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Personality

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Prejudice as proposed by Gordon Allport

Gordon classifies prejudice as what people think and feel, generally some

individuals, races, tribes, or even a given group of people. He articulates that Man is not

born prejudiced, he learns it from other people. Gordon articulates that prejudice destroys

human dignity and the initial harmony in a group of people. Prejudice is a hostile feeling

to an individual only because he is identified as a particular group in which one has

branded objectionable characters (Gordon). Gordon poses prejudice as the recipient’s

blindness of the facts about the other groups/peoples hence giving them a wrong

judgment. When these people get oriented in the community, know others better, they can

have an idea who the other peoples are then their prejudice will fade away.

The differences between the Ideographic and Nomothetic Approach model

The ideographic approach of researching personality concentrates on private. It is

detailed on qualitative data which means investigating individuals at their level not at a

group level. In this case, researchers try to understand what makes each different from

others, why some are unique. The uniqueness of an individual is found in his feeling and

attitude regarding the impact of a culture on personality (Gordon). On the other hand,

nomothetic approach of researching character concentrates on similarities between

groups of people. That is, establishing methods on generalizing factors behaviors and

traits of people.

Pros and cons of Nomethetic Approach

Pros; it has helped psychology as a scientific principle by developing laws which

can be empirically tested (Mcleod)

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It is objective allowing replication of generalization.

Cons; Fallacy of overgeneralization, things may be different with different people,

and It loses insight of a whole individual

Pros and cons of Ideographic

Pros; focuses on Individual hence very reliable and It can serve as a hypothesis

for later study

Cons; consumes a lot of time to get to individuals and it is Expensive to carry out.

The Big Five factor theory Model.

Research doesn’t gain from using Cattel’s or Ensynk's model. It learns from using

Cattel and Gordon’s model; the big five models has been modified by Cattel to be the

nomothetic model.

The big five-factor theory limits research to the past. There are many factors that

are not even close to today’s standards. I have reviewed these studies elsewhere and

found theme troubling in several aspects (Digman)

Hans Eysenck proposes that personality traits are biologically or hereditary

determined; in some instances, he is right like the moderator factor on stimulations levels

on individuals is different, and some are acquired during birth. Some traits also like

talents can be obtained from parents, other characters like integrity; some are born

intelligent.

References
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Allport, G. W. (1937). Personality: A psychological interpretation. New York:

Holt.

Allport, G. W. (1946). Personality psychology as science: A reply. Psychological

Review, 53, 132–135.

Cattell, R. B. (1945a). The description of personality: Principles and findings in a

factor analysis. American Journal of Psychology, 58, 69–90.

Digman, J. M. (1990). Personality structure: Emergence of the five-factor

model. Annual Review of Psychology, 41, 417–440.

Eysenck, H. J. (1990). Biological dimensions of personality. In L. A. Pervin

(Ed.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (pp. 244–276 ). New York:

Guilford Press.

McLeod, S. A. (2019, Feb 05). Nomothetic idiographic debate. Retrieved from

https://www.simplypsychology.org/nomothetic-idiographic.html