Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionIV. Dispositional Theories 13. Allport: Psychology of
the Individual© The McGraw−Hill^391
Companies, 2009Allport claimed that theories of unchanging motives are incomplete because
they are limited to an explanation of reactive behavior. The mature person, however,
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 autonomyrepresents 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 be-
havior, 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
nottraceable to childhood experiences with toilet training or with rewards and pun-
ishments. Rather, the miser simply likes money, and this is the only explanation nec-
essary. 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 unchang-
ing 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 auton-
omy represents 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 au-
tonomous, theories of unchanging motives are inadequate. He listed four require-
ments of an adequate theory of motivation. Functional autonomy, of course, meets
each criterion.
- 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. - “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; some are transient, others recurring; some are peripheral,
Chapter 13 Allport: Psychology of the Individual 385