The past two decades have witnessed unprecedented consensus regarding the structure of personality. The advent of the Five Factor Model (FFM), which argues that individual differences in normal or nonclinical personality can best be described in terms of five broad traits (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness), has been supported by an impressive record of studies and has fuelled personality research in recent years. This text, written by one of the premiere international scholars in personality theory and creative psychology, discusses and critically evaluates the principal content areas of personality that recent research has uncovered.

In concise, reader-friendly chapters, the book addresses various historical views of personality and compares and contrasts the FFM model with competing models of personality. It discusses techniques of assessing and measuring personality and examines the role of personality in life outcomes ranging from choice of career to health to interpersonal relationships.

Key Features:

• Discusses and evaluates the ""Five-Factor"" model of personality-the most widely studied personality construct in psychology
• Addresses controversies surrounding the application of personality assessment in social, organisational, and business contexts
• Reviews evidence demonstrating the ability of personality traits to predict behaviour patterns
• Written by a prominent scholar of personality and creativity psychology in the US and the UK
• Written concisely and accessibly for undergraduate psychology students