Humanistic Trait Models - Gordon Allport

Type of psychology: Personality
Fields of study: Humanistic-phenomenological models; personality
theory
Allport’s humanistic trait model explains how a person’s unique personal characteristics
provide a pattern and direction to personality. It reveals the limitations of psychological
theories that focus only on general rules of human behavior and provides insight
into how to conduct in-depth study of individual dispositions.

Key concepts

• cardinal disposition
• central dispositions
• common traits
• functional autonomy
• idiographic or morphogenic study
• nomothetic study
• personal dispositions
• proprium
• secondary dispositions

The humanistic trait model of Gordon Allport (1897-1967) was based on his
profound belief in the uniqueness of every personality, as well as his conviction
that individuality is displayed through dominant personal characteristics
that provide continuity and direction in a person’s life. He saw personality
as dynamic, growing, changing, and based on one’s perception of the
world. Like other humanists, Allport believed that people are essentially
proactive, or forward moving; they are motivated by the future and seek tension
and change rather than sameness. In addition, each individual possesses
a set of personal dispositions that define the person and provide a pattern
to behavior.

Allport’s approach is different from those of other trait theorists who
have typically sought to categorize personalities according to a basic set of
universal, essential characteristics. Allport referred to such characteristics as
common traits. Instead of focusing on common traits that allow for comparisons
among many people, Allport believed that each person is defined by a
different set of characteristics. Based on his research, he estimated that
there are four thousand to five thousand traits and eighteen thousand trait
names.