Synopses & Reviews
Review
"This volume is a much-needed examination of the five-factor model and its contribution to the ongoing revolution in theorizing about personality. The book demonstrates that the five-factor model is much more than an extraordinarily consistent and perhaps universal empirical picture of five basic personality dimensions. The volume presents perspectives from the new wave of theorizing that will replace the grand old theories of personality, a wave to which the five-factor model contributes. Both the novice and the journeyman in personality will profit greatly from studying this highly readable volume." --Donald W. Fiske, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Chicago
"One of the most significant contributions to the resurgence of personality psychology in the last 15 years is the establishment of the five-factor model of personality traits. This collection of six ambitious and integrative essays written by leading scholars in personality psychology marks a coming of age for the five-factor model. Many articles and books demonstrate the range and the facility of 'the Big Five' as a grand scheme for organizing dispositional characteristics in personality. But this impressive volume is distinguished for the authors' efforts to generate new theoretical perspectives informed by the five-factor trait model and to link the model to lines of theorizing coming out of evolutionary psychology, sociology, anthropology, and the humanities. As such, this volume begins what promises to be a long and fruitful conversation among scholars of different stripes and varied disciplines about persons, personality, and the nature of human individuality." --Dan P. McAdams, Ph.D., Professor of Human Development and Psychology, Northwestern University
Review
"...a highly stimulating and suggestive work."--Choice
Review
"The Five-Factor Model of Personality is an invaluable resource in the field of personality, social, and clinical psychology. Highly recommended! "--Internet Bookwatch
Synopsis
Measuring individual differences in terms of degrees of extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience, the five-factor model provides a common language for the field of personality psychology.
Synopsis
Since the 1980s, personality psychologists from a range of perspectives have found the five-factor model to be an effective tool for identifying and structuring personality attributes. Measuring individual differences in terms of degrees of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience, the model provides a common language for the field of personality psychology while, at the same time, it supports widely divergent approaches. How has the model evolved over time, and how has it been challenged? Are these five dimensions adequate to describe the entire range of personality traits? This timely and inclusive volume addresses these and other questions as it explores the five-factor model's theoretical underpinnings, initiating a fruitful dialogue among some of the leading figures in contemporary personality research.
Synopsis
Since the 1980s, personality psychologists from a variety of perspectives have found the five-factor model to be an effective framework for identifying and structuring personality attributes. Measuring individual differences in terms of degrees of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, openness to experience, the model provides a common language for the field of personality psychology while at the same time supporting widely divergent approaches. The volume opens with a historical overview of more than 60 years of research on the classification of personality traits. Subsequent chapters focus on theoretical questions that have guided the construction of the model, weigh the value and applicability of each of the five dimensions, and use the five-factor model as a point of departure for discussing broader issues concerning the development and dynamics of personality. From the perspectives of the lexical approach, trait theory, interpersonal theory, socioanalytic theory, and evolutionary psychology, contributing authors explore such cogent issues as: the differences between the five-factor model and other multidimensional approaches to personality structure; whether the dimensions of the five-factor model are replicable across different cultures and languages; what the five-factor model adds to our understanding of human nature; the accuracy of self-reports, and descriptions of others, in trait measurement; and how each of the five factors comes into play in specific social contexts, such as mate attraction and coalition building.
About the Author
Jerry S. Wiggins, Ph.D., has held teaching positions at the University of Rochester, Stanford University, the University of Illinois, and the University of British Columbia, where he is currently Professor of Psychology and coordinator of the graduate program in personality. He is internationally known for his advocacy of theory-driven methods of personality assessment and for his efforts to integrate diverse approaches to personality test construction, including the empirical, psychometric-trait, and interpersonal traditions.
Table of Contents
1. The Curious History of the Five-Factor Model, John M. Digman
2. The Language of Personality: Lexical Perspectives on the Five-Factor Model, Gerard Saucier and Lewis R. Goldberg
3. Toward a New Generation of Personality Theories: Theoretical Contexts for the Five-Factor Model, Robert R. McCrae and Paul T. Costa, Jr.
4. A Dyadic Interactional Perspective on the Five-Factor Model, Jerry S. Wiggins and Paul D. Trapnell
5. A Socioanalytic Perspective on the Five-Factor Model, Robert Hogan
6. Social Adaptation and Five Major Factors of Personality, David M. Buss