Timeline of Personality Psychology

• Overview
• Timeline
• Theories of Personality
• People and Further Reading
• Key Terms and Study Questions

• 1758 – The founder of phrenology, Franz Joseph Gall, was born. Phrenology was a popular pseudoscience that linked personality to head shape.


• 1848 - Phineas P. Gage was injured in a dynamite explosion, blasting an iron rod through his brain. Personality psychologists often cite Gage to demonstrate the link between the brain and personality. While Gage survived the accident, his personality was drastically altered.


• 1902 – Erik Erikson was born. An ego psychologist trained by Anna Freud, Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development described personality development from birth to death.


• 1908 - Abraham Maslow was born.


• 1916 - Hans Eysenck was born.


• 1921 - Hermann Rorschach's published his book Psychodiagnostik, which described his inkblot personality test.


• 1923 - Sigmund Freud published The Ego and the Id.


• 1938 - The Rorschach Institute was founded. It was later renamed the Society for Personality Assessment.


• 1948 - Robert W. White's classic book The Abnormal Personality was published.


• 1954 – Abraham Maslow published his book Motivation and Personality, describing his theory of a hierarchy of needs.


• 1963 - Albert Bandura first described the concept of observational learning to explain personality development.


• 1980 - Carl Rogers published A Way Of Being.

Study Guide Menu

• Overview
• Timeline
• Theories of Personality
• People and Further Reading
• Key Terms and Study Questions

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