Personality Psychology
Field studying stable individual differences in traits, motives, and identity, and how they predict behavior.
Specifications & Metrics
- focus
- Enduring traits, motives, temperament, and self-concept, and their life outcomes
- pioneer
- Gordon Allport (Personality: A Psychological Interpretation, 1937)
- method
- Self-report inventories, peer ratings, factor analysis, longitudinal prediction
Core Principles & Analysis
- Gordon Allport's 1937 book established personality as a distinct research field in American psychology.
- Factor-analytic work converged on the Big Five traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
- Trait scores predict real outcomes modestly but consistently, from job performance to health and longevity.
Sources