Although the psychometric view of personality is well established, it is little dealt with in most textbooks. Personality: the Psychometric View describes clearly the methods and findings of the psychometric testing of personality. Leading author Paul Kline discusses the theory of personality testing and the main types of personality test, as well as their practical application to occupational, educational and clinical psychology. Personality: the Psychometric View is the only text on the psychometric view of personality which is written with enough clarity to be suited to students. It will be valuable to all students of psychology, as well as postgraduates designing tests, and those in education and the social sciences.

The primary purpose of this revision remains identical to that of the first edition--to show how key personality, cognitive/behavioral, and vocational tests/assessment procedures can be used by counselors in their work with clients. Too often, assessment books only provide the reader with information about tests and assessment procedures. They do not, however, take the next step--showing readers how these tests/assessment procedures can be used and integrated into the actual work of counseling. This revision is designed to fill that void. Chapter authors, all of whom are experts in their respective topic areas, share the theoretical and research backgrounds about a particular test/assessment procedure and then provide a case example or examples to show how assessment data can be meaningfully incorporated into the counseling process.

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute, Athens, Greece, December 10-20, 1984

The terms mental health, maturity, personality integration, self-actualization have been used by psychologists to represent the realm of the ideal or optimal personality. Originally published in 1974, Professor Richard Coan here describes a method of analysing this domain, and examines the important theoretical implications of his findings. He developed instruments to measure various characteristics, including personal consistency, the experience of control and openness to experience, which are associated with current concepts of sound psychological functioning. A battery containing these instruments was administered to several hundred subjects and analysed. The results, reported here, are enlightening. It was found, for example, that the different characteristics viewed by psychologists as traits of the ideal person do not constitute a unitary pattern. There is no evidence of a general dimension of personality integration or mental health. A number of independent components or factors of sound functioning were isolated. Some desirable traits were discovered to be inversely related to each other, many of these relationships appearing to involve a choice between an open or spontaneous orientation and a more ordered and controlled orientation. The author’s view, fully supported by his findings, is that if people are to achieve maximal realization of their potentials, a clear requisite is the flexible utilization of various modes of experiencing and acting.

The study of personality has a long history and many different theoretical viewpoints within psychology. Psychology Library Editions: Personality (16 Volume set) presents titles, originally published between 1950 and 1997, covering many of these traditions and theories. It includes contributions from many well-respected academics and is a fascinating insight into this diverse field.

Individual Differences and Personality provides a student-friendly introduction to both classic and cutting-edge research into personality, mood, motivation and intelligence, and their applications in psychology and in fields such as health, education and sporting achievement. Including a new chapter on 'toxic' personality traits, and an additional chapter on applications in real-life settings, this fourth edition has been thoroughly updated and uniquely covers the necessary psychometric methodology needed to understand modern theories. It also develops deep processing and effective learning by encouraging a critical evaluation of both older and modern theories and methodologies, including the Dark Triad, emotional intelligence and psychopathy. Gardner’s and hierarchical theories of intelligence, and modern theories of mood and motivation are discussed and evaluated, and the processes which cause people to differ in personality and intelligence are explored in detail. Six chapters provide a non-mathematical grounding in psychometric principles, such as factor analysis, reliability, validity, bias, test-construction and test-use. With self-assessment questions, further reading and a companion website including student and instructor resources, this is the ideal resource for anyone taking modules on personality and individual differences.

In this groundbreaking handbook, more than 60 internationally respected authorities explore the interface between intelligence and personality by bringing together a wide range of potential integrative links drawn from theory, research, measurements, and applications.

Many psychological factors are little more than statistical descriptions of particular sets of data and have no real significance. Paul Kline uses his long and extensive knowledge of psychological measurement to argue that truly scientific forms of measurement could be developed to create a new psychometrics. This would transform the basis of psychology and change it from a social science to a pure science.

Originally published in 1988, this second edition of The Construction of Personality has been substantially revised and updated. The author provides an introduction to current theory and research in the psychology of personality at the time and examines this work from the perspective of constructivism. As a consequence of this constructivist approach, the book covers topics from social psychology (e.g. person perception, impression formation) as well as more conventional areas of personality. In this new edition the constructivist perspective is emphasized by the addition of a new chapter in which the constructivist approach to personality is presented, and the chapters on the lay and self perspectives have been extensively re-written. All the other chapters have been revised to include recent material.