Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionIV. Dispositional Theories 13. Allport: Psychology of
the Individual© The McGraw−Hill^395
Companies, 2009group approach, he suggested that psychologists employ methods that study the mo-
tivational and stylistic behaviors of one person.
Morphogenic Science
Early in his writings, Allport distinguished between two scientific approaches: the
nomothetic,which seeks general laws, and the idiographic,which refers to that
which is peculiar to the single case. Because the term “idiographic” was so often
misused, misunderstood, and misspelled (being confused with “ideographic,” or the
representation of ideas by graphic symbols), Allport (1968) abandoned the term in
his later writings and spoke of morphogenic procedures.Both “idiographic” and
“morphogenic” pertain to the individual, but “idiographic” does not suggest struc-
ture or pattern. In contrast, “morphogenic” refers to patterned properties of the
whole organism and allows for intraperson comparisons. The pattern or structure of
one’s personal dispositions is important. For example, Tyrone may be intelligent, in-
troverted, and strongly motivated by achievement needs, but the unique manner in
which his intelligence is related to his introversion and each of his achievement
needs forms a structured pattern. These individual patterns are the subject matter of
morphogenic science.
What are the methods of morphogenic psychology? Allport (1962) listed
many: some, completely morphogenic; some, partly so. Examples of wholly mor-
phogenic, first-person methods are verbatim recordings, interviews, dreams, confes-
sions; diaries, letters; some questionnaires, expressive documents, projective docu-
ments, literary works, art forms, automatic writings, doodles, handshakes, voice
patterns, body gestures, handwriting, gait, and autobiographies.
When Allport met Hans Eysenck, the famous British factor analyst and believer
in nomothetic science (see Chapter 14), he told Eysenck that one day he (Eysenck)
would write his autobiography. Eventually, Eysenck (1997b) did indeed publish an
autobiography in which he admitted that Allport was right and that morphogenic
methods such as one’s description of one’s own life and work can have validity.
Semimorphogenic approaches include self-rating scales, such as the adjective
checklist; standardized tests in which people are compared to themselves rather than
a norm group; the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values(1960); and the Q sort
technique of Stephenson (1953), which we discussed in Chapter 11.
Consistent with common sense, but contrary to many psychologists, Allport
was willing to accept at face value the self-disclosure statements of most participants
in a study. A psychologist who wishes to learn the personal dynamics of people
needs simply to ask them what they think of themselves. Answers to direct questions
should be accepted as valid unless the person is a young child, psychotic, or ex-
tremely defensive. Allport (1962) said that “too often we fail to consult the richest
of all sources of data, namely, the subject’s own self-knowledge” (p. 413).
The Diaries of Marion Taylor
During the late 1930s, Allport and his wife, Ada, became acquainted with an ex-
tremely rich source of personal data about a woman whom they called Marion Tay-
lor. The core of this data was nearly a lifetime of diaries, but personal information
on Marion Taylor also included descriptions of her by her mother, her younger
Chapter 13 Allport: Psychology of the Individual 389