History
Precursors
Although the official history of the EAPP started in 1984, it was preceded by the organization of the European Conference on Personality, held in Tilburg (NL), May 17-19, 1982. The picture above was taken during that conference.
The idea for this conference came from Han Bonarius (University of Utrecht, NL), who participated in the organizing committee for the conference together with Guus Van Heck (University of Tilburg, NL; chair of the conference) and Nico Smid (University of Groningen, NL). The conference was hosted by Guus van Heck and Joop Hettema of Tilburg University.
This Tilburg conference was soon adopted as the first European Conference on Personality. During that conference it was agreed that a European Association of Personality Psychology (EAPP) should be founded during the second European Conference on Personality.
Foundation
Subsequently, the EAPP was founded in Bielefeld on May 19, 1984 during a plenary session, where the first Executive Committee was elected, and where all the attendants could register as founding members. The EAPP was notarially established in Groningen (NL), on September 6, 1984. Below is the first logo of the association used on letterheads.
Early initiatives
In the years surrounding the foundation of EAPP, numerous activities were undertaken by EAPP members and other EAPP-affiliated researchers. Some activities (e.g., EAPP workshops) were officially adopted and facilitated by EAPP. These activities are the precursors of the present-day focus meetings. In the following, some important initiatives are listed.
| Topic | Type | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personality structure and development across the life-span | EAPP Workshop | 2000, October 29 to November 1 | Ghent, Belgium |
| Biological and social approaches to individuality | EAPP Workshop | 1992, August 17-20 | Oisterwijk, The Netherlands |
| Crosscultural research on temperament | EAPP Workshop | 1991, September 7-12 | Nieborów, Poland |
| The Development of the Structure of Temperament and Personality from Infancy to Adulthood | Interdisciplinary Workshop | 1991, June 17-20 | Wassenaar, The Netherlands |
| Personality Language | Invited Workshop | 1989, June 26-30 | Groningen, The Netherlands |
| The Diagnosis of Temperament | Interdisciplinary Workshop | 1987, September 7-12 | University of Bielefeld, Germany |
| Personality Questionnaires | Symposium | 1982, June | University of Bielefeld, Germany |
EAPP archives
There are various source of archival material that document the history of EAPP:
- Our Flickr page contains photographs of past meetings (these are also linked on the various meeting pages on this site).
- All EAPP newsletters (except for #6, which is missing) are uploaded here.
- Paper documents collected between 1984 and 2010 have been scanned and uploaded to the digital EAPP archive (access is managed by the secretary)