Unit 13—Allport: Psychology Of The Individual

Front 1

Discuss how Allport's meeting with Freud affected his choice of a career.

Back 1

Allport’s meeting with Freud sparked his interest in personality theory.

Meeting influenced Allport’s later ideas on personality

Life altering event

He tried to impress Freud with his powers of observation, but instead was mistaken for a patient seeking therapy.

This led Allport to want to focus on conscious self reports as opposed to hidden unconscious impulses.

Front 2

Discuss Allport's definition of personality.

a) Dynamic

b) Psychophysical

c) Determine

d) Characteristic

e) Behaviour and thought

Back 2

behaviour was both expressive and adaptive. Individuals can adjust to their surroundings and also are capable of reflecting and interaction with their environment and in turn, cause the environment to adjust to the person.

____ is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behavior and thought” (1961)

The following breaks down the components:

A) Personality is not static, it is ever evolving and subject to change. There is evidence of structure in the interrelatedness of the numerous components of personality.

b) term highlights the fact that personality has both physical and psychological aspects.

c) The word: ____ in the definition implies that personality has a purpose and does something.

d) is used in the definition to indicate the individual or unique nature of personality.

e) is everything an individual does. This includes: our internal ___ (aka thoughts) and external ____ (our actions and words).

Front 3

List and discuss Allport's characteristics of the psychologically healthy personality

1. Extension of the sense of self

2. Warm relating of self to others

3. Emotional security or self-acceptance

4. Realistic perception of their environment

5. Insight and humor

6. Unifying philosophy of life

Back 3

1. Unselfish interest in work, play and recreation. Explores and actively participates in activities outside of themselves.

2. Are capable of loving others unselfishly. They are able to be compassionate and be intimate in their relationships. Treat others with respect.

3. Self love. Are able to accept themselves for who they are. Possess emotional poise. Are capable of going with the flow when things do not go according to plan. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

4. Are not self-centred and are in touch with the world around them. Individual has a firm grip on reality. Problem oriented individual.

5. Do not blame others for their own mistakes. They are not superficial or fake.

6. Have a set purpose in life. May or may be religious (insight). Has a well-developed conscience.

Front 4

Discuss Allport's concept of personal dispositions, including how they differ from traits.

Back 4

Defined as being stable characteristics. Individuals within a given culture have general ___ that are common to a large portion of the population. Make it possible to do comparison studies. ..... are peculiar to the individual. There is a continuum of three levels of_____ that goes from most central to peripheral importance to the person

Front 5

The three levels of personal dispositions are:

1) Cardinal dispositions

2) Central Dispositions

3) Secondary Dispositions

Back 5

1) The characteristics at this level are the most prominent and identifiable. All actions and behaviour of the individual fit under this one singular characteristic. Rarely do individuals have this dominant type of disposition. In most cases it is fictional characters or historical people who have been built up in legends.

2) All humans have several ___ Each of us have 5 - 10 outstanding characteristics around which one’s life focuses. Examples of this of characteristics include ones a person would list accurately in a letter of reference. Dispositions that friends and family would agree are descriptive of that person. Guide adaptive and stylistic behaviour.

3) Less obvious put far greater in number than central dispositions. Occur with some regularity and are responsible for much of one’s specific behaviours.

Front 6

Explain the distinction between:

A) motivational dispositions

B) stylistic dispositions

Back 6

All personal dispositions are dynamic in the sense that they have motivational power.

A) Intensely experienced dispositions. Receive their emotions from basic needs and drives. Initiate action. Similar to Maslow’s concept of coping behavior. Ex. Motivated to dress to stay warm. Hunger

B) Less intensely experienced. Guide action. Similar to Maslow’s idea of expressive behaviour. Ex. Manner in which we attire ourselves. How we use a fork to eat.

No clear line between motivational and stylistic dispositions. Some are clearly one or the other.

Front 7

Define proprium and give reasons why Allport chose this term rather than "self."

Back 7

Defined as “peculiarly mine”. Includes all characteristics an individual views as unique to them. The characteristics and behaviors of person fit in the category of being warm, central, and important to the person. Includes our self-identity and self enhancement, values and is consistent with our beliefs. But does not include peripheral traits and therefore does not make up the whole of the person.

Front 8

Differentiate between:

A) reactive theory of motivation

B) proactive theory of motivation

Back 8

Allport believed most people are motivated by present drives not by past events. And we are aware of what we are doing and have some understanding of why we are doing it.

Difference between peripheral motives (reduce a need) and propriate strivings (seek to maintain tension and disequilibrium).

People not only react to their environment but also shape their environment and cause it to react to them. Personality is a growing system, allowing new elements to constantly change the person.

A) See people as being motivated primarily by needs to reduce tension and return to equilibrium. ex. Psychoanalysis

B) view people as consciously acting on their environment in a manner that permits growth toward psychological health. stress growth and change. Allport.
Allport thought people are not limited to reactive behaviour. (not just motivated to reduce pain and seek pleasure). But also

Front 9

Explain and give examples of Allport's concept of functional autonomy.

Back 9

Most complex postulate. Represent a theory of changing rather than unchanging motives. Some human motives are functionally independent from original motive responsible for the behaviour.
If motive is________ it is the cause of the behaviour. there is no underlying hidden meaning. Human behaviour is based on present interests and conscious preferences in harmony.”Common sense belief - do things because we like to do them.” Ex. hoarding money. Just like money.
Improve bowling game, cuz wants to improve game.

Front 10

Explain the rationale and results of the analysis of Letters from Jenny.

Back 10

Morphogenic approach to study of lives.
Letters reveal the story of an older woman and her intense love/hate feelings toward her son.
11.5 year correspondence with Glenn and Ada she revealed much about her life and her personality. Acted as neutral listeners not advisers. Rich source or morphogenic material.
Allport used the letters to build the structure of a single personality by identifying personality dispositions that were central to that person.

Front 11

Explain the rationale and results of the analysis of Letters from Jenny.

Used three techniques:

Back 11

1 Alfred Baldwin developed technique: Personal Structure Analysis. Used to analyze approximately one their of the letters. Used two morphogenic procedures for gathering evidence: - frequency - notion of frequency an item appears in the material. - contiguity - proximity of two items in the letter. Baldwin identified 3 clusters of categories. Ross - woman, the past and herself - self sacrificing. 2. Search for job. 3. attitude toward money and death.
2 Jeffery Paige: factor analysis to extract primary personal dispositions. Found 8 factors: aggression, possessiveness, affiliation, autonomy, familial acceptance, sexuality, sentience, and martydom. Fit with Allports hypothesis that people have 5-10 central dispositions.
3 Allport - commonsense method. Similar to Baldwin and Paige. Method asked 36 judges to list characteristics. Recorded 198 adjectives. Grouped the terms into 8 clusters: quarelsome-suspicious, self-centered (possessive), independent-autonomous, dramatic-intense, aesthe

Front 12

Summarize research on the Religious Orientation Scale

Back 12

believed deep religious commitment was a mark of a mature person, but did not think all churchgoers have mature religious orientation.
Allport and Ross- developed The Religious Orientation Scale to understand the relationship between church attendance and prejudice.
ROS- 20 items. 11 Extrinsic and 9 intrinsic.
Assumption: People with an extrinsic orientation have a utilitarian view of religion. See it as a means to an end. Self-serving religion of comfort and social convention.
Intrinsic: live their religion and find their master motive in their religious faith. Internalized creed.
Hypothesis: Intrinsically motivated individual s will be better off than those who are extrinsically motivated.
Findings: Religion can be good for your health but it is important for people to be religious for the right reasons.

Front 13

Discuss how religion and prayer may be related to health

Back 13

Recent research has fond a consistent relationship between religious involvement and health. Attending church regularly tends to be associated with feeling better and living longer (Powell, Shahabi, & Thoresen, 2003). Kevin Masters and his colleagues (2005) studied religious orientation and cardiovascular health. They found that, as they predicted, those with an intrinsic religious orientation did not have the same increases of blood pressure in reaction to moderate stress as those with an extrinsic orientation did. These results demonstrated that an intrinsic religious orientation serves as a buffer against the stressors of everyday life. Timothy Smith and colleagues (2003) reviewed all the research on religion and depression to see whether religion could also serve as a buffer against depression. Their findings generally supported Allport’s view that there are good and bad ways to be religious: The more intrinsically oriented toward religion a person is, the less likely the person is to experience depression; the more extrinsically oriented, the more likely a person is to be depressed. The conclusion is that while religion can be good for one’s health, it is important to be religious for the right reasons in order to derive health benefits.