Personality

This chapter provides a broad overview of the field of Personality Psychology, focusing on the big questions that motivate current research, including: (a) What are the basic building blocks of personality and how are they organized? (b) How can we best measure personality differences? (c) What are the developmental origins of personality and how does personality change across the lifespan? (d) What are the biological, cognitive, emotional, self, social, and cultural factors that account for personality differences? (e) What are the real-world consequences of personality for important life outcomes? The chapter ends by providing a detailed guide to adopting a personality approach to research, addressing some myths and inconvenient truths about the field, and proposing a path toward greater collaboration between personality and social psychologists.