An Introduction to Theories of Personality

This 7th edition is intended as an upper-level undergraduate or graduate level text for courses on theories of personality, personality theory, personality, or psychology of personality. It provides an introduction to the ideas of the most important personality theorists. This 7th Edition helps students unravel the mysteries of human behavior through its highly readable introduction to the ideas of the most significant personality theorists. Engaging biographical sketches begin each chapter, and unique capsule summaries help students review key concepts. Theories come alive through the inclusion of quotations from the theorists’ writings and numerous applications such as dream interpretation, psychopathology, and psychotherapy. Significant changes in the 7th edition include an extended discussion of the practical applications of personality theory, with an emphasis on guidelines that can help people increase their self-knowledge, make better decisions, and live more fulfilling lives. Fictionalized but true-to-life examples illustrating the perils of inadequate self-knowledge include college students, parents, terrorists, business executives, and politicians, while other examples show the positive outcomes that can result from a better understanding of one’s unconscious. This 7th edition also includes a more extensive discussion of how a lack of self-understanding caused difficulties for such noted theorists as Freud and Erikson, and a new section that explains how behavior can be strongly influenced by the situation as well as by one’s personality.