fei75766_ch12_377-407.indd 383  02/06/20 12:56 PM
Chapter 12    Allport: Psychology of the Individual383
ormarking, thatnooneelsecanduplicate. Thewords behavior and thought simply 
refertoanything theperson does. They areomnibus terms meant toinclude internal 
behaviors (thoughts) aswellasexternal behaviors suchaswords andactions.
Allport’s comprehensive definition ofpersonality suggests thathuman beings 
arebothproduct andprocess; people havesome organized structure while, atthe
same time, theypossess thecapability ofchange. Pattern coexists withgrowth, order 
withdiversification.
Insummary, personality isbothphysical andpsychological; itincludes both
overt behaviors andcovert thoughts; itnotonlyissomething, butitdoessomething. 
Personality isbothsubstance andchange, bothproduct andprocess, bothstructure 
andgrowth.
What Is the Role of Conscious Motivation?
More thananyother personality theorist, Allport emphasized theimportance ofcon-
scious motivation. Healthy adults aregenerally aware ofwhat theyaredoing andtheir
reasons fordoing it.Hisemphasis onconscious motivation goesbacktohismeeting 
inVienna withFreud andhisemotional reaction toFreud’s question: “And wasthat
littleboyyou?”Freud’s response carried theimplication thathis22-year-old visitor 
wasunconsciously talking about hisownfetish forcleanliness inrevealing thestory 
oftheclean littleboyonthetramcar.Allport (1967) insisted thathismotivation was
quite conscious—he simply wanted toknow Freud’s ideas about dirtphobia inachild 
soyoung.
Whereas Freud would assume anunderlying unconscious meaning tothestory 
ofthelittleboyonthetram, Allport wasinclined toaccept self-reports atfacevalue. 
“This experience taught methatdepth psychology, forallitsmerits, mayplunge 
toodeep, andthatpsychologists would dowelltogivefullrecognition tomanifest 
motives before probing theunconscious” (Allport, 1967, p.8).
However, Allport (1961) didnotignore theexistence oreventheimportance of
unconscious processes. Herecognized thefactthatsome motivation isdriven byhid-
denimpulses andsublimated drives. Hebelieved, forexample, thatmost compulsive 
behaviors areautomatic repetitions, usually self-defeating, andmotivated byuncon -
scious tendencies. They often originate inchildhood andretain achildish flavor into
adult years. 
What Are the Characteristics of a Healthy Person?
Long before Abraham Maslow (seeChapter 9)made theconcept ofself-actualization 
popular, Gordon Allport (1937) hypothesized indepth about theattributes ofthe
mature personality. Allport’s interest inthepsychologically healthy person goesback
to1922, theyearhefinished hisPhD. Nothaving anyparticular skills inmathemat -
ics,biology, medicine, orlaboratory manipulations, Allport (1967) wasforced to
“find [his] ownwayinthehumanistic pastures ofpsychology” (p.8).Such pastures 
ledtoastudy ofthepsychologically mature personality. 
Afewgeneral assumptions arerequired tounderstand Allport’s conception 
ofthemature personality. First, psychologically mature people arecharacterized by
proactive behavior; thatis,theynotonlyreact toexternal stimuli buttheyarecapable Final PDF to printer