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Further Detail: Teaching Personality Psychology

Organizing the Coverage of the Personality Course

• Introduction to Teaching Personality Psychology (Begin Here)
• Frameworks Used for Teaching Personality Psychology
• A Discussion in Dialogue About Ways to Teach the Course

Textbooks and Other Classroom Resources

• Personality Textbooks in Use Today
• Books of Readings Available in the Field
• Downloadable Lectures in Personality Psychology
• A Bibliography of Demonstrations for the Personality Course

Coverage of the Personality Unit in Introductory Psychology

• Teaching Personality Psychology in Introductory Psychology

Selected Contributions by Teachers of Personality (and Social) Psychology from the SPSP Listserve

• Sources of Short Video Clips for Use in Class
• Personality and Social Psychologists on Coping with Cheating in the Classroom

Other Sites Concerned with Teaching Personality Psychology

• A Wiki Devoted to Teaching Personality Psychology

Personality Textbooks In Use Today

The following list chronicles most (I hope, all) currently published textbooks in the field today. It is organized by the approach taken by the textbook (or other kind of book frequently used as a textbook). I have identified six approaches (or frameworks) used:

• Systems Textbooks
• Theory-by-Theory Textbooks
• Comparative Analysis (of Theories) Textbooks
• Perspective Textbooks
• Levels-of-Knowing Textbooks
• Research Topics Textbooks

Systems Textbooks

Textbooks using a systems framework typically divide the study of personality up into three to five sections, with individual chapters within them. An example includes: (a) introducing personality and its study, (b) personality's parts or components, (c) personality's organization, including its structore and dynamics, and (d) personality development.

1. John D. Mayer's Personality Psychology: A Systems Approach (1st ed.)
2. Lawrence Pervin's The Science of Personality (2nd ed.)

Theory-by-Theory Textbooks

Textbooks using the theory-by-theory approach typically devote each of their chapters to a different, specific theorist. The books go into the work of those theorists and their theories in considerable depth, often with case materials or other clinical examples.

Some examples include:

1. Bem P. Allen's Personality Theories: Development, Growth and Diversity (5th ed.)
2. Susan C. Cloninger's Theories of Personality: Understanding Persons (5th ed.)
3. Robert Frager & James Fadiman's Personality and Personal Growth (6th ed.)
4. Jess Feist & Gregory Feist's Theories of Personality (6th ed.)
5. B. R. Hergenhahn & Matthew Olson's An Introduction to Theories of Personality (7th ed.)
6. Christopher Monte & Robert Sollard's Beneath the Mask (7th ed.)

Comparative Analysis (of Theories) Textbooks

Comparative analysis textbooks not only present different theories of personality, but actively and repeatedly compare them across dimensions of importance identified by the author.

1. Salvatore Maddi's Personality Theories: A Comparative Analysis (6th ed.)

Perspectives Textbooks

Textbooks employing the perspectives approach examine the discipline according to a series of broad theoretical perspectives. Examples of these perspectives are: the psychoanalytic, bioevolutionary, trait, social cognitive, and the like.

1. Jerry Burger's Personality (6th ed.)
2. Charles S. Carver & Michael F. Scheier's Perspectives on Personality (6th ed.)
3. David C. Funder's The Personality Puzzle (4th ed.)
4. Randy J. Larsen & David M. Buss' Personality Psychology: Domains of Knowledge about Human Nature (2nd ed.)
5. Walter Mischel, Yuichi Shoda, & Ronald E. Smith's Introduction to Personality: Toward an Integration (7th ed.)
6. Lawrence A. Pervin, Daniel Cervone, & Oliver P. John's Personality: Theory and Research (9th ed.)

Levels-of-Knowing Textbooks

Textbooks employing this perspective begin with an introduction to the field and then cover topics that lead to an ever-increasing sense of knowing about the person: from traits (early on), to autobiographical stories (toward the conclusion).

1. Dan P. McAdams' The Person: A New Introduction to Personality Psychology (4th ed.)

Research Topics Textbooks

Textbooks employing this framework cover a series of research topics that are most relevant to or active in the field. The textbooks employed are often edited volumes in which researchers knowledgeable about a given topic author the specific chapters.

Derlega, Valerian J., Winstead, Barbara A., & Jones, Warren H. Personality: Contemporary Theory and Research (3rd ed.)

Pervin, Lawrence A. & John, Oliver P. Handbook of Personality Theory and Research (2nd ed.)

Out of Print

[Systems Framework] Susan Cloninger's Personality: Description, Dynamics, & Development (1st ed.)