Gordon Allport’s personality theory

The American psychologist devised one of the most respected theoretical corpuses on personality.

Throughout history, the set of characteristics that make people different from each other, having a distinctive way of interpreting, acting and living life have been thoroughly studied. This distinctive pattern is what we commonly know as personality. Being an abstract concept, personality is interpretable from a large number of approaches..

Among these approaches, some consider that personality is a unique configuration in each person, no two being alike. Thus, each person is totally unique, although some similarities with others may be found. This point of view is what we consider to be the idiographic approach, the greatest exponent of this approach being Gordon Allport and his theory of personality.

What makes us do what we do?

The fact that we behave, or that we respond to the world in one way or another is due to a wide group of variables and factors.

The situations we live in, what they demand of us, and how we interpret both the situation and what we may be able to see are very relevant elements in deciding one plan of action or another. However, it is not only the situation that controls behavior. there are a series of internal variables that govern together with the environmental demands that we make and even think about in concrete terms..

The latter correspond to the set of characteristics that make up our personality, which according to the principle of functional autonomy of motives, is a force that causes us to motivate us to act in a certain way, being in turn this motivating action due to the activation of patterns learned throughout the life cycle.

The Propium and its configuration in personality

Personality has been conceptualized in many different ways depending on the author, theoretical current and approach that has dealt with it. In the case of Allport, this important psychologist considers that personality is a dynamic organization of the psychophysiological systems that determine the way of thinking and acting characteristic of the subject. Through these elements, Allport creates a theoretical system aimed at explaining the behavioral style of individuals.

However, personality needs a vertebral element in which the different characteristics of personality are structured. This axis is what the author calls propiumthis being the self-perception of being a differentiated entity. It is the subject's perception of himself as a being integrated by different characteristics, experiences and desires, being the self-perception of being a differentiated being.

In Allport's theory of personality, it is considered that this perception of one's own entity is made up of different factors. The elements that make up this skeleton of mental life, which are acquired throughout psychic maturation, are the following.

1. Corporeal self

This part of the propium is basically the experience of bodily and perceptual sensations, which allow the experience with the external environment.which allow the experience with the external environment. It is the component of consciousness about the parts of one's own body and the way it feels when in contact with external stimuli.

2. Identity

This is the idea that we are a "something" in a continuous way, living different experiences throughout life. It can be understood as the backbone of our own life history, the way in which we interpret the path we have been following and, from this, the conclusions we draw about ourselves.

3. Self-esteem

The perception that we are not passive entities, but that we modify our experience and our life with our actions, is a very important part of integrating the personality. We see ourselves as valuable beings.

4. Self-image

This is a comparative element, which takes into account, on the one hand, one's own performance and, on the other hand, the environment's reaction to it. In other words, it is what you think others think of you.

5. Extension of the self

This part of the self refers to the perception that the person has concrete interests, these elements being important to us. These goals and objectives form a vector of action that guides behavior.

6. Rationality

Self-perception of the capacity to find adaptive solutions to the different problems and demands that the environment can provide. It is closely related to self-confidence.

7. Intentionality

The most complex element of the propium, the creation of an intentional self involves the self-awareness of being a being with its own goals and objectives, ability to motivate oneself and strive to achieve

The structure of the personality

Personality is an element that can be understood as a kind of organized system that generates behavioral patterns from the subject's activity. To explain its organization and allow the study and prediction of behavior, it is necessary to take into account the main and most basic of the elements that make it up: the traits.

Traits are the element that allows us to evaluate different stimuli as a set to which we can respond in a similar way. to which we can respond in a similar way, our behavior being somehow adaptive to them.

Traits are understood as the point of union between mental processes and physiological components, and this union is responsible for our behavior. Thus, Allport states that traits cause the tendency to always act in a similar way..

Traits in Allport's Personalistic Theory

As the main exponent of the idiographic approach, Allport considered that the behavioral patterns of each person are unique and different between subjects. Despite this, it is considered that human beings generally possess the same types of traits, such as dependence, aggressiveness, sociability and anxiety, so that similar patterns are not uncommon. What makes each individual have his or her own personality is the relationship between personality traits and which ones stand out in each one.

Personality traits can be classified according to how identifiable they are with the subject's general behavior.The author considers three main types of traits

1. Cardinal traits

The following are considered cardinal traits those personality traits that are part of the very core of the person, affecting and defining most of the person's behavioral repertoire.affecting and defining most of the person's behavioral repertoire. That is, they are those that have the most weight in the way of being of each individual.

2. Central traits

The central traits are those sets of characteristics that have an influence on the person's behavior in different contexts.. They participate in our behavior and the tendencies we have even though they influence a more restricted set of behavior, such as socialization, being in general independent of each other.

3. Secondary traits

These are some elements that, although they are not part of the general personality of the subjects, may emerge at certain momentssuch as when facing a specific situation.

All this set of factors makes Allport's theory a complex element that tries to give a sense of personality from a structural point of view, being the main characteristics of the personalistic theory the fact that each person is configured through a composition of different traits unique to each person and the fact that the human being is an entity that is not limited to remain static while life goes by, but actively participates in its environment to build, experience and meet goals and objectives.

What kind of theory is Allport's?

Allport's theory of personality is interesting not only because of its content, but also because of the confluence of various ideologies and theoretical perspectives.

Regardless of the fact that it is confined to an idiographic point of view, in which the variables that make each person unique and different are highlighted, The theory established by Allport indicates that although each person's configuration is unique, there are common patterns of behavior.The theory of personality traits is generally shared innate elements.

Likewise, although his theory is innatist in nature, it does not ignore the influence of situational factors in explaining behavior, which brings him closer to interactionist positions that see behavior as a combination of the Biological and the environmental.

Finally, Allport's theory is part of the structuralist theories of personality. These theories are based on the idea that personality is an organized configuration of characteristics with a specific structure, which makes it possible to predict future behavior as the individual tends to act in accordance with this structure.

However, it also reveals a certain interest in the process, that is, in the process by which it develops and not only its structure, in analyzing how the propium is formed.

Bibliographical references:

• Allport, G.W. (1961). Pattern and Growth in personality. New York: Holt.

• Bermúdez, J. (1996). Personalistic theory of G.W. Allport. In Bermúdez, J.(Ed.) Psicología de la personalidad. Madrid: UNED.

• Hernangómez, L. & Fernández, C. (2012). Personality and Differential Psychology. Manual CEDE de Preparación PIr, 07. CEDE: Madrid.