Gordon Allport’s Trait Theory

21/02/22
History

• Trait theories go as far back as Hippocrates (c. 370 BC)

• He categorized people as happy, unhappy, temperamental, or apathetic and that these
traits are a function of humors

• Sheldon (1942) described three body types: ectomorphic, endomorphic, and

mesomorphic and that these determine personality characteristics
• Trait theories are criticized because of
variability in how we act in different
situations

• Later theorists like Cattell and Allport

put forth interactionist theories so as to
account for variability
Different approaches

• Unlike other theories like Freud’s psychoanalytic approach, trait theories are based on
observations of healthy, functional adults

• The theories argue for a genetic influence on personality

• Allport, however, may be considered a humanist because of his holistic approach and
belief in a self-realizing tendency
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU more important
gCIvKxbAE

• Allport met with Freud and described

the encounter as traumatic and felt that
Freud focused too much on the
unconscious. He decided that
conscious, visible motivations were
Personality

• After reviewing many definitions of personality, Allport offered the following

definition of his own

• Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those

psychophysical systems that determine… characteristic behavior and thought
(Allport, 1961, p. 28)
• Dynamic because personality is ever changing and growing but in an organized way
• Psychophysical because the mental and the bodily work together
• “Determine” because personality activates and directs specific behaviors and
cognitions

• Each person is unique. Our traits make us unique

Nature and nurture interact

• Heredity provides the raw material that the environment helps to shape, expand or
limit

• Our genetics contribute a major part of our personality though

• Allport argued for the idiographic approach to personality because we’re all unique
• Personality is discontinuous/discrete because we are cut off from our childhood selves
- there is a childhood version of us and an adult version
• Children’s behavior is determined by
primitive biological urges and reflexes

• Adults are primarily psychological

beings
Traits

• Traits are predispositions to respond in a similar way to different types of stimuli

• These are consistent and enduring
• Personality traits are real and not mere theoretical constructs to account for behaviour
• Traits cause behaviour and aren’t merely the result of stimuli. They also cause us to seek
particular environments and interact with them
• Traits can be studied behaviourally/empirically
• They may overlap and co-occur like aggression and hostility
• Traits very with the situation. You could be orderly in one and disorderly in another
• Allport initially classified traits as
individual or common. Common traits
are shared by members of a culture

• He later started referring to common

traits as just traits and individual traits
as personal dispositions. Individual
traits may be cardinal, central, or
secondary
• A cardinal trait can be thought of as a
“ruling passion” and not everyone has
one or exhibits it

• Central traits are often 5 to 10 in

number and best describe our behaviour
like aggressiveness, cynicism,
kindness, etc.

• Secondary traits can be considered

tastes and are known mostly to close
friends, etc.
Traits vs. habits and attitudes

• Habits and attitudes also affect behaviour

• Habits are more narrow in their impact
• They are in response to particular stimuli and are inflexible
• Several habits that share an adaptive function may integrate into a trait, for e.g.,
regular teeth brushing and bathing form the trait of cleanliness

• Attitudes have a specific object of reference

• Attitudes also involve evaluative judgements
Deep dive bonus material

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHwVyplU3Pg
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgWbExnceHE
Motivations

• Allport argued that the central problem for any personality theory is explaining
motivation

• The present is an important factor on which motivation depends. The past has no
influence

• Cognitive processe like plans and intentions also matter, but unconscious processes -
Freud’s foci - are not relevant, but conscious intentions are

• What we want in the present with respect to the future motivates our efforts and so the
future explains the present
• The concept of functional autonomy
posits that forces that impel us become
independent of their original
circumstances and that the motives of
mature, healthy adults are no longer
connected to the original
circumstances. The concept is similar
to the biological concept of exaptation
• There are two levels of functional
autonomy - preservative functional
autonomy and propriate functional
autonomy
• Preservative functional autonomy is
more elemental and refers to
performing behaviours in ritualistic
and/or habitual ways. The actions
may have been purposeful, but no
longer are
• Propriate functional autonomy is
more important to understanding
motivation. We retain motives that
enhance are proprium, or ego
• Propriate functioning organizes and
maintains our sense of self, our
perceptions, our memory, and our
thoughts…
• … These selective perceptual and
cognitive processes choose the stimuli
we attend to. The three principles
organizing the selection of stimuli are:

• Organizing energy level

• Mastery and competence
• Propriety patterning
• How we acquire new motives is what
organizing the energy level refers to. If
you have free time, you should be
motivated to pick up on new interests
rather than waste your energy in
destructive ways
• Mastery and competence refers to how
far we want to train. Healthy adults are
motivated to improve over time
• Propriate patterning is wanting to
become an integrated and consistent
personality
• Who do these concepts remind you of?
How best might you categorize
Allport’s thinking?
• Reflexes and biological drives are not
explained by functional
Development of the proprium

• Children cannot view themselves as separate from the environment and have no concept of self
• They react reflexively and are pleasure seeking, destructive, selfish, impatient, and dependent -
“unsocialized horrors”
• Between 1 and 4, the first 3 stages of proprium development take place
• Bodily me awareness
• Sense of identity continuity (self-identity), especially when they learn their name and develop
competencies (self-esteem). Being frustrated at this stage may lead to anger and humiliation
• Self-extension - “my house”, etc.. Parental interactions and expectations develop self-extension
• 6-12 is when children become rational
problem-solvers
• Parent-child interactions are vitally
important for proprium development
• Frustrating childhood needs will cause
one to become a neurotic who functions
at the level of childhood drives. Traits
and dispositions do not develop

• The infant-mother bond achieves

positive psychological development
and childhood motives will freely
develop into autonomous propriety
strivings
Healthy adults

• Children are biological, adults psychological

• Motivations become separated from childhood and orient towards the future
• If needs for affection and security, we become normal, mature adults, but Allport never explained how to
overcome childhood abuse; he was more interested in normal development
• Normal adults extend their sense of self to others and activities
• Mature adults exhibit warmth, empathy, and tolerance
• They are self-accepting and this grants emotional security
• They have a sense of humor and engage in meta-cognition
• They have a unifying philosophy of life, which allows them to focus on their goals
• How Allport views human nature
• The purpose of life is to increase
tension

• Joy lies in striving, not achieving

• We constainntly seek new goals
• Allport, Vernon, & Lindzey, (1960)
developed the Study of Values. These
values inform our unifying philosophy
of life, which is one of the 6 criteria for
being a healthy, mature adults (slide 22)

• Values are personality traits that

represent strongly held interests and
motivations, and one or two are
generally dominant
• Allport argued for holism and criticized but the SoV test is nomothetic
case studies because of their emphasis
on the past and abnormality • Allport studied coping and expressive
behaviours extensively
• The Thematic Apperception Test and
the Rorschach inkblot test deal with
unconscious forces and are therefore
misleading. Simply asking people to
describe themselves might be better as
it reveals dominant traits

• He favoured idiographic approaches,

• Research shows that there are high
levels of consistency in voice,
handwriting, posture, and gestures
(Allport & Vernon, 1933)
• Personality can be assessed from
audiotapes, films, and videotapes.
Facial expressions, vocal inflections,
idiosyncratic gestures, and mannerisms
can reveal traits to a trained observer
(Allport & Cantril, 1934)
• You can form a reliable impression of
someone’s personality just by watching
a 30 s film of them (Embody &
Rosenthal, 1992)
• Assessments made based on just photos
are as accurate as those made by
classmates who’ve known the person
for several weeks (Berry, 1990)
Critique

• Hard to study experimentally. Why?

• The concept of functional autonomy is not explained enough. How do original motives become
autonomous ones?
• There might not be as much discontinuity between animals, children, and adults
• Research on abnormal individuals has revealed a lot about healthy ones. Why is this a problem for
Allport?
• There is growing empirical evidence for his theory
• It’s seen as hopeful
• He emphasized genetics and made the study of personality respectable