Allport

• Gordon Allport emphasized the uniqueness of the individual.
• attempts to describe people in terms of general traits rob them of their unique individuality
• He called the study of the individual morphogenic science and contrasted it with the nomothetic methods used by most other psychologists
• Morphogenic methods are those that gather data on a single individual
• nomothetic methods gather data on groups of people
• Allport also advocated an eclectic approach to theory building
• In an important warning to other theorists, he cautioned them not to “forget what you have decided to neglect”
• Allport (1967) wrote that his early life “was marked by plain Protestant piety”
• In 1925, Allport married Ada Lufkin Gould, whom he had met when both were graduate students
• Ada Allport was a valuable contributor to some of Gordon’s work, especially his two extensive case studies— the case of Jenny Gove Masterson (discussed in the section titled The Study of the Individual) and the case of Marion Taylor, which was never published (Barenbaum, 1997).
• in 1964, he was awarded the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the APA
• Allport’s approach to personality theory

  (1) What is personality?

  (2) What is the role of conscious motivation in personality theory?

  (3) What are the characteristics of the psychologically healthy person?
• He traced the etymology of the word persona back to early Greek roots, including the Old Latin and Etrus can meanings
• Allport spelled out 49 definitions of personality as used in theology, philosophy, law, sociology, and psychology. He then offered a 50th definition, which in 1937 was “the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that deter mine his unique adjustments to his environment” (Allport, 1937, p. 48). In 1961, he had changed the last phrase to read “that determine his characteristic behavior and thought”
• he realized that the phrase “adjustments to his environment” could imply that people merely adapt to their environment. In his later definition, All port conveyed the idea that behavior is expressive as well as adaptive
• dynamic organization implies an integration or interrelatedness of the various aspects of personality. Personality is organized and patterned. However, the organization is always subject to change: hence, the qualifier
• What Is Personality?

  psychophysical emphasizes the importance of both the psychological and the physical aspects of personality. personality is not merely the mask we wear, nor is it simply behavior. It refers to the individual behind the facade, the person behind the action.
• What Is Personality?

  By characteristic, Allport wished to imply “individual” or “unique.” The word “character” originally meant a marking or engraving, terms that give flavor to what Allport meant by “characteristic.” All persons stamp their unique mark or engraving on their personality, and their characteristic behavior and thought set them apart from all other people.
• What Is Personality?

  The words behavior and thought simply refer to anything the person does. They are omnibus terms meant to include internal behaviors (thoughts) as well as external behaviors such as words and actions.
• What Is Personality?

  In summary, personality is both physical and psychological; it includes both overt behaviors and covert thoughts; it not only is something, but it does something. Personality is both substance and change, both product and process, both structure and growth
• More than any other personality theorist, Allport emphasized the importance of conscious motivation.


  involves individuals being aware of their actions and reasons. He emphasized giving weight to overt motives before exploring unconscious ones.
• What Is the Role of Conscious Motivation?

  Whereas Freud would assume an underlying unconscious meaning to the story of the little boy on the tram, Allport was inclined to accept self-reports at face value. “This experience taught me that depth psychology, for all its merits, may plunge too deep, and that psychologists would do well to give full recognition to manifest motives before probing the unconscious”
• What Is the Role of Conscious Motivation?

  He recognized the fact that some motivation is driven by hid den impulses and sublimated drives. He believed, for example, that most compulsive behaviors are automatic repetitions, usually self-defeating, and motivated by uncon scious tendencies. They often originate in childhood and retain a childish flavor into adult years
• What Are the Characteristics of a Healthy Person?

  psychologically mature people are characterized by proactive behavior; that is, they not only react to external stimuli but they are capable of consciously acting on their environment in new and innovative ways and caus ing their environment to react to them.
• What Are the Characteristics of a Healthy Person?

  In addition, mature personalities are more likely than disturbed ones to be moti vated by conscious processes, which allow them to be more flexible and autonomous than unhealthy people, who remain dominated by unconscious motives that spring from childhood experiences.
• What Are the Characteristics of a Healthy Person?

  Healthy people ordinarily have experienced a relatively trauma-free childhood,
• What Are the Characteristics of a Healthy Person?

  What, then, are the more specific requirements for psychological health? All port (1961) identified six criteria for the mature personality
• six criteria for the mature personality.

  first is an extension of the sense of self. Mature people continually seek to identify with and participate in events outside themselves. They are not self-centered but are able to become involved in problems and activities that are not centered on themselves. Social interest (Gemeinschaftsgefühl), family, and spiritual life are important to them. “Everyone has self-love, but only self-extension is the earmark of maturity”
• six criteria for the mature personality.

  Second, mature personalities are characterized by a “warm relating of self to others” (Allport, 1961, p. 285). They have the capacity to love others in an intimate and compassionate manner. Warm relating, of course, is dependent on people’s ability to extend their sense of self. Only by looking beyond themselves can mature people love others nonpossessively and unselfishly.
• six criteria for the mature personality

  A third criterion is emotional security or

  self-acceptance. Mature individuals accept themselves for what they are, and they possess what Allport (1961) called emotional poise. These psychologically healthy people are not overly upset when things do not go as planned or when they are simply “having a bad day.”
• six criteria for the mature personality.

  Fourth, psychologically healthy people also possess a realistic perception of their environment. They do not live in a fantasy world or bend reality to fit their own wishes. They are problem oriented rather than self-centered, and they are in touch with the world as most others see it.
• six criteria for the mature personality

  A fifth criterion is insight and humor. Mature people know themselves and, therefore, have no need to attribute their own mistakes and weaknesses to others. They also have a nonhostile sense of humor, which gives them the capacity to laugh at themselves rather than relying on sexual or aggressive themes to elicit laughter from others. Allport (1961) believed that insight and humor are closely related and may be aspects of the same thing, namely self-objectification.
• six criteria for the mature personality

  The final criterion of maturity is a unifying philosophy of life. Healthy people have a clear view of the purpose of life. Without this view, their insight would be empty and barren, and their humor would be trivial and cynical. The unifying phi losophy of life may or may not be religious, but Allport (1954, 1963), on a personal level, seemed to have felt that a mature religious orientation is a crucial ingredient in the lives of most mature individuals.
• Structure of Personality

  the most important structures are those that permit the description of the person in terms of individual characteristics, and he called these individual characteristics personal dispositions.
• Structure of Personality

  Common traits are general characteristics held in common by many people. They can be inferred from factor analytic studies such as those con ducted by Eysenck and the authors of the Five-Factor Trait Theory (see Chapter 13), or they can be revealed by various personality inventories.
• Structure of Personality

  personal dispositions are of even greater importance because they per mit researchers to study a single individual.
• Structure of Personality

  Allport (1961) defined a personal disposition as “a generalized neuropsychic structure (peculiar to the individual), with the capacity to render many stimuli functionally equivalent, and to initiate and guide consistent (equivalent) forms of adaptive and stylistic behavior”
• Structure of Personality

  traits, describe relatively stable characteristics such as “sociable” or “introverted
• Structure of Personality

  states, describe temporary characteristics such as “happy” or “angry”; others described evaluative characteristics such as “unpleasant” or “won derful”
• Levels of Personal Dispositions


  Allport placed personal dispositions on a continuum from those that are most central to those that are of only peripheral importance to a person.