Allport's Personality Definition
Gordon Allport, a prominent psychologist, defined personality as a dynamic concept. He viewed personality not as a static entity, but as an internal system within the individual that influences their characteristic behaviors and thoughts.
Intervening Variable Concept
Allport conceptualized personality as an intervening variable. This means personality is an internal state or process that helps explain the relationship between external stimuli (what happens to a person) and their responses (how they behave). It's something that happens *between* the input and the output.
Why Intervening Variable?
- Personality, for Allport, is not directly observable like behavior itself.
- It's inferred from behavior and represents the underlying psychological structures and dynamics.
- It accounts for the consistency and uniqueness of an individual's actions.
Evaluating Other Options
- Response style: This describes *how* someone responds, but not the underlying personality structure itself.
- Social stimulus value: This refers to how an individual influences others, which is an outcome of personality, not the definition of personality itself.
- Thinking style: While thinking style is part of personality, it is too narrow to encompass Allport's broader definition.
Therefore, the most fitting description according to Allport's view is that personality acts as an intervening variable.
Important Questions from Personality
- Read each of the following two statements – Assertion (A) and Reason (R); and indicate your answer using codes given below :
Assertion (A) : According to Rollo May, to grow psychologically, our values must be constantly challenged.
Reason (R) : Rollo May proposed that Neurotic anxiety occurs when our values are challenged. - People tend to be in better physical health and are better able to cope with stress when they are provided with
a. Physical comfort
b. Moral comfort
c. Psychological comfort
d. Ideological comfort - The fear of one’s own potential greatness and the ambivalent feelings toward greatness in others is called
Match List-I with List-II and select the correct answer by choosing from the codes given below :
List – I
(Concept)List – II
(Meaning)a. Dasein i. Physical, objective world b. Umwelt ii. Human interactions c. Eigen welt iii. Individual as being in tde world d. Mitwelt iv. Self-awareness - Read each of the following two statements – Assertion (A) and Reason (R); and indicate your answer using codes given below :
Assertion (A) : According to Adler, a child’s birth order is important in shaping his/her personality.
Reason (R) : There are unique experiences associated with birth order of every child.
