Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Boxes
- Preface to the third edition
- Preface to the second edition
- Preface to the first edition
- 1 Gideon's army: the study of individual differences
- Part I The surface
- Part II Below the surface 1: the biological line
- Part III Below the surface 2: the phenomenal line
- Part IV Below the surface 3: the motivational line
- Part V Examples
- References
- Author index
- Subject index
Preface to the first edition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Boxes
- Preface to the third edition
- Preface to the second edition
- Preface to the first edition
- 1 Gideon's army: the study of individual differences
- Part I The surface
- Part II Below the surface 1: the biological line
- Part III Below the surface 2: the phenomenal line
- Part IV Below the surface 3: the motivational line
- Part V Examples
- References
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
I have been intending to write this book for as long as I have been teaching Individual Psychology. I have never really been satisfied with any of the texts I have used, so the logical thing is to write my own. The sources of my dissatisfaction with the texts I have used are various, but the two main shortcomings are adherence to the ‘theory of the month’ approach, and being transatlantic. Some texts also tend to be rather low level and condescending to the reader.
The ‘theory of the month’ approach – or week if the lecturer likes to move fast – is probably inspired by Hall and Lindzey's (1957) Theories of Personality. This is an excellent and useful work, but as a reference book, not a text. Too many subsequent textbooks have followed its format: a chapter on Freud, a chapter on Jung, a chapter on Sheldon, a chapter on Dollard and Miller, a chapter on Rogers, a chapter on Skinner (who may be an anti-personality theorist, but generates some superbly memorable jargon), a chapter on Allport, perhaps a chapter on Cattell, rarely or never a mention of Eysenck.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Levels of Personality , pp. xviii - xxPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012