Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are

"As noted elsewhere this explains why psychologists identify factors from correlations in data, and why there are five factors in this theory. The book presents the case, links to genetics, evolution and weighs up pros and cons. It also starts to compare with MBTI (the main thing I wanted to know). Sadly it doesn't really close the gap, and the wealth of good MBTI books left me feeling let down, even with the amount of resonance I had for the material.

The Newcastle test in the back comes across as an afterthought, and I didn't like the size of the book, nor the slightly over dense presentation. As a lay reader I would have like a few brain diagrams and maybe some other breaking up of the text."
~ Written on 2008-07-28

"I've been trying to find a book on personality that does justice to the emerging consenus around the Big 5 factors (extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness to experience)... and here it is. Nettle writes clearly and lucidly for the general reader while persuasively arguing for his own interpretations of contentious issues.

Most impressively, for each of the 5 factors he;
(i) describes them in greater detail than other authors bother to do
(ii) links extreme scores to heightened risk of developing particular disorders
(iii) relates each factor to a particular psychological mechanism
(iv) links these to structures in the brain
(v) explains why variation continues to exist for each factor

There's also a clear explanation of the evidence on the causes of personality differences and the shortest Big 5 personality test ever.

One of those books that makes you feel smart for understanding it.





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~ Written on 2008-07-07

"This is a short, easy to read book, describing the "Big 5" personality dimensions. I bought this book because I was very familiar with MBTI and 16PF but I felt I needed to get a bit more up to date with my knowledge. This book didn't disappoint. I liked the way that the author positioned each of the dimensions within evolutionary theory, describing how each dimension contributes to overall fitness. I liked the short questionnaire to help you discover where you fit on these dimensions. I also learnt that guppies show behaviours like our neuroticism trait and birds show behaviours like our exraversion trait!

However, I never would have bought this book if I'd seen it in a bookshop. This is because the cover and the form factor (it's a handbag-size book) make it look like something given out free with Cosmo. This is one of the benefits of shopping on Amazon -- you're not misled by the cover.

This is an excellent piece of science writing, short enough to read in a day."
~ Written on 2008-06-26

"Read this book. Give a copy to all your friends. Especially give a copy to your partner. They don't always go out of their way to make your life difficult on purpose - it may just be that they're hardwired differently to you. Understand the bear traps awaiting us as a result of believing our preferred style should be everyones style. Explains how even relatively small differences in our personality can lead to significant differences in behaviour over time. In the world of psychology, personality theory has a contentious history. This book goes a long way towards sweeping away the debris and points to insights emerging from new brainscanning technology that supports a physical underpinning of our personality. Whilst avoiding simplistic analysis, David Nettle presents his case with disarming clarity. Even offers the opportunity for self analysis using a psychometrically valid and reliable instrument. What more could you want? Now...what do the Introverts think??"
~ Written on 2008-05-21

"I came across this book whilst browsing in a bookstore - and I couldn't put it down. Although small, it's packed with fascinating insights on the five key factors of personality (i.e., Extraversion, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Openness to Experience), which psychologists have found make up the core aspects of our temperament. I studied psychology, and this book provides the best description of Extraversion and Neuroticism that I have ever read. It is easy to read, and packed with scientific information on the heritability of personality, and the fascinating case studies demonstrate how each facet of personality has affected men and women's lives. I was surprised to read that Extraverts tend to have a higher sex drive, greater need for travel, money and status (so it's not all about sociability!). This is because extraverts' brains are wired to be 'rewarded' by such things, but these are less 'rewarding' for introverts. And people high in Neuroticism, may have a propensity to depression (which is good to know). A bonus is that each chapter provides examples of how the factors inter-relate within a person, e.g., how a person with high extraversion, but with low agreeability, might not be a pleasant party companion! In summary, this book provided me with some great new insights into understanding myself and others, and would make a wonderful gift for someone. "
~ Written on 2008-03-08