Author: Gordon W Allport
Published by: Digital Library Of India
Book Source: http://www.new.dli.ernet.in/handle/2015/199562
About the book:
The present volume continues the work of the author’s earlier book on personality psychology, offering both a survey of major research findings and a theoretical framework that unites them. Although its outlook and scope are similar, this edition differs significantly—it draws on more recent studies and is written for college students with little background in psychology.
The earlier work championed the study of the normal, integrated person rather than the fragmented or artificial models common in stimulus-response theory, psychoanalysis, or factor analysis. While many of those inadequacies remain, progress has been made through new movements such as existentialism, phenomenology, client-centered therapy, and ego psychology. These, along with new research and critiques, have helped refine the author’s views and led to new chapters on culture, cognition, and the self.
The central problem remains how to balance what is universal in human nature with what is unique in individual personality. Drawing an analogy from biology, the author notes that while life’s basic elements are uniform, each organism is distinct; so too in psychology, individuality must be understood alongside common traits. The book emphasizes the internal organization of motives, traits, and personal style, resisting efforts to reduce personality to social roles, cultural forces, or statistical models.
Though open to all methods of inquiry, the author insists that personality must be studied as a coherent and growing system. He acknowledges that research on the internal pattern of a single personality is still limited but essential. Ultimately, the book affirms a humanistic philosophy: man is not a reactive machine but a being with vast, unrealized potential for growth.
The author dedicates the book to his students, who helped shape it, and expresses gratitude to colleagues and critics who contributed to its development.
