If human nature is the general design for life, a person’s personality is his or her unique psychological variation on that design. Personality psychology addresses many of the big questions in human life: Why do we do what we do? What do our lives mean? What are the psychological dimensions of human work, love, and health? How do we cope with and understand stress and suffering in life? What is a good life? Whereas philosophical and religious traditions have provided answers to these questions for centuries, personality psychology aims to shed new light on them from the standpoint of evidence-based theory and research in psychological science. Adopting a developmental perspective, the course traces the growth and continuity of the person as a social actor, a motivated agent, and an autobiographical author.