PART 1 OF 5

What is Personality? & Historical Perspectives

Estimated time: 15-20 minutes

Start Here: Watch This Video

Before we dive into the details, watch this short video that introduces the big question: What is personality?

Defining Personality

Personality refers to the long-standing traits and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways.

The word comes from the Latin word persona, meaning a mask worn by an actor. In ancient times, theatrical masks were used to represent or project a specific personality trait.

Think about it: Happy, sad, impatient, shy, fearful, curious, helpful... What characteristics describe your personality?

Historical Perspectives: How Did We First Try to Explain Personality?

Hippocrates (370 BCE)

Theorized that personality traits and human behaviors are based on four separate temperaments associated with four bodily fluids (humors):

Choleric - yellow bile from the liver
Melancholic - black bile from the kidneys
Sanguine - red blood from the heart
Phlegmatic - white phlegm from the lungs

Galen

Believed both diseases and personality differences could be explained by imbalances in the humors. Each person exhibits one of the four temperaments:

Choleric - passionate, ambitious, and bold
Melancholic - reserved, anxious, and unhappy
Sanguine - joyful, eager, and optimistic
Phlegmatic - calm, reliable, and thoughtful

This view was prevalent for over 1,000 years through the Middle Ages!

Franz Gall (1780) - Phrenology

Proposed that the distances between bumps on the skull reveal a person's personality traits, character, and mental abilities.

This was discredited for lack of empirical support. However, Gall's work was an early attempt to connect brain structure to personality.

Key Takeaway

Humans have been trying to understand personality for thousands of years. Early theories connected personality to the body (humors, skull bumps), but modern psychology takes a much more scientific approach, which we will explore next with Sigmund Freud and the psychodynamic perspective.

Next up: Freud, the Unconscious Mind, and Defense Mechanisms. Click "Next" to continue!