Pathways to Individuality

In Pathways to Individuality, Arnold H. Buss examines the personality traits we share with other animals and the traits that set us apart and make us distinctly human. Buss explains that within those general traits there is much variability, and those traits become distinct during the crucial periods of human development. This is what makes us individuals. Compared with other species, humans enjoy an extended period of childhood, during which personality traits become ingrained and differentiated: Our early interactions with our social environment influence and sharpen the behavioral pathways that distinguish our individuality. In turn, we seek to manipulate those environments we are drawn to and that help shape our individuality.

Drawing from over a half-century of teaching and writing on personality, Buss masterfully summarizes key theories and recent advances in the study of temperament, the self, and abnormal behavior and style, which are critical dimensions in understanding personality and individual differences.

Introduction

I. Theory

1. Evolution
2. Development

II. Temperament and Other Personality Traits

1. Temperament I: Activity and Emotionality
2. Temperament II: Sociability and Impulsiveness
3. Later-Developing Traits: Sensation Seeking, Aggression, and Dominance

III. The Self

1. Self I: Self-Consciousness
2. Self II: Self-Esteem and Identity

IV. Dimensions

1. Personality and Abnormality
2. Style

Epilogue

References

Index

About the Author

Arnold H. Buss, PhD, is professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, where he has also been head of the Personality Graduate Program (1969–1986) and head of the Graduate Clinical Training Program (1990–1992). Dr. Buss received his BA from New York University in 1947 and his PhD from Indiana University in 1952.

Before joining the UT Psychology Department's faculty in 1969, Dr. Buss was an instructor at the University of Iowa (1951–1952), chief psychologist at Indianapolis's Carter Hospital (1952–1957), and professor at the University of Pittsburgh (1957–1965) and Rutgers University (1965–1969). He received his diplomate in clinical psychology in 1956.

Dr. Buss is the author or coauthor of close to a dozen books on psychology and personality, including The Psychology of Aggression (1961), Self-Consciousness and Social Anxiety (1980), Social Behavior and Personality (1986), and Psychological Dimensions of the Self (2001). He has published nearly 100 professional journal articles and chapters in edited volumes on aggression, temperament, self-consciousness, and shyness.