There has been a recent resurgence of interest in personality psychology and its applications. This book is organised in three parts: personality and health outcomes; mechanisms relating personality and health; personality specific prevention and intervention. It covers child and adolescence health behaviour as well as that of adults and integrates new developments within personality psychology (such as neurophysiology and temperamental traits) with health psychology and examines major health outcomes such as disease, the mechanisms between these outcomes and personality, and prevention and intervention programmes.

Margarete E. Vollrath is Professor of Personality Psychology at the University of Oslo in Norway and affiliated with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Division of Mental Health. She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the European Association of Personality Psychology. She completed a PhD and obtained the venia legendi in psychology at the University of Zurich in Switzerland Dr. Vollrath joined the Psychological Institute of the University of Oslo in Norway in 2001.

Dr Vollrath began her career with research on the epidemiology and course of mental disorders in young adults. She then turned to exploring the influence of personality and personality disorders on stress, coping, and risky health behaviors both in psychiatric patients and healthy young adults. In recent years, her interests have gradually shifted to child health. In a study conducted with University Children's Hospital in Zurich, she investigated how children with diabetes, cancer, and injuries adjust to their situation. In another project, a large cohort study in Norway, she is examining the impact of child personality traits on early appearing health behaviors, such as eating and physical activity. The idea to edit this Handbook stems from her long experience in teaching health psychology at the Universities of Zurich and Oslo and the vivid discussions with her students during her seminars and lectures.