fei75766_ch12_377-407.indd 395  02/06/20 12:56 PM
Chapter 12    Allport: Psychology of the Individual395
again withanimosity forRoss, asuspicious andcynical attitude toward others, anda
morbid yetdramatic approach tolife.
Three years intothecorrespondence, Ross suddenly died. After hisdeath, 
Jenny’s letters expressed asomewhat more favorable attitude toward herson.Now 
shedidnothavetoshare himwithanyone. Now hewassafe—no more prostitutes.
Forthenext8years, Jenny continued writing toGlenn andIsabel, andtheyusu-
allyanswered her.However, theyserved mostly asneutral listeners andnotasadvisors 
orconfidantes. Jenny continued tobeoverly concerned withdeath andmoney. She
increasingly blamed others forhermisery andintensified hersuspicions andhostility 
toward hercaregivers. After Jenny died, Isabel (Ada) commented that,intheend,
Jenny was“thesame onlymore so”(Allport, 1965, p.156).
These letters represent anunusually richsource ofmorphogenic material. For
years, theyweresubjected toclose analysis andstudy byAllport andhisstudents, who
sought tobuild thestructure ofasingle personality byidentifying personal disposi -
tions thatwerecentral tothatperson. Allport andhisstudents usedthree techniques 
tolookatJenny’s personality. First, Alfred Baldwin (1942) developed atechnique 
called personal structure analysis toanalyze approximately one-third oftheletters. 
Toanalyze Jenny’s personal structure, Baldwin usedtwostrictly morphogenic pro-
cedures, frequency andcontiguity, forgathering evidence. Thefirstsimply involves a
notation ofthefrequency withwhich anitemappears inthecasematerial. Forexam -
ple,howoften didJenny mention Ross, ormoney, orherself? Contiguity refers tothe
proximity oftwoitems intheletters. How often didthecategory “Ross— unfavorable” 
occur inclose correspondence with“herself—self-sacrificing”? Freud andother psy-
choanalysts intuitively usedthistechnique ofcontiguity todiscover anassociation 
between twoitems inapatient’s unconscious mind. Baldwin, however, refined it
bydetermining statistically those correspondences thatoccur more frequently than
could beexpected bychance alone.
Using thepersonal structure analysis, Baldwin identified three clusters ofcatego -
riesinJenny’s letters. Thefirstrelated toRoss, women, the past, and  herself—self-  sacrificing. 
Thesecond dealtwithJenny’s search for a job, andthethirdcluster revolved around her
attitude toward money and death. Thethree clusters areindependent ofeachother even
though asingle topic, suchasmoney, mayappear inallthree clusters.
Second, Jeffrey Paige (1966) usedafactor analysis toextract primary personal 
dispositions revealed byJenny’s letters. Inall,Paige identified eight factors: aggres -
sion, possessiveness, affiliation, autonomy, familial acceptance, sexuality, sentience, 
andmartyrdom. Paige’s study isinteresting because heidentified eight factors, anum-
berthatcorresponds verywellwiththenumber ofcentral dispositions—5 to10—that 
Allport hadearlier hypothesized would befound inmost people. 
Thethird method ofstudying Jenny’s letters wasacommonsense technique 
usedbyAllport (1965). Hisresults arequite similar tothose ofBaldwin andPaige. 
Allport asked 36judges tolistwhat theythought wereJenny’s essential character -
istics. They recorded 198descriptive adjectives, many ofwhich weresynonymous 
andoverlapping. Allport thengrouped theterms intoeight clusters: (1)quarrelsome-
suspicious, (2)self-centered (possessive), (3)independent-autonomous, (4)dramatic-
intense, (5)aesthetic-artistic, (6)aggressive, (7)cynical-morbid, and(8)sentimental. 
Comparing thiscommonsense, clinical approach withPaige’s factorial study, 
Allport (1966) presented some interesting parallels (seeTable 12.1). Through Jenny’s Final PDF to printer