Personality: A Psychological Interpretation

by Gordon W. Allport

1960. Reprint. 588 pages. Brown dust jacket with navy lettering over green cloth. Clean pages. Minimal tanning to endpapers and page edges. Previous owner's inscription to front endpaper. Front hinge cracked. Some gutter cracking. Mild wear and bumping to spine, board edges and corners, with Minor sunning to spine. Unclipped dust jacket. Moderate wear, large tears and loss to edges and corners. Notable tanning to spine, with minor staining and soiling to DJ.

Genres: Psychology

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1937

About the author

Gordon Willard Allport was an American psychologist. Allport was one of the first psychologists to focus on the study of the personality, and is often referred to as one of the founding figures of personality psychology. He contributed to the formation of Values Scales and rejected both a psychoanalytic approach to personality, which he thought often went too deep, and a behavioral approach, which he thought often did not go deep enough. He emphasized the uniqueness of each individual, and the importance of the present context, as opposed to past history, for understanding the personality.

Allport had a profound and lasting influence on the field of psychology, even though his work is cited much less often than other well known figures. Part of his influence stemmed from his knack for attacking and broadly conceptualizing important and interesting topics (e.g. rumor, prejudice, religion, traits). Part of his influence was a result of the deep and lasting impression he made on his students during his long teaching career, many of whom went on to have important psychological careers. Among his many students were Jerome S. Bruner, Anthony Greenwald, Stanley Milgram, Leo Postman, Thomas Pettigrew, and M. Brewster Smith.

Reviews

[Donald Schopflocher]

A fundamental contribution to the scientific study of personality.