
Making Sense of People
The Science of Personality Differences
Samuel Barondes(Author)
Pearson FT Press
2nd Edition
Published on 8. January 2016
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-0-13-421500-6 (ISBN)
Description
A NEW, MORE PRACTICAL EDITION OF THE POPULAR SCIENTIFIC GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING OTHER PEOPLE
What really bothers you about your boss-or your daughter's boyfriend? Why are you so attracted to the person you're dating? Can you rely on your intuition about people? This book will help you find out.
Drawing on extensive research, renowned psychiatrist and neuroscientist Samuel Barondes gives you powerful tools for understanding what people are really like and how they got that way.
Now improved with easy, step-by-step "practical summaries," these tools will help you quickly assess anyone's tendencies, patterns, character, and sense of identity. You'll learn how to combine these into a unified picture of who that person is. With these insights, you can choose more satisfying relationships, recognize telltale signs of dysfunction and danger, and savor the complexity and uniqueness of everyone you meet.
A quick, easy system for understanding anyone!
Supplement your intuition
Identify character strengths and weaknesses
Make better decisions about whom to seek out and whom to avoid
Find out how all personalities are shaped by two great chance events: the set of genes we happen to be born with, and the world we happen to grow up in
What really bothers you about your boss-or your daughter's boyfriend? Why are you so attracted to the person you're dating? Can you rely on your intuition about people? This book will help you find out.
Drawing on extensive research, renowned psychiatrist and neuroscientist Samuel Barondes gives you powerful tools for understanding what people are really like and how they got that way.
Now improved with easy, step-by-step "practical summaries," these tools will help you quickly assess anyone's tendencies, patterns, character, and sense of identity. You'll learn how to combine these into a unified picture of who that person is. With these insights, you can choose more satisfying relationships, recognize telltale signs of dysfunction and danger, and savor the complexity and uniqueness of everyone you meet.
A quick, easy system for understanding anyone!
Supplement your intuition
Identify character strengths and weaknesses
Make better decisions about whom to seek out and whom to avoid
Find out how all personalities are shaped by two great chance events: the set of genes we happen to be born with, and the world we happen to grow up in
Reviews / Votes
"This pioneering book does for our mental life what the periodic table did for chemistry; it breaks the mind down into elementary constituents and their interactions-thereby transforming personality research into science. In addition to being a rich treasure trove of insights into human nature, it can potentially enrich your relationships with people. Barondes has written a masterpiece."-V.S. Ramachandran, author of Phantoms in the Brain and The Tell-Tale Mind
"We're a fantastically social species, constantly taking the measure of everyone's personality. In this wise, enjoyable book, the esteemed biological psychiatrist Sam Barondes considers ways to build up this vital skill. The book is clear, entertaining, and educational, and will not only make you a more adept social primate, but a more self-reflective one as well."
-Robert Sapolsky, Professor of Biology, Stanford University; author of A Primate's Memoir and Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers
"Making Sense of Peopleis a marvelous guided tour through the infinitely variable landscape of personality. Barondes truly illuminates how genes and environment shape human behavior, and he tells the story with an engaging armchair style that makes the book hard to put down!"
-John Oldham, President, American Psychiatric Association; author of The New Personality Self-Portrait
"Human beings judge personalities every day, but often in an unconscious muddle. Sam Barondes has taken a daunting research literature on personality and has made it remarkably accessible as well as useful. I suspect that many psychiatrists will find this book as valuable as lay readers will."
-Steven E. Hyman, Professor of Neurobiology and Provost, Harvard University; former Director, National Institute of Mental Health
"In Making Sense of People, Sam Barondes, a superb teacher and writer, creates his own schema to help us better understand each other and make the right decisions about who to share our lives with. A highly readable and enjoyable introduction to the psychology of everyday life."
-Eric Kandel, University Professor, Columbia University; Nobel Laureate; author of In Search of Memory
More details
Edition
2nd edition
Language
English
Place of publication
NJ
United States
Publishing group
Pearson Education (US)
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 209 mm
Width: 148 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
404 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-13-421500-6 (9780134215006)
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
10/2015
2nd Edition
Pearson FT Press
€27.59
Available for download
Previous edition

Book
07/2011
Financial TImes Prentice Hall
€27.22
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
Samuel Barondes is the Jeanne and Sanford Robertson Professor and Director of the Center for Neurobiology and Psychiatry at the University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco. He was trained in psychiatry and neuroscience at Columbia, Harvard, and the National Institutes of Health and has been at the University of California since 1970. He is the author of more than 200 research articles and has held many administrative and advisory positions, including Director of UCSF's Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, President of the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience, and Chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Institute of Mental Health. He has received many honors, including membership in the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition to his research publications, Barondes has written three books about psychiatry for a general audience as well as a children's poetry book: Before I Sleep: Poems for Children Who Think. He lives in Sausalito, California, with his wife, Louann Brizendine.
Content
Preface to Second Edition xi
Introduction: When Intuition Isn't Enough 1
Part I: Describing Personality Differences
1 Personality Traits 7
2 Troublesome Patterns 33
Part II: Explaining Personality Differences
3 How Genes Make Us Different 65
4 Building a Personal Brain 87
Part III: Whole Persons, Whole Lives
5 What's a Good Character? 111
6 Identity: Creating a Personal Story 139
7 Putting It All Together 159
Endnotes 175
References 199
Acknowledgments 221
Index 227
Introduction: When Intuition Isn't Enough 1
Part I: Describing Personality Differences
1 Personality Traits 7
2 Troublesome Patterns 33
Part II: Explaining Personality Differences
3 How Genes Make Us Different 65
4 Building a Personal Brain 87
Part III: Whole Persons, Whole Lives
5 What's a Good Character? 111
6 Identity: Creating a Personal Story 139
7 Putting It All Together 159
Endnotes 175
References 199
Acknowledgments 221
Index 227