THE STUDY OF PERSONALITY: THEORY, APPLICATION,
ASSESSMENT, AND RESEARCH
If you spend a few minutes looking through the table of contents at the be-
ginning of this book, you will notice that the book is divided into sections.
Each section presents one of the different approaches to personality. Each of
these sections is divided into four parts (in two chapters). These divisions rep-
resent the four components necessary for a complete understanding of per-
sonality. Each section begins with a presentation of theory. Each of the
personality theorists covered in these pages presents a comprehensive model
for how human personality is structured and how it operates. But psycholo-
gists have never been content to simply describe personality. Rather, we have
a long history of applying the information gained from theories and researchto questions and issues that directly affect people’ s lives. These applications
include psychotherapy, education, and behavior in the workplace. An exam-ple of how psychologists apply their theories to these settings is presentedfor each approach. Psychologists working within each of the approaches also
must develop ways to measure the personality constructs they study and use.
Thus assessment is another important area of personality psychology covered
within each approach. Examples of personality assessment are scattered
throughout this book. If you take the time to try each of these inventories,
not only will you obtain a better understanding of how psychologists from
the different approaches measure personality, but you will also gain insight
into your own personality. In addition, within each section, an entire chapter
is devoted to research relevant to that approach to personality. Personality
psychology is, after all, a science. By examining a few research topics in
depth for each of the approaches, you will see how theories generate research
and how the findings from one study typically lead to new questions and
more research.
Theory
Each approach to understanding personality begins with a theory. This theory
usually comes from the writings of several important psychologists who
provide their own descriptions of consistent patterns of behavior and intra-personal processes. They explain the mechanisms that underlie human per-
sonality and how these mechanisms are responsible for creating behaviors
unique to a given individual. In most cases, theorists also attempt to explainhow differences in personality develop. Many also describe methods for
changing personality based on their theories.
If you were to describe your own theory of personality, like the theorists
covered in this book, you would need to address several critical questions
about the nature of human personality. Let ’s look briefly at a few of the most
important questions you would need to consider. The way theorists from
each of the six approaches generally deal with these issues is diagrammed in
Figure 1.1.“There can scarcely
be anything more fa-
miliar than human
behavior. Nor canthere be anythingmore important.
Nonetheless, it is
certainly not thething we understand
best. ”
B. F. Skinner12 CHAPTER 1 What Is Personality?