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Personality
No other book integrates traditional personality theories with current research as effectively as Jerry Burger's Personality Fourth Edition. For each school of thought (Freudian, neo- Freudian, trait, biological, humanistic, behavioral/social learning, and cognitive), a chapter on "Theory, Application, and Assessment" is followed by a chapter on "Relevant Research" to illustrate how research ties in with the theories covered.
560 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1986
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375 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
May 16, 2016
This was an enlightening and fascinating read. Burger gives an overview of the field of personality psychology by looking at how the different schools (what he calls "approaches") of psychological thought understand and explain personality:
1. Psychoanalytic approach (Freudian and Neo-Freudian): our personality is made up of our unconscious drives, urges, and neuroses
2. Trait approach: our personality is the sum of our consistent behaviors and characteristics
3. Biological approach: our personality is based in our genetic heritage
4. Humanistic approach: our personality is the result of our choices
5. Behavioral approach: our personality is determined by our environment
6. Cognitive approach: our personality is the result of how our brains process and interpret information
As Burger emphasizes, none of the approaches are considered "the one." Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, each one is useful in different circumstances, and the therapeutic methods of each can be used and helpful depending on the needs of the person and situation. At times logotherapy from the humanistic school is called for, at times the behavioral approach will best help someone work through his/her struggles. There is limited consensus in the field as to what personality even is, so we can benefit from what each school of thought brings to the table.
On a personal note, the book was surprisingly helpful in understanding humanity and how scientists understand and describe how we can advance our own wellbeing by adjusting our behaviors, beliefs, characteristics, and attitudes. I had many lightbulb moments regarding my own struggles, and I think it will be an incredible resource once I have kids and am responsible for raising healthy, happy, fully-functioning, well-adjusted human beings.
**Some of the language around sex and gender was a bit dated. I did read the 2000 edition, though, so I hope and assume that more recent editions contain updated discussions in this regard.
1. Psychoanalytic approach (Freudian and Neo-Freudian): our personality is made up of our unconscious drives, urges, and neuroses
2. Trait approach: our personality is the sum of our consistent behaviors and characteristics
3. Biological approach: our personality is based in our genetic heritage
4. Humanistic approach: our personality is the result of our choices
5. Behavioral approach: our personality is determined by our environment
6. Cognitive approach: our personality is the result of how our brains process and interpret information
As Burger emphasizes, none of the approaches are considered "the one." Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, each one is useful in different circumstances, and the therapeutic methods of each can be used and helpful depending on the needs of the person and situation. At times logotherapy from the humanistic school is called for, at times the behavioral approach will best help someone work through his/her struggles. There is limited consensus in the field as to what personality even is, so we can benefit from what each school of thought brings to the table.
On a personal note, the book was surprisingly helpful in understanding humanity and how scientists understand and describe how we can advance our own wellbeing by adjusting our behaviors, beliefs, characteristics, and attitudes. I had many lightbulb moments regarding my own struggles, and I think it will be an incredible resource once I have kids and am responsible for raising healthy, happy, fully-functioning, well-adjusted human beings.
**Some of the language around sex and gender was a bit dated. I did read the 2000 edition, though, so I hope and assume that more recent editions contain updated discussions in this regard.
January 12, 2020
Uzun, altı çizilerek, tekrar edilerek yani sindirilerek yapılan bir okuma sonrası ilk hissettiğim, bu bir başucu kitabı bana göre (Psikoloji ile ilişkim tamamiyle amatör bu arada). Zira Freud okumuş olabilirsiniz ya da Maslow belki Allport ve hatta tümünü. Ama şimdiye dek okuduğum her kuramı incelerken doğrusu o sandım, büyük bir şemsiyenin altında hepsi ayrı bir koruma sağlıyormuş meğer. Dili çok anlaşılır, akıcı ve her teoremi çalışma ve referanslarıyla aktarırken tez ve antitez’ini de sonunda mutlaka açıklamış Jerry Burger
“ Bu irdelemeden çıkarmanız gereken sonuç, Psikologların insan davranışlarının altında yatan nedenleri açıklamak için, üzerinde anlaşmaya varılmış bir yanıt bulmadıkları olmalıdır. Bu kitabın amacı size doğru kuramı sağlamak değildir. Daha çok size, insan kişiliği ve davranışları ile ilgili kendi yanıtlarınızı bulabilmeniz için araçlar sağlayacak şekilde tasarlanmıştır”
“ Bu irdelemeden çıkarmanız gereken sonuç, Psikologların insan davranışlarının altında yatan nedenleri açıklamak için, üzerinde anlaşmaya varılmış bir yanıt bulmadıkları olmalıdır. Bu kitabın amacı size doğru kuramı sağlamak değildir. Daha çok size, insan kişiliği ve davranışları ile ilgili kendi yanıtlarınızı bulabilmeniz için araçlar sağlayacak şekilde tasarlanmıştır”
April 12, 2015
Bitirdiğim sayılı ders kitaplarından vuhuu. Kaynak kitap-ders kitabı dediğin böyle olur ! (Yayınevi ya da yazarla anlaşmadım ya da reklam sponsorluğum yoktur.) Ey psikolog adayı ya da psikoloji merak salmış genç insan kişiliğini merak ediyorum neden böyleyim neden böyleler çözmek anlamak istiyorum bunların cevabını bulmak istersen nah bulursun ama bu kitap cevabı olmayan soruna şifreler, sırlar verecek ! Belki de bunun cevabını sen bulacaksın ( Hava gazı). Kaynak kitap dediğin niye böyle olur. Verdiği kuramların ardından yapılan araştırmaları veriyor, arada bize küçük süprizler yapıyor hehe ölçekler var ilgi çekici.
Kişilik vizesinden 100 aldım. Bunun kitap ile alakası yok egomu okşayayım dedim.
Kişilik vizesinden 100 aldım. Bunun kitap ile alakası yok egomu okşayayım dedim.
December 9, 2020
The first psychology textbook i read after trying it out at uni. So i didn't see it as work and took about a week and a few days to read it. I had my reasons for erring away from the study of psychology. And chose to study nonsense instead. After nonsense I came to see myself as a Buddhist as i like, and revere what is true and Buddhism is as true as Robert Wright says it is. So after reading about the subject for a year or so and soaking most of it up i had the urge to gravitate towards something new. As i go through cycles and stages. Psychology is something i have always been interested in, probably because i used to struggle to understand my thoughts,feelings and behavior. But being pushed into a box i didn't agree with by people in that profession caused me to dissociate from something i used to be fascinated with. So returning to studying psychology again i see as a part of my recovery. Its really interesting too its like discovering a treasure chest.
I like psychology because i like science and i like understanding people. So what did this book do for me. It introduced me to a vast array of approaches to looking at personality. And gave me an overview of the history of psychology in terms of studying personality. There are many different approaches and all have something to offer in understanding ourselves and others. I found truths to identify in all of them . The approaches covered were psychoanalytic, neo freudian, trait, biological, humanistic, behavioral/social learning and the cognitive approach.
The author segwayed many ideas in an easily understandable manner where he tied and linked them together, making the data easier to memorize, so that after reading this text i could talk to friends and peers about it in a confident manner. The book also touched on some abnormal psychology by discussing how problems like anxiety and depression make themselves manifest in the personality and their typical causes. This book was utterly fantastic i annotated and underlined the hell out of it, and will return to it, to brush up on it periodically. After reading it i immediately jumped into studying a social psychology textbook and after that i'm going to read one on abnormal psychology. Psychology is a very interesting subject that has a lot to offer those who love thought. So i highly recomend this textbook it was very thought provoking, and as i read it i was constantly thinking how this info applies to my own situation and people i know. Reading science textbooks such as this , is as enlightening as science itself. I may be saying the obvious, but its really true to me as i was wrapped up in irrationality, conspiracy theories, and mind control cults for years.
I like psychology because i like science and i like understanding people. So what did this book do for me. It introduced me to a vast array of approaches to looking at personality. And gave me an overview of the history of psychology in terms of studying personality. There are many different approaches and all have something to offer in understanding ourselves and others. I found truths to identify in all of them . The approaches covered were psychoanalytic, neo freudian, trait, biological, humanistic, behavioral/social learning and the cognitive approach.
The author segwayed many ideas in an easily understandable manner where he tied and linked them together, making the data easier to memorize, so that after reading this text i could talk to friends and peers about it in a confident manner. The book also touched on some abnormal psychology by discussing how problems like anxiety and depression make themselves manifest in the personality and their typical causes. This book was utterly fantastic i annotated and underlined the hell out of it, and will return to it, to brush up on it periodically. After reading it i immediately jumped into studying a social psychology textbook and after that i'm going to read one on abnormal psychology. Psychology is a very interesting subject that has a lot to offer those who love thought. So i highly recomend this textbook it was very thought provoking, and as i read it i was constantly thinking how this info applies to my own situation and people i know. Reading science textbooks such as this , is as enlightening as science itself. I may be saying the obvious, but its really true to me as i was wrapped up in irrationality, conspiracy theories, and mind control cults for years.
November 29, 2021
Psikoloji biliminin kendiliğimizi anlamaya ilişkin bir alanı olan "Kişilik Psikolojisi'ne" dair Antik Çağlardan günümüze kadar farklı filozoflar, din adamları ve bilim insanları değişik fikirler beyan etmiş ve farklı araştırmalar yapmışlardır. Kişilik kitabının yazarı Jerry Burger ise kitabında psikolojinin bir bilim olarak kabul edilmeye başlandığı 19. yüzyılın sonlarından günümüze kadar gelen bilim insanlarının ortaya attığı kuramları ve bu kuramlar çerçevesinde gelişen araştırmaları ele almaktadır. Bu bağlamda Kişilik kitabı, kabaca 6 bölüme ayrılabilir: Kişilikle ilgili tanımlamaların ve araştırma yöntemlerinin anlatıldığı ilk bölümler ve ardından gelen 5 ana kuramın detaylıca açıklanması ve araştırma kısımları. 5 ana kuramın; Psikanalitik Kuramlar, Ayırıcı Özellik Kuramları, Biyolojik Kuramlar, İnsancıl Kuramlar ve Bilişsel ve Davranışçı Kuramlardan oluştuğu söylenebilir. Bu noktada Burger'ın Kişilik kitabıyla ilgili söylenebilecek en önemli özelliği belirtmek yerinde olur. Zira yazar, kuramların açıklamalarını yapmakla yetinmemiş, bu kuramlardan hareketle nispeten çağdaş sayılabilecek bilimsel çalışmaları, her kuramın ardından farklı bir araştırma bölümüyle ele alarak yeni ufuklara yelken açmaya çalışmıştır. Öte yandan yazarın akıcı dili, çevirmenin iyi çevirisiyle birleşince ortaya oldukça kaliteli bir kişilik kitabı çıkmıştır.
Keyifli okumalar...
Keyifli okumalar...
March 21, 2017
I think this is one of the first full text books I’ve actually completed and I have to say, it actually wasn’t too terrible. The subject material is interesting and the author presents everything quite well.
Personality, as you might have guessed, is a book about personality psychology, a branch of psychology that studies human personality and how it varies between individuals. This book was actually pretty well rounded, covering multiple approaches to personality theory. The first few chapters start with the history of Personality psychology, introductions to each approach, and information on some research methods. The subsequent chapters dedicate two chapters each to the other approaches. The book follows a timeline fairly well, starting with grand daddy Freud and the Psychoanalytic approach. Naturally, there were extra chapters on Freud and neo-Freudian theory. The book starts with the earliest forms of personality theory and ends with some of the most recent. I think the only thing lacking from the book is the lack of any kind of closing chapter. After finishing the final chapter with the last approach it feels like the book ends rather abruptly, which may sound silly given that it is a textbook. The author could have discussed current personality psychology research or a final comparison of the approaches and how influential they still are today.
With the exception of the last two chapters, each chapter is roughly thirty pages in length. It may seem a bit funny to split each approach into two different chapters, but from the point of view of a student, this is actually quite handy. It makes it easy to just do one chapter a week along with assignments without feeling overwhelmed with the amount of information. Each approach is given an equal amount of background information and good support as well as criticisms for each. It is made quite clear in the introduction that varying approaches shine in different areas, and no one theory alone is applicable to everything. This I think is one of the book’s strongest suits as it gives the reader a chance to decide what approaches fit best and form their own opinions on the topic, something that I think is important for an academic work as opposed to just force feeding one point of view.
I did have a few very small criticisms of the book and I couldn’t give it full marks, and most of them are just my own pet peeves that others may not share. First was the in-text citations, which I know are necessary for academic works and are included in the standard format for Psychology. They just drive me batty and disrupt my reading skimming over them in the middle of a sentence! Especially the sentences that have multiple citations in one. I also found at least two grammatical errors throughout the book, which is actually quite good considering it’s rare to find a work that is perfect, but still a slight oversight considering this is a hefty and expensive text book.
Lastly, littered throughout the chapter are tables with graphs, personal evaluation tests, and short profiles about some important theorists. While I loved having all three, sometimes the placement was pretty awful. I’d be in the middle of a paragraph when the whole half of the page would be interrupted with a giant profile about a given theorist, and I’d have to skip over it to finish the section, then back track to read the profile. Often the profiles for the theorist would be placed right in the middle of the section talking about their work. I think it would make a lot more sense to place those profiles at either the very start or the very end of the chapter, preferably the start so that the reader can get an introduction to the theorist. I know that with printing it’s difficult to make everything fit, but I just found it bothersome having so many interruptions while reading and having to flip around so often.
Overall, not too shabby for my first complete text book. The book is of course inherently inhibited by it’s format, you’d have to be intensely interested in psychology and personality theory in particular. However if you wanted a crash course on the subject that is well written, evenly paced, and even has some humor to keep the chapters interesting, this book does it pretty well.
Strengths: Well rounded and informative
Weaknesses: Dense, bad locations for tables and profiles, in-text citations clutter the paragraphs
Personality, as you might have guessed, is a book about personality psychology, a branch of psychology that studies human personality and how it varies between individuals. This book was actually pretty well rounded, covering multiple approaches to personality theory. The first few chapters start with the history of Personality psychology, introductions to each approach, and information on some research methods. The subsequent chapters dedicate two chapters each to the other approaches. The book follows a timeline fairly well, starting with grand daddy Freud and the Psychoanalytic approach. Naturally, there were extra chapters on Freud and neo-Freudian theory. The book starts with the earliest forms of personality theory and ends with some of the most recent. I think the only thing lacking from the book is the lack of any kind of closing chapter. After finishing the final chapter with the last approach it feels like the book ends rather abruptly, which may sound silly given that it is a textbook. The author could have discussed current personality psychology research or a final comparison of the approaches and how influential they still are today.
With the exception of the last two chapters, each chapter is roughly thirty pages in length. It may seem a bit funny to split each approach into two different chapters, but from the point of view of a student, this is actually quite handy. It makes it easy to just do one chapter a week along with assignments without feeling overwhelmed with the amount of information. Each approach is given an equal amount of background information and good support as well as criticisms for each. It is made quite clear in the introduction that varying approaches shine in different areas, and no one theory alone is applicable to everything. This I think is one of the book’s strongest suits as it gives the reader a chance to decide what approaches fit best and form their own opinions on the topic, something that I think is important for an academic work as opposed to just force feeding one point of view.
I did have a few very small criticisms of the book and I couldn’t give it full marks, and most of them are just my own pet peeves that others may not share. First was the in-text citations, which I know are necessary for academic works and are included in the standard format for Psychology. They just drive me batty and disrupt my reading skimming over them in the middle of a sentence! Especially the sentences that have multiple citations in one. I also found at least two grammatical errors throughout the book, which is actually quite good considering it’s rare to find a work that is perfect, but still a slight oversight considering this is a hefty and expensive text book.
Lastly, littered throughout the chapter are tables with graphs, personal evaluation tests, and short profiles about some important theorists. While I loved having all three, sometimes the placement was pretty awful. I’d be in the middle of a paragraph when the whole half of the page would be interrupted with a giant profile about a given theorist, and I’d have to skip over it to finish the section, then back track to read the profile. Often the profiles for the theorist would be placed right in the middle of the section talking about their work. I think it would make a lot more sense to place those profiles at either the very start or the very end of the chapter, preferably the start so that the reader can get an introduction to the theorist. I know that with printing it’s difficult to make everything fit, but I just found it bothersome having so many interruptions while reading and having to flip around so often.
Overall, not too shabby for my first complete text book. The book is of course inherently inhibited by it’s format, you’d have to be intensely interested in psychology and personality theory in particular. However if you wanted a crash course on the subject that is well written, evenly paced, and even has some humor to keep the chapters interesting, this book does it pretty well.
Strengths: Well rounded and informative
Weaknesses: Dense, bad locations for tables and profiles, in-text citations clutter the paragraphs
September 4, 2021
Bu kitabın amacı insan kişiliği ve davranışları ile ilgili kendi yanıtlarımızı bulabilmemiz icin araçlar sağlamaktır. Freud, Maslow, Jung gibi psikolojiye damga vurmuş bilim adamlarının görüşlerini basit, akıcı ve yüzeysel sekilde, biyografilerini ve kişilik üzerine keşfettilerini tanımlamaya calısarak tarafsızca; güçlü yönler ve eleştiriler halinde sunmuştur. Psikoloji ile hiç bir alakanız olmasa bile çok rahatça okuyabileceğiniz ve size çok kapılar açıp, cevaplar bulmanızı sağlayacak, kitaplığınızda şık duracak bir kitap.
September 23, 2018
Probably one of the better psychology textbooks I have read which doesn't say very much as a general rule. What I did like about the book is all the little boxes about the individual famous names in psychology who almost none of them intended to be psychologists and got into it later in life.
May 17, 2020
Okunması kolay bir kitap. Kişilik ve kişilik ile ilgili kavramları tarihte psikoloji dalında isim yapmış kişiler üzerinden anlatıyor. Hemen hepsinin sunmuş olduğu kuramlar, yöntemler, güçlü ve eleştirilen yönleri ile anlatılmış.
December 21, 2019
One of the more enlightening psychology text books I have read!
June 10, 2021
includes the majority of personality theories but written in a descriptive way. Hard to read.
July 14, 2021
Read for class and is a very good book on personality that I will keep as part of my library.
January 4, 2022
As far as texts go, this one is a banger.
Read
December 3, 2022PSY 112: Personality
January 28, 2017
I really enjoyed Burger's perspective and research. I am very happy that I read this whole book from front to back. I have learned a lot from reading this text and was able to provide great explanations to the questions that my professor asked.
January 21, 2015
It's a solid, well written introduction to the different aspects of personality.
March 18, 2015
fantastic and amazing textbook.
The structue and whole line is very good.
The structue and whole line is very good.
January 21, 2016
Atıp tutmanın çok tatlı ve kolay olduğu sosyal bilimlerde her verdiği bilgiye kaynak göstererek güvenilirliğini tanıtlıyor, ayrıca araştırmacı okuyuculara kolaylık sağlıyor.
August 21, 2015
Çevirisi çok başarılıydı.
November 26, 2016
A decent introduction to personality in psychology but I would have preferred a deeper and less heterosexist and sexist dive.
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April 8, 2019Read for class spring 2019.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews