The Person: An Introduction to the Science of Personality Psychology - Hardcover

McAdams, Dan P.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470129131 ISBN 13: 9780470129135

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2008

Synopsis

Drawing on cutting-edge scientific research, classic personality theories, and stirring examples from biography and literature, The Person presents a lively and integrative introduction to the science of personality psychology. Author, Dan McAdams, organizes the field according to a broad conceptual perspective that has emerged in personality psychology over the past 10 years. According to this perspective, personality is made up of three levels of psychological individuality - dispositional traits, characteristic adaptations (such as motives and goals), and integrative life stories. Traits, adaptations, and stories comprise the three most recognizable variations on psychological human nature, grounded in the human evolutionary heritage and situated in cultural and historical context. The fifth edition of this beautifully written text expands and updates research on the neuroscience of personality traits and introduces new material on personality disorders, evolution and religion, attachment in adulthood, continuity and change in personality over the life course, and the development of narrative identity.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Experience the story of a lifetime

When you want to truly get to know a person, dates and facts about their life will only tell you so much. You need to look at the stories that define that person’s life, as well as their individual traits and characteristics, as defined by human nature and culture.

When it comes to studying personality, the larger story matters most of all. In The Person: An Integrated Introduction to Personality Psychology, Fourth Edition, Dan McAdams presents a bold and integrative vision for personality psychology that puts many different ideas into a meaningful structure. With this text, you can understand the larger story, and discover how powerful and useful studying personality psychology is today.

The text begins with fundamental evolutionary, social, and cultural contexts for understanding personality, followed by an examination of the three different levels of an individual’s personality:

- Dispositional traits, a person’s general tendencies.

- Characteristic adaptations, a person’s desires, beliefs, concerns, and coping mechanisms.

- Life stories, the stories that give a life a sense of unity, meaning, and purpose.

Key Features:

• New streamlined paperback format.
• Updated with recent research findings to engage professors and students alike.
• Presents a clear unifying vision for the field of personality psychology.
• Brings together the best from traditional personality theories and contemporary research.
• Addresses the most important questions that people can ask about their own lives and about human life in general.

About the Author

Dan P. McAdams, Wilmette, IL, is Professor of Psychology and Professor of Human Development and Social Policy at Northwestern University. He is the 1989 winner of the Henry A. Murray Award in Psychology for the study of personality and human lives. McAdams is also a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and currently the director of the Foley Center for the Study of Lives at Northwestern, which is funded by a $1.5 million dollar grant from the Foley Family Foundation. The Center is dedicated to the social-scientific study of personality and social development in the adult years, with an emphasis on such prosocial aspects of human functioning as altruism, leadership, and the development of self-understanding in adulthood.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0470129131
• ISBN 13: 9780470129135
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 5
• Number of pages: 598