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Psychology Gets Personality: Allport, Maslow, and the Broadening Field

7 important questions on Psychology Gets Personality: Allport, Maslow, and the Broadening Field

Which two fundamentally different kinds of psychology are there according to Gorden Allport's teacher, Münsterberg?

One causal and objective, emphasizing the deterministic and mechanistic links between specific stimuli and the responses they produce; and the other purposive and subjective, requiring psychologists to enter into and share their subjects’ particular thought processes and points of view.

What did Allport think should psychoanalysis be preceded and complemented by?

Allport held this attitude for the rest of his life. He always acknowledged the importance of psychoanalysis and did much to promote its acceptance by academic psychologists. But he also insisted that when dealing with normal people in everyday situations, this approach should always be preceded and complemented by an understanding of their more conscious assessments of themselves.

Which test related to handwriting did June Etta Downey create?

June Etta Downey used features of handwriting analysis in 1919 to obtain scores on personal traits such as impulsivity, carefulness, and forcefulness in her Individual Will-Temperament Test.

Which test did Robert Woodworth create that was one of the first attempts to develop an objective, self-report personality test?

Robert Woodworth published the Personal Data Sheet, a series of questions to be answered yes or no, intended as a test of emotional stability to screen out soldiers who were psychologically unfit for active duty in World War I. Although completed too late to be used in the war, it was one of the first attempts to develop an objective, self-report personality test.

Which test did Allport develop together with Philip Vernon about six different values?

Together with Philip Vernon, a young psychologist visiting from England, he developed the Allport-Vernon Study of Values, a test asking subjects to rank their relative preferences for statements written to reflect six different types of values: economic, aesthetic, theoretical, political, social, and religious. It quickly became widely used both in personality research and in educational and vocational guidance programs, helping steer students towards courses and occupations closely aligned with their particular value patterns. It was one of the earliest commercially successful personality tests.

What is the major goal of personality psychology according to Allport?

Allport’s book opened by declaring that “the outstanding characteristic” of humans is their individuality, and that the major goal of personality psychology is the understanding and appreciation of that individuality. Pursuit of this goal poses an apparent problem for scientific psychology, however, because normally, science seeks to identify generalizations—regularities and uniformities characteristic of whole classes of objects.

Which two contrasting research styles did Allport identified, addressing the two-psychologies issue by Münsterberg?

In addressing the two-psychologies issue, Allport identified two contrasting research styles, which he designated nomothetic and idiographic. Nomothetic methods study people in terms of general dimensions or characteristics on which they vary to quantitatively specifiable degrees. Idiographic methods investigate and describe what it is that makes a given person unique, an approach that’s more likely to be qualitative than quantitative.

Nomothetic research was used in pursuing Münsterberg’s causal, objective type of psychology and Stern’s “relational” individuality; idiographic research was more appropriate for Münsterberg’s purposive psychology and Stern’s search for “real” individuality.

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Psychology Gets Personality: Allport, Maslow, and the Broadening Field

7 important questions on Psychology Gets Personality: Allport, Maslow, and the Broadening Field

Which two fundamentally different kinds of psychology are there according to Gorden Allport's teacher, Münsterberg?

What did Allport think should psychoanalysis be preceded and complemented by?

Which test related to handwriting did June Etta Downey create?

Which test did Robert Woodworth create that was one of the first attempts to develop an objective, self-report personality test?

Which test did Allport develop together with Philip Vernon about six different values?

What is the major goal of personality psychology according to Allport?

Which two contrasting research styles did Allport identified, addressing the two-psychologies issue by Münsterberg?

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