Gordon Allport was an American psychologist, who is one of the first psychologist to focus on the study of personality. Allport discovered and classifies over fifty definitions of personality, and emphasized on an individual’s traits and their influence on behavior. Allport defined personality to be” the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behavior and thought”. He carefully chose each word to carefully emphasize on a person’s changing, structured, and unique personality each individual contains. Brought up that a person’s personality is built up from the past and affects an individual’s future. Throughout his studies and career, he always suggested that even though it is unobservable, personality is real within a person . To this day, Gordon Allport is still known as the “founder of personality” (Engler 2014).
Allport suggested seven criteria that demonstrated that a person is psychologically healthy. They are an extension of the sense of self, warm relationship with others, acceptance of oneself, realistic perception, problem solving skills, self insight and humor, and a unifying philosophy of life. Monica is a great example of a person that exhibits these criteria. Her ability to work very well with numbers, shows that she has great problem solving skills. In difficult situations, like raising her children, she is able to find the humorous side of the situation and laughs during it, exhibiting herself insight and humour. It is very evident she displays a warm relationship with others, by helping them when they need it the most. Monica’s daughter, Jenna, has severe learning disabilities which allows Monica to maintain a realistic perception of life for herself and her daughter. Monica’s philosophy in life seems generally healthy. She enjoys having fun with her family and doesn’t constantly worry about the small aspects in life, like not being able to remember something she wanted to remember.
The difference between a cardinal, central, and secondary trait is that a cardinal trait expresses a disposition that is so pervasive and outstanding in a person’s life that virtually every act a person makes, it is traceable to its influence. A central traits are the blocks that build up a person’s behavior. Come in the form of characteristics, such as kindness, loyalty, grouchiness, etc. For example, Monica’s central trait is being kind to her friends and always being there for them when they need her. Finally, Secondary traits explain why a person might behave much differently than they normally would; such as a nice person being mean towards a colleague (Cherry 2018).
In Allport’s theory, functional autonomy is states the present motives are not necessarily tied to the past, but may be free of earlier motivations (Engler 2014). Their motives are not tied to their old motives. An example of preservative functional autonomy is that Monica needs to continually clean her house, regardless of reinforcement (Nicholson 2003).
According to Allport, proprium is self- concept. The central experience of self awareness people have as they grow. Monica’s proprium is that she views herself as uneducated, yet intelligent. Monica’s friends have attended college and it bothers her that she has not. Yet,she plans to attend college and get her Associates degree. She is aware of herself that she is a perfectionist, but also likes to enjoy herself and have fun. She’s a balance of both, aware of her flaws and works upon them (Engler 2014).
Propriate Striving, according to Allport, is a “function that entails projection of long term purposes and goals and development of a plan to attain them”. It is moving forward and trying to find one’s self identity. Monica is a stay at home mother, but would still like to attend college and become a get an associates degree in Legal business studies, to work as a legal assistant. In monica’s case, her children are getting older and don’t need as much of her attention as they used to as kids. Monica’s lifestyle and routines are changing, but also her motives are changing. She’s changing her self identity from being a stay at home mom, to a working mother (Engler 2014).
According to Allport, propriate striving is when a person tries to find their self identity as they’re moving forward and growing older. Compared to Roger’s concept of actualization, Allport suggested that propriate striving meant searching for one’s identity instead of motives influenced by growth or enhancement. Jung differs in that he suggested the theory of the collective unconscious, where people have archetypes stored in their collective unconscious. Maslow’s concept of self actualization differs because he distinguished between basic needs that motivate and psychological needs. Basic needs include hunger, sleep, and thirst whereas psychological needs include self-esteem, affection, and belonging (Cervone & Pervin, 2016).