Review by Choice Review
Decades ago, anthropologist Clyde Kluckhohn and personality researcher Henry Murray memorably argued that each person is like all others, like some others, and like no others. How does one know what other people are really like. This simple question drives personality research and, as anyone interested in this critical area of study knows, definitive answers are anything but easy to come by. Generations of researchers have relied on a variety of methods--questionnaires and surveys, trait (the "Big Five") and stage (Eriksonian) theories, case studies, life stories and narratives, and various clinically oriented tools (e.g., the DSM in its several incarnations)--to get at the nature of people's personality traits and accompanying psychological states. A psychiatrist and neuroscientist, Barondes (Univ. of California, San Francisco) pulls these theoretical and empirical themes together in this brief but informative guide to making sense of others' behaviors and motives. The book is neither pop psychology nor self-help; Barondes urges readers to supplement intuition with verified science. This is a friendly introduction to personality research for the reader who is motivated to expand his or her inferential arsenal where knowing others is concerned. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates, professionals, general readers. D. S. Dunn Moravian College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A succinct look at personality psychology.As a psychiatrist and neuroscientist at the University of California, Barondes (Molecules and Mental Illness, 2007, etc.) has spent years studying human behavior, and this book reflects his systematic, scientific approach for personality assessment. The average person isn't likely to have time to research a difficult boss or potential love interest, but the author supplements intuition with a useful cornerstone for gauging human behavior: a table of the "Big Five" personality traits, among them Extraversion vs. Introversion and Agreeableness vs. Antagonism. To learn how to apply the Big Five, Barondes supplies a link for a professional online personality test, in addition to a basic introduction of troubling personality patternse.g., narcissism and compulsiveness. While genetics may play a heavy hand in influencing personality, Barondes writes, it's awareness of a person's background, character and life story that is paramount in unearthing reasons for adult behavior. Readers might like to see the author weave more everyday examples into the texthis exercise in fostering compassion by imagining an adult as a 10-year-old child is a gembut there is plenty here to ponder.Those looking for traditional "self-help" advice won't find it here, but this book clearly lays the groundwork for deeper human interaction and better life relationships.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.