How can you understand yourself? Where do your views, attitudes and values come from and why do they change? This accessible and illuminating book provides a reliable guide to these questions. The book: - Demonstrates that personal identity is formed around basic needs for security and self-esteem and the personal desires that flow from them - Shows the role of the emotions in personal life - Explores the limits of approaches that deny the existence of ′individuals′ and ′personal experience′ - Demonstrates how we build on everyday problems and dilemmas of life to shape our moods, attitudes and feelings. Shrewd and compelling, the book will be of interest to anyone studying Social Psychology and Sociology.