Explorations in Personality

by Henry A. Murray

Overview

Explorations in Personality, published by OUP in 1938, established an elaborate agenda for understanding our subjective human nature that is as relevant to students of personality psychology today as it was to its audience then. An antidote to the now fashionable strategy of representing a person as a dot on a scatter plot or burying the individual in an amalgam of statistics, it advocates 'whole person' research and bubbles with suggestions about how to perform such studies. IN addition, it actually executes with empirical and experimental rigor and ingenuity the kind of detailed, engrossing case study approach it recommends, recounting the results of a three-year long study of fifty college-age individuals. This book is, in short, a classic. This reissue, enhanced by Dan McAdams' foreword, which will provide a contemporary evaluation of Murray's achievement, will thus be of great interest to students and researchers in personality psychology in general, and personologists in particular.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198041528
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	11/01/2007
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Henry A. Murray was on the faculty in psychology at Harvard University from 1927 until his retirement in 1962 and Professor Emeritus from 1962-1988. He received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association and the Gold Medal Award for lifetime achievement from the American Psychological Foundation. Murray died in 1988 at the age of 95.

Dan P. McAdams is Professor of Psychology and of Human Development and Social Policy and Director of the Foley Center for the Study of Lives at Northwestern University. McAdams is the author of over 150 scientific articles and chapters and 13 books on personality, motivation, biography, adult development, and the narrative study of lives. His most recent book is The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By, which won the 2006 William James Award for best general-interest book in psychology across all subfields.

Editorial Reviews

"In 1938, Henry Murray taught us how to study personality the correct way—often the long and winding way. Seven decades later, our methods are more refined, but we are still struggling to recapture the profound and artistic vision of the person that he championed. This anniversary edition of his classic work reminds us that while our job as personologists is not yet finished, we can draw upon Murray's spirit of inquiry for inspiration as we continue our own explorations in personality." —Robert A. Emmons, Professor of Psychology, University of California, Davis and Editor, The Journal of Positive Psychology

"It is just grand to have Henry A. Murray's seminal book in print once again. When it first came out in 1938, this book had a provocative and insightful effect, urging psychologists to study personality holistically and in depth and emphasizing the complex interactions between individual, social, and cultural characteristics. As underscored by McAdams' insightful foreword, Murray's book is as important now as it was then." —Salvatore R. Maddi, Professor, Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine

"This is a long overdue publication of one of the true classics in the history of personality psychology. It describes a viewpoint on personality that has remained alive despite the ups and downs of personality psychology as a subdiscipline, a view that captures the entirety of a person. What a delight to see the book now once again available outside the library. And Dan McAdams' masterly foreword puts the book in context and reminds the reader why it is so important in the history and current life of our discipline." —Drew Westen, Professor, Department of Psychology, and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University

"A re-issue of the classic Explorations by Murray and his associates-now with McAdams' excellent introductory map of the personal, intellectual, and institutional landscape-is welcome and useful. In the seventy years since its first appearance, many of the book's path-breaking concepts and methods, especially those related to motivation, have become established and well-charted landmarks in the field of personality. Nevertheless, 21st century students of the person will still find many worthwhile uncharted topics that merit continued exploration: concepts such as 'need-integrate,' 'gratuities, ' 'fusion and subsidization of needs,' 'time-binding,' and 'regnant processes,' among others. At the same time, historians of the social sciences will welcome access to this sprawling archive of interdisciplinary excitement, created by an extraordinary group of pioneers who worked in a unique historical time and place." —David G. Winter, Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan

From the Publisher