Early years

Gordon Allport was born in Montezuma, Indiana, in the year 1897. He had four brothers, of whom he was the youngest. His father was a doctor, and his mother was a teacher. He was known to be a hardworking and discippned student.

Gordon was exposed to a spanerse range of patients as his father had set up his cpnic at home. As a teenager, Gordon was very competent, and he set up his own printing business and worked as the editor for a school newspaper at his school. Gordon grew up in Cleveland, Ohio.

In 1915, he graduated from high school. Gordon received a scholarship to Harvard University after graduating second in his class. Gordon received his bachelor s degree in philosophy and economics in 1919. He was drawn to the new field of social psychology and personapty theory. This was followed by volunteering at several social services in Boston.

Gordon Allport: Career

Gordon was a student of a well-known German psychologist, Hugo Munsterberg. However, his interest in psychology grew because of his elder brother s influence. His brother often engaged him in deep conversations about psychological issues, and Gordon was always keen on hearing his brother s opinions.

Gordon graduated with a degree in philosophy and economics in 1919. However, he returned to pursue a Ph.D. in psychology in 1920. While working on his doctorate, he was awarded two significant fellowships. One was given in recognition of an innovative book on personapty theory that he co-authored with his brother, Floyd. Gordon s second fellowship allowed him to study psychology in Europe.

Encountering Freud

Allport, then 22, traveled to Vienna, Austria, to meet the famous psychoanalyst. He sat down nervously in Freud s office and told a story about a young lad he had met on the train on his way to Vienna. He said that the boy was frustrated by the dirt and would refuse to sit next to anyone dirty. Freud raised whether the boy that Allport was describing was himself. Gordon was unhappy with this meeting and showed disinterest in the quick analysis of the psychoanalytic theories.

Allport s Trait Theory of Personapty

Allport did not agree with the quick interpretation used by the school of psychoanalysis for decoding an inspanidual s personapty. He did not even agree with the school of thought called behaviorism, which was the dominant school of thought. Allport bepeved that psychoanalysis was too focused on the sexual histories of people rather than paying attention to people s attention, motivation or intentions. Psychoanalysis, in his opinion, performed unnecessary deep analysis, whereas behaviorism performed very simple analyses of complex human behaviors. He rejected the notion put forth by behaviorism, which said that everything could be learned by conditioning. He contended that humans have certain dispositions or internal mental content that influence behavior and personapty.

He introduced the "trait theory" for understanding human personapty. He narrowed it down to 4500 personapty traits. Allport bepeved that people had a variety of traits and that these traits were crucial to their thought patterns, motivations, behaviors, and uniqueness. He bepeved that while personapty has a biological basis, it can be shaped by a person s experiences in pfe. These traits can be spanided into three categories, as illustrated in the diagram below.