Many texts attempt to bridge theory and research. They include one or two pages dealing with important theorists--Jung, Adler, Freud, et al.--inserted into chapters focused on academic studies. In most cases, the discussion fails to do justice to the theorists and the relationship between the ideas and the empirical work is often tenuous at best.
This book takes a different approach. An alternative to Ewen's "An Introduction to Theories of Personality," this book features a chapter on each major type of theory followed by a separate chapter reviewing the relevant research, controversies, and emerging findings.
Although it incorporates material from the previous text, there are substantial differences. "Personality: A Topical Approach" devotes more attention to psychological research, and considerably less attention to the more minor and abstruse aspects of various theories. Chapters are devoted to the following theories:
*pychoanalytically-oriented,
*tait,
*cgnitive,
*self-humanistic, and
*behaviorism.
While the book emphasizes major research foci (the Big Five personality factors, self-efficacy, self-esteem, and more), it also includes a chapter on research methods and coverage of issues often omitted from other texts such as dream interpretation, cognitions and the Holocaust, scientific inquiry, and near-death experiences. The book also provides study questions, a "help" section, and a glossary.

This 7th Edition helps students unravel the mysteries of human behavior through its highly readable introduction to the ideas of the most significant personality theorists. Engaging biographical sketches begin each chapter, and unique capsule summaries help students review key concepts. Theories come alive through the inclusion of quotations from the theorists' writings and numerous applications such as dream interpretation, psychopathology, and psychotherapy. Significant changes in the 7th edition include an extended discussion of the practical applications of personality theory, with an emphasis on guidelines that can help people increase their self-knowledge, make better decisions, and live more fulfilling lives. Fictionalized but true-to-life examples illustrating the perils of inadequate self-knowledge include college students, parents, terrorists, business executives, and politicians, while other examples show the positive outcomes that can result from a better understanding of one's unconscious. This 7th edition also includes a more extensive discussion of how a lack of self-understanding caused difficulties for such noted theorists as Freud and Erikson, and a new section that explains how behavior can be strongly influenced by the situation as well as by one's personality. Finally, a new interactive web site provides practice test questions and other topics of interest.