Book Review: The Emotional Foundations of Personality

The Emotional Foundations of Personality: A Neurobiological and Evolutionary Approach is the last work of Jaak Panksepp. Kenneth Davis was a student of Panksepp many years ago and became a colleague and co-author. As Davis wrote, this work was like taking a multi-year seminar with Panksepp. The result is truly remarkable. It is so filled with research, critical thought, history, and knowledge, it is difficult to know where to begin. Emotional Foundations of Personality is a history of our ongoing efforts to define just what personality is and how to measure it. We have used language and description for most of our testing and research history. The primary statistical method has been factor analysis. John Paul Scott was a colleague and mentor of the authors and said, “statistics in psychology were just tools for determining the intensities and patterns of experimental/behavioral effects, as opposed to a way of identifying the biological sources of those effects.” Neuroscience is making it possible to move beyond the merely descriptive and to get to those biological sources. It has not been easy. Throughout the work, there is the sense that the very strong behavioral movement has made that transition difficult. At its extreme, we as organisms are just the go-between for stimulus and response. Behaviorism also has a bias against the study of emotions in animals. Another has been the legacy of Rene Descartes. His view that the cries of animals were like the ticking of a clock...
Source: Psych Central - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Book Reviews Disorders General Genetics Memory and Perception Neuroscience Personality Professional Psychiatry Psychological Assessment Psychology Treatment books on emotions Emotional Life jaak panksepp ken davis Source Type: news