Perspectives on Personality, Sixth Edition

The various perspectives of the field of personality provide the organizing framework for this text.  Each perspective is presented in two chapters and is introduced by a prologue that describes the assumptions and themes of the perspective.

As the book’s title implies, there are many perspectives a person might take on personality, many ways to think about human nature. This book describes a range of viewpoints that are used by personality psychologists today.  Each perspective on personality is presented in a pair of chapters, introduced by a prologue. The prologue provides an overview of that perspective’s orienting assumptions and core themes. By starting with these orienting assumptions, you’ll be placed right inside the thought processes of the theorists, as you go on to read the chapters themselves. Each chapter concludes with a discussion of current problems within that theoretical viewpoint and the authors’ analysis about its future prospects. Written in an informal, conversation style, Carver and Scheier draw students into the ideas and give them examples of how these ideas can apply to their own life.  The result is a book that is engaging and enjoyable as well as informative.