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4 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Gordon Allport:
-historical context -contributions (his firsts) 3 -how he's viewd today, where we see his influence |
-he was consciously trying to build an alternative to Freud's psychoanalysis and to behaviorism
-he came out of the humanistic tradition and thought both of the above failed to capture the complexities of human nature -his main interest wasn't pathology, but normality (especially high function) -he was the first academic out of those we've studied so far (i.e. he wasn't a clinician but an intellectual who came out of western humanist traditioning) -prof at harvard 1. First contribution: he founded trait theory as approach to personality 2. first person in academic context to pay attention to the self and self concept 3. (also one of cofounders of humanisic psych -he wrote first personality textbook and defined the questions that shaped the field -contemp interest in positive psych comes from him -he basically established within psych the subfield of personality -TODAY: he's not cited that often and his spot in the textbooks are shrinking and that's probably because he didn't do much good empirical research |
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II. Traits
A. Allport's contribution: How Allport conceptualized traits? |
he suggested that a systematic theory of personality could be built with TRAIT as its central construct (relying on trait and trait alone)
He did not give a list of traits to study He suggested that a systematic theory of personality could be built with trait as its central construct In daily life, we do not rely solely on trait He provided a thoughtful analysis of what do we really mean by the concept of trait |
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What were the competitor's to Allport's traits? (what other things were other people suggesting which could have taken the place of the trait construct)
-how does the field today vindicate him? |
B. Alternatives to traits (other things which could have one out over traits as the major construct in a personality theory):Type, habit, conflict & defense, need & press, expectancy & value
At the time he was writing, he had many theoretical enemies The competitors to traits: habits (behaviourist conception), Freud and conflict/defense, Henry Murray and needs History has largely vindicated Allport. Many people do studies on the five factor model. At the present time personality psych is dominated by traits as a construct |
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How did Allport conceptualize traits, define traits?
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-allport thought traits were causal,
C. Allport’s conceptualization of “Trait” 1. Neurophysiological entities A trait is something inside the brain The reason he insisted on this is that he wanted t make traits causal entities Not merely descriptions or convenient summaries Traits do two things (see below) 2.“Render stimuli functionally equivalent” => “equivalent (meaningfully consistent) forms of ... behavior” Gives rise to behaviours that are somehow equivalent to each other Example: Gregariousness Love being with other people, interacting with others Family gatherings, parties, attending church, committee meetingsall of these are functionally equivalent to the gregarious person The trait also gives rise to topographically distinct behaviours which are nevertheless equivalent in their effect Laughing, smiling, organizing social events for church/religious institution All of these are functionally equivalent in that they allow the gregarious person to be gregarious |
