Personality Theories in Psychology: Gordon Allport

Gordon Allport was born in Montezuma, Indiana in 1897 and was the youngest of four children. He was a shy and studious boy, although somewhat playful. He lived a lonely childhood. His father was a country doctor and as expected Gordon grew up among patients and nurses and all the paraphernalia of a miniature hospital. It is clear that everyone worked hard to get ahead. On the other hand, his life was quiet and unsurprising. In this PsicologíaOnline article, we will talk about the life and work of a great influence on the Personality Theories in Psychology: Gordon Allport

Gordon Allport Biography

One of Allport’s stories is always mentioned in his biographies: at the age of 22, he traveled to Vienna. He had managed to meet the great Sigmund Freud! When she arrived at his office, Freud simply settled into an armchair and waited for Gordon to begin. After a while, Gordon could no longer stand the silence and blurted out an observation he had made while he was on his way to meet Freud. He mentioned that he had seen a little boy on the bus who was very angry because he had not sat where an older lady had previously sat. Gordon thought that this attitude was something that the boy had somehow learned from his mother, a woman with a very elegant type and one of those who seemed dominant. Freud, instead of taking the comment as a simple observation, took it as an expression of a deeper, unconscious process in Gordon’s mind and said, “And that child was you?”

This experience made Gordon realize that depth psychology dug too deep; in the same way that he had previously realized that behaviorism remained too much on the surface.

Allport he received his bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1922 at Harvard d, following in the footsteps of his older brother Floyd, who would become an important social psychologist. Gordon always worked on developing his theory, examining social issues such as prejudice and creating personality tests. He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1967.

Gordon Allport theory

One of the things that motivates human beings is the tendency to satisfy biological survival needs, which Allport calls opportunistic functioning. He points out that this functioning is characterized by its reactivity, orientation to the past and of course, has a biological connotation.

But Allport believed that opportunistic functioning was relatively unimportant for understanding most human behavior. Most human behaviors, he said, are motivated by something quite different – functioning as an expressive form of the self – which he called own functioning- proprium– Most of the things we do in life are…a matter of being who we are! Self-functioning is characterized by its tendency to be active, its orientation to the future, and that it is psychological.

The Latin word proprium is the basis of the term that Allport chose after reviewing hundreds of definitions to call in a more scientific way that popular but essential concept known as Self. In any case, for better or worse, the new term never caught on.

To approach more intuitively what has been called proprium functioning, think about the last time you wanted to act in a certain way or be in a certain way because you truly felt that these acts would be a direct expression of what is most important about you. same. Remember, for example, the last time you did something to express yourself; that time when he said to himself “this is who I really am!”. Do those things that are consistent with who we are; this is proper functioning (In this sense, and for practical purposes, we can perfectly use the term as “own”. NT)

The propium

Since Allport placed so much emphasis on Self or Proprium, he had to be as precise as possible with his definition. He did it from two directions, phenomenologically and functionally.

First, from a phenomenological perspective, it would be the Self as something that is experienced, that is felt. Allport suggested that the Self is composed of those aspects of experience that we perceive as essential (something opposite to incidental or accidental), warm (or “dear”, as opposed to emotionally cold) and central (as opposed to peripheral).

Its functional definition became a theory of development in itself. The Self has 7 functions, which tend to arise at certain moments in life:

• Body sensation
• Own identity
• Self-esteem
• Extension of self
• Self image
• Rational adaptation
• Own effort or struggle (Propriate)

The Body sensation It develops in the first two years of life. We have a body, we feel its closeness and the warmth of it. It has its own limits that alert us to its existence through pain and injury, touch or movement. Allport demonstrated this aspect of the Self: imagine that we spit into a glass and…then we drink it! What’s happening; where is the problem? It’s certainly the same thing we swallow every day! But, of course, it has come out from within our body and has become something strange, and therefore, alien to us.

The Own Identity (of the Self; of oneself) It also develops in the first two years of life. There is a moment in our lives where we consider ourselves as continuous entities; as possessors of a past, a present and a future. We see ourselves as individual entities, separate and differentiated from others. Notice that we even have a name! Will you be the same person when you wake up tomorrow? Of course. Of course, we take on this issue.

The Self-esteem It develops between two and four years of age. There also comes a time when we recognize ourselves as valuable beings for others and for ourselves. This circumstance is closely linked to the continuous development of our skills. For Allport, this is truly the Anal stadium!

The Extension of oneself (extension of the Self) It develops between four and six years of age. Some things, people and events around us also become central and warm; essential for our existence. “Mine” is something very close to “My” (“I”) Some people define themselves by virtue of their parents, wives or children; of their clan, gang, community, institution or nation. Others find their identity in an activity: I am a psychologist, a student or a worker. Some in one place: my house, my city. Why do I feel guilty when my child does something bad? If someone scratches my car, why do I feel like they did it to me?

The Self image (self image) It also develops between four and six years. This would be “the reflection of me”; the one that others see. This would be the impression I project on others, my “type”, my social esteem or status, including my sexual identity. It is the beginning of consciousness; of the Ideal Self and the “person”.

The Rational adaptation It is predominantly learned between the ages of six and twelve. The child begins to develop skills to deal with life’s problems rationally and effectively. This concept would be an analogue to Erickson’s “industry” or “industriosity.”

He Effort either own fight It usually doesn’t start until after age twelve. It would be the expression of my Self in terms of goals, ideals, plans, vocations, demands, sense of direction or purpose. The culmination of one’s struggle would be, according to Allport, the ability to say that I am the owner of my life; the owner and operator.

(We cannot avoid the observation that the evolutionary periods that Allport uses are very close to the periods of development that Freud uses in his stages! But, it is important that we specify that Allport’s scheme is not a theory of evolutionary stages; it is just a description of the way people generally develop.)

Traits or Disposition

Now, since the Proprium is developed in this way, then we will also develop personal traits either personal dispositions. At first, Allport used the term traits, but he realized that people understood the concept as when someone describes another person or when we conclude personality based on personality tests, instead of considering it as unique, individual characteristics of the personality. person. Finally, he changed the concept to provisions.

A personal disposition is defined as “a generalized neuropsychological structure (peculiar to the individual), with the capacity to interpret and manage many functionally equivalent stimuli, and to initiate and guide consistent (equivalent) forms of adaptive and stylistic behavior.”

A personal disposition produces equivalences in function and meaning between various perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and actions that are not necessarily equivalent to the natural world or the mind of anyone else. A person with the personal disposition “fear of communism” may include Russians, liberals, teachers, strikers, social activists, environmentalists, feminists and so on. This person would “pack everyone in the same bag” and respond to any of them with a set of behaviors that express their fear: making speeches, writing letters of complaint, voting, arming themselves, becoming angry, etc.

Another way of saying it would be that dispositions are concrete, easily recognizable, and consistent in our behavior.

Allport argues that traits are essentially unique to each person. One person’s “fear of communism” is not the same as another’s. And we truly cannot expect to believe that other people’s knowledge will help us understand the first time. For this reason, Allport strongly defends what he calls idiographic methods (methods that focus on the study of a single individual through interviews, analysis of letters or diaries, etc. We currently know this method as qualitative.

Still, Allport recognizes that within any particular culture, there are common traits or provisions; some that are part of that culture and that anyone would recognize and name. In our culture, we frequently differentiate between introverts and extroverts or between liberals and conservatives, and we all know (crudely) what we mean. But another culture might not recognize it. For example, what would liberal and conservative mean in the Middle Ages?

The author also argues that some traits are much more tied to the proprium (one’s own self) than others. The core traits They are the cornerstone of your personality. When we describe someone, we will often use words that refer to the following core traits: smart, dumb, wild, shy, gossip…Gordon has observed that most people have between five and ten of these traits.

There are also the so-called secondary traits, those that are not so obvious or so general, or so consistent. Preferences, attitudes, situational traits are all secondary. For example, “he gets angry when you try to tickle him”; “she has very unusual sexual preferences”; or “you can’t take this one to restaurants.”

But there are also the cardinal traits. These are those traits that some people have that practically define their lives. He who, for example, spends his entire life seeking fame or fortune, or sex, is one of those. We often use specific historical figures to name these cardinal traits: Scrooge (the typical miser — character from Dickens’ book “A Christmas Story” NT); Joan of Arc (heroic and sacrificial); Mother Teresa (religious service); Marquis de Sade (sadism); Machiavelli (Machiavellian, political cruelty) and so on. Relatively few people develop a cardinal trait and if they do, it is at a fairly late period in life.

Psychological maturity

If you have a well-developed proprium and a rich, adaptive set of dispositions, you have achieved psychological maturity, Allport’s term for mental health. Establishes seven characteristics:

• Self Extensions specific and lasting like commitment.
• Techniques of relate warmly, oriented towards dependence on others (trust, empathy, sincerity, tolerance…)
• emotional security and self-acceptance.
• Habits aimed at realistic perception (opposite of defensiveness)
• Focus on problems and development of skills focused on problem solving.
• Self Objectification or what is the same, develop introspection; laugh at yourself, etc.
• A unified philosophy of life, which includes a particular orientation towards valuation; differentiated religious feelings and a personal conscience.

Functional autonomy

Allport did not believe in looking at the past as a way to understand a person’s present. This belief has its greatest evidence in the concept of functional autonomy: your current motives are independent (autonomous) of their origins. It doesn’t matter, for example, why you wanted to become a doctor or why you developed a predilection for olives or spicy sex; The thing is, that’s the way you are now!

Functional autonomy comes in two forms: the first is persistent functional autonomy. It essentially refers to habits (behaviors that no longer serve their original purposes, but are still maintained). For example, you might have started smoking as a symbol of teenage rebellion, but now you can’t quit because you simply can’t give it up! The “Jesus or Cheers” type social rituals when someone sneezes had their point at one time (during the plague, sneezing was by far a more serious sign than it is today!), but it still continues today because it has to do with a form of education.

The appropriate functional autonomy It is something more directed to the self than habits. Values ​​are the most common example. Maybe you were punished for being selfish when you were little. This action in no way deterred you from being a great giver currently; rather, it became an asset to you!

You can probably see now that Allport’s idea of ​​functional autonomy may have derived from his frustration with Freud (or the behaviorists). Of course, this could be interpreted as a defensive belief on Allport’s part.

The idea of ​​functional autonomy (values) led Allport and his followers Vernon and Lindzey to develop a category of values ​​(in a book called A Study of Values (A study of Values), 1960, and a Test of values ​​(test):

• The Theorist — a scientist, for example, values ​​the truth.
• The Economic — a businessman would value the utility.
• The Aesthetic — an artist naturally values ​​beauty.
• The Social — a nurse might have a strong love for people.
• The politician — a politician would value power.
• The Religious — a monk or nun probably values ​​unity.

Of course, most of us hold several of these values ​​in a more moderate way and would even rate some of these as more negative. There are more modern tests used to help children find their career profile that have similar dimensions.

Conclusion

Allport is one of those theorists who was so right about so many things, that His ideas have simply become part of the human spirit throughout the ages His theory is one of the first humanistic theories that would influence so many others such as Kelly, Maslow, and Rogers.

An unfortunate aspect of his theory is his original use of the word trait, which led many situation-oriented behaviorists to reduce its true meaning, making them more open-minded. But, this has always been a weakness of psychology in general and in personality in particular: ignorance of the past and the theories and research of others. (We could add here that personality traits are also accompanied by not only biological imprints, but also educational ones, so it is important to take into account all the constituent factors of the person. NT)

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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References

1. Allport’s most significant books are Pattern and Growth in Personality (1965), The Person in Psychology (1968), and The Nature of Prejudice (1954). He was a very good writer and none of these books are too technical.