Personality Theories : Development, Growth, and Diversity, Fifth Edition

This text provides a comprehensive introduction to the key personality theorists by combining biographical information on each theorist with his or her contributions to the field, including her or his ranking among the world's most respected psychologists. In addition, Allen provides a tabular format–that is, a running comparison between the major theorists, allowing students to analyze new theories against theories learned in previous chapters. The unique style of Allen's book is strengthened through his conversational tone, enabling students to easily grasp an understanding of the key people and movements in the field of personality.

Features:

- Offers an abundance of case studies and examples of real human functioning to help deepen students’ understanding of the concepts.
- Highlights diversity issues as part of Allen’s humanistic approach to psychology.
- Includes the latest information on subtle forms of racism; happiness and positive psychology; extraversion; Freud’s meetings with other psychologists; Jung’s dabbling in parapsychology; the worldwide practical impact of Bandura’s ideas; rejection sensitivity; impulse control; the relationship between IQ, genes, and race; the neurophysiology of personality (in plain language); and many other thought-provoking topics.
- Explores controversial topics, including evolutionary theory applied to jealousy, whether races exist, and the “repressed memories” controversy.
- Reviews and analyzes one of the most famous therapy sessions in psychology’s history—Rogers’s interaction with Gloria.
- Contains chapter opening questions that frame the material and are later reinforced through summary points as well as essay/critical thinking questions at the end of each chapter.

New To This Edition:

- Includes a new chapter that synthesizes the entire book by comparing theorists on several philosophical, empirical, and methodological aspects, as well as a summary table that compares all the theorists at a glance.
- Provides each theorist’s current ranking among today’s most prominent psychologists in the evaluation section of his or her chapter.
- Examines the statuses of two new factors affecting the field—the Big 5 Personality Trait Theory and locating genes underlying personality traits.
- Features the research results of many international personologists as well as an extensive reference list, which includes more than 150 new references to state of the art personality research.