Theories of Personality: Gordon Allport

The Trait Theory of Personality

• Trait researchers attempt to define personality in terms of stable and enduring behavior patterns
• Main psychologist linked to this theory is Gordon Allport

History

• Born in 1897, in Montezuma, Indiana
• He was one of the first psychologists to study personality
• He is often referred to as one of the founding figures of personality psychology
• His perspective is humanistic. Humanistic psychology is a branch of larger philosophical theory known as humanism
• Interested in personality, and at the time, personality was not a formal sub-discipline of psychology and it certainly was not as fashionable as social psychology
• He completed his doctorate, began studying personality. It is said that he was the first professor to teach a college level course on personality theory, a course that today is required by nearly all undergraduate psychology majors

G.W. Allport – Trait Theory of Personality

• G.W. Allport defined personality as “a dynamic organization within the individual of those psychological-physical systems which determine his unique adjustment to his environment.”
• According to the concept of dynamic, the personality is changing
• The term psycho-physical is used because of the importance of the unity of the mind (psycho) and body (physical)
• The unique refers to every one of us is a unique person in oneself
• Define traits as basic units of personality. He adopted a trait approach for the description of highly individualized personality.

The Trait Theory of Personality

• Trait theory says relatively little about the development or growth of personality but instead emphasizes measuring and identifying differences among personalities
• Allport concluded to describe personality in terms of fundamental traits
• Trait: a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports

Exploring Traits

• Allport and a colleague counted all the words that could describe someone in an unabridged dictionary and they discovered that there were 18, 000!
• How can psychologists condense the list to a manageable number of basic traits?
• By isolating important dimensions of personality by using factor analysis

Allport’s Personal Disposition Theory

• His theory of personality rejected Freudian psychology and behaviorism. It emphasized uniqueness of an individual and the need to treat problems
• Gordon Allport suggested that each individual has a unique set of personality traits called personal dispositions

1. Cardinal Trait
   • A trait so dominant that a person’s entire life revolves around it
   • This is a single characteristic that directs most of a person’s activities
   • It is so pervasive that it dominates just about everything that a person does
   • Ex. A person so power-hungry that they are solely driven by that need for control
2. Central Traits
   • Qualities that characterize a person’s daily interactions
   • Major characteristics of an individual
   • These usually number from 5-10 in any one person (e.g., honesty, sociability)
   • These are rather pervasive and affect many behaviors. We can use a small number of adjectives to describe someone
3. Secondary Traits
   • Characteristics that are exhibited in specific situations
   • These are characteristics that affect behavior in fewer situations and are less influential than central or cardinal traits
   • A preference for ice cream or dislike of modern art would be considered a secondary trait

• Propium
  • Composition of all the important aspects of a personality as a result of a person’s experiences and growth
  • Maintains our sense of self
    • The behaviors and characteristics that we deem central to our lives
  • Determines how we perceive the world and what we remember from our experiences
• The Propium: theoretical concept of “self” or “ego”

Development of the Mature Self

• Functional Autonomy
  • Process whereby a behavior that was once controlled by a basic motive comes to operate independently of that motive
  • Characteristics of Maturity
  • Extensions of the Sense of Self: ability to participate in activity with others that go beyond striving to gratify one’s own selfish needs; genuine concern for others
  • Warm Relatedness to Others: able to be intimate and compassionate in one’s relationships with others
  • Self-Acceptance: understanding and acknowledgement, not only of one’s strengths, but one’s weaknesses as well
  • Realistic Perception of Reality: accurate perception of the world as it actually exists
  • Self-Objectification: ability not to take oneself too seriously
  • Unifying Philosophy of Life: development of a set of life goals and values that guide the person’s behavior

The Psychologically Healthy Person

• 6 Characteristics
  • Capacity for self-extension
  • Capacity for warm human interactions
  • Demo of emotional security and self-acceptance
  • Demo of realistic perceptions
  • Demo of self-objectification
  • Demo of unifying philosophy of life

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