Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research

by Oliver P. John (Editor), Richard W. Robins (Editor), Lawrence A. Pervin (Editor)

This authoritative handbook is the reference of choice for researchers and students of personality. Leading authorities describe the most important theoretical approaches in personality and review the state of the science in five broad content biological bases; development; self and social processes; cognitive and motivational processes; and emotion, adjustment, and health. Within each area, chapters present innovative ideas, findings, research designs, and measurement approaches. Areas of integration and consensus are discussed, as are key questions and controversies still facing the field.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Textbooks, Education, Academic

862 pages, Hardcover

First published June 7, 1990

About the author

Oliver P. John, PhD, at the University of California, Berkeley, since 1987, is both
Professor in the Department of Psychology, where he was recently recognized as the
most cited faculty member, and Research Psychologist at the Institute of Personality
and Social Research, where he has twice served as Acting Director. Dr. John
has won the Distinguished Teaching Award from Berkeley’s College of Letters and
Science (2004), the Theoretical Innovation Prize from the Society for Personality
and Social Psychology (2002), the Best Paper of the Year Award from the Journal
of Research in Personality (1998, 2003), and the Cattell Award for Early Career
Contributions from the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology (1996).
He has served as Associate Editor of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,
as an Honorary Gast Professor at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, and
as Kurt Lewin Fellow at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands. In more
than 90 articles and three books, Dr. John has examined personality structure and
processes, emotion expression and regulation, self and self-perception processes,
and methodological issues; his Big Five Inventory and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire
have each been translated into more than 15 languages.

Reviews

[Synne Sylibris]

Finally done with this stupid book.
Ok, "stupid" might be a little unfair. Once I got over the initial "I don't understand anything" thoughts, I was able to find my footing a little. I even enjoyed a few chapters (especially the chapter about "the self").
Overall, a decent reference book, if a little dense and long-winded.

Fingers crossed I passed my exam, so I don't have to pick up this book ever again🥰🥰

[Jurij Fedorov]

Just wanted to write a short review.

Chapter 5 is curiously; "The Five-­Factor Theory of Personality" by Robert R. McCrae and Paul T. Costa, Jr.

This chapter is really great! It's a great intro to personality overall and they construct a deep and detailed argument about personality and how it's structured into 5 traits universally. It's not dry or boring, but can get a bit to the point at times. I do wish they had explained how personality changes over time of how each trait predicts behavior in life like who people vote for, how much they sleep around or what they work with. It's very good at illustrating the basics, but via overall ideas. I suggest people get the book and read this chapter. It's a very clear idea.

Chapter 12 "Personality in Animals"

Now I can see the dryness of the book. This chapter absolutely does not work at all without photos, charts, tables and other guides. It becomes a weird thing where a single chart would have done a better job at conveying info than some of the pages and it actually becomes a mistake that they didn't use any sort of tools like that to convey their message. It's a fine chapter if you study this stuff and need a dry and boring intro, but that just doesn't apply to 95% of readers. We do want to understand this more easily and have some fun with it, which is not found here. The chapter overall still does have that very good understanding of personality though. It's nice to see a high level of understanding and a strong collection of studies. But overall it's not as groundbreaking or convincing as it could have been. I think the issue here is that the level of info is high, but it's for experts ready to nerd out with the chapter for half a day and not for people just needing fast info.

[Ada]

UGH. Not even a single picture.

[Kristena]

I hated this book when I took the class in graduate school. It is extremely dry. However, I did find it useful when it came time for my comprehensive exams.