A History of Personality Psychology: Theory, Science, and Research from Hellenism to the Twenty-First Century

by Frank Dumont

Overview

In this book Frank Dumont presents personality psychology with a fresh description of its current status as well as its prospects. Play, sex, cuisine, creativity, altruism, pets, grieving rituals, and other oft-neglected topics broaden the scope of this fascinating study. This tract is imbued with historical perspectives that reveal the continuity in the evolving science and research of this discipline over the past century. The author places classic schemas and constructs, as well as current principles, in the context of their socio-political catalysts. He further relates this study of the person to life-span developmental issues and to cultural, gender-specific, trait-based, genetic/epigenetic, and evolutionary research findings. Personality psychology has recently reconciled itself to more modest paradigms for describing, explaining, and predicting human behaviour than it generated in the 19th and 20th centuries. This book documents that transformation, providing valuable information for health-service professionals as well as to teachers, researchers, and scientists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521116329
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/18/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	574
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Frank Dumont (retired) was Full Professor in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology and Director of the PhD program in his field at McGill University. He was the co-editor of Six Therapists and One Client (2000) and a co-editor of Corsini's The Dictionary of Psychology (1999). He gratefully acknowledges that much of this book on personality psychology was researched and drafted while he was Visiting Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge University (2005-2006).

Table of Contents

List of tables and figures viii

Preface ix

1 Historical precursors of personality theory 1

2 From illness to wellness models of human nature 35

3 Developmental perspectives on personality: from youth-based to life-span models 75

4 The biology of personality 115

5 Trait theories and the psychology of individual differences 149

6 The puzzle of the self 183

7 Culture and personality 220

8 Gendered personality 258

9 Emotions and reasoning: a definition of the Human 294

10 Taking the measure of die Human: benefits and inherent limitations of personality measures 329

11 Can personality change? The possibilities of psychotherapeutics 371

12 The disordered personality: evolution of nosological systems 407

13 Eight appendices: at the margins of personality psychology 451

References 499

Author index 544

Subject index 549

Editorial Reviews

"Topics include such neglected areas of research as play in middle and later adulthood."
–Chronicle of Higher Education


"...This tour through the centuries illustrates how enlightening and invaluable personality theory is to psychology and many other intellectual pursuits. As much an intellectual history as it is a history of personality, this enjoyable book-with its slight quirks-will appeal to those who work in personality or related areas or who want to broaden their understanding of the field... Highly recommended..."
—D. S. Dunn, Moravian College, CHOICE

From the Publisher