GORDON ALLPORT: TRAIT

THEORY
PSY201
26/10/2017
J.Maphisa Maphisa
GORDON ALLPORT
 None practicing
psychologists
 None psychoanalytic
training
 Proponent of an
idiographic method
 Eclectic perspective
drawing from Gestalt
psychology and
humanistic psychology
 DEFINING PERSONALITY
 Initially: “Personality is the dynamic
organisation within the individual of those
psychophysical systems that determine his
unique adjustment to his environment” (Allport,
1937, p.48)
 Revised: “Personality is the dynamic
organisation within the individual of those
psychophysical systems that determine his
characteristic behaviour and thought” (Allport,
1961, p.28)
DEFINING PERSONALITY
 Dynamic organisation
 Personality is constantly changing (yet consistent in
most respects). We are becoming not we are.
 “Nothing is, everything is becoming”- Heraclitus.

 Psychophysical systems
 Personality is an interaction of both body and mind.
Dualism.
 Determine
 Personality is an existing entity that actively engages
with the environment.
 Characteristic (nee unique)
 Uniqueness of our personalities.
DEFINING PERSONALITY
 Personality is different from
 Character- this an evaluation of personality

 Temperament- this is the emotional component

of personality.
 Type – this is a narrow characterisation of
individuals .
ADEQUATE THEORY OF PERSONALITY
 Views personality as contained within the
person.
 Views person as filed with variables that
contribute to his or her actions.
 Seeks motives for behaviour in present instead of
past
 Employs units of measure capable of living
synthesis.
 Adequately accounts for self-awareness.
CORE TENETS
Traits
Proprium
Functional Autonomy
CLASS ACTIVITY
 Write your own reference letter for a job.

 Describe yourself based on the knowledge you

have of yourself.
 TRAITS
 Basic unit of personality
 Individual traits (later labelled personal
disposition) and common traits (shared by
several individuals).
 Focus on personal disposition
 “generalised neuropsychic structure, with the
capacity to render many stimuli functionally
equivalent, and to initiate and guide consistent forms
of adaptive and stylistic behavior”(1961, p.373)
 A part of our being that enables to interact with
similar stimuli in a similar manner.
 Three types of personal disposition which impact on
personality.
PERSONAL DISPOSITION
 Cardinal Dispositions
 The all-consuming and driving aspect of our
personality.
 This disposition influences almost everything you do.
 Descriptions include: Christlike, Machiavellian,
Dionysian.
 Central Dispositions
 This is observed consistency in our behavior
 We have between 5-10
 Secondary Dispositions
 These are a specific range of behaviours like our
idiosyncrasies.
 PROPRIUM
 Ego, self.
 The organiser of personality. A synthesis of our
traits.
 It is our mode of self awareness

 This organising, self-aware aspect evolves over

time since birth.
PROPRIUM
PROPRIUM
 FUNCTIONAL AUTONOMY
 Allport’s concept to explain what drives our
behaviour- a theory of motivation
 To understand motivation, one needs to:
 Recognise the contemporary nature of motives
 Allow for several types of motives
 Recognise the importance of cognitive processes
 Recognise uniqueness in motives

 Definition: “any acquired system of motivation in

which the tensions involved are not the same
kind as the antecedent tensions from which the
acquired system developed” (1961, p.229)
 FUNCTIONAL AUTONOMY
 Two types:
 Perseverative functional autonomy: “repetitious
activities in which one blindly engages, and that once
served a purpose but no longer do so” (Hergenhahn &
Olson, 2007, p.200)
 Propriate functional autonomy: individual’s interests,
values, aspirations etc
 The proprium organises the distribution of energy to these
interests, values, aspirations.
 The proprium drives us for mastery and competence

 The proprium determines what is suitable to pursue

 Thus, there is harmony between our self and our motives.

HEALTHY INDIVIDUAL
 Characteristics:
 Capacity for self –extension
 Capacity for warm human interactions
 Demonstrates emotional security and self-acceptance
 Demonstrates realistic perceptions of self, others and
the world
 Demonstrates unity in self( as seen through a
unifying philosophy of life) [note the role of religion]

 Deprivation of childhood safety compromises the

development of a healthy being [recall Horney]
CLINICAL UTILITY
 Focus of theory is not to explain psychopathology,
but to explain normal development of
personality.
 Thus, no treatment offered.

 However, his work on the nature of prejudice

perhaps allowed for societal dialogue about race-
relationships.
 Furthermore, his humanistic stance laid the
foundation for humanistic psychology.
RESEARCH UTILITY
 Apart from the Religious Orientation Scale, much
of his work is criticised for lacking scientific rigor
(note the idiographic method he preferred).
 However, his conceptions of traits have influence
other researchers.