Chapter 15 Further Reading: Personality and Attraction

Foundational Academic Sources

McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (2008). "The five-factor theory of personality." In O. P. John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.), Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research (3rd ed.). Guilford Press. The authoritative overview of the Five-Factor Model from its primary architects. Dense but accessible for undergraduates who want the full scientific foundation. Covers measurement, heritability, development, and cross-cultural findings.

Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. E., & Viechtbauer, W. (2006). Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 132(1), 1–25. The definitive meta-analysis on personality development across the lifespan. The source for the maturity principle discussed in section 15.12.

Luo, S., & Klohnen, E. C. (2005). Assortative mating and marital quality in newlyweds: A couple-centered approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(2), 304–326. The methodologically careful study on actual vs. perceived similarity and relationship satisfaction in married couples. Essential reading for anyone interested in the similarity-complementarity debate.

Jonason, P. K., & Webster, G. D. (2010). The Dirty Dozen: A concise measure of the dark triad. Psychological Assessment, 22(2), 420–432. The primary source for dark triad measurement and its mating correlates — important to read alongside critical responses and replications to understand the actual scope of the findings.

Accessible Academic Reading

Botwin, M. D., Buss, D. M., & Shackelford, T. K. (1997). Personality and mate preferences: Five factors in mate selection and marital satisfaction. Journal of Personality, 65(1), 107–136. An approachable study on how Big Five traits relate to mate preferences and marital satisfaction. A good starting point for understanding how personality enters the partner-selection literature.

Jensen-Campbell, L. A., & Graziano, W. G. (2001). Agreeableness as a moderator of interpersonal conflict. Journal of Personality, 69(2), 323–362. Focuses specifically on Agreeableness and conflict — relevant to section 15.5 and the discussion of how kindness and cooperation function in romantic relationships.

Cain, S. (2012). Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. Crown. Not a research text, but a widely-read exploration of introversion that provides rich context for section 15.3 and Case Study 15.2. Read critically — Cain's popular account occasionally overstates the introvert/extravert binary and understates within-group variation.

Kaufman, S. B. (2015). Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined. Basic Books. Chapter sections on personality and intelligence are useful background for understanding what Big Five traits are (and are not) measuring.

On the Dark Triad and Science Communication

Lilienfeld, S. O., & Pydych, A. L. (2018). Dark triad traits and the misuse of evolutionary psychology in popular culture. Perspectives on Psychological Science. (Note: Students should verify current citation details — this represents the type of critical science communication literature on dark triad misuse that is worth seeking out.)

For this topic, searching Google Scholar for "dark triad popular misuse" or "evolutionary psychology public discourse" will surface a range of methodological critiques and science communication analyses. Pairing any primary dark triad paper with a critical response develops the habit of reading the full scientific conversation rather than single studies.

Intersections with This Textbook

  • Chapter 11 covers attachment theory, which interacts with Big Five traits — particularly Neuroticism predicting anxious attachment and low Agreeableness predicting avoidant attachment
  • Chapter 16 connects personality (especially Extraversion and Neuroticism) to approach and avoidance motivation systems
  • Chapter 20 revisits the Swipe Right Dataset in the context of personality and digital behavior
  • Appendix C provides the attraction_toolkit.py reference for students who want to explore synthetic data patterns relating personality proxies to app behavior