M2. Lesson 4: Psychology of the Individual

Question 1

How was Allport towards ideas from a variety of sources?

Answer 1

Allport was eclectic in his acceptance of ideas from a variety of sources.

Question 2

How did Allport define personality?

Answer 2

He defined personality as the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine a person’s behavior and thought.

Question 3

What are psychologically healthy people like? (Psychology of the Individual)

Answer 3

Psychologically healthy people are motivated largely by conscious processes; have an extended sense of self; relate warmly to others; accept themselves for who they are; have a realistic perception of the world; and possess insight, humor, and a unifying philosophy of life.

Question 4

What did Allport advocate?

Answer 4

Allport advocated a proactive position.

Question 5

What is a proactive position?

Answer 5

One that emphasized the notion that people have a large measure of conscious control over their lives

Question 6

What are common traits?

Answer 6

Common traits are general characteristics held in common by many people. They may be useful for comparing one group of people with another.

Question 7

What are individual traits?

Answer 7

Individual traits (personal dispositions) are peculiar to the individual and have the capacity to render different stimuli functionally equivalent and to initiate and guide behavior.

Question 8

What are the three levels of personal dispositions?

Answer 8

Three levels of personal dispositions are (1) cardinal dispositions, which only a few people possess and which are so conspicuous that they cannot be hidden; (2) central dispositions, the 5 to 10 individual traits that make a person unique; and (3) secondary dispositions, which are less distinguishable but far more numerous than central dispositions.

Question 9

What are motivational traits?

Answer 9

Personal dispositions that initiate actions are called motivational traits.

Question 10

What are stylistic traits?

Answer 10

Personal dispositions that guide actions are called stylistic traits.

Question 11

What is proprium?

Answer 11

The proprium refers to those behaviors and personal dispositions that are warm and central to our lives and that we regard as peculiarly our own.

Question 12

What is functional autonomy?

Answer 12

Functional autonomy refers to motives that are self-sustaining and independent from the motives that were originally responsible for a behavior.

Question 13

What is perseverative functional autonomy?

Answer 13

Perseverative functional autonomy refers to those habits and behaviors that are not part of one’s proprium.

Question 14

What is propriate functional autonomy?

Answer 14

Propriate functional autonomy includes all those self-sustaining motivations that are related to the proprium.

Question 15

What did Allport use?

Answer 15

Allport used morphogenic procedures, such as diaries and letters, which stress patterns of behavior within a single individual.

Question 16

What did Gordon Allport emphasize more than any other personality theorist?

Answer 16

More than any other personality theorist, Gordon Allport emphasized the uniqueness of the individual.

Question 17

What did Allport believe that attempts to describe people do?

Answer 17

He believed that attempts to describe people in terms of general traits rob them of their unique individuality.

Question 18

As a result of thinking that describing people through traits robbed them of their individuality, what did Allport do?

Answer 18

For this reason, Allport objected to trait and factor theories that tend to reduce individual behaviors to common traits. He insisted, for example, that one person’s stubbornness is different from any other person’s stubbornness and the manner in which one person’s stubbornness interacts with his or her extraversion and creativity is duplicated by no other individual.

Question 19

What made Allport consistent?

Answer 19

Consistent with Allport’s emphasis on each person’s uniqueness was his willingness to study in depth a single individual.

Question 20

What did he call his study of focusing on the depth of an individual?

Answer 20

He called the study of the individual morphogenic science and contrasted it with the nomothetic methods used by most other psychologists.

Question 21

What are morphogenic methods?

Answer 21

Morphogenic methods are those that gather data on a single individual, whereas nomothetic methods gather data on groups of people.

Question 22

What did Allport advocate in his approach to theory building?

Answer 22

Allport also advocated an eclectic 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. To Allport, a broad, comprehensive theory is preferable to a narrow, specific theory even if it does not generate as many testable hypotheses.