GORDON ALLPORT - TRAIT APPROACH

Flashcards based on Gordon Allport's Trait Theory lecture notes.

Where was Gordon Allport born?

Montezuma, Indiana

When was Gordon Allport born?

November 11, 1897

What was Gordon Allport's birth order in his family?

Youngest of four brothers

How could Gordon Allport be characterized as a child?

Shy, hardworking, and studious

What was Gordon Allport's mother's profession?

A teacher

What was Gordon Allport's father's profession?

A salesman who later became a doctor

What feelings did Allport develop due to his childhood conditions?

Inferiority feelings

How did Allport attempt to compensate for his inferiority feelings?

Striving to excel

Which of his older brothers did Gordon Allport begin to identify with?

Floyd Allport

How was Gordon Allport's meeting with Freud described?

Traumatic

What was the cause of Gordon Allport's death?

Lung cancer

What was Allport's major proposition regarding his theory?

Psychologically healthy adults are unaffected by childhood events

How do emotionally healthy people function according to Allport?

Function in rational and conscious terms

What role does the unconscious play in Allport's view of personality?

Unconscious is only important in neurotic behavior

What guides emotionally healthy people according to Allport?

Guided more by the present and view of the future

From whom did Allport believe data should be collected to study personality?

Emotionally healthy adults

What did Allport emphasize in his study of personality?

Emphasis on the uniqueness of personality

How did Allport define personality?

Dynamic organization within the individual of psychophysical systems that determine characteristic behavior and thought

What does 'dynamic organization' mean in Allport's definition of personality?

Constantly changing and growing, but organized

What does 'psychophysical' mean in Allport's definition of personality?

Composed of mind and body functioning together as a unit

What does 'determine' mean in Allport's definition of personality?

All facets of personality activate or direct specific behaviors and thoughts

What does 'characteristic behavior and thought' mean in Allport's definition of personality?

Everything we think and do is typical of us

What did Allport state that personality reflects?

Reflects both heredity and environment

What does 'nature' refer to in personality development?

Genes and Hereditary Factors

What does 'nurture' refer to in personality development?

Childhood experiences, how we are raised, social relationships, surrounding culture

What does heredity provide the personality with?

Provides the personality with raw materials

What did Allport conclude psychology must deal with to study personality?

Individual case, not average findings among groups

What are the two distinct personalities Allport considered?

Childhood and adulthood

How did Allport consider personality to be?

Discrete or discontinuous

What is adult personality not constrained by, according to Allport?

Not constrained by childhood experiences

How did Allport consider personality traits?

Predispositions to respond to different kinds of stimuli

What are traits?

Distinguishing characteristics that guide behavior

What is the first characteristic of traits, according to Allport?

Real and exist within each of us

What is the second characteristic of traits, according to Allport?

Determine or cause behavior

What is the third characteristic of traits, according to Allport?

Can be demonstrated empirically

What is the fourth characteristic of traits, according to Allport?

Interrelated; they may overlap

What is the fifth characteristic of traits, according to Allport?

Vary with the situation

What are the two types of traits?

Individual traits and common traits

What are individual traits?

Unique to a person and define his or her character

What did Allport relabel individual traits as?

Personal Disposition

What are personal dispositions?

Traits that are peculiar to an individual

What are the three types of traits?

Cardinal, Central, and Secondary

What are cardinal traits?

The most pervasive and powerful traits that dominate human behavior

What are central traits?

Some 5 to 10 themes that best describe our behavior

What are secondary traits?

The least important traits, which a person may display inconspicuously and inconsistently

What are common traits?

Shared by a number of people, such as the members of a culture

What did Allport relabel common traits as?

Traits

Besides traits and personal dispositions, what other characteristics guide behavior?

Habits and attitudes

According to Allport, motives in the mature adult are independent of childhood experiences, what is this called?

Functional Autonomy

What are the two levels of Functional Autonomy?

Perseverative and Propriate