Perspectives on Personality

For courses in Personality Psychology

An overview of personality psychology that brings various perspectives to life

Perspectives on Personality describes a range of viewpoints that are used by personality psychologists today, and helps students understand how these viewpoints can be applied to their own lives. Authors Charles Carver and Michael Scheier dedicate a chapter to each major perspective, presenting an overview of the perspective’s orienting assumptions and core themes and concluding with a discussion of problems within that theoretical viewpoint and predictions about its future prospects. The Eighth Edition incorporates several important recent developments in the field, including genetics and genomics and the biological underpinnings of impulsiveness.

NOTE: This ISBN is for a Pearson Books a la Carte edition: a convenient, three-hole-punched, loose-leaf text. In addition to the flexibility offered by this format, Books a la Carte editions offer students great value, as they cost significantly less than a bound textbook.

Charles S. Carver and Michael F. Scheier met in graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin, where they both earned doctoral degrees in personality psychology. After graduation, they took positions at the University of Miami and Carnegie-Mellon University, respectively, where they have remained throughout their careers. They’ve collaborated for four decades in work that spans personality, social, motivational, clinical, and health psychology. In 1998, they received awards for Outstanding Scientific Contribution (Senior Level) from the Division of Health Psychology of the American Psychological Association. In 2007, they received the Donald T. Campbell Award for Distinguished Contributions to Social Psychology from APA’s Division of Personality and Social Psychology. In 2011, the first author received the Jack Block Award for Distinguished Contributions to Personality Psychology from APA’s Division of Personality and Social Psychology. In 2012, the authors received the Distinguished Lifetime Career Award from the International Society for Self and Identity. Mike was the 2003—2004 President of APA’s Division of Health Psychology and served for over 10 years as Department Head at CMU. Along with seven editions of Perspectives on Personality, the authors have published two books on self-regulation (the more recent titled On the Self-Regulation of Behavior, in 1998) and more than 400 articles and chapters. Mike is an avid outdoorsman, hunter, and fisherman. Chuck keeps intending to take up painting but getting distracted by things that need fixing and shrubbery that needs cutting.