Review of Leary and Tangney's Handbook of Self and Identity

A handbook should provide a comprehensive and current review of the field it covers, and the Handbook of Self and Identity (Leary and Tangney; see also record 2003-02623-000) delivers in each respect. The book is a storehouse of studies that people will frequently reference. Beyond this, most of the authors have done an admirable job of balancing three desiderata: to provide a substantial overview of the relevant aspect of self-functioning, to integrate their own with related work, and to highlight future directions. The Handbook commences with two introductory chapters. Part 2 addresses topics such as the organization and recall of self-related information, the influence of social feedback on self-definition, the antecedents and consequences of stable versus unstable self-esteem, and the influence of implicit self-knowledge on social judgment. Part 3 contains five chapters that address different facets of self-regulation. The chapters in Part 4 address the motivational and emotional states that influence how people think about themselves and others. Part 5, on interpersonal aspects of self, covers one of the most rapidly evolving areas in self-research. The rest of the book examines correlates of selfhood, including personality disorders, cultural variations in how the self is construed, and an excellent chapter on the development of self-representations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)