This second edition of the bestselling textbook Personality Traits is an essential text for students doing courses in personality psychology and individual differences. The authors have updated the volume throughout, incorporating the latest research in the field, and added three new chapters on personality across the lifespan, health and applications of personality assessment. Personality research has been transformed by recent advances in our understanding of personality traits. This book reviews the origins of traits in biological and social processes, and their consequences for cognition, stress, and physical and mental health. Contrary to the traditional view of personality research as a collection of disconnected theories, Personality Traits provides an integrated account, linking theory-driven research with applications in clinical and occupational psychology. The new format of the book, including many additional features, makes it even more accessible and reader friendly.

Table of Contents

Part I. The Nature of Personality Traits: 1. The trait concept and personality theory; 2. Persons, situations and interactionism; 3. Personality across the life span; 4. Stable traits and transient states; 5. Alternatives to trait theory; Part II. Causes of Personality Traits: 6. Genes, environments and personality traits; 7. The psychopathology of traits; 8. The social psychology of traits; Part III. Consequences and Applications: 9. Stress; 10. Traits and health; 11. Abnormal personality traits?; 12. Personality, performance and information-processing; 13. Applications of personality assessment; 14. Conclusions.

Author Biography

Gerald Matthews is Professor of Psychology at the University of Cincinnati and has previously held faculty positions at the Universities of Aston and Dundee. He has co-authored several volumes, including Attention and Emotion: A Clinical Perspective (1994) which won the 1998 British Psychological Society Book Award, and has published many articles in the area of personality research. Ian J. Deary is Professor of Differential Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. He is also a registered medical practitioner and member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He has written extensively on personality and intelligence and won the 2002 British Psychological Society Book Award for Looking Down on Human Intelligence (2000). He holds the Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award, 2002-2007. Martha C. Whiteman is a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. Her research within personality and public health sciences has been published in The Lancet, Psychosomatic Medicine and Personality and Individual Differences.