Gian Vittorio Caprara - Böcker

Few people today would challenge the legitimacy of democracy as the form of government most congenial to modern-day citizenship, as it requires its members to treat each other as equals and to cooperate in the shared pursuit of conditions that maximize both the individual's potential and the achievement of a public welfare. However, a number of facts challenge these deeply-rooted ideals: declining political participation, along with skepticism and dissatisfaction with the function of democracy has spread; citizens' increasing capacity to control their own circumstances within their private, economic, and social spheres is at odds with their inability to exert control over their elected representatives; and the shift of opposing radical coalitions towards more pragmatic and ideologically elusive platforms aimed to attract a larger constituency of the electorate has greatly diluted the identity of political parties. In Personalizing Politics and Realizing Democracy, authors Gian Vittorio Caprara and Michele Vecchione present the ever-growing reciprocal relationship between personality and politics, and assert that politics are not only increasingly dependent on the likes and dislikes of its citizenship, but ultimately on the personalities of political candidates attracting these voters' preferences. In this book, Caprara and Vecchione draw from recent research in personality psychology that offer a decisive role in understanding the major changes that have occurred within politics in the last several decades.

Personality: Determinants, Dynamics and Potentials, first published in 2000, is a comprehensive survey of research and theory in personality psychology. The book provides balanced coverage of biological, cognitive, affective, social, and interpersonal determinants of personality functioning and individual differences. The authors organize these factors within an overarching theoretical framework that highlights the dynamic transactions between individuals and the sociocultural environment, and the human capacities for self-reflection and self-regulation. The book's broad, integrative approach to the study of personality reveals how advances throughout the psychological sciences illuminate the classic questions of personality psychology. The volume is designed as a textbook for advanced-level courses and as a reference for professionals in psychology and related disciplines. The book meets personality psychology's need for an integrative analysis of the field that reviews recent advances, places them in their historical context, and identifies particularly promising avenues for the discipline's future development.