Trait Theory
Gordon Allport was one of the first Psychologists to focus his career on the study of personality. He is seen as one of the founding figures of personality and of values scales. He rejected two approaches to determining personality that were quite popular at the time. These were the psychoanalytical approach and the behavioural approach.
Gordon Allport dismissed the psychoanalytical approach as he believed it delved too deeply into the interpretations of patient's personality and he dismissed the behavioural approach as he belived that it did not provide interpretation from the data collected. In his own research Allport routinely emphasized the uniqueness of each person and their current condition. He believed that this was more important than the history of the patient in understanding their personality. Allport's three trait levels are cardinal, central, and secondary traits.
Cardinal trait - The cardinal trait dominates a person’s behaviour and shapes their personality. While it is the most dominant trait it is also the rarest. These traits are fundamentally tied to an individual’s personality. These traits are often developed later in life and shape many aspects of a person’s drive, behaviour and attitude. These are ruling obsessions that people possess such a need and/or drive for money, fame etc.
Central trait - The central trait is a trait that’s found in most people to some degree. They are the fundamental parts that shape most of our behaviour, though they are not as pronounced as cardinal traits. The major terms in which you would describe a person’s overall character are their central traits. Allport believed that most people have between five and ten central traits.
Secondary trait - Secondary traits are traits that are only seen at certain times and circumstances. To provide a full picture of a person’s personality their cardinal traits must be known.
Nature of Prejudice
Allport hypothesized the idea of internal and external forces that can influence an individual’s behaviour. These forces were called genotypes and phenotypes. Genotypes are internal forces, they relate to how a person retains information and how they use it to interact with the outside world. Phenotypes are external forces, they relate to the way in which an individual accepts their surroundings. These forces dictate the way in which an individual behaves, and they are the groundwork for the creation of individual traits.
The relationship between prejudice and categorical thinking was first methodically explored by Gordon Allport in his classic book'The Nature of Prejudice'. Although Allport acknowledged the emotional, social, economic, and historic dimensions of prejudice, he proposed that prejudice is partly an outgrowth of normal human functioning.
Application of Theories
Gordon Allport is best known for two main theories, his most famous being his trait theory and the nature of prejudice. How can these theories and ideas be applied to real life situations? Looking at Allport’s trait theory we can see that it has massively influenced the area of personality and trait tests such as the thematic apperception test. Most of these standardized tests are designed in a way that makes it relatively easy for the candidates to lie and produce inaccurate answers in a bid to come across a certain way, purposely trying to manipulate their results.
Anyone with an internet connection would be able to access some form of personality or trait test. These tests would manipulate Allport’s trait theory and all the traits he gathered into an algorithm to correctly identify each individual personality or at least find a bracket vague enough to fit in multiple personality types.
These kind of tests however do have some limitations as the majority of the non-academic and some of the more well-known personality tests will only be able to recognize the central traits and the secondary traits, which could be described as conditional traits aren’t usually brought to the surface in these tests yet they can give us some of the most useful information about a person like how they may perform under certain circumstances. The more advanced tests used by Psychologists and Psychiatrists to determine possible personality disorders would be able to pick up on very specific personality traits whether they are cardinal, central or secondary.
Allport’s theory on prejudice can also be applied to everyday real-life situations. For example, in the workplace when a manager is hiring new staff, they will subconsciously make observations about each candidate and rule out people based on those observations. According to Allport it’s like a shortcut in our brain that are beneficial when making quick decisions.
For instance, showing up to a job interview late or with sloppy clothing could give the manager a preconceived idea that you’re disorganized and have bad time management, two essential skills for an employee to have. In this case their prejudice would be working against you. Allport’s theories are part of daily life and we are surrounded by them constantly. Our brains automatically apply them in everyday situations and decision making without us even noticing.
