Personality psychology sometimes seems doomed to repeat its past. Purportedly novel developments elicit a sense of déjà vú (Bem & Allen, 1974; Mischel & Peake, 1982). Theories that seem to have succumbed to empirical scrutiny reappear like the phoenix. The discipline's most common subtitle for theoretical critiques is surely “Old wine with new labels.”

If the dictum about history is right, knowledge of the field's past may spare us from reliving it. This chapter charts the history of personality psychology. We take a long and broad view. We do not confine our coverage to the 20th century academic discipline because doing so begs the question of that discipline's origins and more seriously, it restricts the history of speculation about personality to Western concepts. These appear increasingly limited in light of contemporary knowledge about cross-cultural variations in psychological functioning and concepts of the person. We consider below the challenges posed by cross-cultural data as a prelude to our detailed coverage of personality psychology's origins, history, and progress.

THE ORIGINS OF PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY WITHIN THE HISTORY OF IDEAS

Personality psychology as we know it today developed within the traditions of Western civilization, where philosophical analysis has long turned to questions of human nature and the properties of human nature that make it possible for people to ask questions about themselves.

Although inquiry into human nature has long been a part of the Western tradition, the current use of the term “personality” is a more recent development.