Personal Politics: The Rise of Personality Traits in the Century of Eugenics and Psychoanalysis

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dc.contributor.advisorPettit, Michael
dc.contributor.authorDavidson, Ian James
dc.date.accessioned2020-11-13T13:54:32Z
dc.date.available2020-11-13T13:54:32Z
dc.date.copyright2020-08
dc.date.issued2020-11-13
dc.date.updated2020-11-13T13:54:31Z
dc.degree.disciplinePsychology (Functional Area: History and Theory)
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThis 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.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/37940
dc.languageen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectAmerican studies
dc.subject.keywordsPersonality
dc.subject.keywordsPersonality psychology
dc.subject.keywordsPersonality traits
dc.subject.keywordsPsychometrics
dc.subject.keywordsBig Five
dc.subject.keywordsFive-factor model
dc.subject.keywordsNeurosis
dc.subject.keywordsNeuroticism
dc.subject.keywordsIntroversion
dc.subject.keywordsExtraversion
dc.subject.keywordsIntroverts
dc.subject.keywordsExtroverts
dc.subject.keywordsExtraverts
dc.subject.keywordsPsychoanalysis
dc.subject.keywordsSigmund Freud
dc.subject.keywordsCarl Jung
dc.subject.keywordsG. Stanley Hall
dc.subject.keywordsFunctionalism
dc.subject.keywordsAssociation tests
dc.subject.keywordsProjective testing
dc.subject.keywordsFrancis Galton
dc.subject.keywordsStatistics
dc.subject.keywordsEugenics
dc.subject.keywordsHeredity
dc.subject.keywordsHereditarianism
dc.subject.keywordsNature-nurture
dc.subject.keywordsIntelligence testing
dc.subject.keywordsBeatrice Hinkle
dc.subject.keywordsAbnormal
dc.subject.keywordsNormativity
dc.subject.keywordsNormalization
dc.subject.keywordsPersonality taxonomy
dc.subject.keywordsPersonality testing
dc.subject.keywordsSex differences
dc.subject.keywordsEmotional stability
dc.subject.keywordsEmployee adjustment
dc.subject.keywordsRobert Woodworth
dc.subject.keywordsWoodworth Personal Data Sheet
dc.subject.keywordsWWI
dc.subject.keywordsShell shock
dc.subject.keywordsAdvertising
dc.subject.keywordsMarketing
dc.subject.keywordsPersonality types
dc.subject.keywordsAmbivert
dc.subject.keywordsAmbiversion
dc.subject.keywordsEdmund Conklin
dc.subject.keywordsVocational testing
dc.subject.keywordsSex roles
dc.subject.keywordsKaren Horney
dc.subject.keywordsNeo-Freudians
dc.subject.keywordsCultural determinants
dc.subject.keywordsPersonality and culture
dc.subject.keywordsMotherhood
dc.subject.keywordsFirst-wave feminism
dc.subject.keywordsMarriage
dc.subject.keywordsPositive eugenics
dc.subject.keywordsSterilization
dc.subject.keywordsCalifornia
dc.subject.keywordsWestern settlers
dc.subject.keywordsGender norms
dc.subject.keywordsSexual inversion
dc.subject.keywordsHawaii
dc.subject.keywordsBernreuter Personality Inventory
dc.subject.keywordsLewis Terman
dc.subject.keywordsStanley Porteus
dc.subject.keywordsPioneer Fund
dc.subject.keywordsMasculinity
dc.subject.keywordsFemininity
dc.subject.keywordsPsychology of gender
dc.subject.keywordsAndrocentrism
dc.subject.keywordsHeteronormativity
dc.subject.keywordsMinnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
dc.subject.keywordsWhiteness
dc.subject.keywordsPaul Meehl
dc.subject.keywordsDeception
dc.subject.keywordsLie scales
dc.subject.keywordsSocial desirability
dc.subject.keywordsSelf-deception
dc.subject.keywordsKarl Popper
dc.subject.keywordsDemarcation
dc.subject.keywordsBoundary work
dc.subject.keywordsPsychological expertise
dc.subject.keywordsHistory of professions
dc.subject.keywordsMarxism
dc.subject.keywordsHans Eysenck
dc.subject.keywordsBiological psychology
dc.subject.keywordsBell Curve
dc.subject.keywordsPerson-situation controversy
dc.subject.keywordsTrait consistency
dc.subject.keywordsTrait stability
dc.subject.keywordsWalter Mischel
dc.subject.keywordsBehavior genetics
dc.subject.keywordsReform eugenics
dc.subject.keywordsSocialism
dc.subject.keywordsEgalitarianism
dc.subject.keywordsMankind Quarterly
dc.subject.keywordsRaymond Cattell
dc.subject.keywordsBeyondism
dc.subject.keywordsTobacco industry
dc.subject.keywordsBig Tobacco
dc.subject.keywordsTobacco funding
dc.subject.keywordsGenetics
dc.subject.keywordsEvolutionary psychology
dc.subject.keywordsSociobiology
dc.subject.keywordsAcademic freedom
dc.subject.keywordsRace and IQ
dc.subject.keywordsJ. Philippe Rushton
dc.subject.keywordsCanadian psychology
dc.subject.keywordsPolitical psychology
dc.subject.keywordsCold War
dc.subject.keywordsCold War psychology
dc.subject.keywordsCold War politics
dc.subject.keywordsCommunism
dc.subject.keywordsLibertarian
dc.subject.keywordsAuthoritarianism
dc.subject.keywordsCampus protests
dc.subject.keywordsCampus activism
dc.subject.keywordsDiversity
dc.subject.keywordsSocial conservatism
dc.subject.keywordsWestern liberalism
dc.titlePersonal Politics: The Rise of Personality Traits in the Century of Eugenics and Psychoanalysis
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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