BPS Core Textbooks Series

Developed in collaboration with the British Psychological Society

Chapter 15 – Duty, Uses and Abuses: Personality Psychology’s Modal Selves

Chapter Summary

This chapter offers a critical historical account of the history of personality through the lens of the modal self, the culturally dominant model of personhood in any given era. Tracing a trajectory from the moral self of the nineteenth century, through the modern self of mid-twentieth-century psychometrics, to the postmodern self of the neoliberal age, the chapter explores how psychology has actively participated in constructing and legitimising different self-ideals. Drawing on Warren Susman’s concept of the modal self, it argues that psychological theory has not merely described individuals but has helped shape the normative traits, behaviours, and affective styles that each historical era demands. Through an integrated analysis of epistemology, ontology, and power, the chapter shows how each modality of the self is produced through specific ways of knowing (moral judgement, psychometric testing, performance metrics), assumptions about human nature (virtue, fixity, adaptability), and disciplinary techniques (pastoral power, classification, self-optimisation). Key theorists are situated within these cultural transformations. Ultimately, the chapter reveals how the psychology of the self is deeply entwined with political economy, reinforcing values such as moral discipline, industrial efficiency, and neoliberal adaptability in shaping the human subject.

Chapter 15 – Quiz

  • Chapter 15 – Flashcards

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  • Chapter 15 – Key Readings

    Banicki, K. (2017). The character–personality distinction: An historical, conceptual, and functional investigation. Theory & Psychology, 27(1), 50-68. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354316684689 

    Bullard, A. (2005). The critical impact of Frantz Fanon and Henri Collomb: Race, gender, and personality testing of North and West Africans. Journal of the History of the Behavioural Sciences, 41(3), 225-248. https://doi.org/10.1002/jhbs.20102 

    Cieciuch, J. (2012). The Big Five and Big Ten: Between Aristotelian and Galileian physics of personality. Theory & Psychology, 22(5), 689-696. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354311432904 

    Danziger, K. (1997). Naming the mind: How psychology found its language. Sage. 

    Dumont, F. (2010). A history of personality psychology: Theory, science, and research from Hellenism to the twenty-first century. Cambridge University Press.  

    Fierro, C. (2022). How did early North American clinical psychologists get their first personality test? Carl Gustav Jung, the Zurich School of Psychiatry, and the development of the “Word Association Test” (1898–1909). History of Psychology, 25(4), 295–321. https://doi.org/10.1037/hop0000218 

    Gibby, R. E., & Zickar, M. J. (2008). A history of the early days of personality testing in American industry: An obsession with adjustment. History of Psychology, 11(3), 164–184. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013041 

    Hajek, K. M. (2021). Félida, doubled personality, and the ‘normal state’ in late 19th-century French psychology. History of the Human Sciences, 34(2), 66-89. https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695120980648 

    Percival, T., & Bergstrom-Katz, S. (2025). The material force of categories. History of the Human Sciences, 38(2), 3-17. https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951251318223 

    Pilgrim, D. (2023). Verdicts on Hans Eysenck and the fluxing context of British psychology. History of the Human Sciences, 36(3-4), 83–104. https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951221143888 

    Susman, W. (1984). Culture as history: The transformation of American society in the twentieth century. Pantheon.  Treviño, A. J. (2023). Talcott Parsons on building personality system theory via psychoanalysis. Journal of the History of the Behavioural Sciences, 59, 417–432. https://doi.org/10.1002/jhbs.22257

  • Chapter 15 – Reflective Questions

    1. How has the dominant psychological model of the self changed from the 19th to the 21st century, and what social or economic factors have driven this shift? 
    2. What does Warren Susman’s concept of the ‘modal self’ help us understand about the relationship between psychology and culture? 
    3. To what extent can contemporary personality assessments (e.g. the Big Five, Emotional Intelligence) be seen as tools of empowerment versus tools of conformity? 
    4. How do different psychological models define what it means to be a ‘normal’ person? What assumptions do they make about gender, race, class, or ability? 
    5. What forms of power operate through personality psychology, and how have they shifted across the Moral, Modern, and Post-Modern eras? 

  • Chapter 15 – Weblinks

    Review: Abundant Cultural History: The Legacy of Warren Susman (Academic Article)

    https://www.jstor.org/stable/2702576

    This JSTOR article gives students access to Susman’s foundational article on Cultural History, enabling students to grow their understanding of the historical underpinnings of this theory.

    Daniel Goleman: Why aren’t we all Good Samaritans?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3wyCxHtGd0

    This 13-minute TED Talk discusses emotional intelligence and empathy, providing an interesting link for students between these theories and more contemporary ideas about the postmodern modal self.

    Big Five Personality Test (Open Psychometrics)

    https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/IPIP-BFFM

    This webpage gives students the opportunity to take an adapted version of the Big Five test, enabling them to reflect critically on the assumptions, uses and appeal for contemporary self-assessment.

    The Century of Self (Full Adam Curtis Documentary) – (YouTube Documentary)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3RzGoQC4s

    This 4-hour documentary gives an incredibly in-depth look at how Freudian ideas shaped consumer capitalism, with relevant links drawn to personality, marketing and neoliberalism.

    Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin – Sage Journals (Academic Journal)

    https://journals.sagepub.com/home/psp

    This webpage gives students access to the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, including many free-to-access articles engaging with the theories discussed in this chapter in a variety of contemporary and critical contexts.

    Individual Differences – The British Psychological Society (Academic Article)

    https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/individual-differences-british-context

    This article gives information regarding the introduction and growth of the individual difference approach to psychology particularly in Britain, giving students context and access to UK-based development in personality psychology.