Understanding people / Trevor Butt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Butt, Trevor, 1947-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Personality.

Personal construct theory.

Phenomenological psychology.

Physical Description:

xii, 193 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Summary:

Understanding People provides an overview and critique of current psychological assumptions about people and what differentiates them, replacing these with a set of ideas taken from existential phenomenology. It begins with an examination of contemporary theories, and then explores the critique of the social constructionists, before laying out the basis of an understanding of human action and behaviour, drawing on phenomenology and personal construct theory. Drawing on cases from everyday life and hypothetical clinical examples, this book illustrates the many issues in personality theory. Written in a clear engaging style, Understanding People will breathe life into an area of psychology that is often arid, and, in the eyes of students, divorced from their world. It will also be of interest to professionals engaged in psychotherapy, counselling and social work.

Contents:

Part I From Personality to Social Psychology

1 The Dimensions of Personality 3

Issues in personality 4

Personality: a modern concept 12

Understanding people 17

2 Personality Theories 1: Trait, Biological and Cognitive Social Approaches 21

Trait and biological approaches 22

Cognitive social approaches 29

The person in cognitive social theories 33

3 Personality Theories 2: Psychoanalytic and Humanistic Approaches 40

Psychoanalysis 41

Humanistic approaches 48

The person in psychoanalysis and humanism 57

4 The Social Constructionist Critique of Personality 60

Social constructionism 61

The person in social constructionism 69

The social construction of reality 73

The roots of constructionism 77

Part II An Existential Phenomenological Approach

5 Interpretive Understanding 83

Verstehen and hermeneutics 84

Phenomenology 88

Mead's social psychology 100

A synthesis 103

6 The Causes of Behaviour 108

The influence of the past 109

The effects of the situation 115

7 The Sense of Self 125

The self in late modernity 126

The existential self 129

Fragmentation and the sense of self 132

Personal agency 136

8 The Unconscious 140

The dynamic unconscious 141

The existential project 149

9 Psychological Reconstruction 159

The rise of therapy 161

Emotions and feelings 163

Social and personal construction 166

The point of understanding 174.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 178-185) and indexes.

ISBN:

1403904650

1403904669

OCLC:

53144665