Theories of Personality 9th Edition

Chapter 12 Allport: Psychology of the Individual 365

In other words, Allport argued for a psychology that, on one hand, studies behav-
ioral patterns and general laws (the subject matter of traditional psychology) and,
on the other, growth and individuality.
Allport claimed that theories of unchanging motives are incomplete because
they are limited to an explanation of reactive behavior. The mature person, how-
ever, is not motivated merely to seek pleasure and reduce pain but to acquire new
systems of motivation that are functionally independent from their original motives.

Functional Autonomy

The concept of functional autonomy represents Allport’s most distinctive and, at
the same time, most controversial postulate. It is Allport’s (1961) explanation for the
myriad human motives that seemingly are not accounted for by hedonistic or drive-
reduction principles. Functional autonomy represents a theory of changing rather than
unchanging motives and is the capstone of Allport’s ideas on motivation.
In general, the 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 behav-
ior, and one need not look beyond it for hidden or primary causes. In other words, if
hoarding money is a functionally autonomous motive, then the miser’s behavior is
not traceable to childhood experiences with toilet training or with rewards and punish-
ments. Rather, the miser simply likes money, and this is the only explanation neces-
sary. This notion that much human behavior is based on present interests and on
conscious preferences is in harmony with the commonsense belief of many people
who hold that they do things simply because they like to do them.
Functional autonomy is a reaction to what Allport called theories of unchanging
motives, namely, Freud’s pleasure principle and the drive-reduction hypothesis of
stimulus-response psychology. Allport held that both theories are concerned with
historical facts rather than functional facts. He believed that adult motives are built
primarily on conscious, self-sustaining, contemporary systems. Functional autonomy rep-
resents his attempt to explain these conscious, self-sustaining contemporary motivations.
Admitting that some motivations are unconscious and others are the result of
drive reduction, Allport contended that, because some behavior is functionally autono-
mous, theories of unchanging motives are inadequate. He listed four requirements of
an adequate theory of motivation. Functional autonomy, of course, meets each criterion.

1. An adequate theory of motivation “will acknowledge the contemporaneity
   of motives.” In other words, “Whatever moves us must move now”
   (Allport, 1961, p. 220). The past per se is unimportant. The history of an
   individual is significant only when it has a present effect on motivation.


2. “It will be a pluralistic theory—allowing for motives of many types”
   (Allport, 1961, p. 221). On this point, Allport was critical of Freud and his
   two-instinct theory, Adler and the single striving for success, and all theories
   that emphasize self-actualization as the ultimate motive. Allport was
   emphatically opposed to reducing all human motivation to one master drive.
   He contended that adults’ motives are basically different from those of children
   and that the motivations of neurotic individuals are not the same as those of
   normal people. In addition, some motivations are conscious, others unconscious;