Chapter 12: Gordon Allport

Overview of Allport's Psychology of the Individual

The theory of personality was developed by Gordon Allport, whose primary focus was on the
individuality of each individual, as a response to what he perceived as the lack of humanity in
both psychoanalytic and animal-centered learning theories. Nevertheless, Allport was an
eclectic thinker and incorporated many of the theories of other theorists into his own.

Biography of Gordon Allport

Gordon W. Allen was born in 1897 in Indiana. He obtained his undergraduate degree in
Philosophy and Economics from Harvard, during which time he also spent a year teaching in
Europe. During his time in Europe, Allen had the fortunate opportunity to meet with the
renowned German psychologist Freud in Vienna. During this encounter, Allen recounted the
story of how he had been a young boy with a severe dirt phobia, who had complained to his
mother about the unclean conditions of the car. Freud had listened intently and had asked him if
he was speaking about himself. Allen had felt guilty and had changed the subject, thus avoiding
further embarrassment. This incident was instrumental in his decision to pursue a doctorate in
psychology from Harvard. Allport then spent two years at Dartmouth University, where he
studied under some of Germany's leading psychologists, but returned to Harvard to teach for
two years before taking up the position at Dartmouth four years later. Allport returned to Harvard
four years later, and remained there until his passing in 1967.

Allport's Approach to Personality

Allport argued that psychologically healthy individuals are driven by current, largely conscious
motivations and that they are not only seeking to alleviate existing tensions, but also to create
new ones. Furthermore, Allport argued that individuals are able to engage in proactive behavior,
meaning that they are able to consciously act in new and innovative ways that promote their
own transformation and development. He referred to his study of individual morphogenic
psychology as "individual morphogenic science" and compared it to conventional nomothetic
techniques.

Personality Defined
Allport defined personality as "the dynamic organization within the individual of those
psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behavior and thought."
Structure of Personality
Personal dispositions and the proprium are the fundamental components of personality,
according to Allport. (A) Personal Dispositions: Allport makes a distinction between personal
dispositions, which are unique to each individual, and common features, which allow for
inter-individual comparisons. He identified three levels of overlapping personal inclinations, the
most general being cardinal dispositions, which are unmistakable to others and so strong and
evident that they cannot be concealed. While not everyone possesses a cardinal disposition,
everyone possesses five to ten central dispositions, or traits that center their existence.
Everybody also possesses a large number of secondary dispositions, which are less
dependable and obvious than primary features. Allport went on to categorize personal
dispositions into two categories: (1) stylistic dispositions, which pertain to an individual's
behavior and direct action instead of initiating it, and (2) motivational dispositions, which are
strong enough to initiate action. (B) Proprium - All of the actions and traits that people view as
important and warm in their lives are referred to as the proprium. Allport favored the term
proprium over self or ego because the former may allude to an internal item or thing that
governs conduct, while the latter term may refer to the central idea of a person's identity.

Motivation
Allport insisted that an adequate theory of motivation must consider the notion that motives
change as people mature and also that people are motivated by present drives and wants. (A)
Reactive and Proactive Theories of Motivation - To Allport, people not only react to their
environment, but they also shape their environment and cause it to react to them. His proactive
approach emphasized the idea that people often seek additional tension and that they
purposefully act on their environment in a way that fosters growth toward psychological health.
(B) Functional Autonomy - Allport's most distinctive and controversial concept is his theory of
functional autonomy, which holds that some (but not all) human motives are functionally
independent from the original motive responsible for a particular behavior. Allport recognized
two levels of functional autonomy: (1) perseverative functional autonomy, which is the tendency
of certain basic behaviors (such as addictive behaviors) to continue in the absence of
reinforcement, and (2) propriate functional autonomy, which refers to self-sustaining motives
(such as interests) that are related to the proprium. (C) Conscious and Unconscious Motivation -
Although Allport emphasized conscious motivation more than any other personality theorist, he
did not completely overlook the possible influence of unconscious motives on pathological
behaviors. Most people, however, are aware of what they are doing and why they are doing it.

The Psychologically Healthy Personality

Allport argued that people are driven both by the need to adapt to their surroundings and to
develop toward psychological well-being; that is, they are both reactive and proactive. However,
psychologically healthy individuals are more likely to take proactive action. Allport outlined six
criteria for psychological well-being as follows: (a) an enhanced sense of self; (b) positive
interpersonal relationships; (c) emotional well-being or self-assurance; (d) a realistic outlook on
the world; (e.g., insight and humor); and (e.g. a unified philosophy of life.)

The Study of the Individual

Allport strongly believed that psychology should develop and apply research methods that study
individuals rather than groups. (A) Morphogenic science - While traditional psychology relied on
ideographic or morphogenic science, which seeks general laws from the study of groups of
people, Allport Formative methods were used. Unlike many psychologists, Allport chose to
accept self-reports at face value. (B) Marion Taylor's Diary - In the late 1930s, Allport and his
wife learned of the diary of a woman called Marion Taylor. These diaries, along with Marion
Taylor's writings by her mother, sister, favorite teachers, friends, and neighbors, provided the
Allports with a wealth of material that could be studied using morphogenetic techniques.
However, Allport never released this material. (C) Letter from Jenny - Allport did not publish
data from Marion Taylor's dairy farm, but did publish a second case study, that of Jenny Gove
Masterson. Jenny had written a series of 301 letters to Gordon and Ada Allport. Ada Allport's
son was a roommate of Jenny's son. Two of Gordon Allport's students, Alfred Baldwin and
Jeffrey Page, used personal structure analysis and factor analysis, respectively, to identify
Jenny's personality structure revealed in the letters. I used a common sense approach. All
three approaches yielded similar results, suggesting that the morphogenetic studies are reliable.

Related Research
Allport believed that deep religious commitment was a sign of maturity, but many regular
churchgoers lack a mature religious orientation and have deep-seated racial and social
prejudices. I was also aware that there was a possibility that I would have it. In other words, he
saw a curvilinear relationship between church attendance and prejudice. (A) Religious
Orientation Scale - This discovery led Allport to develop and use the Religious Orientation Scale
to assess both intrinsic and extrinsic orientation toward religion. Allport and Ross found that
people with an extrinsic orientation toward religion tend to be highly prejudiced, whereas people
with an intrinsic orientation tend to be less racially and socially prejudiced. discovered. (B)
Religious Orientation and Mental Health - Research shows that people who score higher on
intrinsic measures of ROS have better overall personal functioning than those who score higher
on extrinsic measures. It is known that there is a tendency to In general, these studies have
found that while some deeply religious people have good mental health, others suffer from a
variety of mental illnesses. The main difference between the two groups is their intrinsic or
extrinsic religious orientation. In other words, people with an intrinsic orientation tend to have
good mental health, while people with an extrinsic orientation tend to have poor mental health.

Critique of Allport
Although Allport has written a lot about personality, his ideas are based on philosophical
theories and common sense, rather than scientific research. Because of this, his theory is pretty
limited, mainly focusing on a model of human behavior. This means it doesn't do very well when
it comes to organizing psychological data and falsifying it. On the other hand, it does a great job
when it comes to being parsimonious and internal consistency, and it's about average when it
comes to generating research and helping practitioners.

Concept of Humanity
Allport's conception of humanity was based on the idea that humans are rational, self-motivated,
and generally cognizant of their actions and motivations. Out of the six dimensions of human
experience, Allport ranks highest among all theorists in terms of conscious influences and
individual uniqueness. He also ranks highly on free will, optimism, teleological thought, and
social influences, with an average rating of about average.