Personality psychology: A new perspective By JanekMusek, Switzerland: Springer Nature AG. 2024. Ebook £96.29. ISBN 978‐3‐031‐55308‐0

This book discusses the evolution of the personality concept from a scientific perspective, highlighting the importance of understanding personality in human life. Explaining the definition, factors and structure of personality, the book summarizes various theories, including type, psychodynamic, humanistic and social-cognitive theories. The book also examines personality's dynamics, development and influence on well-being, providing insights into how personality affects well-being, interpersonal relationships and various aspects of life, and emphasizing that a good understanding of personality is essential for achieving happiness and satisfaction in life. Chapter 1 describes the study of personality in psychology and covers various aspects. The aspect includes the definition, assessment methods to the influence of biological, evolutionary and sociocultural factors on individual behaviour. Personality is a dynamic, stable and unique psychophysical system in each individual, reflecting differences in thinking, feeling and acting. The research approach to personality involves analysing variables and individuals, focusing on basic dimensions such as extraversion, neuroticism and openness. We must conduct personality assessments scientifically, using methods with psychometric characteristics to ensure accuracy. Research shows that interactions between personality traits and situational factors influence behaviour, leading to a deeper understanding of the complexity of human personality consisting of interpersonal and intrapersonal variability. The interplay between genetics, environment and brain structure suggests that personality is influenced not only by personal dispositions but also by social contexts and situations, emphasizing the importance of a holistic approach to understanding human behaviour. Chapter 2 describes the development of the understanding of personality in psychology, starting with Hippocrates' theory of the four temperaments, which states that psychological traits are influenced by bodily fluids. This theory later evolved into modern models such as the Big Five, which include extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism and openness. The contributions of figures such as Freud, Adler and Jung helped us understand motivation, personality structure and social relationships. In addition, the rise of humanistic and positive psychology emphasized the importance of experience, meaning in life and positive traits to achieve well-being. Finally, biological factors and genetics also play a role in personality, suggesting that personality is influenced by environmental factors and complex biological mechanisms. Chapter 3 provides ample evidence and facts that structural modelling is at the core of all sciences, including psychology. In the chapter, it is explained that the history of personality modelling began with the typology of temperament and character, which dates back to Hippocrates and Theophrastus. The author emphasizes that one of the most influential personality theories is the Big Five model, which includes extroversion, friendliness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness. In addition, there are higher-order personality factors such as the Big Two (Stability and Plasticity), culminating in the General Factor of Personality (GFP). GFP is seen as the core of personality, which unifies non-cognitive dimensions and can be linked to various other psychological concepts. This chapter reviews the structure of the top three levels in the personality hierarchy and uses data from meta-analyses and global samples to confirm this model, including data from the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI). Chapter 4 emphasizes the definition and history and provides a clearer picture of personality dynamics. Personality dynamics refers to how personality is involved in motivational processes and describes the motivational aspects of a person's behaviour. In psychology, personality is often thought of as a static structure, but this view is erroneous as personality includes dynamic elements that influence thoughts and behaviours. Such dynamic components, such as instincts, drives and goals, are integrated into the structure of our personality and play an important role in determining our reactions to various situations. This chapter also explains that motivated actions usually move towards or away from a goal, and behaviour becomes more complex when one faces ambivalent goals, both attractive and repulsive. This dynamic concept includes Freud and Jung's psychodynamics, Darwin's evolutionary theory, McDougall's hormetic psychology and Konrad Lorenz's ethology. All these theories highlight the role of dynamics in personality development, both biologically and socially. Chapter 5 emphasizes the development of personality, which is a complex and ongoing process throughout a person's life, although it also shows much stability. Personality is influenced by three main factors: genetics, environment and gene–environment interaction. Genetics plays an important role in our ability to learn and adapt to social and cultural challenges, while social and environmental learning also shapes personality. The chapter also provides the fact that researchers are still debating whether personality development occurs through distinct qualitative stages or as a continuous process. In this regard, none of the personality models have been definitively confirmed by scientific psychological research. This chapter presents the view that personality continues to develop from childhood to adulthood and old age, with increased responsibility and emotional stability in middle adulthood. Ultimately, genetic and sociocultural factors interact to shape personality throughout one's life span, in line with the different needs and challenges of each phase of life. Chapter 6 emphasizes that personality is a strong predictor of many aspects of life, including prosocial behaviour, social effectiveness, decision-making, education, employment, leadership, politics, socioeconomic status, cognitive ability and involvement in delinquency and crime. Concerning prosocial behaviour, emotional intelligence, altruism and spirituality, the GFP is significantly associated with social effectiveness, job performance and decision-making and shows moderate correlations with dimensions of religiosity across cultures. Personality traits, especially the GFP, are strong predictors of psychological and behavioural outcomes, affecting mental health, work performance, leadership, social relationships and life satisfaction. Traits such as conscientiousness and emotional stability contribute positively to academic, occupational and social success, while neuroticism and traits from the Dark Triad are associated with negative outcomes such as relationship strain, workplace intoxication and criminal behaviour. Personality traits, especially emotional stability, extraversion and conscientiousness, play an important role in shaping well-being and influencing happiness, life satisfaction, stress management and mental health. Well-being is strongly related to personality, especially dimensions such as neuroticism, extroversion and GFP, which influence positive affect, negative affect and quality of life. Personality, especially neuroticism and extroversion, are closely related to subjective well-being, with the GFP and General Factor of Well-Being (GWB) sharing most of the variance, suggesting personality as a strong predictor of well-being. Neuroticism, toughness and resilience also significantly influence an individual's ability to cope with stress and its impact on mental health. Personality traits, such as conscientiousness and emotional stability (low neuroticism), are strongly associated with health and psychopathology, including healthy behaviours, stress resilience and prediction of various mental and physical disorders. This book has very comprehensively explained what personality is and how it affects human life, both biologically, psychologically and socially. In addition, the book also includes a lot of supporting data from various studies on personality. Unfortunately, this book is probably only suitable for academics who are interested in psychology. This is because many psychological terms are not familiar to the layman, and the writing is not youth-friendly. There is a lot of information that would be very useful if this book could be easily understood by teenagers and the general public. But in the end, if you want to find out about your personality, this book is for you. Rosalia Katarina Lamanepa: Resources; writing – review and editing; writing – original draft. Iklima Ritmiani: Formal analysis; conceptualization; writing – original draft. Rema Vara Indry Dubu: Writing – original draft; conceptualization; writing – review and editing. The Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) of the Indonesian Ministry of Finance has supported the author in the publishing of this paper along with postgraduate education.