9780198811398_Ch1

Chapter 1 Introduction to Personality Psychology 8

PSYCHOLOGY IN CONTEXT

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and where personality psychology sits within this division. • Define the features of personality as used by re searchers in the field. • Appreciate the work of the Ancient Greek philoso phers and physicians who focused on bodily hu mours (fluids) and temperament, especially how this work influenced later thinkers. • Survey the morphological/constitutional theories of personality, including extension to criminality, Bruce, as an extremely successful person, has reached the very top of his profession. He has earned enough money to satisfy every materialistic need or desire. For instance, if he wants to, he can visit any place in the world or buy any car or house he likes. However, he has also been prone to severe bouts of depression throughout his life, often for extended periods of time. When growing up, he had problems with his father, but felt the unconditional love and support of his mother. These early experiences shaped him into the person he became in adulthood.

which inspired biologically oriented personality psychologists. • Examine the relationship between the brain and personality, starting with the phrenology (measuring bumps on the skull) and the highly influential work of Ivan Pavlov on the mechanics of the mind. • Understand the chronology of the milestones in personality psychology, including how the tough/ tender-mindedness of theorists may have influenced their scientific preferences and inclinations. When thinking about the life, thoughts, and feelings of someone like Bruce, ask yourself: 1. To what extent do you think that thoughts, be haviours, and feelings are the product of biological origins or social influences? 2. What do you think Bruce might look like according to the description from the feature? 3. Do you think that you could recognize that someone is depressed, and moreover, detect the personality of an individual, just by looking at that person?

1.1 INTRODUCTION

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The topic of personality has long fascinated scien tists, intellectuals, as well as the general public, who have little difficulty appreciating that people differ from each other in notable and important ways—in their habitual and relatively stable ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. We need only look to our own family and our friends, peers, and acquaintances to witness this fact at first hand. Interest in the notion of personality is evident, too, wider afield—in literature, history, politics, and the arts. But despite this interest, personality has proved an elusive concept to define in scientific terms, and many different constructs have been developed to characterize and operationalize it.

As a result, we have many different definitions, theo ries, and forms of measurement . Personality psychology, as seen from the modern scientific perspective, traces its origins to devel opments in psychiatry around the middle to late nineteenth century, accelerating in the early twen tieth century. The concerns of psychiatry back then were also the concerns of everyday psychological life. For example, in 1901 Sigmund Freud wrote The Psychopathology of Everyday Life . Around that time, several grand perspectives started to be developed, and these were to have a significant impact on the develop ment of the new field of personality psychology, as well

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