Henry Odbert

Henry Odbert, in 1936 and in association with Gordon Allport, expanded the work of prior researchers to identify all of the unique terms in the English language that deal with personality and behavior. In examining the approximate 400,000 words listed in the Webster's New International Dictionary they identified 17,953 words that describe personality traits, behaviors, and mental processes. This research was in support of the lexical hypothesis that connects personality-descriptive terms that was first put forward by researcher Galton some 50 years earlier. The identification of specific terms for description of personality makes it possible to describe symptoms of personality disorders and other psychiatric problems.