Paradigms of Personality Assessment

From distinguished scholar and teacher Jerry S. Wiggins, this book is a uniquely integrative introduction to adult personality assessment that will engage graduate and undergraduate students alike. Part I thoroughly reviews five major assessment paradigms--psychodynamic, interpersonal, personological, multivariate, and empirical. In Part II, leading representatives of each paradigm are invited to interpret extensive test and interview data collected from a single subject. The resulting "collaborative case study" facilitates comparison of techniques, theories, and interpretations; illuminates the unique contributions of each paradigm; and suggests areas of common ground and potential integration.

Jerry S. Wiggins, PhD, has been contributing to the scientific literature in personality assessment for over 45 years. He has held faculty positions at Rochester University (1956/n-/1957), Stanford University (1957/n-/1962), the University of Illinois (1962/n-/1973), and the University of British Columbia (1973/n-/1996), where he is Emeritus Professor. He also served as an adjunct professor at York University. Widely published, Dr. Wiggins is well known for his construction of the original content scales for the MMPI and for his contributions to the development and validation of interpersonal circumplex models of personality. He is the author of the Interpersonal Adjective Scales (including the revised, Big Five version) and coauthor of the Inventory for Interpersonal Problems/m-/Circumplex. He has also served as an editorial board member and/or ad hoc reviewer for numerous psychology journals. In 2002, Dr. Wiggins was honored by the Society for Personality Assessment with the Bruno Klopfer Award for his outstanding, long-term contributions to the field of personality assessment.