Gordon Allport (1897 - 1967)
Gordon Allport was born in Montezuma, Indiana, in 1897. He was the youngest
of four brothers. His father was a country doctor.
Allport received his Ph.D. in Psychology in 1922 from Harvard. His career was devoted to developing his theories and developing personality tests, as well as examining various social issues such as prejudice.
Theory
Human beings have a naturally tendency to be motivated to satisfy biological survival needs. Allport referred to this as opportunistic functioning, which can be characterized as reactive, past-oriented, and biological.
According to Allport, opportunistic functioning is not very important for understanding most human behavior, which he instead believed is motivated by something very different, a functioning in a
manner expressive of the self, which he called propriate functioning. Propriate
functioning can be characterized as proactive, future-oriented, and psychological.
Propriate is derived from proprium, which is Allport�s name
for the self.
The proprium
Allport defined the proprium both phenomenologically and functionally.
Phenomenologically, the propium (i.e., self) is composed of the aspects of your experiencing that you
see as essential (as opposed to incidental or tangential).
Functionally, the proprium has seven functions which usually arise at different times in ones
life:
1. Sense of body
2. Self-identity
3. Self-esteem
4. Self-extension
5. Self-image
6. Rational coping
7. Propriate striving
Mental Health as Psychological maturity
To Allport, mental health meant the attainment of psychological maturity, which included having a well-developed proprium. Mental health consisted of seven characteristics:
1. Specific, enduring extensions of self, i.e. involvement.
2. Dependable techniques for warm relating to others (e.g.
trust, empathy, genuineness, tolerance...).
3. Emotional security and self-acceptance.
4. Habits of realistic perception (as opposed to defensiveness).
5. Problem-centeredness, and the development of problem-solving
skills.
6. Self-objectification -- insight into one�s own behavior,
the ability to laugh at oneself, etc.
7. A unifying philosophy of life, including a particular
value orientation, differentiated religious sentiment, and a personalized
conscience.
Functional autonomy
By functional autonomy, Allport meant that your motives today are
not dependent on the past. He differentiated between perseverative
functional autonomy, which refers to habits, and propriate functional autonomy, which is something more self-directed than habits, and is usually taken to include values.
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