---

---

“Very much a must-read book for personality assessment specialists and their students....destined to become another classic and a want-to-read book for many psychologists.”

—Canadian Psychology


“This book articulates a vision of the theory and practice of personality assessment that will inform beginners and experts alike. Wiggins' portrayal of different traditions in the field highlights the goals and accomplishments of each approach, and successfully transmits the excitement and fascination with assessment that is characteristic of practitioners. This is not a 'how-to-do-it' text, but a thoughtful, scholarly, and readable consideration of central questions in assessment. Beginning students will find this volume a welcome introduction to personality assessment vivified by a multifaceted study of a single case; more advanced readers will find a coherent vision that integrates theory and practice. There is no comparable treatment of the scientific and practical foundations of personality assessment.”

—Daniel J. Ozer, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside


“In this long-awaited book, one of the recognized giants of personality assessment has summarized the history and state of the art of five assessment paradigms. Wiggins' approach might be described as 'zealous eclecticism': his broad scholarship is infused with genuine enthusiasm for each paradigm. He offers a theoretical integration in a chapter on agency and communion, and has assembled a cast of experts to illustrate their methods in what will doubtless become a celebrated case history. This is an essential text for anyone who assesses personality. It is suitable for use in graduate-level clinical psychology courses, as well as personality courses for graduates and advanced undergrads.”

—Robert R. McCrae, PhD


“This book is the mature work of a wise and gifted scholar and writer. It beautifully describes the essence of five approaches to personality assessment. From the opening pages, the reader is engaged—and rewarded—with a sympathetic yet balanced appreciation of each approach. Using his own rich personal experiences and his encyclopedic academic knowledge, Jerry S. Wiggins has provided numerous impressive insights into fascinating ideas and the people who generated them.”

—Leonard M. Horowitz, PhD, Department of Psychology, Stanford University

---

Table of Contents

I. The Five Paradigms and Their Convergences

1. The Psychodynamic Paradigm

2. The Interpersonal Paradigm

3. The Personological Paradigm

4. The Multivariate Paradigm

5. The Empirical Paradigm

6. Convergences among Paradigms: The Individual and Society

II. A Collaborative Case Study

7. Personological Assessment, McAdams

8. Psychodynamic Assessment, Behrends and Blatt

9. Interpersonal Assessment, Pincus and Gurtman

10. Multivariate Assessment, Costa and Piedmont

11. Empirical Assessment, Ben Porath

12. Constructive Alternativism in Personality Assessment, Trobst and Wiggins

Appendix A. Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) Protocol

Appendix B 1. Rorschach Protocol

Appendix B 2. Rorschach Scoring

Appendix B 3. Rorschach Scoring Summary

Appendix C. Object Relations Inventory (ORI) Protocol

---

About the Author

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 (1956-1957), Stanford University (1957-1962), the University of Illinois (1962-1973), and the University of British Columbia (1973-1996), 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 — 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.

• All titles by Jerry S. Wiggins

---

Contributors

Rebecca S. Behrends, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, CT

Yossef S. Ben-Porath, PhD, Department of Psychology, Kent State University, Kent, OH

Sidney J. Blatt, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, CT

Paul T. Costa, Jr., PhD, Laboratory of Personality and Cognition, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, MD

Michael B. Gurtman, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Kenosha, WI

Dan P. McAdams, PhD, Departments of Human Development and Social Policy and Psychology, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL

Ralph L. Piedmont, PhD, Department of Pastoral Counseling, Loyola College, Columbia, MD

Aaron L. Pincus, PhD, Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

Krista K. Trobst, PhD, Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

---

Audience

Students, practitioners, and researchers in clinical psychology, clinical social work, counseling, psychiatry, and personality psychology.

---

Course Use

An ideal text for advanced undergraduate- and graduate-level assessment courses.