Narcissists are a fascinating group. Unlike many people with extreme personalities—those who are paranoid or excessively emotional and attention-seeking—narcissists often function well in positions of power and responsibility.

Participants with high self-liking scores tended to have usernames to match, such as redhotjenni or princess_suzy. But the participants low on self-liking chose names like sadeyesagain and nothingmuchinside. When Chang-Schneider looked to see whether this was part of a broader pattern, she found that indeed in certain cases—and especially when peop

For a good brief introduction to the Big Five, check out Sanjay Srivastava’s Web site: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~sanjay/bigfive.html. For a more advanced treatment, see John, O. P., & Srivastava, S. (1999). The Big Five Trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of pe

Peruvians even have the concept of hora peruana, or Peruvian time, which translates to about an hour late. So lax is Peruvian punctuality that its government promoted a campaign—la hora sin demora or “time without delay”—to improve the nation’s reputation.

What is it, in concrete terms, that we know after a thousand days of knowing someone that we did not know on day one? McAdams provides a good answer to this question. Getting to know someone, he says, means progressing through three distinct levels of intimacy.

And to know someone really well, you must go even deeper, ultimately learning about the person’s identity, a concept that, as we shall see, is crucial

People use other-directed identity claims—like Cindy’s pompoms and the goddess bumper sticker—to signal how they want to be regarded.

Introverts tend to display fewer depictions of people. They go for a quiet landscape or a still life. If introverts do display portraits, they are often of calm, restful people.

Tattoos are usually regarded as classic other-directed identity claims. Not only do they proclaim a particular value or attitude or allegiance, the permanence of tattoos signals that the wearer anticipates a continued commitment to that value—you