Personality: A Topical Approach - Theories, Research, Major Controversies and Emerging Findings

An alternative to, not a replacement for, the author's text on theories of personality ("An Introduction to Theories of Personality", 1993), this book describes and discusses an example of each major type of theory in its own chapter. Each chapter is followed by a seperate chapter that discusses research, controversies and emerging findings dealing with that theory.Although this book incorporates a considerable amount of material from the previous text, there are substantial differences. "Personality: a Topical Approach" devotes more attention to psychological research, and considerably less attention to the more minor and abstract aspects of various theories. Chapters are devoted to the following theories: psychoanalytically-oriented, trait, cognitive, self-humanistic, and behaviourism. While the book focuses appropriate emphasis on major research topics (the "Big Five" personality factors, self-efficacy, self-esteem and more), it also includes a chapter on research methods and contains discussions on material that is often omitted from other texts including dream interpretation, cognitions and the Holocaust, scientific inquiry and near-death experiences. The book also provides study questions, a "help" section and a glossary.