Allport’s theory of personality traits

Why was Allport’s personality trait theory novel? What were the events that motivated its creation? What are its main features? If you want to discover all the details, we will tell you below.

Here you will find biographical data, detailed explanations to understand what each of the personality traits consists of, and the research that the author carried out. All this to understand this thought of psychology a little more thoroughly.

Who is Gordon Allport?

Gordon Allport (1897-1967) was a highly respected and influential American scholar in the field of psychology.. He came from a hard-working family that valued health and education. This translated into a great interest in understanding human motivation, drives and personality.

After earning his bachelor’s degree from Harvard, Allport He took a trip to Vienna, Austria, where he met Sigmund Freud and his lines of thought. This event shaped his career and his contributions to American psychology.

Once he had that experience, Allport returned to Harvard to obtain his doctorate in psychology. Throughout this career, which spanned the first half of the 20th century, he made important contributions to the field, most notably the development of his ideas about personal traits, which he later called “personal dispositions.”

According to Allport, these traits are influenced by childhood experiences, the current environment, and the interaction between the two.. Likewise, he believed that personality was composed of three types of traits: cardinal, central and secondary. Let’s delve into it.

Allport’s personality theory

in his book Pattern and Growth in personality, Gordon Allport argues that: “Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behavior and thinking.”». Personality also needs an articulating element that gives it structure and unifies it in all its dimensions.

In this case, as Dr. C. George Boeree, of Shippensburg University, points out in his book, the concept of Propium either Self It plays this role as an integrating axis, to the extent that it allows the subject to build a differentiated version of himself, based on the development of the following elements of mental life.

Body sensation: It points to the relationship that the person has with corporality, that is, with the recognition that one has a body that experiences sensations; which, in turn, become a fundamental vehicle of contact with that outside world.The identity: responds to the idea that the human being is a permanent continuum, that there is something unalterable in him that makes him who he is and differentiates him from others.The self-esteem: It is about the process through which each person builds their personal worth, that is, they begin to recognize themselves as being valuable to themselves and others.The extension of self: It develops from the connection with interests and hobbies, which become an important part of who one is, such as one’s profession or hobbies.The self-image: It refers to the mental representation that each person has of themselves, as well as the impression they believe they leave on others.Rational adaptation: It refers to the way in which we learn to develop skills and strategies to face different situations effectively and rationally.Your own effort or struggle: responds to the expression of Self in relation to the plans, goals, and purposes of the individual.

Personality traits according to Allport

In the book Personality: A psychological interpretation, The generalized and focused neuropsychic system is defined as a trait, which It has the ability to guide consistent adaptive forms of behavior.

On the other hand, in an article published in Psychological Monographs, Allport and Odbert point out that traits are also: “generalized and personalized determining tendencies, persistent and regular modes of adaptation of an individual with his environment.”

These definitions show us that traits are enduring qualities essential to our adaptation to the environment. Likewise, they are important to understand human behavior in different situations. In his personality theory, the author categorizes these into three levels of traits.

Cardinal traits

They are those personality traits that make up the core of the person. These affect and define most of the individual’s behavioral repertoire. In other words, They are the ones that have the most weight in each person’s way of being and characterize the total personality.

These are so penetrating that They dominate almost everything a person does, so he says. For example, someone may be so generous that, in general, all of his gestures reveal it.

Some historical figures who demonstrate a strong cardinal trait are Abraham Lincoln, for his honesty; Marquis de Sade, for sadism; and Joan of Arc, for her heroic self-service.

Cardinal traits shape the person, their sense of self, their emotional makeup, their attitudes, and their behavior. This is so to the point of identifying them for them.

Core Traits

The central features They are the general characteristics that form the basic foundations of personality. Although they are important, they are not as dominant as the cardinal traits. These are the main characteristics that can be used to describe another person.

According to the theory, Each person has between 5 and 10 core traits, and they are present in varying degrees. These include common traits, such as intelligent, shy, honest, and are major determinants of most behaviors.

Secondary traits

Secondary traits are traits that are sometimes related to attitudes or preferences.. That is, provisions that are much less widespread and less relevant. They often appear only in certain situations or under specific circumstances.

For example, a person whose cardinal trait is assertiveness may show signs of submissiveness when stopped by the police for speeding. This is just a situational trait that may or may not show up for other interpersonal encounters.

According to Allport, these are difficult to detect because they are stimulated by a narrower range of equivalent stimuliand emit responses in an even narrower range.

Allport Research on Personality Traits

Allport’s personality trait theory is not directly based on empirical research, and this is its biggest Achilles heel. In fact, he published very little research to support his theory.

However, in his first publication, he and his brother, social psychologist Floyd Allport, examined 55 male college students based on their core traits. After research, they concluded that the traits were measurable in most individuals. The main objective of this test was to develop a personality measurement scale.

Another curious initiative of Gordon Allport was that of analyze a series of letters from a woman called Jenny Gove Masterson. The 301 letters Jenny wrote during the last eleven years of her life to a married couple were acquired by Allport and analyzed. 36 people were asked to characterize Jenny based on the traits they were able to identify.

For your study, Allport concluded that They do not exist independently. Furthermore, at a given moment, the behaviors that motivate two certain traits can come into conflict, so that in the hierarchy one will prevail over the other.

How many personality traits are there?

While several theorists agree that people can be described by their personality traits, There is still a debate about the number of basic traits that make up human personality.

For example, Raymond Cattell reduced the number of observable traits from 4000 to 171 and then to 16; He combined certain characteristics and eliminated the most unique or difficult-to-define traits. In contrast, British psychologist Hans Eysenck developed a personality model based on just three.

However, Allport’s research (along with his theory of personality traits) is considered pioneering work in the field of personality. He relied on statistical or objective data, rather than his personal experience.

Last but not least, this theory is not without criticism. Among them, it is noted that it does not address the state of a person or the way in which they may behave temporarily.

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