Main description:

Personality psychology is a rapidly maturing science making important advances on both conceptual and methodological fronts. The Cambridge Handbook of Personality Psychology offers a one-stop source for the most up-to-date scientific personality psychology. It provides a summary of cutting-edge personality research in all its forms, from DNA to political influences on its development, expression, pathology and applications. The chapters are informative, lively, stimulating and, sometimes, controversial and the team of international authors, led by two esteemed editors, ensures a truly wide range of theoretical perspectives. Each research area is discussed in terms of scientific foundations, main theories and findings, and future directions for research. With useful descriptions of technological approaches (for example, molecular genetics and functional neuroimaging) the Handbook is an invaluable aid to understanding the central role played by personality in psychology and will appeal to students of occupational, health, clinical, cognitive and forensic psychology.

Contents:

Preface; Editors' general introduction; Part I. Foundation Issues: 1. Conceptual issues in personality theory; 2. Personality psychology of situations; 3. Personality: traits and situations; 4. Personality and emotion; 5. The characterization of persons: some fundamental conceptual issues; Part II. Personality Description and Measurement: 6. The trait approach to personality; 7. Methods of personality assessment; 8. Structural models of personality; 9. The Five-Factor Model of personality traits: consensus and controversy; 10. Personality and intelligence; Part III. Development, Health and Personality Change: 11. Childhood temperament; 12. The development of personality across the lifespan; 13. Models of personality and health; 14. Attachment theory: I. Motivational, individual-differences and structural aspects; 15. Attachment theory: II. Developmental, psychodynamic and optimal-functioning aspects; Part IV. Biological Perspectives: 16. Evolutionary theories of personality; 17. Animal models of personality and cross-species comparisons; 18. Behavioural genetics: from variance to DNA; 19. Neuroimaging of personality; 20. Personality neuroscience: explaining individual differences in affect, behaviour and cognition; 21. The reinforcement sensitivity theory of personality; Part V. Cognitive Perspectives: 22. Semantic and linguistic aspects of personality; 23. Personality and performance: cognitive processes and models; 24. Self-regulation and control in personality functioning; 25. Self-determination theory: a consideration of human motivational universals; 26. Traits and the self: toward an integration; 27. Personality as a cognitive-affective processing system; Part VI. Social and Cultural Processes: 28. The storied construction of personality; 29. Personality and social relationships; 30. Personality and social support processes; 31. Social pain and hurt feelings; 32. Personality in cross-culture perspective; 33. Culture and personality; 34. Personality and politics; Part VII. Psychopathology: 35. Mood and anxiety disorders: the hierarchical structure of personality and psychopathology; 36. Personality and psychosis; 37. Diagnosis and assessment of disorders of personality; 38. Psychopathy and its measurement; 39. Personality and eating disorders; 40. Personality and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Part VIII. Applied Personality Psychology: 41. Personality in school psychology; 42. Personality in educational psychology; 43. Personality at work; 44. Workplace safety and personality; 45. Personality and crime; 46. Treatment of personality disorders.