"Personal Peacefulness" examines the existing theories and knowledge about the peacefulness of individuals, including inner peace, interpersonal peacefulness, and peaceful attitudes towards groups and nations. It uses the term "personal peacefulness" to refer to the peaceful states, attitudes, and behaviors of individuals, and it discusses the phenomena and determinants of personal peacefulness in the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intergroup domains. Also addressed is the relationship between personal peacefulness and well-being, describing various methods for enhancing the peacefulness of individuals. Within the framework of a scholarly and scientific approach to the study of personal peacefulness, various psychological perspectives are represented: personality, social, clinical, and positive psychology perspectives, peacefulness as nonviolence, attachment theory and the development of affect regulation, a human needs theory approach, Buddhist conceptions of compassion and mindfulness, a natural science perspective describing physiological foundations for personal peacefulness, phenomenological perspectives, and peacefulness as the promotion of conflict resolution. The book is an important resource for scholars, researchers, and educators in psychology, political science and in a variety of other areas who study and teach topics such as empathy, prosocial behavior, personality, psychological well-being, mental health, personal development, peace and conflict and conflict resolution.

Oxford Handbooks offer authoritative and up-to-date reviews of original research in a particular subject area. Specially commissioned chapters from leading figures in the discipline give critical examinations of the progress and direction of debates, as well as a foundation for futureresearch. Oxford Handbooks provide scholars and graduate students with compelling new perspectives upon a wide range of subjects in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.

As one of psychology's oldest fields, personality assessment is one of the most extensively studied subsets of contemporary psychology. The Oxford Handbook of Personality Assessment synthesizes new and existing literature with clinical practice to provide a comprehensive volume on contemporary personality assessment, including its historical developments, underlying methods, applications, contemporary issues, and assessment techniques. This handbook, part of the Oxford Library of Psychology, addresses both the historical roots of personality assessment and the evolution of its contemporary methodological tenets, thus providing a foundation for the handbook's other innovative focus: the application of personality assessment in clinical, personnel, and forensic assessments.
With a wealth of respected international contributors and unequalled breadth of content, the Oxford Handbook of Personality Assessment offers an authoritative and field-encompassing resource for researchers and clinicians from across the medical health and psychology disciplines (i.e., clinical psychology, psychiatry, and social work) and would be an ideal text for any graduate course on the topic of personality assessment.

As domestic violence continues to be a focus of social and psychological concern, two basic contradictory viewpoints endure: one rooted in male power dynamics, the other maintaining that both genders use and are victimized by violence. Although both sides have their merits, neither has adequately answered the crucial question: What causes conflict to escalate into violence?

"Partner Violence: A New Paradigm for Understanding Conflict Escalation"adds a third, escalation-focused paradigm to the debate, addressing the limitations of the two dominant perspectives in a comprehensive scholarly approach. This concise yet comprehensive volume examines key gender- and non-gender-related violence issues and sets out a compelling behavioral argument that using violence to control others is a rational choice. Its theoretical and empirical foundations support an in-depth study of escalating aggression in violent relationships, both throughout periods of chronic conflict and in single violent episodes. This analysis promotes a broader and deeper understanding of partner violence, suitable to developing more finely targeted, effective, and lasting interventions.

Among the key topics featured are: Gender differences in aggressive tendencies. Dominance, control, and violence. Partner violence as planned behavior. The process leading to partner violence. Partner conflict dynamics throughout relationship periods and within conflicts. Gender differences in escalatory intentions.

"Partner Violence" is an important volume for researchers, graduate students, and clinicians/professionals across various disciplines, including personality and social psychology, criminology, public health, clinical psychology, sociology, and social work. "

Since the mid-1980s, the psychology of liberation movement has been a catalyst for collective and individual change in communities throughout Latin America, and beyond; and recent political developments are making its powerful, transformative ideas more relevant than ever before. Psychology of Liberation: Theory and Applications updates the activist frameworks developed by Ignacio Martin-Baro and Paulo Freire with compelling stories from the frontlines of conflict in the developing and developed worlds, as social science and psychological practice are allied with struggles for peace, justice, and equality.

In these chapters, liberation is presented as both an ongoing process and a core dimension of wellbeing, entailing the reconstruction of social identity and the transformation of all parties involved, both oppressed and oppressors. It also expands the social consciousness of professionals, bringing more profound meaning to practice and enhancing related areas such as peace psychology, as shown in articles such as these:

• Philippines: the role of liberation movements in the transition to democracy.
• Venezuela: liberation psychology as a therapeutic intervention with street youth.
• South Africa: the movement for representational knowledge.
• Muslim world: religion, the state, and the gendering of human rights.
• Ireland: linking personal and political development.
• Australia: addressing issues of racism, identity, and immigration.
• Colombia: building cultures of peace from the devastation of war.

Psychology of Liberation demonstrates the commitment to overcome social injustices and oppression. The book is a critical resource for social and community psychologists as well as policy analysts. It can also be used as a text for graduate courses in psychology, sociology, social work and community studies.

This work introduces the concept of the Voice of the Other and the intersubjective world it creates for humans. The unconscious processes of speech and language are deeply identified with the ego. In the movement from nature to civilization, the newborn is mastered by language and becomes part of the social world of his parents. The child's thought is now structured by parental language and speech as well as by memories stored in the unconscious. What is real for the individual is composed only of the images and words that define them. Even family and school relationships are structured in language and the social formations that language created in the past. The imaginary and symbolic functions of the mind form ideologies that bind people together and help them to make sense of their world. In schools this leads to submissive students and constant teacher-student conflict.

The author uses the works of Freud, Lacan, and Marx to situate schooling in capitalist society. He employs psychoanalytic, linguistic, and anthropological perspectives in an attempt to discover how we think and communicate with one another using unconscious processes.

This book presents a longitudinal study of cultural influence on psychiatric disorders, from late imperial China to contemporary China, drawing on both reviews and lab results to do so. While predominantly offering evidence of cultural influences on psychiatric disorders from a Chinese perspective, it will also be of global benefit since "the national exemplifies the international." It presents the Chinese "emic" components of culture, including Chinese personality traits, Chinese forms of emotional regulation, and Chinese styles of family structure and function, which will stimulate international interest and research in related areas. The intended readership includes cultural psychiatrists and psychologists, family therapists, personality psychologists, literature-related researchers, and members of the general public who are interested in cultures expressed in fictions.

Over 16 million copies sold worldwide 'One of the most remarkable books I have ever read' Susan Jeffers One of the outstanding classics to emerge from the Holocaust, Man's Search for Meaning is Viktor Frankl's story of his struggle for survival in Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps. Today, this remarkable tribute to hope offers us an avenue to finding greater meaning and purpose in our own lives.

Teresa de Lauretis makes a bold and orginal argument for the renewed relevance of the Freudian theory of drives, through close readings of texts ranging from cinema and literature to psychoanalysis and cultural theory.

"The stories people tell about themselves are interesting not only for the events and characters they describe but for something in the construction of the stories themselves. The ways in which individuals recount their histories-what they emphasize and omit, their stance as protagonists or victims, the relationship the story establishes between teller and audience-all shape what individuals can claim of their own lives. Personal stories are not merely a way of telling someone (or oneself) about one's life; they are the means by which identities may be fashioned."-from the Introduction In this provocative book, psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists analyze interviews with a range of subjects-a minister who uses the death of his son to reaffirm his identity as a man of God, women who have given up their children at birth for adoption and who blame society for their action, Holocaust survivors, a victim of marital rape, and many others. Together these studies suggest a new way of thinking about autobiographical narratives: that these life stories play a significant role in the formation of identity, that the way they are told is shaped (and at times curtailed) by prevalent cultural norms, and that the stories-and at times the lives to which they relate-may be liberated from their psychic and social constraints if the social conditions of story telling can be critically engaged. Presenting a wide range of life stories, these studies demonstrate how "telling one's life" has the potential to clarify or mystify one's commitments and to animate or encumber one's future development.

Traditional psychology has long been concerned with cognition, motivation, emotion, and the mind in general?the mind being held responsible for individual behavior in society?and scholars of social and cultural psychology have worked in relative isolation. Meaning in Action is a bold departure as it places culture at the center of human functioning and posits that it is not the independent mind that gives rise to human action but participation in a world of socially created meanings. Each chapter illuminates the socially grounded view of the individual. Investigations into the power of shared meanings, norms, and moralities in everyday life, as well as individual and social narratives, point to their pivotal significance in human relationships. Among other topics, it provides new insights into forgiveness, infant adoption, trauma, supranational identity, and prejudice. The book offers an alternative to the widely dominant vision of psychological functioning and draws on a wide variety of current movements to present a deeply challenging and globally integrative view of human behavior.

This volume provides an in-depth discussion on the central question - how can people express and survive dissent and disagreement in confined habitats in space? The discussion is an important one because it could be that the systems of inter-dependence required to survive in space are so strong that dissent becomes impossible. John Locke originally said that people have a right to use revolution to overthrow a despotic regime. But if revolution causes violence and damage that causes depressurisation with the risk of killing many people, is it even permissible to have a revolution? How then are people to express their liberty or dissatisfaction with their rulers? The emergence of structures of dissent and disagreement is an essential part of the construction of a framework of liberty in space (revolution is just the extreme example) and thus the topic deserves in-depth and immediate attention. Even today, the way in which we assemble organisations and corporations for the government and private exploration of space must take into account the need for mechanisms to allow people to express dissent.

Thanks for revealing such beneficial information in this book about myself and my family. My attitudes, relationships, and people skills have been enhanced because I understand myself and others better. Jo Ann Clark, Children's Pastor: Formerly of: Church on The Way, Van Nuys, CA, Glendale Presbyterian Church, Glendale, CA This book is a must read for everyone in leadership, Pastor Michael and Linda show us how to honor and love one another by embracing our differences. Rev. David de Carvalho, Associate Dean for the College of Counseling and Health Care, University of the Nations. Pastor Mike's years of experience has lead him to a revelation of people and their personalities that will bring illumination, transformation and empowerment to live in harmony with one another. In this book are the essential tools for elevation in your relationship skills. Pastor Steve Hage, Orange County, Ca., The Gathering For over 12 years, I served with Mike and Linda in Ministry as a worship leader. They began teaching me these principals early on, which have been invaluable in leading teams of individuals with diverse personalities and gifts, as well as understanding my own natural tendencies, strengths and weaknesses. Raisa Wilfong, RE/MAX Cross Country, Highland Village, Texas Mike and Linda have devoted their lives to helping people see and appreciate their God given attributes and have always had a heart for helping people establish strong, healthy relationships. They have designed their ministry with that goal in mind. In 1987 the Lanphere's became associated with the University of Nations, the educational arm of Youth With A Mission. Since then they continue teaching at bases around the world. Their focus is in the Introduction To Biblical Counseling Schools and also seminars on Leadership Development and Leadership TEAM building. Michael Lanphere, Founder, Lifecourse Ministries, www.lifecoursministries.com

This volume explores the various ways in which trust is thought about and studied in contemporary society. In doing so, it aims to advance both theoretical and methodological perspectives on trust. Trust is an important topic in this series because it raises issues of both motivation and emotion. Specifically, notions of trust and fairness motivate individuals to behave in a manner they deem appropriate when responding to governmental authority. On the emotions-related side, individuals have emotional responses to institutions with authority over their lives, such as the city government or the Supreme Court, depending on whether they perceive the institutions as legitimate. The public's trust and confidence in governmental institutions are frequently claimed as essential to the functioning of democracy), spawning considerable research and commentary. For those in the law and social sciences, the tendency is to focus on the criminal justice system in general and the courts in particular. However, other public institutions also need trust and confidence in order not only to promote democracy but also to assure effective governance, facilitate societal interactions, and optimize organizational productivity. Not surprisingly, therefore, important research and commentary is found in literatures that focus on issues ranging from social sciences to natural resources, from legislatures to executive branch agencies, from brick and mortar businesses to online commerce, from health and medicine to schools, from international development to terrorism, etc. This volume integrates these various approaches to trust from these disciplines, with the goal of fostering a truly interdisciplinary dialogue. By virtue of this interdisciplinary focus, the volume should have broad appeal for researchers and instructors in a variety of disciplines: psychology, sociology, political science, criminal justice, social justice practitioners, economics and other areas.

Based upon Ajit Maan's groundbreaking theory of Internarrative Identity, this collection focuses upon redefining self, slave narrative, the black Caribbean diaspora, and cyberspace to explore the interconnection between identity and life experience as expressed through personal narrative.

This book presents the conception of a system of social identities, including the system's structure, development and dynamics, and explores the influence of cultural dimensions and identity salience on attitudes, behavior, and the structures of consciousness. The "Four C" model of identity-based conflicts provides fresh opportunities for analyses of the role of identity in conflicts and violence. Karina V. Korostelina introduces a model of dealing with identity conflicts that includes early warning, identity based training, management of multicultural communities, identity reconstruction workshops, and negotiation of identity. Every theoretical chapter in the book is followed by examples of research and methodological tools for analyzing data on social identities and identity based conflicts.

Who are we? Where is the boundary between us and everything else? Are we all multiple personalities? And how can we control who we become? From distinguished psychologist Robert Levine comes this provocative and entertaining scientific exploration of the most personal and important of all landscapes: the physical and psychological entity we call our self. Using a combination of case studies and cutting-edge research in psychology, biology, neuroscience, virtual reality and many other fields, Levine challenges cherished beliefs about the unity and stability of the self - but also suggests that we are more capable of change than we know. Transformation, Levine shows, is the human condition at virtually every level. Physically, our cells are unrecognizable from one moment to the next. Cognitively, our self-perceptions are equally changeable: A single glitch can make us lose track of a body part or our entire body, or to confuse our very self with that of another person. Psychologically, we switch back and forth like quicksilver between incongruent, sometimes adversarial sub-selves. Socially, we appear to be little more than an ever-changing troupe of actors. And, culturally, the boundaries of the self vary wildly around the world - from the confines of one's body to an entire village. The self, in short, is a fiction: vague, arbitrary, and utterly intangible. But it is also interminably fluid. And this unleashes a world of potential. Engaging, informative, and ultimately liberating, Stranger in the Mirror will change forever how you think about your self - and what you might become.

Just as DNA determines the genetic makeup of every individual, a motif determines individual bio-psycho-social, emotional, and spiritual behaviors and attitudes. This epigenetic theory of individuality describes the motif as a unique artistry of organizing principles. The author uses the concept of motif to explain physiology, behavior, and attitude and to show how each person has his or her own unique system of motifs that comprises the fabric of every level of personality. Case studies exemplify the way in which motifs manifest the self and how the core personality is understood once the individual's motif is revealed.

Of interest to graduate students in psychology and clinicians and counselors in the field of humanistic and clinical psychology, holistic medicine, wellness and mind-body healing, psycho-biology, and spirituality this book will bring new understanding to personality and behavior studies.