Individual Lives and Individual Differences: The Multidisciplinary Study of Personality (1900–1930) 181still in its infancy (see the chapter by Benjamin, DeLeon, &
Freedheim in this volume; Napoli, 1981).
“Personality” appeared early as a topic of psychiatry and
abnormal psychology in publications such as the Journal of
Abnormal Psychology,founded in 1906 by Morton Prince,
“eminent Boston physician and lecturer at Tufts College
Medical School” (G. W. Allport, 1938, p. 3). For several
years, the editorial board of the journal consisted entirely of
persons with medical training; only Hugo Münsterberg and
Boris Sidis were also trained in psychology (Shermer, 1985).
Prince was a leading figure in the “Boston school” of psy-
chopathology and psychotherapy (Hale, 1971), a group com-
posed primarily of physicians, some of whom were also
trained in experimental psychology (Taylor, 2000). The
Boston psychopathologists were among the first profession-
als to be influenced by psychoanalysis (Fancher, 2000; Hale,
1971); indeed, the first issue of the Journal of Abnormal Psy-
chologycontained an article on psychoanalysis (Putnam,
1906). Between 1910 and 1925 the journal served as the offi-
cial organ of the American Psychopathological Association
(G. W. Allport, 1938), which consisted of physicians and psy-
chologists with an interest in psychotherapy (Hale, 1971).
Between 1906 and 1920, the Journal of Abnormal Psy-
chologyfeatured more articles on “personality” than any
other psychological journal. (This statement is based on a
count of items in the historic PsycINFO database featuring
the term “personality” in titles or abstracts.) In 1921, the jour-
nal was expanded to include a focus on social psychology
and was renamed The Journal of Abnormal Psychology and
Social Psychology; the editorial announcing this change
pointed to “personality” as a central topic in both fields
(Editors, 1921). Although Prince remained the nominal edi-
tor, he soon transferred most of the editorial responsibility for
the journal to his new “Coöperating Editor,” social psycholo-
gist Floyd Allport. In 1925, the journal was renamed The
Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology(G. W. Allport,
1938); in 1960, it became Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology. In 1965, the journal split into the Journal of Ab-
normal Psychologyand the Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology.
Articles on personality in early issues of theJournal of
Abnormal Psychologybore such titles as “My Life as a Disso-
ciated Personality” (Anonymous, 1908) and “A Case of Dis-
ordered Personality” (Dewey, 1907), indicating their reliance
on personal accounts and case studies. Between 1906 and
1916, nearly all of the empirical studies published in the jour-
nal presented data on individuals rather than groups. Although
the proportion of group studies began to increase during the
second decade of publication, the proportion of individual
studies remained higher until 1925, averaging 75% during
Prince’s last four years as active editor and 65% during Floyd
Allport’s term as cooperating editor (see Shermer, 1985; we
discuss in a later section a change in publication trends begin-
ning in 1925). This emphasis on case studies reflected the
investigative practices of medical and psychiatric researchers
and psychoanalysts. Around the turn of the twentieth century,
the case study, familiar to medical practitioners since the days
of Hippocrates, had been introduced as a pedagogical tool by
Walter B. Cannon (1900; see Forrester, 1996; Taylor, 1996)
and by Richard C. Cabot (see Forrester, 1996; Lubove, 1965),
borrowing from law and from social casework, respectively.
Case studies were of course central in psychoanalysis; a clear
example is Freud’s (1910/1957a) discussion of the case of
“Anna O.” in his first lecture in the United States in 1909.
Case studies appeared regularly in psychiatric and psychoan-
alytic journals such as theAmerican Journal of Psychiatry
and thePsychoanalytic Reviewthroughout the 1920s.Sociology and Social WorkSociologists also contributed to the personality literature dur-
ing the early decades of the twentieth century (Barenbaum,
2000; Becker, 1930) and maintained an active interest in per-
sonality thereafter (Bernard, 1945). Their contributions have
received little systematic attention in historical discussions of
personality psychology. (For exceptions, see Burnham,
1968a, on the influence of sociology and social philosophy
on the development of personality psychology; Runyan,
1982, on sociological contributions to the study of life histo-
ries; and Smith, 1997, on personality research as a focus of
sociological and psychological social psychologists during
the 1930s.)
The adoption in 1921 of a system for classifying abstracts
of recent literature published in the American Journal of So-
ciologywas one indication of sociologists’ interest in person-
ality. The “tentative scheme” included as a first category
“Personality: The Individual and the Person” (“Recent Liter-
ature,” 1921, p. 128; in contrast, the Psychological Indexand
Psychological Abstractsdid not include “personality” in their
classification schemes until 1929 and 1934, respectively). A
subcategory for “Biography” (p. 128) as well as the category
“Social Pathology: Personal and Social Disorganization”
and two methodological subcategories, “Case Studies and
Social Diagnosis” and “Life-Histories and Psychoanalysis”
(p. 129), reflected sociologists’ attention to studies of
individual lives, an interest they shared with social workers,
psychiatrists, and psychoanalysts.
Case study and life history methods, including the use of
personal documents, drew attention in sociology following
the publication of Thomas and Znaniecki’s (1918–1920)