GORDON ALLPORT

Group Members
Afifa Kashif (22)
Eman Kamran (25)
Aleena Waseem (29)
Jawairia Rehman (30)
Urooj Zulfiqar (31)
Laila Eman (33)
Zainab Bibi (39)

Class: BS Psy 3rd

`Course: Theories of Personality
Submitted to: Madam Rani

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 GORDON ALLPORT
BIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND
Born in 1897, in Indiana, Gordon Allport was the son of a country doctor who grew up being
surrounded by patients and nurses as his father’s clinic was at his family home. Being a shy and
studious boy as he was, he spent most of his childhood alone. He also met Freud while travelling
abroad.
When Freud inquired about the cause of his visit, he couldn’t just say that he was curious. He
told a story about a young boy he had seen on the train during his travels to Vienna. The boy,
Allport explained, was afraid of getting dirty and refused to sit where a dirty-looking man had
previously sat. Allport theorized that the child had acquired the behavior from his mother, who
appeared to be very domineering. Freud studied Allport for a moment and then asked, "And was
that little boy you?"
Allport viewed the experience as an attempt by Freud to turn a simple observation into an
analysis of Allport's supposed unconscious memory of his own childhood. The experience would
later serve as a reminder that psychoanalysis tended to dig too deeply. Behaviorism, on the other
hand, Allport believed, did not dig deeply enough. Allport chose to reject both psychoanalysis
and behaviorism and embraced his own unique approach to personality. He combined the
empirical influence of behaviorists with the acknowledgment that unconscious influences could
also play a role in human behavior and adopted the term Humanistic Psychology to his
perspective of psychology.
THE NATURE OF PERSONALITY
According to Allport, personality is dynamic organization within the individual of those
psychophysical systems that determine characteristic behavior and thought. Personality is:
 Dynamic: Changing
 Organized: Structured
 Psychophysical: Involving mind and body
 Determined: Structured by the past, predisposing of the future
 Characteristic: Unique for every individual
This definition has made it clear that personality is not mere fiction but rather a real entity. He
suggests that one’s personality is somehow there. According to him, the concept of personality is
a hypothetical construct, which is currently unobservable because it cannot be measured
empirically. However, Allport suggests that it may someday be directly shown within a person,
involving neural and physiological components.
CLOSED AND OPEN SYSTEMS:

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A closed system is a concept of personality that admits little or nothing new from outside of the
organism to influence or change it in any significant way. Personality is seen as complete within
itself.
An open system is the one that conceives of personality as having a dynamic potential for
growth, reconstitution and change through extensive transactions within itself and with its
environment.
Allport wishes for an open system. According to him Freud's theory of psychoanalysis is closed
because it doesn’t fully envision personality as a dynamic growth system that has significant
interaction with its environment. Psychoanalysis lays emphasis on homeostasis by ego among
the id, superego and outside world. This means it stresses stability and permanence rather than
growth and change in the concept of personality.
Allport describes an open theory as the one which allows for a dynamic growth process within
the organism and extensive interactions with the environment. As the organism develops, it
increases in complexity and becomes something more than it was.
CONTINUITY THEORY AND DISCONTINUITY THEORY:
Continuity theory is the one that suggests that the development of personality is the
accumulation of skills, habits and discriminations without anything new appearing in the
person’s make-up.
Discontinuity theory suggests that during development, an organism experiences genuine
transformations or changes so that it reaches successively higher levels of organization. Here,
growth is conceived discontinuously. For example, growth from:
 Crawling to walking
 Babbling to talking
TRAITS
According to Allport, traits are a determining tendency or predisposition to respond.
COMMON TRAITS AND PERSONAL DISPOSITIONS: Allport distinguished between
common traits and personal dispositions.
Common traits are hypothetical constructs that allow us to compare individuals within a given
culture. Normal people in any culture tend to develop along similar modes or lines of adjustment.
In a competitive society, individuals develop a level of assertiveness that can be compared with
the level of assertiveness in others.
Personal disposition is a general determining characteristic, unique to the individual who has it.
He organized the characteristics into three main categories:
 Cardinal Dispositions: Cardinal dispositions are pervasive and almost all of the
individual’s actions are influenced by them. They tend to define a person to such an
extent that their names become synonymous with their personality. Example:
o Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalytical
o Quaid e Azam: Leadership
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 o Adolf Hitler: Ruthlessness
 Central Dispositions: These widespread characteristics form basic personality
foundations. While central dispositions are not as dominant as cardinal dispositions, they
describe the major characteristics you might use to describe another person. Example:
o Honest
o Shy
o Anxious
 Secondary Dispositions: Secondary dispositions are sometimes related to attitudes or
preferences. They often appear only in certain situations or under specific circumstances.
Example:
o Public speaking anxiety
o Impatience while waiting in line.
o Becoming short-tempered when under too much pressure

THE PROPRIUM
Allport's proprium refers to the central experiences of self-awareness that a person has as he/she
grows and moves forward. The proprium is defined in terms of its functions or the things it does.
These are propriate functions. They are not innate, but rather develop gradually over time as an
individual grows from infancy to adulthood.
PROPRIATE FUNCTIONS: Propriate functions develop in the following order:
 Bodily self: it is the first propriate function to appear. It consists of sensations in the body
and entails coming to know one’s body limits. Certain parts of the body are emphasized
as more important when growing up.
o Example: When children are instructed to wash their hands, focus is placed on
washing the palms and the back of hands is overlooked.
 Self-identity: The sense of self-identity is the second propriate function. It refers to the
awareness of inner sameness and continuity. Infants are not aware of themselves and
cannot separate themselves and the external world. They develop the external world first
and later; they develop the sense of ‘I’.
 Self-esteem: This propriate function develops between the ages of two and three. It is the
feeling of pride as the child develops his/her ability to do things. This stage is comparable
to Erikson's developmental stage of autonomy. Two years old children are eager to do
things themselves and the emerging sense of self-esteem is marked by negativism.
 Self-extension: Between the ages of four and six, self-extension and self-image develop.
Self-extension is the sense of possession. Children recognize certain toys and people
belonging to them. For example, they might refer to their parents as “my mommy”, “my
daddy” or a certain toy as “my doll”. It leads to valuing others because of their
relationship to oneself.
 Self-image: It is the sense of the expectations of others and its comparison to one’s own
behavior. Children come to understand parental expectations and see themselves as

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 fulfilling or not fulfilling those desired roles. It lays the foundation for conscience,
intentions and goals.
 Self as rational coper: Between the ages of six and twelve, children discover that they
can use their own rational capacities to solve their problems. This is the propriate
function of self as rational coper. They begin to perceive themselves as active, problem-
solving agents, who can develop a sense of competence in what they do.
 Propriate striving: This propriate function develops during adolescence. It is the
projection of long-term purposes and goals and the development of a plan to reach them.
Such efforts are necessary for the development of self-identity which Erikson pinpointed
as the primary feature of adolescence.
FUNCTIONAL AUTONOMY
The concept of functional autonomy is closely related to Allport’s concept of proprium. It
implies that adult motivation is not necessarily tied to the past. Behavior may become a goal.
Thus, adult motives are not necessarily related to earlier experiences in which the motives
appeared.
Example: Considering that Michael’s father was a soccer fan. During his spare time, he played
soccer with his son. Originally, Michael also played with his dad to get his attention, love and
acceptance. During his school years, Michael played with other children in his neighborhood. He
discovered that he was competent enough in this game, so he took part in the intramural sports
competition in college. Later, he was recruited to play with a major league team. Now, saying
that he plays soccer to please his father does not make any sense even though that was his
original intent. It seems more reasonable to suggest that he plays soccer because he enjoys it or
that he likes the financial rewards of playing it. His motive is functionally autonomous.
Allport has given two levels of functional autonomy:
 Perseverative functional autonomy
 Propriate functional autonomy
Perseverative functional autonomy: It refers to acts or behaviors that are repeated even though
they may have lost their original function. They are not controlled by the proprium and have no
genuine connection with it. Perseverative functional autonomy refers to repetitive activities like
compulsions, addiction to drugs or alcohol and ritualistic or routine behaviors.
Example: In her age of rebellion against her parents, a teenage girl may begin smoking
cigarettes, which she knows will annoy them. As an adult, she might continue smoking even
after her rebellious age.
Propriate functional autonomy: It refers to those acquired interests, values, attitudes, intentions
and lifestyle that are directed from the proprium and are genuinely free of earlier motivations.
Abilities often convert into interests. An individual selects those values that are important and
organizes those in a manner that is consistent with his/her lifestyle.
Example: An individual did not have any interest in playing the piano during his childhood but
was forced to play it by his parents. When he becomes an adult, playing the piano becomes his
self-image (I’m the handsome that knows how to play the piano). The original motive i.e., fear of

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parents’ disapproval, has disappeared and continued behavior became necessary to the self-
image of a talented handsome guy.
Allport acknowledged that not all behaviors might be functionally autonomous like drives,
reflexes, habits, primary reinforcements, constitutionally determined abilities such as physique
and intellect, infantilism and fixations, some neuroses and sublimations.
Allport's rationale for developing the concept of propriate functional autonomy is to highlight
that we live in the present not the past. He does not say that there is no continuity between past
and present but that an individual is not bound to the past and is free to live in the present and the
future unencumbered by the past.
NATURE OF PREJUDICE
Emotion, experiences, social influences, and historical legacies all play an important part in
forming perceptions about people around us- whether right or wrong. Gordon Allport published
the “Nature of Prejudice” in 1954. It explored the root causes of the stubborn problem i.e.,
prejudice. Allport considered all factors related to prejudice but concluded that stereotypical
categorization has been present historically throughout all cultures.
He put forward a theory the “least effort principle” to explain this. He suggested that all human
brains use stereotyping as a normal cognitive function to process information, a kind of mental
shortcut to better understand the world. For example, consider a job position, and the selection
process that decides who will fill that role. They’ll rely on résumés, references, test scores and
interviews. Giving every candidate a trial period in the position will use up valuable money,
business resources and time. It also might not guarantee that the best candidate is chosen. Here,
the manager will utilize Allport’s least effort principle. Assumptions will be made about each
candidate using the limited information that the manager is presented with, like how the
candidate was dressed, how punctual they were or how well their résumé was written. If the
candidate was scruffy and unkempt, the manager might assume that they were disorganized or
haphazard. If they were late for the interview, a manager might assume that they have bad time
keeping skills. All these assumptions are stereotyped perceptions based on preconceived ideas
rather than on fact. It could be that the scruffy candidate was in fact highly organized, or the late
applicant was held up through no fault of their own (e.g., stuck in a traffic jam). But in the case
of job applications stereotypes enable the manager to decide without using up valuable business
resources. Although stereotyping is used by the brain to reach conclusions, it is often not a
reasonable or correct way to form an opinion.
Allport therefore theorized that stereotypes were the foundations of prejudice- which was in turn
the primary cause of discrimination. This was an idea of profound implications for law and
society. Gordon Allport’s text is seen as a classic- it supplies relevant insight into the prejudices
that still permeate modern society today.
CRITICISM

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Criticisms of trait theory focus on the fact that traits are often poor predictors of behavior. For
example, even if a person scores highly on evaluations of a specific trait, they may not always
behave in that manner in every situation.
Another criticism leveled at trait theories is that they do not explain how or why individuals
differ in their personalities.
Since this theory is based on statistics rather than theory, this theory does not explain personality
development. Most theories argue for development (past), current personality (present), and a
means of change (future); the trait approach is only concerned with the present.
CONCLUSION
Personality traits are important ways to distinguish people. Many theorists have proposed
theories to explain the concept of personality; each theory has its strengths and weaknesses.
Personality trait theory has been particularly useful in identifying several traits and their
influence on human behavior. However, there are several flaws in the theory. Firstly, it does not
explain the development of these traits or dispositions. Secondly, it does not give clarity on the
changeability of these traits.
Additionally, how many traits or clusters of traits exist that distinguish one individual from
others is unclear and difficult to figure out. Many critics state that traits are mere features of
personality and not factors that differentiate one human from another. Having said this, Gordon
Allport has provided us with a very objective view of studying personality, and his approach was
quite different compared to other theorists present at that time.