Allport (1)

1. Gordon Allport: Motivation and Personality

2. Challenges Freud Unconscious forces dominate the personality of normal mature adults. Importance of the past in determining the present Allport saw a clear distinction between normal and abnormal. Uniqueness He argued that personality is not general or universal but is particular and specific to the individual.

3. Challenge 1 Isolation and Rejection Challenge 2 Allport developed inferi-ority feelings for which he attempted to compensate by striving to excel. Allport’s life

4. The Nature of Personality • “Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine characteristic behavior and thought” (Allport, 1961, p. 28). • Heredity provides the personality with raw materials, such as physique, intelligence, and temperament, that may then be shaped, expanded, or limited by the conditions of our environment. • Allport’s emphasizes the conscious rather than the unconscious, and the present and future rather than the past.

5. Personality Traits • Allport considered personality traits to be predispositions to respond, in the same or a similar manner, to different kinds of stimuli. • Traits determine or cause behavior. They do not arise only in response to certain stimuli. They motivate us to seek appropriate stimuli, and they interact with the environment to produce behavior. • Individual traits are unique to a person and define his or her character. (personal dispositions). • Common traits are shared by a number of people, such as the members of a culture.

6. Cardinal trait is so pervasive and influential that it touches almost every aspect of a person’s life. Allport described it as a ruling passion, a powerful force that dominates behavior. • Mother Teresa: Good, charitable • Adolf Hitler: Evil, depraved • Albert Einstein: Brilliant • These personality traits are so strong that a person's very name becomes almost synonymous with these qualities.

7. Central traits, some 5 to 10 themes that best describe our behavior. Allport’s examples are aggressiveness, self-pity, and cynicism. • The least influential individual traits are the secondary traits, which appear much less consistently than cardinal and central traits. Secondary traits may be so inconspicuous or weak that only a close friend would notice evidence of them. They may include, for example, a minor preference for a particular type of music or for a certain food.

9. What We Strive for • Whatever happened in the past is exactly that: past. It is no longer active and does not explain adult behavior unless it exists as a current motivating force. • functional autonomy proposes that the motives of mature, emotionally healthy adults are not functionally connected to the prior experiences in which they initially appeared. Forces that motivated us early in life become autonomous, or independent, of their original circumstances. • Allport offered the example of a tree.

10. motive has become independent of its original source, transformed into something autonomous. Therefore, adult motives cannot be understood by exploring the person’s childhood, as Freud believed. • levels of functional autonomy: • Perseverative functional autonomy: The behaviors continue or persevere on their own without any external reward. • Propriate functional autonomy: The word propriate derives from proprium, Allport’s term for the ego or self. The ego determines which motives will be maintained and which will be discarded. We retain motives that enhance our self-esteem or self-image.

11. Stages of development

12. If the mother or primary caregiver provides sufficient affection and security, the proprium will develop gradually and steadily, and the child will achieve positive psychological growth. • If childhood needs are frustrated, however, the self will not mature properly. • The child becomes insecure, aggressive, demanding, jealous, and self-centered. Psychological growth is stunted. • Adult motives do not become functionally autonomous but remain tied to their original conditions.

13. The Healthy Adult Personality • Biologically dominated organism in infancy to a mature psychological organism in adulthood. 1. Mature adults extend their sense of self to people and activities beyond the self. 2. Mature adults relate warmly to other people, exhibiting intimacy, compassion, and tolerance. 3. Mature adult’s high degree of self-acceptance helps them to achieve emotional security.

14. 4. Mature adults hold a realistic perception of life, develop personal skills, and make a commitment to some type of work. 5. Mature adults have a sense of humor and self-objectification (an understanding of or insight into the self). 6. Mature adults subscribe to a unifying philosophy of life, which is responsible for directing the personality toward future goals.

15. Assessment in Allport’s Theory Personality is so complex that to evaluate it we must employ many techniques. He listed 11 major methods: • Constitutional and physiological diagnosis • Cultural setting, membership, role • Personal documents and case studies

16. Self-appraisal • Conduct analysis • Ratings • Tests and scales • Projective techniques • Depth analysis • Expressive behavior

17. The Personal-Document Technique The personal-document technique involves examining diaries, autobiographies, letters, literary compositions, and other samples of a person’s written or spoken records to determine the number and kinds of personality traits.

18. The Study of Values 1. Theoretical values are concerned with the discovery of truth and are characterized by an empirical, intellectual, and rational approach to life. 2. Economic values are concerned with the useful and practical. 3. Aesthetic values relate to artistic experiences and to form, harmony, and grace. 4. Social values reflect human relationships, altruism, and philanthropy. 5. Political values deal with personal power, influence, and prestige in all endeavors,not just in political activities. 6. Religious values are concerned with the mystical and with understanding the universe as a whole.

19. Expressive behavior Spontaneous and seemingly purposeless behavior, usually displayed without our conscious awareness. • Expressive behavior is difficult to change, has no specific purpose, and is usually displayed without our awareness. • Coping behavior Consciously planne behavior determined by the needs of a given situation and designed for a specific purpose, usually to bring about a change in one’s environment.