In keeping with the goals of this series, which are to facilitate the rapid dissemination of important new developments in theory and research on all aspects of personality assessment, the eight chapters in this volume examine a wide range of topics. These include research investigations and clinical applications involving traditional assessment techniques -- such as the Rorschach and the MMPI-2 -- and promising but less known procedures. Specific topics examined in the individual chapters range from the assessment of appreciation of humor to assessment of marital distress. A review of the contents of this volume once again demonstrates the diversity in assessment philosophy, theoretical orientation, and research methodology that characterizes the field of personality assessment.

The resurgence of interest in personality assessment that we noted in our Preface to Volume 8 continues unabated as psychologists explore new horizons for their craft in the present information age. Evidence for this Renaissance in personality assessment can be found in the rapid growth of the Society for Personality Assessment whose membership has more than doubled over the past five years, the expanded goals of the Division of Evaluation and Measurement of the American Psychological Association to explicitly encompass psychologists interested in the development and applications of personality assessment, the establishment of several new journals on assessment in the U.S. and Europe, and the founding of the European Association for Psychological Assessment, which held its first meeting in Barcelona in September 1991.

Growth in the field of personality assessment has been stimulated by important new conceptual developments that have contributed to the construction of better measures, and by increasing consumer demand for assessment services in areas in which practitioners of personality assessment were not previously active. The interest of business and industry in so-called integrity tests, sophisticated evaluation of managers and executives for promotion to more senior positions, and recognition of the need to select law enforcement officers who can control impulsive and aggressive behavior under extreme provocation are but a few of the many areas in which the demands for personality assessment have greatly increased.

The present volume, the ninth in this continuing Series on Advances in Personality Assessment, reflects the broadening boundaries of our field as well as increasing international interests. A common thread that can be . . .