Since the 1980s, personality psychologists from a range of perspectives have found the five-factor model to be an effective tool for identifying and structuring personality attributes. Measuring individual differences in terms of degrees of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience, the model provides a common language for the field of personality psychology while, at the same time, it supports widely divergent approaches. How has the model evolved over time, and how has it been challenged? Are these five dimensions adequate to describe...

From distinguished scholar and teacher Jerry S. Wiggins, this book is a uniquely integrative introduction to adult personality assessment that will engage graduate and undergraduate students alike. Part I thoroughly reviews five major assessment paradigms--psychodynamic, interpersonal, personological, multivariate, and empirical. In Part II, leading representatives of each paradigm are invited to interpret extensive test and interview data collected from a single subject. The resulting "collaborative case study" facilitates comparison of techniques, theories, and interpretations; illuminates...

From distinguished scholar and teacher Jerry S. Wiggins, this book is a uniquely integrative introduction to adult personality assessment that will engage graduate and undergraduate students alike. Part I thoroughly reviews five major assessment paradigms--psychodynamic, interpersonal, personological, multivariate, and empirical. In Part II, leading representatives of each paradigm are invited to interpret extensive test and interview data collected from a single subject. The resulting "collaborative case study" facilitates comparison of techniques, theories, and interpretations; illuminates...