Personality and Personal Growth

by Robert Frager, James Fadiman

This unique text features a truly global perspective that includes Far Eastern theories, feminist theories, and full biographies of every major figure discussed. Each theory is presented in a positive, constructive light for greater ease of understanding and the authors' clear and direct writing style New pedagogical features such as "Chapter Highlights" and "Key Concepts" to insure comprehension of the more difficult material. "Personal Reflection" boxes in each chapter inspire the students to apply these theories to their own lives. Includes new chapters on Anna Freud and the post-Freudians, as well as a new chapter on Karen Horney (written by her foremost biographer, Bernard Paris).

Genres: Psychology, Textbooks

602 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Jessica Zambrano]

I'm reading this for my Personality Psychology class. It explains the various theories very concisely. Having had to deal with mega textbooks, I can wholeheartedly appreciate this. Right now I'm studying Freud, Jung, Adler and Horney for an exam next week. Good stuff man!

[Sorrowka]

No body told me this book until I'm doing postgrad, I'm excited to share how handy this book! It's compact and pragmatic, much more adding East Psychology (Transpersonal psychology and religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam). My teacher even used their structure for the class. the quotation is what intrigued me the most, both Frager and Fadiman sure have a strong suit at picking words!

[Alex Hernández]

Creo que más que Teorías de la personalidad, debería tener incluido en el título la palabra "historia". Para mí fue más un resumen histórico que una lectura a fondo sobre las teorías per se.

[Ihsana]

Good

[Maria]

20250428 ◊ Textbook for Psych 7: Theories of Personality, a prerequisite class for my grad school program. I found it to be well written, engaging, and accessible.

[alexander shay]

This was the textbook used in my PSYC 233 (Personality) class. Between taking 2 introductory psych courses, psych 30 in high school, and reading The Psychology Book, almost the first half of the textbook was nothing new. I was actually surprised that this class didn't go into any further detail than the introductory course, being a higher level course with a more focused subject matter. Skinner, Maslow, Bandura, and a few others were new, though.
My teacher uses this textbook primarily for two reasons. The first is that the last 3 chapters and a small portion of chapter 12 are "transpersonal" psychology, or non-Western. It focuses on Yoga, Buddhism, and Sufi. It gives a glimpse into non-American (and non-European) views of the world. She also uses them because throughout each chapter are little exercises you can do that are supposed to help you look deeper into yourself while also helping you understand the content that you just read. You have to choose 3 to do, one from each third of the book.
The content itself is easy enough to understand, though having to read a whole chapter at once was pretty dry at times. I was just disappointed with the lack of new content or more in depth content with psychologists we know very well, particularly Freud and Jung.

[Faye Hall]

This is much better that the earlier edition. I enjoyed it a lot.

[Karen Rice]

Very good book. Well organized and detailed.