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Written in an informal, conversational style, Carver and Scheier engage students by helping them understand how various perspectives of the field of personality can apply to their own lives.

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 that 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. The result is a book that is engaging and enjoyable as well as informative.

Learning Goals

Upon completing this book, readers should be able to:

• Identify the ideas that form each theoretical viewpoint
• Understand the importance of research and why the role of research stresses the fact that personality psychology is a living, dynamic process of ongoing scientific exploration
• See how each perspective reflects fundamental assumptions about human nature and how behavior problems can arise and be treated from each perspective
• Understand how the different viewpoints relate to each other and the usefulness of blending theoretical viewpoints, treating theories as complementary, rather than competing