Gordon Allport Glossary
Functioning and the Self
- Opportunistic functioning
- The tendency to satisfy biological survival needs. It is reactive, past-oriented, and biological.
- Propriate functioning
- Functioning in a manner expressive of the self. It is proactive, future-oriented, and psychological.
- Proprium
- Allport's term for the self.
- Phenomenological
- The self as experienced. Allport described the self as including aspects of experience that seem essential, warm, and central to the person.
Development of the Proprium
- Sense of body
- Develops in the first two years of life. Through pain, injury, touch, and movement, we become aware of our bodily boundaries.
- Self-identity
- Develops in the first two years of life. We recognize ourselves as continuing individuals with a past, present, and future, separate and different from others.
- Self-esteem
- Develops between two and four years of age. We recognize that we have value to ourselves and to others, particularly as our competencies develop.
- Self-extension
- Develops between four and six years of age. People, things, activities, and places can become so central to us that they are experienced as extensions of ourselves.
- Self-image
- Develops between four and six years of age. The "looking-glass self," or the self as we believe others see us.
- Rational coping
- Develops predominantly from six to twelve years of age. The child develops the ability to deal with life's problems rationally and effectively.
- Propriate striving
- Usually begins after twelve years of age. It involves goals, ideals, plans, vocations, a sense of direction, and a sense of purpose.
Traits and Dispositions
- Personal traits or personal dispositions
- Unique characteristics within an individual that produce recognizable consistencies in behavior.
- Idiographic methods
- Methods that focus on studying one individual at a time, such as interviews, observation, and analysis of letters or diaries.
- Common traits
- Traits or dispositions recognized and shared within a particular culture.
- Central traits
- The building blocks of personality. Most people have somewhere between five and ten central traits that are commonly used to describe them.
- Secondary traits
- Traits that are less obvious, less general, or less consistent. Preferences, attitudes, and situational characteristics are examples.
- Cardinal traits
- Traits that can practically define a person's life. Relatively few people develop a cardinal trait, and when one develops, it tends to occur later in life.
Psychological Maturity
- Psychological maturity
- Allport's term for mental health. It involves a well-developed proprium and a rich, adaptive set of dispositions.
- Extensions of self
- Specific and enduring involvement in people, activities, interests, or other parts of life beyond oneself.
- Warm relating
- Dependable ways of relating warmly to others, including trust, empathy, genuineness, and tolerance.
- Emotional security
- Emotional stability together with self-acceptance.
- Realistic perception
- The ability to perceive oneself and the world realistically rather than defensively.
- Problem-centeredness
- The development and use of effective problem-solving skills.
- Self-objectification
- Insight into one's own behavior, including the ability to laugh at oneself.
- Philosophy of life
- A unifying philosophy that includes personal values, religious sentiment, and a personalized conscience.
Functional Autonomy
- Functional autonomy
- The idea that a person's present motives can become independent of their original causes.
- Perseverative functional autonomy
- Habits or behaviors that continue even though they no longer serve their original purpose.
- Propriate functional autonomy
- Self-directed motives associated with present values. A behavior may have begun for one reason but later continue because it has become part of what the person values.
Extensions
The following concepts extend beyond the material presented in Dr. C. George Boeree's discussion of Gordon Allport. They are included here as additional concepts associated with Allport's work.
- Dynamic Organization
- Personality is not simply a collection of separate traits. Its various parts are organized into an integrated and changing system.
- Psychophysical Systems
- Personality involves both psychological and physical processes. Allport rejected the idea that personality could be understood as entirely mental or entirely biological.
- Heredity and Environment
- Personality develops through the interaction of inherited characteristics and environmental influences rather than through either one alone.
- Deterministic
- The view that present behavior is determined by prior causes. Allport challenged strongly deterministic explanations by emphasizing present motives and the individual's developing purposes and values.
- States
- Temporary conditions, such as moods or emotions, that influence behavior but are not enduring characteristics of personality.
- Expressive Traits
- Characteristics revealed in the style or manner in which a person behaves rather than simply in what the person does.
- Methodolatry
- Allport's criticism of allowing devotion to a particular research method to become more important than understanding the person being studied.
- Phenotypical Traits
- Observable characteristics or patterns of behavior as they appear outwardly.
- Genotypical Motives
- The underlying motives or internal structures that may help explain outward behavior.
- Unitas Multiplex
- The idea of the person as a complex unity: many different characteristics, motives, and processes organized within one individual.
- Extrinsic Religious Orientation
- An orientation in which religion is used as a means toward other ends, such as social status, security, comfort, or belonging.
- Intrinsic Religious Orientation
- An orientation in which religion is internalized and treated as an end in itself, becoming an organizing influence in the person's life.