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Textbook
The Person: An Introduction to the Science of Personality Psychology, 5th EditionDecember 2008, ©2009
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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.
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.
Table of Contents
Part I: The Background: Persons, Human Nature, and Culture 1
1. Studying the Person
2. Evolution and Human Nature
3. Social Learning and Culture
Part II: Sketching the Outline: Dispositional Traits and the Prediction of Behavior
4. Personality Traits: Fundamental Concepts and Issues
5. Five Basic Traits -
In the Brain and in Behavior
6. Continuity and Change in Traits: The Role of Genes, Environments, and Time
Part III: Filling in the Details: Characteristic Adaptations to Life Tasks
7. Motives and Goals: What Do We Want in Life?
8. Self and Other: Social-Cognitive Aspects of Personality
9. Developmental Stages and Tasks
Part IV: Making a Life: The Stories We Live By
10. Life Scripts, Life Stories
11. The Interpretation of Stories: From Freud to Today
12. Writing Stories of Lives: Biography and Life Course
1. Studying the Person
2. Evolution and Human Nature
3. Social Learning and Culture
Part II: Sketching the Outline: Dispositional Traits and the Prediction of Behavior
4. Personality Traits: Fundamental Concepts and Issues
5. Five Basic Traits -
In the Brain and in Behavior
6. Continuity and Change in Traits: The Role of Genes, Environments, and Time
Part III: Filling in the Details: Characteristic Adaptations to Life Tasks
7. Motives and Goals: What Do We Want in Life?
8. Self and Other: Social-Cognitive Aspects of Personality
9. Developmental Stages and Tasks
Part IV: Making a Life: The Stories We Live By
10. Life Scripts, Life Stories
11. The Interpretation of Stories: From Freud to Today
12. Writing Stories of Lives: Biography and Life Course
New To This Edition
- The text reflects new findings obtained with respect to the correlates of personality traits, the dynamics of motives and goals in human lives, and the meanings and manifestations of life stories.
- Includes dramtically expanded coverage of the neuroscience of personality traits and gene X environment interactions in the development of traits, reflecting the explosion of research interest.
- Discussion of the relationships between personality traits and personality disorders.
Hallmark Features
- The person uses stories and biographies to illustrate personality concepts.
- Presents a unifying vision for the field of personality psychology.
- Brings together the best from traditional personality theories and contemporary research.
- Addresses some of the most important questions that people can ask about their own lives and human life in general.

