This paper reviews several studies which analyze the intelligence, personality characteristics, and motivations of prospective and inservice teachers and compares them to persons working in other fields. It finds that the general stereotype of the teacher as being intellectually inferior to individuals in other fields is not supported by the available evidence. Rather than finding results generalizable to preservice and inservice teachers, the studies indicated that the psychological characteristics of men and women who enter and complete teacher training are quite different. Also, there are differences between elementary and secondary school teachers and between teachers and administrators with respect to personality characteristics, and there are personality differences among those who enter the various schools that provide teacher training. The prime motivations for entering teaching were found to be a desire for upward mobility and simply lack of interest in any other field. The author concludes with a statement of the need for studies correlating teacher characteristics with valid measures of teaching effectiveness. (The paper includes a 22-page bibliography.) (RT)