturbed youth.

I have not finished the book yet as I find myself re-reading parts over and over again. Thanks for an excellent reference for those of us on the front line.

Brilliant!
Dr. Bleiberg's writing particularly shines in his use of clinical examples. He is a close listener, perspicacious observer, and gifted in his ability to truly understand the inner experiences of his patients-sometimes before his patients see what he sees. I look forward to his (I hope, forthcoming)second edition that will no doubt include the advances in neuroscience that have contributed to our understanding of reflective functioning.

Well done-a masterpiece
Simply put, this work demands a place on the bookshelf of every compatent practicioner.For many years I have cleaned out libraries and the clinical guides belonging to colleauges and never have I found a book so comprehensive and insightful as Bleibergs.I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Bleiberg and i must say that he is as eloquent and knowleadgeable as the book presents him to be.Bleiberg is one of the premier psychiatrists and his rich knowledge of his field is obvious

An inteligent model for treating personality disorder!
I, together with collegues, have been working on a model of understanding severe personality disorder in children and adolescents for almost two decades. We have always planed to write a book on the implications of our ideas for treatment. We never succeeded. We never had the clinical experience to take on the task of the kind of comprehensive treatment model which we envisioned as the only approriate one for this group of seriously handicapped youngsters.

Where we fell short, Bleiberg succeeded. This is a truly important contribution. It covers the entire spectrum of treatment strategies from psychopharmacology to psychoanalysis and does so within a single coherent frame of reference that could easily guide clinical interventions for most difficult patients.

Bleiberg is a child psychiatrist, psychoanalyst of great seniority. This book reflects exceptionally well on his rich experience as clinician-teacher-researcher. He has provided what is, above all, a practical guide. It is a wise book with hundrends of deep insights into difficult clinical problems and practical suggestions on how to managhe them. It provides a clear understanding of treatment challenges. The book is a must for all practitioners. ... Read more

Product Description
Evolutionary psychology starts from the premise that the human brain is the product of natural selection; therefore, by adopting an evolutionary stance, we might come to better understand the mind and behaviour. The second edition of this highly acclaimed textbook gives an introduction to the fascinating science of evolutionary psychology covering its history, from the Ancient Greeks to the present day, and discusses how evolution can illuminate many of the topics taught in psychology departments. This new edition, now in 2 colour, includes an additional chapter on 'Evolution and Individual Differences' which discusses how evolution might account for differences in personality and intelligence. With an engaging style and user-friendly format featuring end-of-chapter summaries, critical thinking questions and guides to further reading, this is a stand-alone textbook for undergraduates studying evolutionary psychology. ... Read more

Product Description

This comprehensive volume brings together the best available clinical scoring systems for thematic apperceptive techniques (TATs), presented in research summaries along with practice stories and available scoring manuals. A Handbook of Clinical Scoring Systems for Thematic Apperceptive Techniques

• raises awareness about the availability and usefulness of TAT scoring systems for research, training, and clinical practice;
• provides the materials needed for learning and using the most useful available clinical systems; and
• facilitates their use by making independent learning and systematic research easier.

This book should be in the library of every faculty member and clinical supervisor who is responsible for teaching courses in psychological assessment or supervising assessment students in clinical, counseling, school, or forensic psychology, whether in academic or practice settings, practicum sites, or internships.

Customer Reviews (1)

Wonderful and much-needed resource!
The TAT is a well-known and often-used projective assessment instrument but scoring systems have been hard to find until recently.This book is absolutely essential for anyone using the TAT in clinical practice or teaching it.Not only is the TAT mentioned, but other culturally specific apperception tests as well (e.g., TEMAS).The text is thorough and I appreciate all of the detail to various types of scoring systems as well as diversity issues.I highly recommend this text!!! ... Read more

Product Description

Borderline Personality Disorder. "What the hell was that?" raged Rachel Reiland when she read the diagnosis written in her medical chart. As the 29-year old accountant, wife, and mother of young children would soon discover, it was the diagnosis that finally explained her explosive anger, manipulative behaviors, and self-destructive episodes- including bouts of anorexia, substance abuse, and sexual promiscuity. With astonishing honesty, Reiland's memoir reveals what mental illness feels like and looks like from the inside, and how healing from such a devastating disease is possible through intensive therapy and the support of loved ones.

Customer Reviews (79)

Inspiring
An excellent read - hard to put down. Inspirational because of the efforts of the author to cope with her illness.

Great book, too bad it was defective!
I was really enjoying this book. I had purchased it with several other books to save on shipping costs. By the time I started reading it however, I was already past the return option date. I got to the middle of the book and discovered that an entire section of the book was REPEATED, (about 60 pages) and then after those erroneous pages it picked up as though the previous section was correct. After I got over being extremely angry, I tried to get help from Amazon with it, but it was too late. So...........
I encourage all amazon customers to check their books upon receiving them to ensure that they are constructed appropriately. Otherwise, you might be stuck with a useless book, and an unfinished story, just like I am.

great insight
very relatable for those who are or have a family or friend with borderline or even borderline tendencies. provides hope.

This is a must read for those who have, are living with, or know of someone with BPD
This book is great from the beginning to the end. As I read through the book I had various emotions from sadness & tears to laughter & joy. Anyone who is living with BPD or has a family member dealing with this disorder will find this book very insightful. It is not a self-help, medical read but of one's personal struggle with BPD. I speak from someone who is dealing with it personally and could relate to many of the issues that the author dealt with. My heart goes out to everyone who is living with this disorder as it can be very difficult and overwhelming at times.

Living with BPD - this book has shed new light
Diagnosed several years ago with Bipolar/PTSD, I was given the diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder about a year and half ago.Wanting to know anything and everything about this unknown to me illness, I bought Reiland's book.I angrily put it away as I could not and would not believe that I could have BPD and remained in denial for some time.Having been in weekly therapy for a year and half, I am thankfully making progress towards a healthier ME.I opened this book again about a month ago, and could not believe how much of what Reiland wrote resonated with me.I felt like I was learning so much about who I am now and how so much of my younger years contributed to my actions and reactions today.Every page was another light bulb going off in my mind....lighting the darkness of the past and explaining it in a way that makes SO MUCH SENSE.

Reiland had a truly amazing experience with Dr Padgett as her psychiatrist who helped guide her towards a healthy sense of herself and love for herself that she never had.

I am blessed to have found a well trained, caring and patient therapist whom I have given my trust to and who is continually helping me learn how to understand and nagivate my way towards recovery. It can be an extremely painful journey.Reiland's therapy was a very intensive Freudian based treatment.My therapy is more working with Dialectical Behavior (DBT) which has been very positive for me.But, after reading Reiland's book I realize that accepting and understanding the past is critical for of successfully treating BPD.

Anyone who has been diagnosed wih BPD or who loves someone with BPD should definitely read this book. It's heartwarming, encouraging, enlightening and honestly, reflects so very well how difficult mental illness can be to live with, but also how much proper therapy can make a huge positive change in someone's life.

Thank you thank you Ms. Reiland for sharing your story. ... Read more

Product Description
The sociocultural turn in psychology treats psychological subjects, such as the mind and the self, as processes that are constituted, or "made up," within specific social and cultural practices. In other words, though one's distinct psychology is anchored by an embodied, biological existence, sociocultural interactions are integral to the evolution of the person.Only in the past two decades has the sociocultural turn truly established itself within disciplinary and professional psychology. Providing advanced students and practitioners with a definitive understanding of these theories, Suzanne R. Kirschner and Jack Martin, former presidents of the American Psychological Association's Division of the Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, assemble a collection of essays that describes the discursive, hermeneutic, dialogical, and activity approaches of sociocultural psychology. Each contribution recognizes psychology as a human science and supports the individual's potential for agency and freedom. At the same time, they differ in their understanding of a person's psychological functioning and the best way to study it.Ultimately the sociocultural turn offers an alternative to overly biological or interiorized theories of the self, emphasizing instead the formation and transformation of our minds in relation to others and the world. ... Read more

Product Description
Personality and Individual Differences covers the salient and recent literature on personality, intellectual ability, motivation, and other individual differences such as creativity, leadership and emotional intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences provides grounding in all the major aspects of differential psychology.

• Packed with real life examples and controversies in the field, ideal to get students thinking about the applications of personality and individual differences
  
• Introduces all topics of individual differences as well as important underlying issues, such as the psychometric approach to latent variables, validity, reliability, and correlations between constructs
  
• Features easily accessible 'classic' references at the end of each chapter, in addition to further reading suggestions
  
• An essential textbook for all first-time students of the topic, providing a grounding in all the major aspects of the field, and a platform from which to elaborate, discuss, and follow up research
  
• Supported by a website containing instructor material, further web resources and electronic versions of chapters. Visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/personality for more information

Product Description
Practitioners are increasingly aware that religious persons present unique problems and challenges in therapy. Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is among the most widely practiced, highly structured and active directive approaches to treating emotional and behavioral problems. Introduced by Albert Ellis in the early 1950s, REBT is the original cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy and its efficacy has been supported by hundreds of treatment outcome studies.

A uniquely belief-focused therapy, REBT is usually quite appealing to clients from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and other religious traditions, who respond favorably to REBT's focus on right belief, active engagement in the work of therapy, and reading/practice focused homework.

In this practical and user-friendly guide, the authors outline the congruence between the therapeutic approach of REBT and the presenting problems and concerns of religious persons. They describe an approach to reconciling the sacred traditions and beliefs of religious clients with the no nonsense techniques of REBT. They review the essential components of practice with religious clients--including assessment, diagnosis and problem formulation, disputation of irrational beliefs, and other REBT techniques, highlight the primary obstacles facing the therapist when treating religious clients, and offer many case examples from work with this important client population.

Mental health professionals from all backgrounds will benefit from the detailed yet manual-focused approach to helping religious clients overcome all forms of emotional distress.
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Customer Reviews (1)

A Pleasant Surprise
Albert Ellis, the third author of this book, is well known for his atheism and attacks on religion even to me, a school teacher.He's notorious. Leaders of my church have used him as an example of the dangers for religious believers in the secular world of psychology!What a surprise to see his name on a book about counseling religious people!It is clear that Nielsen and Johnson have had a mellowing effect on Ellis (though he apparently maintains his atheistic views).Their book provides a clear description of this therapy and a well thought through explanation for why it will work and how to use it with religious people.The book is, evidently, intended for counselors, and I'm only an interested observer, but it gave me confidence that religious people like me can find an approach that will respect my beliefs and not feed me a bunch of psychobabble and mumbojumbo.I found myself thinking that this could work.Most heartening about the book was finding that these psychologists took an honest look at religious principles and were even willing to look at scripture to help their religious clients get better. ... Read more

Product Description
The author has revised this popular experiential workbook by adding Carl Jung and Karen Horney to his cast of major personality theorists - Freud, Adler, Erikson, Bandura, Allport, Maslow and Rogers - who provide the context within which students explore aspects of their own private experience. In a focused and disciplined way, through carefully developed exercises, projects, and group activities, students are given the means to relate abstract theories and concepts to their own personality development and experience. The exercises have been devised to attract students' thoughtful attention. Many of them deal with private aspects of students' lives and are designed to be completed individually out of the classroom and reviewed by the instructor alone. There are also some classroom exercises that involve working with peers in small-group discussions. These latter activities draw upon those personal experiences that most students are enthusiastic about sharing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent book to use in teaching personality courses
The book provides a brief synopsis of various personality theorists and theories.It allows one to understand various theories by exploring personal responses to questions each theorist might ask.The personaljourney approach engages students and helps the learning process. ... Read more

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FIND OUT HOW TO GET WHAT YOU WANT OUT OF LIFE . . .

Do you long for happiness?Do you worry too much? Are you content in your romantic relationships? Do you wish you felt better about yourself?

Now you can discover exactly what’s stopping you from living the life you long to lead–and what you can do about it. Based on the latest research, this inspiring guide by renowned author and psychologist Dr. Louis Janda presents twenty-four psychological tests that will help you identify the barriers standing between you and a more fulfilling personal and professional life–and figure out how you can overcome them. Developed by behavioral researchers for professional use, these tests are divided into three sections–personal barriers, interpersonal barriers, and one’s capacity for change–and cover every aspect of personality, from self-esteem, impulsiveness, and self-efficacy, to intimacy, anger, and romantic relationships. Best of all, at the end of each test, Dr. Janda provides expert advice that will help you use your results to make changes for yourself or help you decide whether you should seek professional help. Refreshingly candid and insightful, The Psychologist’s Book of Personality Tests will not only help you achieve greater personal and professional success–it will show you how to get what you want out of life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

confusing and useless
tests were long and pointless and the scoring was confusing so your left guessing as to howexactly do you score yourself.it is not at all insightful..save your money..

An unfortunate waste of money
I bought this book because I thought it'd be fun and interesting, but I was wrong. There were many tests which were interesting and I didn't mind taking the time to answer the forty to sixty questions. What bothered me was when I finished answering all the questions I was left completely confused. I'd find out my score for a test, but it didn't tell me if my score was a good thing or a bad thing. Instead it showed the results of other people, which I really didn't care about. I only wanted to know about my score, which I didn't get. I hope others were able to find this book helpful because I sure didn't.

good tests, but too confusing for the "abnormal"
I found this book interesting, but depressing. I think the tests in the book are great.However, the book itself does not tell how to accurately interpret unusually high or low scores, those outside of the percentiles for normal college students.Since I didn't score often in the "normal" percentile range, I had no idea how to gauge if it meant I was wonderfully unique or terribly dysfunctional. Since the author is not even sure about the meanings of some of the tests in this book, I am equally unsure. I am interested in being psychologically healthier, but not always interested in being "normal." If someone has a better approach to helping the layman interpret psychological testingI would be happy to find out about it.
I would recommend this book to someone who wants to know if they have major problems, because if you do, you will probably score way outside the percentiles. And there are a few tests that may help you see how healthy you are, if you are.The great thing is that the tests appear to be real, and the test for measuring your level of anxiety is detailed, well explained, and informative. I think the romantic love test is very accurate as well.
Needless to say, I don't think this book will help you much in overcoming your "personal barriers to a better life" like it says in the misleading subtitle.It only shows you barriers.

The first one was better!
I had bought the first book Louis Janda wrote in the personality test series: 'The Psychologist's Book of Self-Tests : 25 Love, Sex, Intelligence, Career, and Personality Tests...' and I think it was better. First of all I like the different tests in THIS book, they are pretty introspective. But I DID NOT like the way the tests were scored. It was at times hard to understand and keep tract of. I wanted to take the tests and learn the answer about myself. But even when I half figured out the scoring system and added the numbers up I couldn't tell by the scoring system whether my having a high/low score was good, or bad! I only give this a "3" instead of a "2" because they tests themselves were good, and pretty easy to take. Otherwise, if you're real good at math and have plenty of patience, you'll REALLY love this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Narcissists have been much maligned, but according to clinicians who study personality, there are many productive narcissists who succeed spectacularly well in life because they can articulate a vision and make others follow. Elsa Ronningstam, who has been studying and treating narcissists for 20 years, presents a balanced, comprehensive, and up-to-date review of our understanding of narcissistic personality disorder, explaining the range from personality trait, which can be productive, to full-blown disorder, which can be highly destructive.Through fascinating case histories, Ronningstam shows us the inner life of narcissists, the tug of war that exists within them between self-confidence and arrogance on the one hand and painful shame and insecurity on the other.It is the first integrated clinical and empirical guide to assist clinicians in their work with narcissistic patients. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

This book was so helpful!
This book was so insightful into the naracissistic personality disorder.Books of this subject are so hard to find because there isn't that much information out about this disorder.The book was so helpful in helping me to understand and deal with this type of personality.I would highly recommend it to everyone that is confused and bewildered by the behavior of a loved one.

Highly technical but worth the read
I was not dissapointed with this book.But anyone considering purchasing it should be aware that it has been largely written for clinicians. Becuase of this, the topic is not written about in a chatty easily understtod form as so many books and articles on narcissism are. Helpful summaries exist at the end of each chapter, nevertheless, the average lay reader may find themselves going over recently read sections several times before they fully grasp what is being said. It is a balanced insightful up to date and highly informative book and anyone who is seriously interested in coming to grips with this oftentimes crippling condition should consider reading it.

A revealing wealth of information
I wanted to know more information on this disorder. Having been exposed to many people exhibiting this particular problem I thought it would do me good to understand why they think as they do and how to interact with them more effectively. I have come to realize that you cannot help them but you can understand their disorder by having this information at your disposal.

I am sharing parts of the book so you will see exactly how it is written and so helpful to those of us dealing with these types of personalities and their associated disorders.

Borderline-narcissistic and narcissistic-borderline disorders affect moods, a sense of inapporopriateness, depersonalization, anger, feelings of emptiness and bordeom and a sense of injustice and alienation are noted.

The Phallic narcissistic character as described in the book being self-confident, arogant, vigorousm and impressive individual an athletic type-with hard and sharp features. These individuals are haughty, cold, reserved or aggressive with disguised sadistic traits in relation to others. When hurt, they react with cold reserve, deep depression, or intense aggression. Their narcissism is expressed in an exaggerated display of self-confidence, dignity, and superiority.

They often choose relationships and social context that support and enhance themselves but also intentionally influence the interpersonal or social situation in the service of self-promotion or enhancement of self-esteem. Soliciting admiration and constraining or manipulation others' views to obtain a desired self-image are examples of such strategies. In other words, people with high narcissism are strongly motivated to make positive self-distortions and exaggerate self-attributes in relationships with others.

In addition, narcissistic individuals use various strategies to protect theirselves at expense of others. they tend to devalue, derogate, or blame others, and then respond to threatening feedback with anger and hostility. Other examples of interactive strategies are biased interpretations of feedback, selective attention, and selective or distorted recall of past events. A specific strategy, self-handicapping behavior, serves to protect public image as the individual identifies impediments to performance, which are used either to discount subsequent failure or to reinforce success.

The dynamics of these self-regulatory processes have been related to clinical diagnostic traits for narcissism such as self-exaggeration, arrogant behavior, hostility, entitlement, and lack of empathy.

Description of the narcissistic personality and people driven by it has been clearly defined on this book. It has given me much insight into the minds of those I have been exposed to and had to deal with over the past nine years. I was missing the whole point of why they feel such a need for self-promotion and self-interest to the extremes of coercing those around them to join in to be a part of their distorted and dishonest plots of exploitations.

This book is worth more than its purchase price and more. It gives you a fresh outlook and complete understanding into many issues narcissistics have including the suicidal tendencies and attempts many of them exhibit. It has given me a greater understanding and compassion for a dear man I know well who has had many of these narcissistic influences to cope during his own upbringing and even in recent years, the negativity that surrounds many he once knew.

If you want to be enlightened, buy this book and read it. I highly recommend it.

Exactly what I was looking for
Having only an amateur interest in personality and personality disorders, I found this to be an excellent resource. It explains what narcissism is, it's relation to self-esteem regulation, how it interacts with other personality disorders, and discusses suicide motivation and ideation in narcissistic individuals.

It presents a modern and balanced view of NPD, taking careful note of the differences between hyper-vigilant and arrogant types of narcissism, explaining how they can be expressed under a wide range of circumstances, and cognizant of both narcissism's benefits and detriments, particularly among leadership and in the workplace.

Thanks to the author for a very helpful book!

Narcissism? Forget what you have read and read this book!
This is the real thing, and from what I can tell, written by a leading expert on narcissism. Through a large number of clinical illustrations, the author presents a wide range of narcissistic behavioral patterns. From shyness, to uncontrolled rage, to suicide, the author "bares it all" and leaves the reader with a complex and yet real understanding of the delicate balance and imbalances of ego, emotions and thought.
From all of this, the reader comes out the wiser; Wiser for himself but also towards others. And there lies the magic of this book, reflected in its title: this book can teach you to identify narcissistic behaviors in yourself and in others. It can help you to be a better person and it can help you preempt others from following their narcissistic patterns. Finally, and this may seem a joke but sadly serious, it will give you the key to many of the current successful television plots.
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Product Description
This series grows out of the Biennial Symposia on Personality and Social Psychology, which are intended to become a regular forum for psychologists and representatives of allied disciplines. The goal of BSPSP is to understand and analyze the integrative approach to studying human psychology. The growing achievements of psychology allow us to conceptualize, measure, and influence complex behavior. Research has become more specialized, resulting in difficulties in communication and collaboration. BSPSP is an important forum for cross-disciplinary discussions concerning important aspects of the human brain and mind. ... Read more

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Insightful readings in personality psychology from a wide range of voices.This collection includes representative writings in method, theory,and research that allow students to engage with the original work ofimportant figures in the field. Eight readings are new to the FifthEdition, including pieces by Steven Pinker, Samuel Gosling, and RobinEdelstein. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

CLASSIC WORK
This book offers an in-depth approach that is perfect for anyone interested in personality theory--it is appropriate for undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate individuals as it provides sound research-based evidence supporting Costa and McCrae's five-factor model of personality.

Good introduction to the `Big 5' model and personality development
Chapter 1 describes the well-known `Five Factor Model' (FFM) of personality traits and the robust result that in most people, personality changes little after the age of 30. Other theories of adulthood in the work of Freud, Jung, Erikson and others are also reviewed.

Chapter 2 is an interesting tutorial on the trait approach to personality, which the authors did so much to develop and popularise. Chapter 3 continues the theme by outlining the issues involved in measuring personality traits (self-report questionnaires vs. reports from other people, for example).

Chapter 4 notes that the time period of study for personality change through aging is many decades, so whether the object of study is a multi-aged sample from the whole population, or whether a defined group is followed-up through the years and decades, there are significant problems in identifying real (and individual-level) phenomena.

Chapter 5 explores aging and personality change across different cultures - are there universal principles, or is personality development culture-specific? The authors argue that the evidence firmly supports the former.

Chapters 6-9 look at personality development in the individual, review various hypotheses and outline the evidence for stability. The psychoanalytic tradition comes in for some rough handling here. Interestingly, the popular concept of `mid-life crisis' is shown to be a myth. Chapter 6, incidentally, perpetuates an astonishing misconception of Jungian type development (p.105). Jung is said to have hypothesised that in the course of adult psychological development, early psychological traits would be replaced by their opposite: e.g. introverts would later become extraverts. The correct Jungian proposition is one of development of auxiliary, tertiary and inferior functions into fuller consciousness, and a rounding of the personality, not its inversion! One feels perhaps a defensive reaction on the part of the authors here!

Chapter 10 describes a proposal to extend the FFM of personality traits to a full personality model. This involves introducing new entities (p. 188) such as biological bases (the physical body), the FFM traits themselves- called `basic tendencies', characteristic adaptations, a self concept, objective biography and the impact of external influences.

While the FFM is clearly incomplete, the proposal here seems less than compelling. There are many ways, in the absence of hard brain architecture evidence, to speculatively decompose the functional underpinnings of human personality, and the authors' model seems to give little weight to subconscious processes.

The book ends with a number of interesting discussions on the impact of personality on marriage, divorce and career - material heavily covered in the `psychological type' literature (Keirsey, Myers-Briggs, etc). The authors also discuss the `psychological profiling' of historical individuals based on biographical information.


In their concluding remarks, the authors more clearly show their biases. The Myers-Briggs approach, for example, may be ridiculed for its good-natured suggestion that all types are both natural and equally-favoured, but what are we to make of remarks such as this:"... is it perhaps only the open individual who sees and feels enough of life to make these discoveries and reach the real freedom that freedom from illusion allows" -( the context is about achieving a mature view of the realities of life)? Perhaps the authors, who appear to be Open and Conscientious, are nevertheless unaware of the pitfalls of universalising their own positive self-image?

The authors tend to perpetuate the bad habit of wrapping the shroud of `science' around their own approach, while denying it to their opponents - psychology is not yet physics, note! However, in summary, this is a very interesting book, packed with information, which is definitely worth acquiring.
... Read more

Product Description
Reflecting the latest developments, this eighth edition paints a picture of the field as a cumulative, integrative science that builds on its rich past. It provides a much more coherent view of the whole functioning individual in the social world. Throughout the chapters, emphasis is placed on practical applications and personal relevance to everyday life in a clear and compelling way. The book also explores the essential features and contributions from the field's heritage ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Poorly organized and written "introductory" personality book
I adopted this book for one of my classes, based on Mischel being one of the authors (a respected personality researcher), and the format of the book.Unfortunately, I did not read it thoroughly before adopting it.All I can say, is that I pity my poor students who are trying to get a grasp of personality theories based on this book, fortunately they have lectures to help understand this material and also correct mistakes within this material. For example, when describing the personality trait of "Intuitive," the authors define this as "quick guesses."What a grossly misleading and absolutely incorrect definition. Further, the authors use a lot of "psychobable" specific to personality researchers, which may be useful for someone who is a personality researcher, but is rather confusing for undergraduate students where this is their first exposure to such theories.I thought this would be a nice, empirically-based personality theories book.Unfortunately, it is confusing and poorly organized.This book turns material that should be fun for students to learn into a dry and boring read. ... Read more

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For Sophomore/Junior level courses in Theories of Personality, Personality, or Personality Psychology.

Using a theorist-by-theorist approach, this comprehensive introduction to personality theory gives students the history of psychology with practical information to help them understand their own lives and their relationships with others. Primary sources, abundant biographical information and supporting research are used to descibe and detail each theorist, presenting the theories of personality in an accessible and unbiased way.

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In this book, the authors have indentified six key personality traits and have compiled for each a carefully researched questionnaire designed to build up a composite picture of the reader's personality. This is a companion volume to "Know Your Own IQ" and "Check Your Own IQ". ... Read more

Product Description
This reader presents a collection of articles on the study of the self in social psychology. The volume begins with an introduction by Roy Baumeister which provides an overview of the study of the self. The readings themselves are then organized into ten thematic sections covering core topics such as self-knowledge, self-esteem, self-regulation, self-presentation, and the self and culture. Each section has an introduction that describes other relevant work, in order to place the selection in its full intellectual context. Sections also include annotated suggestions for further reading to guide further study and discussion questions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

fantastic
It's delivered in just a few day for FREE!!
Also packed very tight so that the book could be delivered intact. ... Read more

Product Description
Personality can be defined along a small number of well established dimensions, each of which is partially determined by hereditary factors.Heredity acts on behavior through its influence on variations in the structure and function of neural and biochemical systems.This book explores the biological basis of individual differences in personality from genes to the structure, chemistry, and function of the brain and peripheral nervous system.In addition to basic dimensions of normal personality, the book examines the biology of several types of psychopathology. The concluding chapter provides a psychobiological model for personality.This thorough analysis of the pathway from gene to personality trait will be of interest not only to biologists, but also to psychologists and psychiatrists. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An alternative to Costa and McCrae
This book is worth reading if you are a devotee of the biological basis of personality. The book is written in plain English, well illustrated, and is a highly informative account of personality. It covers the classic personality theories (e.g., P-E-N) alongside Zuckerman's and Gray's theoretical perspectives. This is a great book, which can be read by anyone who is interested in personality research. ... Read more