David C. Funder & Daniel J. Ozer (Eds.) (2010). Pieces of the personality puzzle: Readings in theory and research (5th ed.). New York: Norton.
This is a collection of articles that have helped to shape contemporary personality psychology. The authors include such well-known psychologists as Sigmund Freud and Karen Horney (on the psychoanalytic perspective); Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Dan McAdams (on the humanistic perspective); Walter Mischel and Albert Bandura (on the social-cognitive perspective); and Gordon Allport, Robert McCrae, and Paul Costa (on the trait perspective). There are also new articles on such topics as cross-cultural differences in personality, gender differences in personality, and the relation of personality to happiness.
Judith R. Harris (2009). The nurture assumption: Why children turn out the way they do. New York: Free Press.
Harris is an independent thinker who loves to poke holes in the thinking and research of contemporary psychologists. This is a revised and updated version of her 1998 book that challenges the assumption that parents shape a child’s personality. Parents are not unimportant, Harris argues, but their major contribution to their children’s personalities is the genes they provide, not the examples they set. Harris proposes that experience with peers is a more potent shaper of children’s personalities than experience with parents. Harris’s ideas remain controversial, and many psychologists dispute her claims, but she backs up her arguments with solid science. Perhaps the greatest value in reading this book, though, lies in learning how to think critically about psychological research. Harris is an expert at that.
Sigmund Freud (1901; reprinted 1960). The psychopathology of everyday life (J. Strachey, Ed.; A. Tyson, Trans.). New York: Norton.
This is one of Freud’s most popular and fun-to-read books. It is full of anecdotes having to do with forgetting, slips of the tongue, and bungled actions. In each anecdote, Freud argues that an apparent mistake was really an expression of an unconscious wish.
Carol S. Dweck (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House.
In this book, written for the general public, Dweck presents her theory that people who have a malleable, or growth, mindset about themselves fare better in life than do those who have a fixed mindset about themselves. Using both research and anecdotes, she describes how the two mindsets influence people in schools, sports, business, and relationships, and she describes how people can acquire and benefit from a growth mindset. The book can be read for fun, for self-help, and for insight into a new way of thinking about personality.
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David L. Watson & Roland G. Tharp (2013). Self-directed behavior: Self-modification for personal adjustment (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.
This 432-page book is a practical guide to self-change. It addresses behaviors associated with the personality traits discussed in this chapter and the ways by which people can modify them. Each chapter presents a set of learning objectives and steps the reader through them. Whether used for personal improvement or within a college course, this book offers a practical approach to behaviors typically associated with personality traits.