Psychology (Functional Area: History and Theory)

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Open Access
The Impact of Income Inequality of Psychosocial Well-Being
(2014-07-09) Sheivari, Raha; Teo, Thomas
In this thesis, I investigated the impact of income inequality on psychosocial well-being. I argued that income inequality is an important problem for psychology, because it is a powerful social determinant of wide range of psychosocial problems that impact well-being negatively. Income inequality is related to problems such as mental illness, obesity, teenage pregnancy, violence, and premature mortality. I analyzed the two major theoretical frameworks for explaining the relation between income inequality and psychosocial well-being: the psychosocial environment explanation and the neo-material explanation. I argued that both of these explanatory frameworks are important for psychology. Furthermore, I discussed the methodological criticisms of the relation between income inequality and psychosocial well-being. Finally, I explored the possibilities for interventions on behalf of psychologists regarding the issue of income inequality. I emphasized the importance of conceptualizing income inequality as a structural problem and argued that improving psychosocial well-being of populations requires a systemic intervention that is focused on reducing the income gaps.
Open Access
The Journal of Comparative Psychology (JCP): A Network Analysis of the Status of Comparative Psychology
(2014-07-09) Lahham, Daniel Elias; Green, Christopher Darren
Abstract Comparative psychology‟s relationship to various other sub-disciplines and scientific “movements” has been discussed by many scholars throughout its history. The majority of these analyses took the form of frequency counts of the different subject species used within scientific periodicals (Schneirla, 1946; Beach, 1950; Dukes, 1960; Lockard, 1971) and presented similar conclusions: rats were the most commonly researched organism and the study of learning was the key to understanding behavior. The most popular of these critiques was Frank Ambrose Beach‟s “The Snark was a Boojum” (1950). Beach argued that comparative psychology, with the advent of behaviorism, slowly became a discipline focused only on rat learning in mazes. Donald Dewsbury (1984) responded to these discussions claiming that frequency counts alone could not depict the success and failures of the comparative discipline. Instead, he argued that comparative psychology maintained a historically continuous tradition of excellence off the efforts of a small group of prominent comparative psychologists. In this study, I attempted to “bridge” the gap between these two competing views of the comparative discipline in order to view the legitimacy of both claims. Using network analysis, a tool common to digital history, I investigated metadata (organism studied, scientist, institution) from the Journal of Comparative Psychology during the period of 1911 to 1950. I found that both arguments were partially correct in their assertions. Comparative research was being conducted by a small group of prominent scientists throughout the entire four-decade period on many more species other than the rat; however, the broader comparative discipline was heavily impacted by the influx of research on learning in rats. In both cases, the authors inadvertently focused solely on their own claims, and failed to recognize the validity of the other.
Open Access
A Problem of Cosmic Proportions: Floyd Henry Allport and the Concept of Collectivity in American Social Psychology
(2014-07-09) Faye, Cathy Lee; Green, Christopher Darren
Floyd Henry Allport (1890-1978) is widely regarded as a significant figure in the establishment of experimental social psychology in the United States in the early twentieth century. His famous 1924 textbook and his early experimental work helped set the stage for a social psychology characterized by individualism, behaviorism, and experiment. Allport is particularly well-known for his banishment of the group concept from social psychology and his argument that the individual is the only viable, scientific object of study for the serious social psychologist. This early part of Allport’s career and the role it played in establishing American social psychology is relatively well documented. However, there is little scholarship regarding Allport’s work after the 1920s. An examination of this time period demonstrates that Allport’s earliest individualism was in fact rather short-lived, as he subjected it to serious revision in the early decades of the twentieth century. The increasing complexity of the bureaucratic structure of American society in the early 1900s, the economic collapse of the 1930s, and the onset of the Second World War were significant events in the development of Allport’s ideas regarding the individual. While his early work is marked by a concerted effort to create an ideal science for understanding the individual and the social, his later work was much more concerned with the social implications of individualism and collectivism. As the social world around him grew more complex, so too did his own social psychology, culminating in a significant change in Allport’s philosophy of science. These findings contribute to our understanding of social psychology and its history by: providing a novel view of one of social psychology’s central historical figures; demonstrating the difficult, persistent, and context-dependent nature of the individualism-collectivism divide in American social psychology; and providing a platform for thinking about the ways in which historians remember and write the stories of important figures in the field.
Open Access
Defying the Laws of Nature?: Menstruation and Female Intellect in Historical Perspective
(2015-01-26) Jenkins, Amanda Lauren; Rutherford, Alexandra
In 19th and early 20th century America menstruation began to be constructed as a barrier to women wishing to access higher education. Male physicians warned of the supposed dangers studying would impose upon female reproductive systems. A closer look at these perspectives are explored in greater depth through my research question “What discourses has science constructed around the relationship between menstruation and female cognitive ability from the late 1800s to today in America?” This paper explores two key figures in the battle against educating women: Edward H. Clarke (1820-1877) and G. Stanley Hall (1844-1924). Despite substantial support for Clarke and Hall’s arguments, many feminists sought to disprove their theories. Psychologist Leta Hollingworth, and physicians Clelia Mosher and Mary Putnam Jacobi were forerunners in these arguments. A look at how and why menstrual invalidism has persevered from 19th century to today will be explored through Nancy Tuana’s epistemology of ignorance framework.
Open Access
Schopenhauer's Psychological Worldview: History, Philosophy and Relevance
(2015-08-28) Plesa, Patric; Teo, Thomas
The complete philosophical works of Arthur Schopenhauer are explored through a comprehensive psychological reading that intends to highlight the holistic theories of human nature that amount to a pessimistic and metaphysical worldview. A thorough analysis of Schopenhauer’s philosophical concepts, theories, and ideas is conducted in order to construct a clear understanding of his worldview and avoid a reductionsitic approach to a holistic philosophy. From this I initiate a novel theoretical groundwork derived from Schopenhauer’s philosophy that I have termed a “negative psychology”. I argue that this negative psychology provides a robust understanding of human nature and has applicability in several domains of psychology such as theory of human nature, education, and therapy.
Open Access
Networking Western Psychology's Elite: A Digital Analysis of "A History of Psychology in Autobiography"
(2015-08-28) Lee, Shayan Hope Anne Fox; Pettit, Michael
This thesis analyzes digital social networks for the institutional affiliations of the one hundred and twenty authors in the A History of Psychology in Autobiography (AHPA) book series. The introductory section contextualizes the analyses for the nine volumes in terms of the series’ historiographic foundations, socio-historical influences, and a history of the production of the first volume. It asserts that the series editors’ privileged disciplinary positions and the series’ unusual historiographic features render it an unusually precise internalist historical record of elite perspectives. The analytical chapter forwards the position that the AHPA networks illustrate the accuracy of Kurt Danziger’s (2006) historical premise of intellectual ‘centers’ and ‘peripheries’ in Western psychology’s disciplinary geography. The conclusion includes an assessment of the digital methods used, consideration of future directions, and a critical discussion of the AHPA series and how this thesis fits into a larger framework of ethical historiography.
Open Access
When Psychologists Were Naturalists: Questionnaires and Collecting Practices in Early American Psychology, 1880 - 1932
(2015-08-28) Young, Jacy Lee; Green, Christopher
This dissertation reshapes our understanding of the earliest years of American psychology by documenting the discipline’s methodological plurality from its very inception. In tracing the use of questionnaires over the first half century of the discipline’s existence as a science, I argue that a natural historical orientation, wherein collection, analysis, and categorization are central to the scientific enterprise, has been a persistent facet of the field. Manifested in a recurrent interest in collecting information on mental life, this natural historical perspective facilitated a moral economy of data, wherein the discipline’s affect-laden norms and values sanctified the objects and practices of mass data collection. This in turn lent itself to the adoption of statistical analyses as a central component of psychological science. Although, at first glance, falling outside of the bounds of the mechanically objective practices that characterized the new psychology’s laboratory endeavours, with their use of standardized instrumentation, projects with this orientation adhered to this form of objectivity in their own way. Seeking precise accounts of mental life, including information on its physical correlates, these enterprises engaged the public in collection practices in the field. Taking up subjects with widespread interest outside of purely scientific spheres – including child study, psychical matters, and dreaming – questionnaire projects had broad appeal. Undertakings with less popular allure deliberately and necessarily confined themselves to more restricted university populations. Issues of social relevance remained mainstays of this kind of research, but by the 1920s the public’s relation to questionnaire research shifted so that they were no longer active participants in collecting activities. Instead, questionnaires were circulated in more restricted circumstances and their findings served as the basis for broad claims about the state of the public’s mind. To do so effectively, I argue, practices of collecting with questionnaires shifted from thick to thin description; no longer were rich descriptive accounts of mental life the aim of these endeavours. Rather, increasingly restricted ranges of information were accumulated, a process that culminated in the development of numerical Likert scales and the use of more sophisticated statistical analyses. Scales of this kind continue to dominate questionnaire research today.
Open Access
Magda Arnold and the Human Person: A Mid-Century Case Study on the Relationship Between Psychology and Religion
(2015-12-16) Rodkey, Elissa Nicole; Rutherford, Alexandra
The life of Magda Arnold (1903-2002)—best known for her pioneering appraisal theory of emotion—spanned the 20th century, and she witnessed the rise and fall of many of the major “schools” of psychology. Arnold had an unusual perspective on these theories of psychology, due in large part to an event that occurred in 1948: her conversion to Roman Catholicism. Throughout her life, but especially following her conversion, Arnold rejected reductionistic theories of the human person, instead articulating theories which emphasized human agency and telos, and which held up the human experience as the primary source of psychological knowledge. Arnold’s conversion significantly affected her career, as she made professional sacrifices to teach in Catholic institutions and was open about her religious identity in her academic work at a time when Catholic scholars were suspect. Arnold’s conversion also shaped her psychological thinking—she later credited her conversion and resulting exposure to scholastic philosophy with inspiring her appraisal theory. Arnold’s involvement in psychology (1935-1975) roughly corresponds with a period in academic psychology in which there was very minimal investigation of religious topics (1930-1976)—they were generally considered taboo or unscientific. Yet the majority of American consumers of psychology remained religious in this period, and applied and popular psychology addressed their interests. Arnold’s life contributes an important perspective on this period, highlighting how one psychologist of faith responded to the pressures of an increasingly secular psychology by rejecting the apparent conflict to affirm the fundamental compatibility of faith and science. As such Arnold’s life is a useful contribution to the growing literature on the “complexity” perspective on the relationship between science and religion (as opposed to the traditional “conflict” perspective). Arnold was also aware of her own perspective as a religious psychologist and emphasized experimenter subjectivity in her work—offering a critical perspective on psychology that anticipated modern critiques of scientific objectivity. As a result Arnold contributes to discussions of reflexivity and objectivity in psychology, by drawing on her writings about the role of basic assumptions in science, and by considering her life to see just how her personal beliefs shaped her science.
Open Access
"The Era of Skepticism" Disciplinary Controversy and Crisis as Detour to the Big Five
(2016-09-20) Davidson, Ian James; Pettit, Michael
The current disciplinary histories of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality, or the Big Five, suggest that the ultimately temporary paucity of research on the model (and the delay in consensus toward it) is due in large part to an era of skepticism, malignant Zeitgeist, and general disciplinary crisis experienced by personality psychology from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. Psychologist Walter Mischel, particularly his 1968 book Personality and Assessment and its ensuing person-situation controversy, stand out as the apotheosis of this era of skepticism within the internal histories. I examined general personality textbooks from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s to understand how Mischel and the surrounding controversy was understood and remembered by personality psychologists, and how this was related to the history of the FFM. Findings suggest that the person-situation controversy is a broader narrative in the historiography of personality psychology that was drawn on to make sense of the FFM history; that many factor analytic researchers seemed unconcerned, and the progress of their research unaffected, by the ongoing controversy; and that there are many other methodological, theoretical, and political controversies surrounding the FFM itself, its methodology of factor analysis, and the methodologys notorious pioneers, that have been minimized or omitted in favour of the vague era of skepticism grand narrative. My current framework, though revealing, is restrictive and should be complemented and enriched by digital historiography (e.g. social network analysis) to better understand this period of personality psychology and the history of the Big Five.
Open Access
Constructive History: From the Standard Theory of Stages to Piaget's New Theory
(2016-11-25) Burman, Jeremy Trevelyan; Green, Christopher
This project demonstrates how Historians of Psychology can contribute to the future of Psychology from within the Department of Psychology (rather than from departments of History, the History and Philosophy of Science, or Science and Technology Studies). To do this, I focus on the claim that Jean Piagets last works constitute a new theory, while also showing how this labelling was appropriate. This is discussed briefly in the introduction. The first chapter is also quite simple: it follows the turn toward locality, and uses autobiography to show why a psychologist might want to pursue advanced training in history. This approach is then reflected in the second chapter, where Piagets autobiography is used to situate what followed in his own studies. The third chapter reflects this at an again-higher level, comparing an American history of Piagets biography with a Genevan history (but augmented with new archival research). In addition to revealing new details about his life, this also highlights a difference in historiographical sensibilities at work in shaping the discipline. The fourth chapter then shows that this generalizes. It reviews the most famous case of an instance where a series of texts were indigenized during their importation into American Psychology (viz. Titcheners importation of Wundt). To confirm that the same thing occurred with Piaget, I introduce a new technique inspired by the Digital Humanities. In short: I show in quantitative terms acceptable to Psychologists what Historians would be more inclined accept from a study of primary sources. Two examples of this more-traditional kind of history are then presented. In chapter five, I consider a change in Piagets appeals to a formalism associated with Kurt Gdel. In chapter six, I look at how this change informed Piagets return to biology (and his subsequent updating of the Baldwin Effect). And the conclusion re-examines the original claim in light of everything else discussed. The ultimate result, though, is not only a new way to consider Piagets standard theory of stages. I also present a new way to understand his broader view of the development of knowledge. This also in turn informs a new way of doing history, presented in the Appendix.
Open Access
Psychoanalysis as an Interdisciplinary Science: From 19th Century Neuropsychology to Modern Neuropsychoanalysis
(2017-07-27) Harper, Katherine Anne; Rutherford, Alexandra
This dissertation explores interdisciplinarity from three perspectives. It emphasizes the intellectual foundations of Sigmund Freuds Project for a Scientific Psychology (1895) and Alexander Bains Mind and Body (1872). It argues that these neural networks were similar and created via borrowed and integrated knowledge. This thesis contributes to the scholarship on Bain and Freud by presenting an analysis of their models, thus, providing a qualitative comparative analysis to make explicit the continuities and discontinuities in their ideas. In comparing their works, this study finds that there is no evidence that Freud borrowed directly from Bain when he created the Project; the similarities in their models are likely due the common academic milieus they emerged from. The discontinuities, however, were due to the neuron doctrine and the new scientific methods that emerged between 1872 and 1895. Part two of this thesis posits that psychoanalysis began as an interdisciplinary field founded on the Project, and that this interdisciplinarity continues today in the field of neuropsychoanalysis. This study finds that psychoanalysis has had a long history of interaction with the various psy-disciplines, particularly experimental psychology, and that the connection between the creation of the Project and the emergence of the field of neuropsychoanalysis was not a linear one. A conceptual bibliometric citation analysis demonstrates that, while experimental academic psychologists were testing the validity of Freudian concepts via empirical methods, they were actually borrowing knowledge from psychoanalysis. This analysis expands on the work of Hornstein (1992) and presents the first quantitative analysis of the intense relationship between psychology and psychoanalysis as psychologists were testing Freudian concepts. This thesis ends with an exploration of the recently created field of neuropsychoanalysis and provides the scholarship with the first bibliometric citation analysis of the field. In so doing, this portrait of the discipline presents an analysis of the psychological concepts this field is interested in studying, the methods used, and an examination of the extent of collaboration between psychoanalysts and neuroscientists. This is followed with a brief discussion on the clinical and theoretical relevance of neuroscience to psychoanalysis and the increasing concern regarding the validity of imaging techniques.
Open Access
From Psychologism to Psychologization: Beyond the Boundaries of the Discipline and Practice of Psychology
(2017-07-27) Mulvale, Susannah Ellen; Rutherford, Alexandra; Teo, Thomas
This thesis provides a descriptive account of three waves of critiques of psychologism and psychologization that appeared throughout the 20th century from philosophers and sociologists. I examine these arguments chronologically to show that psychology has repeatedly been criticized for going beyond its disciplinary boundaries and permeating other academic and cultural realms. Although the critiques focus on different forms of psychologism and psychologization, they all demonstrate how psychological approaches to subjectivity have precluded important knowledge about human mental life that can be gained from philosophy and sociology. By incorporating philosophical and sociological findings into psychological thinking, a more holistic understanding of human mental life can be achieved. Philosophers and sociologists illuminate the systemic roots of individual problems by focusing on the relation between individuals and social structures, and they encourage the development of critical thinking and political engagement as a means to achieving the psychological aim of mental well-being.
Open Access
The Past Lives of Betty Eisner: Examining the Spiritual Psyche of Early Psychedelic Therapy through the Story of a Outsider, a Pioneer, and a Villain
(2018-05-28) Davidson, Tal; Rutherford, Alexandra
In this thesis, I argue that early LSD research was imbued with a sense of mysticism that was constructed to be commensurable with concurrent scientific epistemology. I demonstrate how mysticism entered psychedelic research and therapy through the history of a pioneer LSD psychotherapist named Betty Eisner. Since the late 1940s, Eisner was a key member of a bible study group that emphasized the psychological foundation of mystical experiences. When she entered psychology in the 1950s, she imported this influence into her research and therapy. As an active member of the small international LSD research community of the 50s and 60s, she participated in ongoing discussions about the place of mysticism in LSD psychotherapy. However, following malpractice accusations in the 1970s, Eisner lost her clinical license. Using records from her license revocation hearings, I will contextualize her work within the larger psychology professions attitudes toward mystically inspired therapy.
Open Access
The Mind of the New Socialist Student in the Chinese Revolutionary Imagination, 1949-1958
(2018-11-21) Gao, Zhipeng; Teo, Thomas
Between 1949 and 1958, the nascent Peoples Republic of China witnessed a radical shift of knowledge about the human mind that transformed pedagogy. Against the Cold War and the changing Sino-Soviet relation, Chinese psychologists progressively repudiated American and Soviet schools for their shared deterministic philosophy and disinterest in human agency and class struggle. In light of this critique, educators abandoned psychological science as the basis of pedagogy and endeavored to create a supreme new socialist student to meet Chinas economic and political agendas. This dissertation explores this exteriorization epistemic transition by juxtaposing psychology and education. Taking advantage of so far untapped archival and published sources, this dissertation explores how psychologists, educators, and students navigated between a utopian communist dream and Chinas harsh socioeconomic reality in the creation of the new socialist student ideal. Chapter One Wrestling with Human Nature argues that the critique of psychology instantiated Chinas progressive ethos that, in the endeavor of transforming human mentality, rejected scientific discovery of mental laws. Chapter Two Laborizing Education argues that students faced excessive academic and labor tasks due to Chinas pursuit of post-war recovery, of success in Cold War competition, and of forestalling future labor-based class stratification. Chapter Three Engendering Citizenship scrutinizes how educators tapped into students subjectivity to produce a new citizenship identity capable of dismantling existing social relations.
Open Access
Prolegomenon for a Body-Oriented Research Method in Psychology
(2019-03-05) Slyvka, Volodymyr; Teo, Thomas
Mainstream psychology adheres to a reductionist perspective on the body which is founded on a biomedical framework. In this view, the bodys functioning is investigated as merely physiological correlates of mental processes. To fully understand psychological phenomena, there is a need to address the issue of the body at all levels of the research process. The main objective of this thesis is to offer a prolegomenon for a research method in psychology which would systematically work with the bodily expression through gesture and movement for understanding psychological questions. First, I discuss historical and theoretical underpinnings of body image scholarship, nonverbal communication work, phenomenology, and feminist theory. Second, I examine the existing methods from applied fields of body psychotherapy and dance practices. Finally, I provide a possible format of the body-oriented method (BOM), including the stages of data collection, data description, data interpretation, and representation of results.
Open Access
Wilhelm Dilthey's Conceptualization of Mental Life: The Unity of Consciousness
(2019-07-02) Majumdar, Stefan; Teo, Thomas
Abstract This study is an examination of Wilhelm Diltheys conceptualization of mental life. An introduction recounting Diltheys intellectual background is provided, including a detailed literature review of texts that elaborate his ideas. A description of Diltheys analysis of the elemental constituents of consciousness is presented. Diltheys assessment of self-consciousness is examined, and his psychological epistemology is explained. A discussion of Diltheys analysis of logic and psychological processes is given. The study explicates Diltheys position on the relation between aspects and dynamics within the psyche. A justification of Diltheys distinction between mental and physical objects of psychological investigation is provided. Consciousness is shown to constitute a phenomenal unity. Examples of the relevance of Diltheys ideas for contemporary psychological theory and practice are presented. Findings are recounted providing a detailed picture of main conclusions drawn from the study.
Open Access
Methodological Differences Between Psychological Fields and its Impact on Questionable Research Practices
(2020-05-11) DiGiovanni, Julian Michael; Green, Christopher Darren
A recent development in research fields, including psychology, is that several studies have called into question the replicability of findings that were thought to be well-established. This phenomenon, termed the replication crisis in psychology, is gaining acceptance as a legitimate concern. This paper explores the quality of research from three prominent psychology journals: The Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, across the years 1995, 2005 and 2015. The quality of research was determined through creating individual p-distributions, similar to the methods of Masicampo & Lalande (2012). This paper uncovered that there was evidence regarding the use of questionable research practices (QRPs) since 1995. Overall, the quality of each journal's research appeared to be increasing as the years progressed.
Open Access
Developing a Theory of Subjectivity for Video Gaming
(2020-11-13) Miller, Tony; Teo, Thomas
Video game studies in mainstream psychology are often limited to investigating the positive and negative effects of playing on mental health. These studies adhere to a reductionist perspective trying to make a direct link between violence, depression, or anxiety and playing video games. I argue that to fully understand the subjective experience of video gaming, there is a need to develop a theory of subjectivity that can explain why and how immersion happens in the experience of playing video games. To develop this theory, I compare the experience of playing video games to the experience of watching a movie and then, based on preexisting subjectivity theories in cinema, I try to develop a similar theory for gaming experience. Based on the empirical data collected from interviewing gamers and my theoretical insights, I provide a theory of subjectivity which explains the subjective experience of playing video games.
Open Access
Building a "Cross-Roads Discipline" at McGill University: A History of Early Experimental Psychology in Postwar Canada
(2020-11-13) Oosenbrug, Eric; Pettit, Michael
This dissertation presents an account of the development of psychology at McGill University from the late nineteenth century through to the early 1960s. The department of psychology at McGill represents an alternative to the traditional American-centered narrative of the cognitive revolution and later emergence of the neurosciences. In the years following World War II, a series of psychological experiments established McGill as among the foremost departments of psychology in North America. This thesis is an institutional history that reconstructs the origins, evolution, and dramatic rise of McGill as a major center for psychological research. The experiments conducted in the early 1950s, in the areas of sensory restriction, motivation, and pain psychology, were transformative in their scope and reach. Central to this story is Donald O. Hebb, author of The Organization of Behavior (1949), who arrived at McGill in 1947 to find the charred remains of a department. I argue that the kind of psychology Hebb established at McGill was different from most departments in North America; this is developed through a number of interwoven storylines focused on the understanding of a particular character of McGill psychology - a distinctive psychological style - and its broader historical importance for Canadian psychology, for North American psychology, and for psychology across the globe. This psychological style was an amalgam, embracing both the experimentalism associated with behaviorists and attention to subjective and emotional states associated with psychoanalytic and Gestalt theory. It contributed to the development of cognitive (neuro)psychology, but through avenues that lay somewhat outside the main scientific developments commonly noted in existing historical studies, which tend to neglect the role of emotion and embodied experience. This dissertation provides an account of the complex interplay of factors that affected the trajectory of psychology at McGill with attention to key individuals, department structures, and priorities; it examines how research institutions in Canada were built after the war; how various tensions and relationships shaped these early projects; and investigates the development of key concepts, theoretical views, research practices, and commitment to interdisciplinarity.
Open Access
Personal Politics: The Rise of Personality Traits in the Century of Eugenics and Psychoanalysis
(2020-11-13) Davidson, Ian James; Pettit, Michael
This dissertation documents personality psychologys development alongside psychoanalysis and eugenics, offering a disciplinary and cultural history of personality across the twentieth century. Using the psychological concepts of neurosis and introversion as an organizational framework, personalitys history is portrayed as one of success: a succession of hereditarianism and its politics of normativity; a successful demarcation of the science of personality from competing forms of expertise; and a successful cleansing of personality psychologys interchanges with unethical researchers and research. Chapter 1 provides background for the dissertation, especially focusing on turn-of-the-century developments in the nascent fields of American psychology and the importation of psychoanalytic ideas. It ends with a look at Francis Galtons eugenicist and statistical contributions that carved a key path for psychological testers to discipline psychoanalytic concepts. Part I details the rise of personality testing in the USA during the interwar years, while also considering the many sexual and gender norms at play. Chapter 2 tracks the varied places in the 1920s that personality tests were developed: from wartime military camps to university laboratories to the offices of corporate advertisers. Chapter 3 takes stock of popular psychoanalytic notions of personality alongside the further psychometric development of personality testing. These developments occurred at a time when American eugenicistsincluding psychologistswere transitioning to a positive form that emphasized marriage and mothering. Part II partially strays from a strict chronicling of the Big Twos development into traitsneuroticism and extraversionto consider the broader histories of personality in the Cold War era and beyond. Chapter 4 considers the opposing legacies of Hans Eysenck and Paul Meehl to explore the development of psychometric tools that countered popular projective techniques. Additionally, it examines the multifarious connections between psychoanalysis and psychologists striving for a science of personality. Chapter 5 closes the dissertation with a look at the psychometric work that led to the Five-Factor Models ascent in the 1990s as perhaps the most widely accepted perspective on personality. Along the way, the conservative politics of heredity and eugenics would capitalize on cries for the academic freedom of racist science while justifying trait psychologys past.