Chapter 12: Psychology of the Individual (Allport) Flashcards
More than any other personality theorist, Gordon Allport emphasized the _____ of the individual.
uniqueness
He called the study of the individual _____ science and contrasted it with the nomothetic methods used by most other psychologists.
morphogenic
_____ methods are those that gather data on a single individual, whereas nomothetic methods gather data on groups of people.
Morphogenic
Allport also advocated an _____ approach to theory building. He accepted some of the contributions of Freud, Maslow, Rogers, Eysenck, Skinner, and others; but he believed that no one of these theorists is able to adequately explain the total growing and unique personality.
eclectic
He then offered a 50th definition, which in 1937 was “the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment”.
In 1961, he had changed the last phrase to read “that determine his characteristic behavior and thought
Personality
Healthy adults are generally aware of what they are doing and their reasons for doing it.
Role of Conscious Motivation
However, _____ did not ignore the existence or even the importance of unconscious processes.
Allport
- Characterized by proactive behavior; that is, they not only react to external stimuli, but they are capable of consciously acting on their environment in new and innovative ways and causing their environment to react to them.
- Motivated by conscious processes, which allow them to be more flexible and autonomous than unhealthy people, who remain dominated by unconscious motives that spring from childhood experiences.
- Experienced a relatively trauma-free childhood. Psychologically healthy individuals are not without the foibles and idiosyncrasies that make them unique. Also, age is not a requisite for maturity, although healthy persons seem to become more mature as they get older.
3 Assumptions Mature Personality
- Extension of the sense of self - participate outside
- Warm relating of self to others - love, respect
- Emotional security or self-acceptance - not exagg emotion
- Realistic perception of their environment - problem oriented
- Insight and humor - no pretend, they know no perfect
- Unifying philosophy of life - clear purpose
6 Criteria for the Mature Personality
To Freud, the basic units were instincts; to Eysenck, they were mathematically determined factors.
To Allport, the most important structures are those that permit the description of the person in terms of individual characteristics, and he called these individual characteristics _____.
Personal dispositions = ugali, personalized
Common Traits = General
“A generalized neuropsychic structure (peculiar to the individual), with the capacity to render many stimuli functionally equivalent, and to initiate and guide consistent (equivalent) forms of adaptive and stylistic behavior”.
personal dispositions = ugali, personalized
Common Traits = General
_____ are general characteristics held in common by many people. They can be inferred from factor analytic studies such as those conducted by Eysenck and the authors of the Five-Factor Theory, or they can be revealed by various personality inventories. _____ provide the means by which people within a given culture can be compared to one another.
Common Traits
To identify personal dispositions, Allport and Henry Odbert counted nearly 18,000 (_____, to be exact) personally descriptive words in the 1925 edition of Webster’s New International Dictionary, about a fourth of which described personality characteristics.
17,953
- Cardinal Dispositions - obvious, sociable (isa lang disposition nag dodominate lifetime, narcissus)
- Central Dispositions - 5 to 10 most outstanding characteristics (how you define yourself, style, traits) friends, and close acquaintances would agree are descriptive of that person.
- Secondary Dispositions - less conspicuous but far greater in number, anxiety, shyness (sometimes unaware)
Levels of Personal Dispositions (Parang hierarchy)
Allport called these intensely experienced dispositions motivational dispositions. Ex: eating
Motivational Dispositions
Allport referred to personal dispositions that are less intensely experienced as _____. Ex: attire, dress, politeness habang kumakain
Stylistic Dispositions
Stylistic dispositions _____ action, whereas motivational dispositions _____ action.
guide, initiate
Motivational dispositions are somewhat similar to _____ concept of coping behavior, whereas stylistic dispositions are similar to _____ idea of expressive behavior.
Maslow’s
Refer to those behaviors and characteristics that people regard as warm, central, and important in their lives, close to the core of personality, an important part of self, “peculiarly mine”
parang sense of self, “ako yan”, grupo of being me vs. central disposition, individual
Proprium
“Peripheral motives” are those that reduce a need (kain pag gutom, homeostasis), whereas “propriate” strivings seek to maintain tension and disequilibrium
Types of Motivation
Many older theories of personality, Allport believed, did not allow for possibilities of growth. Psychoanalysis and the various learning theories are basically homeostatic, or reactive, theories because they see people as being motivated primarily by needs to reduce tension and to return to a state of equilibrium.
Theory of Motivation
An adequate theory of personality, Allport contended, must allow for proactive behavior. It must view people as consciously acting on their environment in a manner that permits growth toward psychological health.
Theory of Motivation
Motivation: Allport’s concept of _____ proposes that the motives of mature, emotionally healthy adults are not functionally connected to the prior experiences in which they initially appeared.
It is obvious that the tree’s development can be traced to its seed. Yet when the tree is fully grown, the seed is no longer required as a source of.
Ginagawa natin yu’ng mga bagay just because, walang kinalaman childhood sa pagbili ng aircon kasi mainit ngayon
The Functional Autonomy of Motives
_____ Functional Autonomy, the more elementary level, is concerned with such behaviors as addictions and repetitive physical actions such as habitual ways of performing some everyday task.
We just do it for fun, nakasanayan lang. shat para makalimutan ex, pero kahit naka move on na shat shat pa rin
Perseverative
What is personality?
What is the role of conscious motivation in personality theory?
What are the characteristics of a psychologically healthy individual?
3 questions Allports wanted to answer.
The master system of motivation that confers unity on personality is propriate functional autonomy, which refers to those self-sustaining motives that are related to the proprium.
Ex: nag teacher ako kasi need ko magbayad ng tuition fee, pero i fell in love with teaching, nagkaron ng passion
Propriate Functional Autonomy
Theory of Motivation: People just want to maintain homeostasis and no room for growth.
(mainit, magpapahinga like other animals)
Reactive Behavior
Theory of Motivation: People as consciously acting on their environment in a manner that permits growth toward psychological health.
(mainit, bibili ng aircon, humans) it’s like environment ang mag-aadjust
Proactive Behavior
Refers to patterned properties of the whole organism and allows intraperson comparisons.
Because idiographic is confusing for most people.
iba iba ng extroversion kasi iba iba ways, such as intelligence. You can do this thru diaries
Morphogenic Science
