Morphogenic Science

• • Scientific Approach identified by Allport
  • Seeks general laws

  Nomothetic
• • Approach to the study of personality based on the single case.
  • Both “idiographic” and “morphogenic” pertain to the individual, but “idiographic” does not suggest structure or pattern.

  Idiographic
• • refers to patterned properties of the whole organism and allows for intraperson comparisons.

  Morphogenic
• • verbatim recordings, interviews, dreams, confessions; diaries, letters; some questionnaires, expressive documents, projective documents, literary works, art forms, automatic writings, doodles, handshakes, voice patterns, body gestures, handwriting, gait, and autobiographies

  Wholly morphogenic first person methods
• • include self-rating scales, such as the adjective checklist; standardized tests in which people are compared to themselves rather than a norm group; the Allport–Vernon–Lindzey Study of Values (1960); and the Q sort technique of Stephenson (1953)

  Semimorphogenic approaches