Theories of Personality Allport Chapter 13 Mc GrawHill

Theories of Personality Allport Chapter 13 © Mc. Graw-Hill © 2009 by The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

Outline • Overview of the Psychology of the Individual • Biography of Gordon Allport • Allport’s Approach to Personality Theory • Structure of Personality • Motivation Cont’d © Mc. Graw-Hill

Outline • • The Study of the Individual Related Research Critique of Allport Concept of Humanity © Mc. Graw-Hill

Overview of the Psychology the Individual of • 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 © Mc. Graw-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 Ph. D in psychology at Harvard in 1922 • President of American Psychological Association in 1939 • Died in 1967 of lung cancer © Mc. Graw-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 © Mc. Graw-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 © Mc. Graw-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 © Mc. Graw-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 © Mc. Graw-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 © Mc. Graw-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 © Mc. Graw-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 © Mc. Graw-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 © Mc. Graw-Hill

Concept of Humanity • • • Free Choice over Determinism Optimism over Pessimism Teleology over Causality Conscious over Unconscious Social Influence over Biology Uniqueness over Similarity © Mc. Graw-Hill