Welcome to This Web Site!
Welcome to the Personality web site.
This web site is devoted to helping those interested in personality psychology explore what is now going on in the field.
The field of personality psychology is changing. Whereas personality psychology used to be a collection of theories of human nature -- by Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Carl Rogers, and Albert Bandura, among others (for a description of these theorists, see Who Are Personality Psychologists) -- it is now an integrated theoretical and research whole.
To reflect that integrated whole, this area of the web site presents a (slightly) narrated overview of personality psychology according to four broad topics:
- Introduction to Personality
- Personality's Parts
- Personality's Organization, and
- Personality Development.
Elsewhere I have written about such an organization -- the Systems Framework for personality. One purpose of this site is to bring personality to life, by introducing and discussing some of personality in a contemporary way, according to the Systems Framework.
This is an informal and sometimes incomplete exploration in that it is determined in part by what responsible information I have found on the web, and by the fact that I only work on this site part time. For another, more complete and balanced introduction to the discipline that uses the Systems Framework, please see my textbook, Personality: A Systems Approach.
Despite its limitations, I believe this web site provides a useful guided survey of the personality system -- something that can get people thinking about the system, and help them understand the discipline.
I hope you find it useful...
John D. Mayer
References
Mayer, J. D. (1993-1994). A System-Topics Framework for the study of personality. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 13, 99-123.
Mayer, J. D. (1998). A systems framework for the field of personality psychology. Psychological Inquiry, 9, 118-144.