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Chapter 1 Introduction to Personality Psychology 28

moves at different rates. Although different, these two approaches complement each other. For example, in Chapter 13, we see how a behaviourally inspired (cns) cybernetic approach to understanding the causal pro cesses of personality can be related to findings from brain (CNS) studies, using well-established personality factors, such as those represented by the Big Five model of personality. Although not acknowledged sufficiently today for his ground-breaking work, Pavlov was, in deed, truly seminal in showing that theories based on behavioural studies do not have to be delayed by a lack of knowledge of the brain and nervous system, and, to a lesser extent, the reverse is true, too. SECTION SUMMARY • Branded as pseudoscience, the phrenology devel oped by the German physician, Franz Gall, in 1780, of measuring bumps on the skull to discern under lying psychological faculties/functions inspired modern-day personality neuroscience. • During his early medical career, Sigmund Freud was much interested in the brain, and he thought

his psychodynamic approach would one day be rendered in brain terms, something which inspired the recent journal, Neuropsychoanalysis . • Accidental brain damage gave rise to observations of altered personality following head trauma, the most famous case being the 25-year-old construc tion foreman who suffered extensive damage to his left frontal lobe, resulting in an apparent marked deterioration in his formerly diligent and courte ous behaviour. • Although better known for his experimental work on the conditioned reflex, Ivan Pavlov was interest ed in the relationships between brain, personality, and psychiatry. • The early work on the brain and personality in spired both biologically oriented psychologists and psychiatrists to develop theories and treat ment based on brain processes and functions. • The development of a neuroscience of personality is a direct result of the early pioneers of the brain foundations of personality, even those theories got things ‘laughably wrong’.

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1.6 THE CHRONOLOGY AND PERSPECTIVES OF PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY

relating personality types to brain processes and mechanisms of conditioning, which included their value in understanding mental illness. © Oxford University Press

To orient discussion of the various theoretical per spectives to personality, this section provides a chronology of the main milestones that shaped the field. We may trace the beginning of psychology as a scientific endeavour to Wilhelm Wundt’s labora tory in 1879. When personality psychology started is less clear. Certainly, William James’s, 1890, two- volume classic Principles of Psychology which in cluded discussion of personality-related issues, such as the self, suggests that personality psychology had begun previously, although not in coherent form. Sigmund Freud’s (1900/1953) writings on dreams is another significant milestone. As already seen in this chapter, around the same time, Ivan Pavlov was

1.6.1 TIMELINE OF PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY For our purposes in Part One of this book, we have created a summary of the milestones in the develop ment of a scientific personality psychology. Table 1.2 is adopted from Cloninger (2020) who gives the chronology of the major milestones in the develop ment of a scientific personality psychology.

© Oxford University Press