ABSTRACT
Some of the most promising experimental work regarding personality is evident in the extension of physiological research—especially on the endocrines—to the socio psychological field. In order to investigate adequately the pertinent and significant aspects of the personality, research workers have drawn chiefly upon experimental, statistical, and life-history methods. Sound theory backed by scientific results should, in turn, aid the practical man who is concerned with the task of assisting individuals to solve their personal problems. In contrast, S. Freud’s theory of personality is obviously bound up with the particular type of life-history material which is revealed through psychoanalytic techniques. In the analysis of personality there should be an empathy or sympathetic identification on the part of the observer with the situation and with the behavior, words, gestures, and other manifestations of the subject. Academic psychologists interested in personality problems have made little use of the life-history or case-history technique.
