characteriology

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noun

The study of character or personality.

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Meanings

noun
  1. Synonym of characterology.
    1. The study of character or personality.

      We must thank the work of the Dutch, German, and English psychologists for the fact that characteriology is not based on vague literary considerations, but solid scientific foundation.

      1967, Ignace Lepp, The Depths of the Soul: A Christian Approach to Psychoanalysis, page 97
      2 more examples

      Both in the realm of geometry and in that of characteriology, the formation of wholes proceeds according to definite laws, and it follows, therefore, that wholes are easily grasped by us.

      1936, Johannes Lindworsky, The Psychology of Asceticism, page 11

      While not conceding an absolute validity to characteriology, Mounier did believe that men conform to basic patterns in terms of their proclivity towards or away from emotions and action, reflection and force; and a description of these patterns does consistitue a general global description of a given man's character.

      1975, Joseph Anthony Amato, Mounier and Maritain, page 166
    2. The study of the relationship between physical and psychological traits.

      By temperament, he was what the old characteriology would call a "choleric."

      1964, The Polish Review - Volume 9, page 72
      4 more examples

      This characteriology, coming out of the typology of Lecène and broadened by the morphopsychological studies of Louis Corman, allows him to deepen the study of psychological types and creation myths in literary works.

      1976, Joseph Strelka, Literary Criticism and Psychology, page 238

      In further developing the characteriology of Slovenes and speaking of anancastic lines with a depressive note , Milčinski stated after looking at it and following it up historically, that in Slovenia the suicide rate increased with economic growth and prosperity.

      1986, Crisis: International Journal of Suicide- and Crisis-studies, page 45

      The Austrian physician Franz Josef Gall (1758-1828) is generally considered the father of characteriology for his work showing that different regions of the brain can be associated with various psychological phenomena such as sentiments, propensities, and moral and mental faculties.

      2007, F. Clark Power, Ronald J. Nuzzi, Darcia Narvaez, Moral Education, page 70

      Known still less than Della Porta is the figure of Camillo Baldi, an early-seventeenth-century Bolognese physician and university professor who advanced the discussion from the study of physiognomy and skull sizes to the study of characteriology based on writing. I am still not sure what to make of this treatise on onychomancy, that is, divining by observing the fingernails, except that he accounted for the practice as an example of the acute application of observational technique to the signs and symbols left by intelligent nature for humans to decipher in view of some benefit.

      2016, Brendan Dooley, Angelica's Book and the World of Reading in Late Renaissance Italy
  2. The description of someone or something in terms of character traits.

    Let it be clear, however, that we are not psychologizing here; rather we are presenting at most a characteriology of thought.

    2023, Jean-Luc Nancy, Derrida
    2 more examples

    This 'cultivated characteriology' (ibid., p. 117) is one that she suggests has been reduced to the cult of the theorist's personality in many of the hagiographies written about Foucault, missing how he cultivated his ethos or characteriology in order to persuade, seduce, unsettle, question, and so forth. She suggests that the enactment of characteriology as a form of argumentation is usually psychologized and quickly reduces to mood or personality traits, 'haunting the debate through strange displaced appearances, as when a pragmatist is called smug' (ibid., p. 128).

    2016, Britta Timm Knudsen, Carsten Stage, Affective Methodologies, page 29

    Thus a characteriology of walls must be supplemented with an analysis of territories. So, for instance, the evilness of walls (they are ignorant, arrogant, unjust) and the vanity of walls (they are never as effective as dreamt by their builders) should be reconstructed on the basis of the multiple territorialisations of the actors that come to be associated with each single wall, as well as affected by it (on its two or more sides).

    2018, Andrea Mubi Brighenti, Mattias Kärrholm, Urban Walls
Cite this entry
APA

characteriology. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/characteriology

MLA

“characteriology.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/characteriology. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “characteriology,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/characteriology.

Source: characteriology on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.