Personality And Environment

Intriguing information about twins, adoptions and other family relationships is offered in this volume, which explores how genes and environment act jointly to create individual differences in temperament and personality. Loehlin examines the relative contributions of genes and environment to major dimensions of personality and to personality change over time, and discusses how genotype-environment findings for personality compare with neighbouring trait domains such as ability. The book concludes with an analysis of how research results on individual personality variation relate to evolutionary views about human nature.

A variety of theoretical approaches to person-environment psychology has been developed over the years, representing a rich range of intellectual perspectives. This second edition links the past and present and looks toward the future in reviewing new directions and perspectives in person-environment psychology. Stated differently, the main thrust of this volume is to present contemporary models and perspectives that make some sensible predictions concerning the individual and the environment using the person-environment relationship. Within a person-environment framework, these models and perspectives are concerned with how people tend to influence environments and how environments reciprocally tend to influence people. Thus, this second edition presents new directions in person-environment psychology and the implications for theory, research, and application.

This volume reports on a study of 850 pairs of twins who were tested to determine the influence of heredity and environment on individual differences in personality, ability, and interests. It presents the background, research design, and procedures of the study, a complete tabulation of the test results, and the authors’ extensive analysis of their findings. Based on one of the largest studies of twin behavior conducted in the twentieth century, the book challenges a number of traditional beliefs about genetic and environmental contributions to personality development. The subjects were chosen from participants in the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test of 1962 and were mailed a battery of personality and interest questionnaires. In addition, parents of the twins were sent questionnaires asking about the twins’ early experiences. A similar sample of nontwin students who had taken the merit exam provided a comparison group. The questions investigated included how twins are similar to or different from nontwins, how identical twins are similar to or different from fraternal twins, how the personalities and interests of twins reflect genetic factors, how the personalities and interests of twins reflect early environmental factors, and what implications these questions have for the general issue of how heredity and environment influence the development of psychological characteristics. In attempting to answer these questions, the authors shed light on the importance of both genes and environment and form the basis for different approaches in behavior genetic research.

This volume reports on a study of 850 pairs of twins who were tested to determine the influence of heredity and environment on individual differences in personality, ability, and interests. It presents the background, research design, and procedures of the study, a complete tabulation of the test results, and the authors’ extensive analysis of their findings. Based on one of the largest studies of twin behavior conducted in the twentieth century, the book challenges a number of traditional beliefs about genetic and environmental contributions to personality development. The subjects were chosen from participants in the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test of 1962 and were mailed a battery of personality and interest questionnaires. In addition, parents of the twins were sent questionnaires asking about the twins’ early experiences. A similar sample of nontwin students who had taken the merit exam provided a comparison group. The questions investigated included how twins are similar to or different from nontwins, how identical twins are similar to or different from fraternal twins, how the personalities and interests of twins reflect genetic factors, how the personalities and interests of twins reflect early environmental factors, and what implications these questions have for the general issue of how heredity and environment influence the development of psychological characteristics. In attempting to answer these questions, the authors shed light on the importance of both genes and environment and form the basis for different approaches in behavior genetic research.

This book is designed to help students organize their thinking about psychology at a conceptual level. The focus on behaviour and empiricism has produced a text that is better organized, has fewer chapters, and is somewhat shorter than many of the leading books. The beginning of each section includes learning objectives; throughout the body of each section are key terms in bold followed by their definitions in italics; key takeaways, and exercises and critical thinking activities end each section.

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.

Now in a revised and expanded second edition, this influential work argues for the enduring stability of personality across adult development. It also offers a highly accessible introduction to the five-factor model of personality. Critically reviewing different theories of personality and adult development, the authors explain the logic behind the scientific assessment of personality, present a comprehensive model of trait structure, and examine patterns of trait stability and change after age 30, incorporating data from ongoing cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. The second edition has been updated throughout with the authors' new findings, ideas, and interpretations, and includes a new chapter on cross-cultural research. It culminates in an additional new chapter that presents a comprehensive theory of personality grounded in the five-factor model.