© McGraw-Hill

Theories of Personality

Allport

Chapter 13© 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

© McGraw-Hill

Outline

• Overview of the Psychology of the Individual

• Biography of Gordon Allport

• Allport’s Approach to Personality Theory

• Structure of Personality

• MotivationCont’d

© McGraw-Hill

Outline

• The Study of the Individual

• Related Research

• Critique of Allport

• Concept of Humanity

© McGraw-Hill

Overview of the Psychology of the Individual

• Emphasized Uniqueness of the Individual

• Traits Do Not Capture Individuality

• Studied the Individual (Morphogenic Science) in contrast to Nomothetic Methods

• Broad, Comprehensive Theory Preferable to Narrow Theory

© McGraw-Hill

Biography of Allport• Born in Montezuma, Indiana in 1897• Youngest son of a country doctor and a former

schoolteacher• Earned undergraduate degrees in philosophy and

economics from Harvard in 1919• After fortuitous meeting with Freud, decided to

complete a PhD in psychology at Harvard in 1922• President of American Psychological Association

in 1939• Died in 1967 of lung cancer

© McGraw-Hill

Allport’s Approach to Personality Theory

• Sought to Answer Three Questions:– What Is Personality?

• Personality is both physical and psychological

• Includes both overt and covert thoughts

• Not only is but does

• Substance and change

• Product and process

• Structure and Growth

© McGraw-Hill

Allport’s Approach to Personality Theory

• What Is the Role of Conscious Motivation?– Healthy adults aware of what and why they are

acting– Accepted self-report at face value– Some motivation is driven by hidden impulses– Most compulsive behaviors originate in

childhood

© McGraw-Hill

Allport’s Approach to Personality Theory

• What Are the Characteristics of a Healthy Person?– Six criteria for maturity:

• Extension of the sense of self• Warm relating of self to others• Emotional security or self-acceptance• Realistic perception of their environment• Insight and humor• Unifying philosophy of life

© McGraw-Hill

Structure of Personality

• Refers to Basic Units– Personal Dispositions

• Levels of Personal Dispositions– Cardinal dispositions

– Central dispositions

– Secondary dispositions

– Motivational and Stylistic Dispositions– Proprium

• Behaviors that are regarded as warm, central, and important to their lives

© McGraw-Hill

Motivation

• A Theory of Motivation– Theory Must Include Both Reactive and

Proactive Behaviors

• Functional Autonomy– Perseverative Functional Autonomy – Propriate Functional Autonomy– Criterion for Functional Autonomy– Processes That Are Not Functionally

Autonomous

© McGraw-Hill

The Study of the Individual

• Morphogenic Science– Study of ideographic information or that which

is related to the individual case

• The Diaries of Marion Taylor

• Letters from Jenny– Studied using a variety of approaches,

including common sense and factor analysis

© McGraw-Hill

Related Research• The Religious Orientation Scale (ROS)

– Extrinsic orientation– Intrinsic orientation

• Religion, Prayer, and Health– Powell et al. (2003)

• Attending church regularly is associated with feeling better and living longer– Masters et al. (2005)

• Religion and cardiovascular health• Intrinsic religious orientation serves as a buffer against everyday life stressors

– Smith et al. (2003)• Religion and depression• Intrinsic religious orientation is negatively related, and extrinsic orientation

positively related, to depression• How to Reduce Prejudice: Optimal Contact

– Pettigrew & Tropp (2005, 2009)• Optimal contact reduces prejudice, not only toward races, but also toward the

elderly and the mentally ill

© McGraw-Hill

Critique of Allport

• Allport’s Theory Is:– High on Parsimony and Internal

Consistency

– Moderate on Generating Research and Guiding Action

– Low on Falsifiability and Organizing Knowledge

© McGraw-Hill

Concept of Humanity

• Free Choice over Determinism

• Optimism over Pessimism

• Teleology over Causality

• Conscious over Unconscious

• Social Influence over Biology

• Uniqueness over Similarity