Speech and Personality Ratings

Abstract

WITHIN the last decade various schedules have been devised for the measurement of personality. Many of these have been short-lived, because they were loosely-organized, indefinite, vague or intangible. The whole subject of personality study is still more or less unsatisfactory from the standpoint of objective analysis, because the rater must rely upon subjective responses by the person rated, rather than upon his own exclusive analysis, or satisfactory objective methods. The Greek philosophers, centuries ago, began the fascinating study of personality. While their attempts to classify people on the basis of types is chiefly important historically, it shows an early interest in the subject of temperament. They grouped personalities under the four heads: (1) Choleric, (2) Melancholic, (3) Sanguine, (4) Phlegmatic. In modern times the phrenologist claimed to be able to read by studying cranial prominences, without reference to the gray matter within the cranium! Each of us is daily concerned with personality study. Consciously or unconsciously, we are always observing temperamental traits, differences in the character and personality of our associates, our friends, members of our family and casual acquaintances or strangers. It helps us to determine how we shall react, ourselves. A useful application of the measurement of personality may be made to the field of speech. The psychology of speech and personality has much to offer the dramatic director, the stage producer, the teacher of expression and English, whether in college, high school, little theatre or speech clinic. An objective basis had been laid by the many studies of the emotions, since Darwin's Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals appeared. Sir Charles Bell was the first physician to publish the results of his observations on the Anatomy of Expression, in his book by that title, a contribution which gave the physiology of expression a scientific start.