Assessing Personality

Early Approaches to Personality Assessments

Many of the assessments once used to study personality have become discredited. Two of the most famous approaches, called phrenology and Sheldon's Body Types, were developed by Franz Gall (1728-1828) and William Sheldon (1898-1977) respectively. While these methods may seem irrational today, people once took them very seriously. A similar, but inaccurate aspect shared by these theories was the assumption that personality and physical appearance were connected.

Phrenology

In the 19th century, the German physician Franz Gall created a skull map of the bumps in people's head. He contended that each of these bumps corresponded to different personality traits and characteristics. Gall named this approach phrenology. In this activity, you will be able to view the various traits that Gall believed were represented by bumps on the skull. Click the player to begin.

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Sheldon's Body Types

William Sheldon created another popular personality theory. Similar to phrenology, Sheldon't theory is presently discredited. He believed that researchers could study and determine personality based on people's body type. Sheldon noted three basic body shapes, which he correlated with a particular set of traits. View below the images to see which traits he assigned to each body type.

Contemporary Research on Personality Traits

Psychologists often use traits to describe the cluster of characteristics that form a person’s personality. Traits are relatively constant qualities that influence behavior across many situations. These personality traits can help explain particular consistencies in behavior. Personality tests have become the most popular way to measure traits. Such inventories require people to answer questions about their own characteristics.

Researchers have conducted investigations on dozens of traits in an attempt to reveal consistencies in behavior that may relate to specific characteristics. In this interactivity, you will learn more about this contemporary research, as well as the relevant behavioral implications. Click the player to begin.

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Assessing Personality Review

Now that you have finished learning about the approaches to personality assessments, it is time to review. Use your knowledge of information covered throughout this topic to complete this non-graded interactivity. Click the player to get started.