Allport and Eysenck 's contributions in field of personality

1. ALLPORT AND
EYSENCK
PRESENTED BY
NAJALA P

2. CONTENTS
•ALLPORT
•Trait theory of Allport
•EYSENCK
•Structure of personality

3. GORDON ALLPORT
• Gordon Willard Allport was born on
November 11, 1897, in US(Montezuma, Indiana.)
• More than any other personality theorist,
Gordon Allport emphasized the
uniqueness of the individual.
• He believed that attempts to describe
people in terms of general traits rob
them of their unique individuality.
• For this reason, Allport objected to trait
and factor theories that tend to reduce
individual behaviors to common traits .

4. •Defined Personality as “the dynamic
organization within the individual of those
psychophysical systems that determine his
unique adjustments to his environment”
(Allport, 1937)
•Consistent with Allport’s emphasis on each
person’s uniqueness was his willingness to
study in depth a single individual.
•He called the study of the individual

5. •Morphogenic methods : those that gather data
on a single individual.
•According to him, an emotionally healthy
individual function rationally and on conscious
terms, who is aware of and controlled by the
forces which motivate him.
• Allport did not support the idea of
unconscious forces instructing a mature
individual’s personality, rather considered it to

6. •In the fall of 1920, he visited Vienna with his
brother. During the visit he penned a note to
Sigmund Freud for an appointment and he agreed
to see Allport. At the designated time, Freud
opened the door to his consulting room and quietly
ushered the young man inside. The American
visitor suddenly realized that he had nothing to say.
•Searching his mind for some incident that might
interest Freud, he remembered seeing a small boy
on the tram car that day while traveling to Freud’s
home. The little boy, about 4 years old, displayed
an obvious dirt phobia, constantly complaining to
his well-starched mother about the filthy

7. •Freud listened silently to the story and then with a typical
Freudian technique—asked his young visitor if he was in
reality talking about himself. Feeling guilty, the young
man managed to change the subject and to escape
without too much further embarrassment.
•He examined Webster's New International Dictionary
(1925) and noted every term that he felt described a
personality trait. His list contained over 400,000 separate
terms, but in the end settled on 17,953 that could
describe a person. This resulted in the development of

8. STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY
•The structure of personality refers to
its basic units or building blocks.
•To Allport, the most important
structures are those that permit the
description of the person in terms of
individual characteristics, and he
called these individual characteristics

9. •Allport delineated a trait or disposition as “a
generalized neuropsychic structure, with the
ability to make many stimuli functionally
equivalent and to initiate and guide consistent
forms of adaptive and stylistic behavior.
• characteristics of traits (Allport,1973):
1.That personality traits are real and exist within
each of us. They are not the theoretical
constructs or labels make it up to account for

10. 2. Traits determine or cause behavior. They do not
arise only in response to certain stimuli. They
motivate us to seek appropriate stimuli, and they
interact with the environment to produce behavior
3. Traits can be demonstrated empirically. By
observing behavior over time, we can infer the
existence of traits in the consistency of a person’s
responses to the same or similar stimuli
4. Traits are interrelated; they may overlap, even
though they represent different characteristics. Eg:-
Aggressiveness and hostility are distinct but related
tracks and are frequently observed to occur

11. •5. Traits vary with the situation eg:- a person may
display the trait of neatness in one situation and
the trait of disorderliness in another situation.
•Initially Allport proposed 2 types of traits:
1.Individual traits
2.Common traits
•Individual traits are unique to a person and define
his or her character
•Common traits are shared by a number of people,
such as members of a culture. They’re more likely
to change overtime as social standards and values
change that is they are subject to social,

12. •A person may have many personal dispositions
but its degree of dominance in the individual’s
life requires to be brought for reference. If we
observe those personal dispositions which are
actually important to a person then we can
actually see that each person usually has less
than 10.
•Equally stating that if all the tendencies are
counted in then the observation of each
individual will be around hundreds of personal

13. LEVELS OF PERSONAL DISPOSITIONS
CARDINAL
DISPOSITIO
NS
CENTRAL
DISPOSITIONS
SECONDARY
DISPOSITIONS
Allport placed personal dispositions on a continuum
from those that are most central to those that are only
peripheral importance to a person
Characterizing an individual’s
behavior to some extend but
not in a complete way as
cardinal.
Dominant and nearly
all of the individual's
action can be traced
back to them
Traits that influence only
within a narrow range of
situations.

14. CARDINAL DISPOSITIONS
•Some people possess an eminent characteristics or
ruling passion so outstanding that it dominates their
life.
•Allport (1961) called this personal dispositions
cardinal dispositions.
• They are so obvious that they cannot be hidden;
nearly every action in the person’s life revolves around
this one cardinal disposition. Most of people do not
have a cardinal disposition but those few people who

15. •Identified several historical people and fictional
Characters who possessed a disposition so
outstanding that they have given our language a
new word.
•Narcissistic, quixotic, sadistic and so forth.
Because personal dispositions are individual and
are not shared with any other person, only don
Quixote was truly quixotic, only Narcissus was
completely narcissistic, only Marquis de sade
decide process to the cardinal disposition of

16. CENTRAL TRAITS
•Few people have cardinal dispositions,
but everyone has several central
dispositions, which include the 5 to 10
most outstanding characteristics around
which a person’s life focuses
•In the year 1961, Allport stated central
dispositions as those which would be
written in an accurate letter of

17. •We can say that a person has many qualities in
him like he is intelligent, he is kind and funny
at the same time, he is possessive and honest,
he is extremely ambitious and he is very
competitive. These major characteristics do not
control the generality of a cardinal trait
although these characteristics control a
person’s behavior and response in many
situation towards various stimulus.

18. SECONDARY DISPOSITIONS
•Secondary dispositions are less in number than the
central
dispositions and are not easily noticeable.
•Each and every person has several secondary
dispositions that are not central to the personality
of the person still occur with certain regularity and
are responsible for much of one’s specific
behaviors. For example, a person may like hot

19. •The 3 levels of personal dispositions are subjective
points on a continuous scale from those that are
most suitable to those that are least suitable.
•Cardinal dispositions, which are extremely
important in a person, shade into central
dispositions that are less direct but nonetheless
spot the individual unique.
•Central dispositions guiding a person’s adaptive
and stylistic behavior, blend into secondary

20. •However, we cannot say that a person’s
secondary dispositions are less powerful
than other person’s central dispositions.
•Interperson comparisons are unsuitable to
personal dispositions and such an attempt
transforms the personal dispositions into
common traits

21. MOTIVATIONAL & STYLISTIC
DISPOSITIONS
•All personal dispositions are dynamic i.e. those
people possess powers that are motivational.
•Nonetheless, few could be felt more impact fully
than the rest and Allport called these powerfully
experienced dispositions motivational
dispositions and they receive their motivation
from basic needs and drives.

22. •While personal dispositions less strongly
experienced are stylistic dispositions, although
they have in them some of the motivational
powers.
•A guide to the actions could be considered of the
stylistic dispositions, on the other hand
motivational dispositions are responsible for the
initiation of the actions.
•Politeness of a person could be called his stylistic
disposition whereas eating could be considered

23. PROPRIUM
•Proprium was used by Allport to refer to all
those behaviors and characteristics that
people regard as warm and crucial in their
lives.
•One must remember that the proprium is not
the whole personality, as many characteristics
and behaviors that a person possess may
exist only on the periphery of personality

24. •These nonpropriate behaviours consist of (i)
basic drives and needs ordinarily met and
satisfied without difficulty,
•(ii) ethnic customs such as saying “hello” to
others, wearing clothes etc.; and
•(iii) habitual behaviours like brushing one’s
teeth which can be performed automatically
and are not crucial to the person’s sense of

25. FUNCTIONAL AUTONOMY
•Functional autonomy represents a theory of
changing rather than unchanging motives and is
the capstone of Allport’s ideas on motivation.
•concept of functional autonomy holds that some,
but not all, human motives are functionally
independent from the original motive responsible
for the behavior. If a motive is functionally
autonomous, it is the explanation for behavior, and

26. ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES
The technique of personal documenting,
observed expressive behaviour and the study of
values were used by Allport
Major 11 methods
1. Constitutional and physiological diagnosis
2. Conduct analysis
3. Ratings
4. Cultural setting, membership, and role
5. Tests and scales
6. Personal documents and case studies

27. •The personal-document technique entails
examining autobiographies, diaries, letters,
literary compositions and other illustrations
of a person’s written or spoken account to
conclude the personality traits
•Allport’s very famous and well-known case
analysis is actually a set of 300 letters which
were written over a long period of about 12
years.

28. ANY DOUBTS
?

29. HANS J EYSENCK
•Hans Jurgen Eysenck was
born in Berlin on March 4,
1916, the only child of a
theatrical family.
•After his parents’ divorce,
Eysenck went to live with
his maternal grandmother.

30. •Using factor analysis, he found that two
major personality factors
neuroticism/emotional stability and
extraversion/introversion—could account
for all the traditional diagnostic groups.

31. •The personality theory of Hans Eysenck has
strong psychometric and biological
components.
• However, Eysenck contended that
psychometric sophistication alone is not
sufficient to measure the structure of human
personality and that personality dimensions
arrived at through factor analytic methods are
sterile and meaningless unless they have been

32. •Eysenck (1981) defined traits as
“important semi-permanent personality
dispositions”
•Trait-level behaviors are extracted
through factor analysis of habit-level
responses just as habitual responses are
mathematically extracted through factor
analysis of specific responses.

33. DIMENSIONS OF PERSONALITY
(PEN MODEL)
• Eysenck extracted three general
superfactors. His three personality
dimensions are extraversion E, neuroticism
(N), and psychoticism (P),
•Neuroticism and psychoticism are not
limited to pathological individuals, although
disturbed people tend to score higher than

34. •Eysenck regarded all three factors as part
of normal Personality structure.
•All three are bipolar, with extraversion
being at one end of Factor E and
introversion occupying the opposite pole
•Similarly, Factor N (neuroticism)at one
pole and stability at the other, and Factor
P has psychoticism at one pole and the
superego function at the other.

35. •Eysenck’s concepts of extraversion and
introversion are closer to the popular
usage.
•Extraverts are characterized primarily
by sociability and impulsiveness but
also by jocularity, liveliness, quick-
wittedness, optimism, and other traits
EXTRAVERSION

36. •Introverts are characterized by traits
opposite those of extraverts. They can be
described as quiet, passive, unsociable,
careful, reserved, thoughtful, pessimistic,
peaceful, sober, and controlled.

37. •Eysenck (1997a) believed that the primary
cause of differences between extraverts
and introverts is one of cortical arousal
level, a physiological condition that is
largely inherited rather than learned.

38. •Because extraverts have a lower level of
cortical arousal than do introverts, they have
higher sensory thresholds and thus lesser
reactions to sensory stimulation.
• Introverts, conversely, are characterized by a
higher level of arousal, and as a result of a
lower sensory threshold, they experience
greater reactions to sensory stimulation

39. •To maintain an optimal level of
stimulation, introverts, with their
congenitally low sensory threshold, avoid
situations that will cause too much
excitement.
•Hence, introverts shun such activities as
wild social events, downhill skiing,
skydiving, competitive sports, leading a
fraternity or sorority, or playing practical

40. •Extraverts participate more often in
exciting and stimulating activities. They
may enjoy such activities as mountain
climbing, gambling, driving fast cars,
drinking alcohol, and smoking marijuana.

41. NEUROTICISM
• The second superfactor extracted by Eysenck
is neuroticism/stability(N). Factor N has a
strong hereditary component. Eysenck (1967)
reported several studies that have found
evidence of a genetic basis for such neurotic
traits as anxiety, hysteria, and obsessive-
compulsive disorders

42. •In addition, he found a much greater
agreement among identical twins than
among fraternal twins on a number of
antisocial and asocial behaviors such as
adult crime, childhood behavior disorders,
homosexuality, and alcoholism

43. •People who score high on neuroticism often
have a tendency to overreact emotionally and
to have difficulty returning to a normal state
after emotional arousal.
•They frequently complain of physical
symptoms such as headache and backache
and of vague psychological problems such as
worries and anxieties
•People can score high on neuroticism and be
free of any debilitating psychological

44. •Eysenck accepted the diathesis-stress
model of psychiatric illness, which
suggests that some people are vulnerable
to illness because they have either a
genetic or an acquired weakness that
predisposes them to an illness.
•This predisposition (diathesis) may
interact with stress to produce a neurotic
disorder. Eysenck assumed that people at
the healthy end of the N scale have the

45. •The higher the neuroticism score, the
lower the level of stress necessary to
precipitate a neurotic disorder.

46. •Eysenck’s original theory of personality was
based on only two personality dimensions—
extraversion and neuroticism. After several
years of alluding to psychoticism (P) as an
independent personality factor, Eysenck finally
elevated it to a position equal to E and N
PSYCHOTICISM

47. •High P scorers are often egocentric, cold,
nonconforming, impulsive, hostile,
aggressive, suspicious, psychopathic, and
antisocial. People low on psychoticism
tend to be altruistic, highly socialized,
empathic, caring, cooperative,
conforming, and conventional

48. •This model also suggests that people who
score high on psychoticism and who are
also experiencing levels of stress have an
increased chance of developing a
psychotic disorder.
•Eysenck (1994a) hypothesized that people
high on psychoticism have a high
“predisposition to succumb to stress and
develop a psychotic illness”

49. •This diathesis-stress model suggests that
high P scorers are genetically more vulnerable
to stress than are low P scorers.
•During periods of little stress, high P scorers
may function normally, but when high
psychoticism interacts with high levels of
stress, people become vulnerable to psychotic
disorders

50. •The higher the psychoticism score, the
lower the level of stress necessary to
precipitate a psychotic reaction.

51. •Eysenck evolved four personality
inventories that measure his super
factors.
• The first, the Maudsley Personality
Inventory, or MPI (Eysenck, 1959),
assessed only E and N and yielded some
correlation between these two factors. For
this reason, Eysenck developed another
ASSESSMENT OF TECHNIQUES

52. •The EPI contains a lie (L) scale to detect faking,
but more importantly, it measures
extraversion and neuroticism independently,
with a near zero correlation between E and N
•The EPI was still a two-factor inventory, so
consequently Hans Eysenck and Sybil Eysenck
(1975) published a third personality test,
namely the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire
(EPQ), which included a psychoticism (P) scale.

53. •The EPQ, which has both an adult and a
junior version, is a revision of the still-
published EPI.
•Subsequent criticisms of the P scale led to
yet another revision, the Eysenck
Personality Questionnaire-Revised

54. Thank you