The goal of this volume is to provide a comprehensive review of the psychological study of personality. We explore personality psychology's recent theoretical and empirical advances and place them in their historical context. We critically evaluate the current state of the field with the aim of promoting its further development.

The book is intended for a range of audiences. A primary audience consists of students in graduate or advanced undergraduate courses in personality psychology. We have endeavored to meet their need for a volume that presents the contemporary field in depth. Another prospective audience consists of professionals in business, education, or health care who require an up-to-date overview of work on personality processes and individual differences. Finally, we address the volume to our colleagues in psychology. We present empirical reviews, conceptual discussions, and a theoretical framework which, we hope, will be stimulating even to the personality psychologist who already is fully familiar with the field.

Personality psychology must function as a cumulative science that contributes to individual and social welfare. This idea guides our coverage in a number of respects. Sciences seek to identify causal mechanisms that explain their phenomena of interest. We thus focus on the biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors that causally contribute to personality functioning; in other words, we focus on determinants of personality functioning. These determinants are not static forces that exert fixed effects on a simple, linear psychological system.