Differentielle Psychologie und Persönlichkeitsforschung. Manfred Amelang and Dieter Bartussek, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart. 2nd edition, 623 pp. DM 98

It is a difficult task to write textbooks on personality psychology. As Herrmann (1969) notes in the preface to the first edition of his textbook on personality psychology, there is always the danger that textbooks ‘present the reader a collection of outdated knowledge and premature approaches’. Today, it has not become easier to distinguish between outmoded concepts that are appropriate for textbooks, and premature approaches without prospects. Consider, for example, the person-situation controversy of the recent years: Depending on theoretical viewpoints, this controversy has either resulted in an elaboration of trait approaches or in the development of alternative approaches in the form of different variants of interactionism that were long overdue. Indeed, it depends on such fundamental viewpoints whether the flood of current research is either integrated into well-proved textbook structures, or whether new perspectives are sought which help to organize the confusing picture that arises from many single research contributions. i n any case, priorities have to be set because it is impossible to portray differential psychology and personality psychology comprehensively and in detail. Amelang and Bartussek decided to emphasize the description and explanation of individual differences in the light of empirical research. They stress this intention by entitling their textbook Differentielle Psychologie und Personlichkeitsforschung. Contrary to the more conventional usage, Amelang and Bartussek do not use the terms personality psychology or personality research synonymously with differential psychology. Rather, they conceive personality psychology as a subdivision of differential psychology that deals with temperamental differences, i.e. personality psychology in the narrow sense. Personality psychology is distinguished from the realm of ability (e.g. intelligence and creativity), and the latter is the second domain of differential psychology that the authors deal with in greater detail. We believe that it is justified only for historical reasons to equate the two domains temperament and personality. And, in fact, the authors go beyond a narrow definition of personality psychology when they discuss behavioural and cognitive personality constructs that can hardly be subsumed under the definition of temperament. The textbook is subdivided into five major sections. The introductory section ‘Basic issues in differential psychology’ is followed by a section on ‘Research methods in differential psychology’. The third section covers ‘Domains of individual differences’ and Section 4 ‘Determinants of individual differences’. This distinction between domains and determinants of individual differences corresponds to Herrmann’s (1969) distinction between the description and the explanation of personality. In the final fifth section, entitled ‘Consequences of individual differences’, the authors discuss current developments of the interactionism and consistency debate. In contrast to other recent German introductions to personality psychology (Fisseni, 1984; Mogel, 1985), theoretical positions do not provide the pre-eminent structure of Amelang and Bartussek’s book. An exception is Section 3, where basic theoretical orientations in personality psychology, i.e. factor-analytic approaches, psychodynamics, behaviourism, and cognitive approaches, are described and used for a discussion of research strategies and results which are typical for the respectivc theoretical frameworks. According to Wittmann’s