Book Review: (i) The Science of Personality. Lawrence A. Pervin. Wiley, New York, 1996. 471 pp. (ii) Personality: Description, Dynamics and Development. Susan C. Cloninger. Freeman, New York, 1996. 588 pp.
✍ Scribed by P. Szarota
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 73 KB
- Volume
- 11
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0890-2070
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The Science of Personality by Lawrence Pervin and Personality: Description, Dynamics and Development by Susan Cloninger represent a new style in writing personality textbooks. Pervin and Cloninger organize their books around major topics of current concern, not around grand theories of the past as in the case of most handbooks of personality theories. They try to `resolve' scientific chaos and integrate the myriads of research data in a convenient and efficient form. Moreover, they pose serious questions about the prospects of the science of personality as well as the prospects of academic psychology. Is it possible to develop a theory of personality that recognizes both stability (consistency) and variability (situational specificity) in personal functioning? What about a common paradigm for the science of psychology? These are fundamental questions, which should be repeatedly asked not only by students, but also by lecturers.
Structure
Both books have been divided into three parts. Cloninger suggests that current personality research can find an organizing framework in three fundamental questions. How shall we describe personality? What are the dynamics that make us function? How do we develop our personalities? Part One of Cloninger considers the first question through a number of more specific ones. How do lay people describe personality? What are personality traits? How can we describe groups of individuals and is it really a waste of time to study individuals? Part Two considers the second questionÐthe dynamics of personality. Here the legacy of Freud and Murray are presented, together with related current approaches and research. The question of personality dynamics is also examined from the perspective of stress and coping, and of the self. Part Three deals with personality developmentÐits continuity and change over time, the biological basis and the influence of culture. According to Cloninger the questions posed in the three parts must be coordinated, because Personality is three-dimensional (at least)'. The 3 Ds' perspective is very appealing indeed, and it is a useful pattern for integrating and organizing data. If one wishes to add a critical point, the term `development' does not fit very well, because semantically it is clearly associated with progress and evolution. A better fit could be provided by the terms