Customer Reviews

Personality, Individual Differences and Intelligence

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am very happy with this book. It was recommended for my class, and it is very well written, extremely easy to understand, but at the same time goes into a lot of detail. This book helped me get through my exams and have been able to use it on a number of different courses.

The book is well presented and has a number of topics that are well covered. Paricularly, theories of personality, intelligence and applied aspects of individual differences. What strikes me about this book is that it builds up your knowledge. It never assumes you've read all the different chapters beforehand (being told to read a chapter before you've read the one you need never helps) and therefore its helpful in terms of not assuming prior knowledge. The authors also take great care in breaking down complicated issues and terms and again not assuming prior knowledge.

Also the book present recent and useful research. This helped with my coursework and my exams and also was very clear to identify the main issues. Overall it is very very readable and splits up each topic into managable chunks. I would strongly recommend this book to other students.

This textbook is really easy to read and understandable. Theoretical areas are explained well with each area building up logically to its conclusion.

Chapters include:
Personality chapters:
1) Personality Theory in Context; 2) The Basis of Psychoanalytic Approach to personality; 3) Developments of Freudian Theories; 4) Learning Theory Perspectives; 5) Cognitive Personality Theories; 6) Humanistic Personality Theories; 7) The Trait Approach to Personality; 8) Biological Basis of Personlity 1: Genetic Heritability of Personality and Biological and Physiological Models of Personality; 9) Biological Basis of Personality 2: Evolutionary Psychology and Animal Studies of Personality; 10) Further Ideas and Debates in Personality: Personality and Culture

Intelligence chapters:
11) An introduction to Intelligence; 12) Theories and Measurement of Intelligence; 13) The Use of Intelligence Tests: What Questions Emerge from the Measure of Intelligence?; 14) Heritability and Socially Defined Race Differences in Intelligence; 15) Further Discussions and Debates in Intelligence: Sex Differences in Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence; 16) The Application of Personality and Intelligence in Education and the WorkPlace: The Introduction of Other Intelligences

Additional Chapters:
17) Further Debates and Applications in Individual Differences: An Introduction; 18) Optimism; 19) Irrational Beliefs; 20) Embarrassment, Shyness and Social Anxiety; 21) Interpersonal Relationships; 22) Social Attitudes; 23) Well-being and Personality Disorders; 24) Individual Differences in Health and Illness; 25) An introduction to Psychometric Testing.

At the end of each chapter you are encouraged to consider discussion questions, and to review areas critically. There are also recommended books and DVDs to further your understanding within interested areas.
A very informative text for anyone interested in intelligence, personality, and individual differences.

As a psychology undergraduate I found this book to be the perfect supplement to my lecture notes on our 'Indiviual differences, personality and intelligence' module. Also very easy to read/understand.

Simply bought the book as John is my lecturer, haven't actually read it yet but it was as described and arrived promptly.

There is a lot of information in this text book - but sometimes it seems to be skimming over a lot of details which might be important. I think it weighs in more on the side of breadth than depth.

The format can sometimes feel a little confusing - there are biography sections distributed throughout the text, but often I missed them because I was reading the main text and didn't want to distract myself. I think it would have been better to have the biographies integrated into the text, or put in a glossary, as I felt that putting them on the same page as a lot of other information did not encourage me to read them any more, and sometimes interrupted my reading.

Overall I felt it could have been written in a more engaging tone, and the format was a bit clunky at times - but I was able to learn the basics for my course, so it did its job to an extent.

Yes, this textbook has useful facts, but it is SO repetitive it could easily be half as long.
There will be an entire chapter devoted to a topic and then in the next chapter a three page section will begin "As you read in the previous chapter, " and continue to restate, taking three pages, the chapter you've just finished reading.
If you have to read this book for class, I am very sorry for you. Depending on how much detail you need, you may be better off just skipping to the summary at the end of each section and taking notes in class.

I knew the book was used, and was described as 'like new', and it came exactly as described. There is no writing in the book, which can get really annoying in textbooks, and the only way I can tell it's used is by the slightly worn corners of the cover.

This purchase came quickly and wasn't very expensive. Came just in time for an essay I needed to write for University :)

Although it was clear that this book had been used, it probably should have been made clearer that it had been dropped in the water and left to dry. Quite a few of the pages were stuck together and yellowed at the edges, and although none of the words are smudged, I wouldn't have spent more than ten pounds on the product if I'd known it was going to be in this condition.