Chapter 12- Allport Flashcards
What is Allport’s definition of personality?
The dynamic organization of psychophysical systems that create the person’s characteristic patterns of behavior, thoughts, and feelings.
Allport believed that healthy individuals what?
Are generally aware of what they are doing and their reasons for doing it
What does his emphasis on conscious motivation stem from?
Freud asked him if Allport was actually talking about himself when telling a story of a boy on the tram car. Freud assumed there was underlaying unconscious meaning to Allport’s story.
What are the characteristics of a healthy person?
- Proactive behavior
- Motivated by conscious processes
- Trauma-free childhood
What is proactive behavior?
concept that proposes people are capable of consciously acting upon their environment in new ways
What are the 6 criteria for the Mature Personality?
- Extension of the sense of self
- Warm relating of self to others
- Emotional security and self acceptance
- Realistic perception if their environment
- Insight and humor
- Unifying philosophy of life
What criteria does this describe? “Mature people seek to identify with events outside themselves. They develop unselfish interests and are not self-centered
Extension of the sense of self
What criteria does this describe? “Healthy people use non-hostile humor and can laugh at themselves”
Insight and humor
What criteria does this describe? “Healthy people have a clear view of the purpose of life, Allport felt that religious orientation is crucial in the lives of most mature individuals.”
Unifying Philosophy of Life
What are common traits?
General characteristics held in common by many people. Used to compare people within a given culture. For example, the Big 5 trait theory
What are personal dispositions?
Traits that are unique to an individual
What are the 3 levels of Personal Dispositions?
- Cardinal dispositions (1 trait that defines them)
- Central dispositions (5-10 traits that define a person)
- Secondary dispositions- aren’t central to personality but responsible for much of one’s behavior
What are motivational dispositions?
Strongly felt dispositions that recurve their motivation from basic needs
ex. dressing yourself because of the basic need to stay warm
What are stylisic dispositions?
Dispositions that are less intensely experience but still possess motivational power
ex. the way you dress yourself to be warm (if you dress cute or not)
How do stylistic and motivational dispositions relate to each other?
Stylistic dispositions guide actions, whereas motivational dispositions initiate action
What is the proprium?
Those behaviors and characteristics people regard as central and important in their lives
Why is the proprium not the whole personality?
Many characteristics and behaviors of a person aren’t central, rather they are on the periphery of personality.
What are the nonpropriate behaviors? (characteristics that aren’t central to one’s self)
1) Basic drives and needs that are normally met without difficulty
2) Tribal customs
3) Habitual behaviors
Allport was “eclectic” in his ideas, what does this mean?
He got his ideas from a bunch of different theorists
Allport believed people are motivated by what?
Present drives rather than by past events
What are propriate strivings?
motivation toward goals that are consistent with and establish proprium and that are uniquely one’s own
Describe Allport’s view of motivation
Allport believed that people aren’t just motivated by needs to reduce tension, he believed they are motivated by proactive behavior/growth as well. A good personality theory must explain both peripheral motives and propriate strivings
Describe functional autonomy
Some human motives are functionally independent from the original motive responsible for the behavior
What are the two levels of functional autonomy?
Perseverative functional autonomy and Propriate functional autonomy
Give an example of perseverative functional autonomy
A rat that learned to run a maze to be fed continues to run it even after being fed. Why? out of habit
Give an example of propriate functional autonomy
A woman may originally take a job cus she needs money, but eventually develops a passion for it and even develops a hobby closely related to her occupation
What 8 processes aren’t functionally autonomous?
- Biological drives
- Motives directly linked to the reduction of basic drives
- Reflex actions such as an eye blink
- Constitutional equipment, namely physique, intelligence, and temperament
- Habits in the process of being formed
- Patterns of behavior that require primary reinforcement
- Sublimations that can’t be tied to childhood or sexual desires
- Some neurotic or pathological symptoms
What are morphogenic procedures and how did Allport use them?
Morphogenic procedures study the whole person and intraperson comparisons. Some techniques include diaries, letters, recordings, etc.
What are the two types of traits Allport recognized?
Common and individual
