This volume examines behavioral genetic research on temperament and personality from a number of perspectives. It takes a developmental perspective on a number of issues across the lifespan, focusing on personality and temperament. The first section focuses on the development of temperament and personality. Typically this has involved exploring genetic and environmental contributions to phenotypic stability and instability, but more recently there has been research that examines the etiology of intra-individual change/growth trajectories. The second section examines genetic and environmental contributions to the association between temperament and personality and other behaviors. The third and fourth sections discuss genotype-environment correlations and interactions, and introduces the reader to molecular genetics research on temperament and personality. Chapter 11 will discuss the significance of this type of research and Chapter 12 will provide an example of specific line of research exploring genes associated with temperament.​

The biological and genetic bases of behavioral diversity have long been topics of study within many disciplines, including evolutionary biology, genetics, ethology, sociobiology, and comparative psychology, but only relatively recently have attempts been made to bring these different approaches together. This volume covers a wide range of interdisciplinary research which uses some of the newest and most promising methods and technologies. Presented here is an overview of findings in the ongoing search for the ultimate causes of behavior in several different species, including primates, dogs, rodents, birds, and fish. Divided into five parts, the work describes research on sexual and kin selection, personality and temperament, molecular genetics of personality, color vision and body coloration, and the neurological underpinnings of complex behaviors. Valuable for researchers as well as graduate students in a wide range of fields from neuroscience to ecology, the book is also useful to those seeking to move beyond the boundaries of their own discipline and to expand their knowledge.

This book is the first to bring together researchers in individual differences in personality and temperament to explore whether there is any unity possible between the temperament researchers of infancy and childhood and the major researchers in adult personality. Prior to the workshop which resulted in this volume, the existing literature seemed to document a growing consensus on the part of the adult personality researchers that five major personality dimensions -- the "Big Five" -- might be sufficient to account for most of the important variances in adult individual differences in personality. In contrast to this accord, the literature on child and infant individual differences seemed to offer a wide variety of opinions regarding the basic dimensions of difference in personality or temperament. The editors believed that they could encourage researchers from both the adult and child areas to consider the importance of a lifespan conceptualization of individual differences by discussing their research in terms of a continuity approach. Written by some of the most distinguished scholars from Great Britain, continental Western Europe, and Eastern Europe as well as the United States and Canada, the chapters present a cross-cultural view of both adult personality and temperament in infancy and childhood. By sharing their recent data, techniques, and theoretical speculations, the chapter authors communicate the research enthusiasm engendered by the growing consensus of the adult "Big Five" as well as the exciting prospects of an integrative program of research from infancy to adulthood that will clarify and consolidate what is now a disparate set of methods, theory, and findings across the lifespan. The editors suggest that this volume will have considerable heuristic value in stimulating researchers to conceptualize their work in developmental, lifespan approaches that will lead to a consolidation of individual differences research at every age.

The General Factor of Personality improves our understanding of the personality structure and the relations between major personality dimensions, as well as major dimensions of the entire non-cognitive sphere of psychological variables. The results of the empirical testing and theoretical evaluations in this book contribute to the more comprehensive and precise theoretical framework of the General Factor of Personality (GFP) and that of the entire personality structure. Additionally, the book answers some unresolved questions concerning the nature of the GFP, including whether it is based more on correlations in real behavior or on other less substantial factors between lower-order dimensions of personality. This book is crucially important not only for theoretical reasons, but also for the tremendous practical and applied value of the assumed general dimension of personality. As a common denominator of all the most important fields of personality beyond cognition (Big Five, well-being, coping, emotionality, motivation, self-concept, self-esteem, control, wisdom and others), the GFP represents an extremely strong single predictor of the quality of life, mental health and well-being, career, academic success, and the quality of family and interpersonal relations. Reviews the theoretical and methodological work on the General Factor of Personality (GFP) Presents major research results in the field of GFP and the dimensional structure of personality Provides a balanced and objective approach to the topic of GFP, addressing criticisms and controversies Considers the practical and applied aspects of this research Draws conclusions on the bioevolutionary model of GFP to give a more thorough understanding of biological bases of human personality