Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Personality Psychology Personality Defined Three Levels of Personality Analysis A Fissure in the Field Six Domains of Knowledge About Human Nature The Role of Personality Theory Standards for Evaluating Personality Theories Is There a Grand Ultimate and True Theory of Personality? 2. Personality Assessment, Measurement, and Research Design Sources of Personality Data Evaluation of Personality Measures Research Designs in Personality Part I: The Dispositional Domain 3. Traits and Trait Taxonomies What Is a Trait? Two Basic Formulations The Act Frequency Formulation of Traits—An Illustration of the Descriptive Summary Formulation Identification of the Most Important Traits Taxonomies of Personality 4. Theoretical and Measurement Issues in Trait Psychology Theoretical Issues Measurement Issues Personality and Prediction 5. Personality Dispositions over Time: Stability, Change, and Coherence Conceptual Issues: Personality Development, Stability, Coherence, and Change Three Levels of Analysis Personality Stability Over Time Personality Change Personality Coherence Over Time: Prediction of Socially Relevant Outcomes Part II: The Biological Domain 6. Genetics and Personality The Human Genome Controversy About Genes and Personality Goals of Behavioral Genetics What Is Heritability? Behavioral Genetic Methods Major Findings From Behavioral Genetic Research Shared Versus Nonshared Environmental Influences: A Riddle Genes and the Environment Molecular Genetics Behavioral Genetics, Science, Politics, and Values 7. Physiological Approaches to Personality A Physiological Approach to Personality Physiological Measures Commonly Used in Personality Research Physiologically Based Theories of Personality 8. Evolutionary Perspectives on Personality Evolution and Natural Selection Evolutionary Psychology Human Nature Sex Differences Individual Differences The Big Five Motivation, and Evolutionarily Relevant Adaptive Problems Limitations of Evolutionary Psychology Part III: The Intrapsychic Domain 9. Psychoanalytic Approaches to Personality Sigmund Freud: A Brief Biography Fundamental Assumptions of Psychoanalytic Theory Structure of Personality Dynamics of Personality Psychosexual Stages of Personality Development Personality and Psychoanalysis Why Is Psychoanalysis Important? Evaluation of Freud’s Contributions 10. Psychoanalytic Approaches: Contemporary Issues The Neo-Analytic Movement Ego Psychology Object Relations Theory 11. Motives and Personality Basic Concepts The Big Three Motives: Achievement, Power, and Intimacy Humanistic Tradition: The Motive to Self-Actualize Part IV: The Cognitive/Experiential Domain 12. Cognitive Topics in Personality Personality Revealed Through Perception Personality Revealed Through Interpretation Personality Revealed Through Goals Intelligence 13. Emotion and Personality Issues in Emotion Research Content Versus Style of Emotional Life 14. Approaches to the Self Descriptive Component of the Self: Self-Concept Evaluative Component of the Self: Self-Esteem Social Component of the Self: Social Identity Part V: The Social and Cultural Domain 15. Personality and Social Interaction Selection Evocation Manipulation: Social Influence Tactics Panning Back: An Overview of Personality and Social Interaction 16. Sex, Gender, and Personality The Science and Politics of Studying Sex and Gender Sex Differences in Personality Masculinity, Femininity, Androgyny, and Sex Roles Theories of Sex Differences 17. Culture and Personality Cultural Violations: An Illustration What Is Cultural Personality Psychology? Three Major Approaches to Culture Part VI: The Adjustment Domain 18. Stress, Coping, Adjustment, and Health Models of the Personality-Illness Connection The Concept of Stress Coping Strategies and Styles Type A Personality and Cardiovascular Disease 19. Disorders of Personality The Building Blocks of Personality Disorders The Concept of Disorder Specific Personality Disorders Prevalence of Personality Disorders Dimensional Model of Personality Disorders Causes of Personality Disorders 20. Summary and Future Directions Current Status of the Field Domains of Knowledge: Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going Integration: Personality in the Twenty-First Century

About the Author

Randy J. Larsen received his PhD in Personality Psychology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1984. In 1992, he was awarded the Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award for Early Career Contributions to Personality Psychology from the American Psychological Association, and in 1987 he received a Research Scientist Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health. He has been an associate editor at the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and has been on the editorial boards of the Journal of Research in Personality, Review of General Psychology, and the Journal of Personality. RandyLarsen has served on several Scientifi c Review Groups for the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Research Council. He is a Fellow in the Association for Psychological Science and the American Psychological Association. His research on personality has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Aging, the McDonnell Foundation for Cognitive Neuroscience, and the Solon Summerfield Foundation. In 2000 he was elected president of the Midwestern Psychological Association. He has served on the faculty at Purdue University and the University of Michigan. Currently Randy Larsen is chairman of the Psychology Department, and the William R. Stuckenberg Professor of Human Values and Moral Development, at Washington University in St. Louis, where he teaches Personality Psychology and other courses. He lives in St. Louis with his wife and two children. David M. Buss received his PhD in 1981 from the University of California at Berkeley. He served on the faculties of Harvard University and the University of Michigan before accepting a professorship at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has taught since 1996. Buss received the American Psychological Association (APA) DistinguishedScientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology in 1988, the APA G. Stanley Hall Award in 1990, and the APA Distinguished Scientist Lecturer Award in 2001. Books by David Buss include The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating (Revised Edition) (Basic Books, 2003), which has been translated into 10 languages;Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind (4th ed.) (Allyn & Bacon, 2012), which was presented with the Robert W. Hamilton Book Award; The Dangerous Passion: Why Jealousy Is as Necessary as Love and Sex (Free Press,2000), which has been translated into 13 languages; and The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology (Wiley, 2005). Buss has authored more than 250 scientifi c publications and has also written articles for The New York Times and the Times Higher Education Supplement. He appears in the ISI List of Most Highly Cited Psychologists Worldwide, and as the 27th Most Cited Psychologist in Introductory Psychology textbooks. He lectures widely throughout the United States and abroad and has extensive crosscultural research collaborations. David Buss greatly enjoys teaching, and in 2001 he won the President’s Teaching Excellence Award at the University of Texas.