Personality Psychologists

The study of Personality is one of the most important fields of modern psychology for the past seven decades. Before it was studied as a science, personality was a topic investigated through various “pseudo-sciences” such as astrology, physiognomy, and phrenology. These tactics attempted to determine personality by the position of the planets, a person’s facial traits, or by examining one’s skull, respectively. These efforts, while they still persist, have been abandoned for more rigorous methods that address a central question in sociology: is human nature determined from within or without? How psychology has addressed personality falls along with this issue.

Early psychological research in personality was grounded in Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory which focused on probing the unconscious through case studies. Following the U.S. entry into World War I, researchers began creating quantitative personality assessments that attempted to identify distinct traits and characteristics. However, in the later 1920’s it was acknowledged that people often don’t respond honestly to what they do. This presents complications for research methods investigating identity such as using personal documents and interviews where a person might likely say things to impress others rather than giving the truth.

This discrepancy led later psychologist to create more complicated models of personality such as Allport’s cardinal, central, and secondary traits, or complicated personality questionnaires with a wide range of answer choices such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory or the California Psychological Inventory. Those who maintained a more psychoanalytic attitude toward personality created measures to gage unconscious motivations such as the Rorschach inkblot test and Murray’s Thematic Apperception Test.

Finally, a psychologist interested in a more behavioral model focused on how personality is a set of learned responses. This “social learning theory” moved from a simpler understanding of stimulus and response to incorporate more cognitive aspects of people’s predictions and expectations, as well as measuring people’s internal versus external locus of control. Other researchers have examined the role of the body and genes in determining people’s personalities.

There is still no single paradigm that explains a person’s personality. Later studies have even demonstrated that while we focus on stable aspects of personality to research, even these aspects change over time. Personality theories in psychology has expanded to include so many different viewpoints that it’s safe to say they all are important ways to investigate an age-old question: who are you?