Report by Maica S. Pineda MA Clinical Psychology - AUF GS
Overview Emphasis on the uniqueness of the individual Objection to trait and factor theories that tend to
reduce individual behaviors to common traits. Morphogenic Science – the study of the individual. Morphogenic Methods – gather data on a single
individual. Nomothetic Methods – gather data on groups of people (Norms).
Overview Advocated Eclectic Approach. A broad, comprehensive theory is preferable to a
narrow, specific theory even if it does not generate as many testable hypotheses. Argued against particularism, or theories that emphasize a single aspect of personality: not to “forget what you decided to neglect.” No theory is completely comprehensive, and psychologists should always realize that much of human nature is not included in any single theory.
Biography Gordon Willard Allport Birthday: November 11, 1897 Birthplace: Montezuma, Indiana Religion: Protestantism Mother: Nellie Edith Wise Allport – former schoolteacher. Taught her children the virtues of clean language and proper conduct as well as the importance of searching for ultimate religious answers. Father: John Edwards Allport – businessman who became a physician.
Biography Home Atmosphere Home was turned into a miniature hospital where a clean, sterile atmosphere prevailed. Cleanliness of action was extended to cleanliness of thought.
Biography Childhood Developed an early interest in philosophy and religious questions. Had more facility for words than games. Described himself as a social “isolate” who fashioned his own circle of activities. Graduated second in his high school class of 100, but did not consider himself an inspired scholar.
Biographical Timeline 1915 – Entered Harvard University, following in the footsteps of his
brother Floyd who graduated 2 years earlier. “Almost overnight, my world was remade. My basic moral values, to be sure, had been fashioned at home. What was new was the horizon of intellect and culture I was now invited to explore.” Enrollment to Harvard marked his 50 year association with the university which was only twice briefly interrupted. 1919 – Received bachelor’s degree with major in Philosophy and Economics. 1919-1920 – Taught English and Sociology at Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey. Was offered a fellowship for graduate study at Harvard. Received an invitation from his brother Fayette, to stay with him in Vienna, where he had the chance to meet Sigmund Freud.
Meeting with Freud 22 year old Allport wrote to Freud that he was in Vienna,
and offered the father of psychoanalysis an opportunity to meet him. Not knowing what to talk about, the young visitor told Freud about seeing a small boy on the tram car earlier that day. The young child complained to his mother about the filthy conditions of the car and announced that he did not want to sit near passengers whom he deemed dirty. Allport claimed that he chose this particular incident to get Freud’s reaction to dirt phobia in a child so young, but he was quite flabbergasted when Freud “fixed his kindly therapeutic eyes upon me and said, ‘And was that boy you?’” Allport then talked about his dislike for cooked raisins.
Biographical Timeline Upon returning to the United States, he enrolled to the PhD
program at Harvard. After finishing PhD, spent the following 2 years in Europe studying under the Great German psychologists, Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, Heinz Werner, and others in Berlin and Hamburg. 1924 – Returned to Harvard to teach a psychology course in personality that combined: social ethics, pursuit of goodness and morality with the scientific discipline of psychology. It reflected his strong personal dispositions of cleanliness and morality. 1925 – Married Ada Lufkin Gould who received a master’s degree in clinical psychology from Harvard. They had one child named Robert, who became a pediatrician.
Biographical Timeline 1926 – Took position at Dartmouth College. 1930 – Returned to Harvard University where he remained
for the rest of his career. 1939 – Elected President of the American Psychological Association (APA). 1963 – Received the Gold Medal Award of the APA. 1964 – Awarded the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the APA. 1966 – Honored as the first Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard. October 9, 1967 – Died of lung cancer.
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?
What is Personality? After tracing the history of the term, he spelled out 49 definitions of
personality as used in theology, philosophy, law, sociology, and psychology. 50th definition was offered in 1937: the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment. Revised in 1961: the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behavior and thought. ‘Adjustments to his environment’ – could imply that people merely adapt to their environment. ‘ Characteristic behavior and thought’ – conveyed that behavior is expressive and adaptive, that people not only adjust to their environment, but also reflect on it and interact with it in such a way as to cause their environment to adjust to them.
People
Environment
Personality: Terms and their Operational Definitions Dynamic Organization – An integration or
interrelatedness of the various aspects of personality. Psychophysical – Importance of both the psychological and the physical aspects of personality. Determine – Personality is something and does something. Characteristic – Marked with a unique engraving, a stamp or marking that no one else can duplicate. Behavior and Thought – Refer to anything the person does. Meant to include internal behaviors (thoughts) as well as external behaviors.
Definition of Personality Allport’s definition of personality suggests that human beings are both product and process; people have some organized structure while, at the same time, they possess the capability of change. Pattern coexists with growth, order with diversification.
What is the Role of Conscious Motivation? Allport was inclined to accept self-reports at face value.
“…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.” Unconscious processes often originate in childhood and retain a childish flavor into adult years.
What are the Characteristics of a Healthy Person? Six Criteria for the Mature Personality: 1. Extension of the Sense of Self – Social interest (Gemeinschaftsgefühl), family, and spiritual life are important to them. 2. Warm relating of Self to Others – Treat other people with respect, and they realize that the needs, desires, and hopes of others are not completely foreign to their own. 3. Emotional Security or Self-Acceptance/Self-Poise – Are not overly upset when things do not go as planned or when they are simply “having a bad day”.
What are the Characteristics of a Healthy Person? 4. Realistic Perception of Environment – They are problem oriented rather than self-centered, and they are in touch with the world as most others see it. 5. Insight and Humor – Have no need to attribute their own mistakes and weaknesses to others, and they have a nonhostile sense of humor. Self-Objectification – Able to perceive the incongruities and absurdities in life and have no need to pretend or to put on airs.
6. Unifying Philosophy of Life – Has a well developed conscience and quite likely, a strong desire to serve others.
Structure of Personality The most important structures are those that permit the description of the person in terms of individual characteristics which are called, Personal Dispositions.
Personal Dispositions Common Traits – General characteristics held in
common by many people and provide the means by which people within a given culture can be compared to one another. Personal Dispositions – Permit researchers to study a single individual. Generalized neuropsychic structure with the capacity to render many stimuli functionally equivalent, and to initiate and guide consistent (equivalent) forms of adaptive and stylistic behavior.
Levels of Personal Dispositions Cardinal Disposition – Eminent characteristic or ruling
passion so outstanding that it dominates the life of a person; they are so obvious and nearly every action in a person’s life revolves around this one cardinal disposition. Central Dispositions – Include the 5 to 10 most outstanding characteristics around which a person’s life focuses. Secondary Dispositions – Are not central to the personality yet occur with some regularity and are responsible for much of one’s specific behaviors. *Interperson comparisons are inappropriate to personal dispositions, and any attempt to make such comparison transforms the personal dispositions into common traits. – Allport
Motivational and Stylistic Dispositions Motivational Disposition – Strongly felt dispositions
that receive their motivation from basic needs and drives. They initiate action. Stylistic Disposition – Personal dispositions less intensely experiences. They guide action.
Proprium Behavior and characteristics that people regard as
warm, central, and important in their lives. Includes aspects of life that a person regards as important to a sense of self-identity and selfenhancement. Includes values and part of the conscience that is personal and consistent with one’s adult beliefs.
Motivation Motivation theories must differentiate between: Peripheral Motivation – Reduce a need. Propriate Strivings – Seek to maintain tension and disequilibrium.
A Theory of Motivation People not only react to their environment, but also shape their
environment and cause it to react to them. Psychoanalysis and other learning theories are basically homeostatic, or reactive theories because they see people as being motivated primarily by needs to reduce tension and return to a state of equilibrium. Must allow for proactive behavior. It must view people as consciously acting on their environment in a manner that permits growth toward psychological health. A psychology that studies behavioral patterns and general laws (traditional psychology), and on the other – growth and individuality. Mature person is not motivated merely to seek pleasure and reduce pain, but to acquire new systems of motivation that are functionally independent from their original motives.
Functional Autonomy Represents a theory of changing rather than unchanging
motives and is the capstone of Allport’s theory of motivation. If a motive is functionally autonomous, it is the explanation for behavior, and one need not look beyond it for hidden or primary causes. Adult motives are built primarily on conscious, selfsustaining, contemporary systems. “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.” - Allport
Four Requirements of an Adequate Theory of Motivation 1. Will acknowledge the contemporaneity of motives. 2. It will be a pluralistic theory – allowing for motives of many types. 3. It will ascribe dynamic force to cognitive processes – e.g. to planning and intention. 4. Will allow for the concrete uniqueness of motives.
Perseverative Functional Autonomy Is found in animals as well as humans and is based on
simple neurological principles. Example is addiction to alcohol, tobacco or other drugs, when there is no physiological hunger for them.
Propriate Functional Autonomy The master system of motivation that confers on personality, which refers to those self-sustaining motives that are related to the proprium.
Criterion for Functional Autonomy A present motive is functionally autonomous to the extent that it seeks new goals, meaning that the behavior will continue even as the motivations for it changes.
Processes that Are Not Functionally Autonomous 1. Biological drives such as eating, breathing, and sleeping. 2. Motives directly linked to the reduction of basic drives. 3. Reflex actions such as an eye blink. 4. Constitutional equipment, namely physique, intelligence, and temperament. 5. Habits in the process of being formed. 6. Patterns of behavior that require primary reinforcement. 7. Sublimations that can be tied to childhood sexual desires. 8. Some neurotic or pathological symptoms.
The Study of the Individual 1. Morphogenic Science 2. The Diaries of Marion Taylor 3. Letters from Jenny
Related Research 1. Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Religious Orientation 2. How to Reduce Prejudice: Optimal Contact
Critique of Allport Based more on philosophical speculation and common sense
than on scientific investigations. He never intended his theory to be completely new or comprehensive, rather he was eclectic. Most people are best thought of as conscious, forwardlooking, and tension-seeking individuals. Allport defined personality and categorized other definitions of the term. His writings constitute a theory in the sense of stating a set of related assumptions that generate testable hypotheses. Offers explanations for a fairly narrow scope of personality, namely certain kinds of motivation. Has set a standard for clear thinking and precision that future theorists would do well to emulate.
Critique of Allport Receives a moderate rating on generating research. On the criterion of falsifiability, his theory must
receive a low rating. Only for a narrow range of adult motives does the theory offer a meaningful organization for behaviors. Has moderate usefulness as a guide for the practitioner. On the final criteria of a useful theory, Allport’s psychology of the individual is highly rated. His precise language renders the theory both internally consistent and parsimonious.
Concept of Humanity 1. Optimistic or Pessimistic? 2. Social or Biological? 3. Causal or Teleological? 4. Free Will or Determinism? 5. Conscious or Unconscious? 6. Differences or Similarities?
Reference Theories of Personality, 7th Edition By Jess Feist and Gregory J. Feist ISBN 978−0−39−043533−0
