By: Luján Rodriguez Psychology Gordon Allport By: Luján Rodriguez Psychology

Birth and family Gordon Allport was an American psychologist, who was born in a little town, Montezuma, Indiana in 1879. He was the youngest of four sons of John Edwards and Nellie Allport.  

Early Years When he was about six, his family moved to Ohio. Gordon’s father was a doctor with his clinic and hospital in the family home.   Gordon and his brothers grew up surrounded by their father's patients, nurses, and medical equipment. This gave him an early idea of what he wanted to do when he grew up- a successful and important pshycologist.

Growing Up During his teenage years, Allport had his own printing business. He graduated second in his class at High School in 1915 with scholarships that allowed him to attend Harvard College.

Education Gordon attended Harvard University. Entering Harvard was not an easy transition for him since the moral values were different from those he learned at home. Gordon majored in economics and philosophy and earned degree in 1919.

Starting an independent Life After graduating in 1919, Gordon moved to Turkey, where he taught economics and philosophy at Robert College, up until he returned back to Harvard to get his Master which he received in 1921. 

Becoming a psychologist Allport worked as an instructor in Psychology from 1924 to 1926 at Harvard University. He began teaching his course "Personality” in 1924; it was probably the first course in Personality ever taught in the U.S.

Based on his beliefs He believed that every person has a small number of specific traits that dominate in his or her personality.He called these a person's central traits.

… He also said that as a child develops specific behavior and interactions becomes a part of the individual's personality.   

Allport’s Trait Theory 1. Cardinal trait - This is the trait that dominates and shapes a person's behavior. 2. Central trait - These are the basic building blocks that shape most of our behavior. An example of a central trait would be honesty. 3. Secondary trait - These are characteristics seen only in certain circumstances (such as likes or dislikes that a very close friend may know).

Working as a Psychologist Gordon wrote a lot of books such as: Personality: A Psychological Interpretation.This book was the first book to ever define which topics should be covered when studying personality.

MORE books… The Individual and His Religion The Nature of Prejudice

Late Life After going teaching introductory courses on social psychology and personality at Dartmouth College for four years, Allport returned to Harvard and remained there for the rest of his career.

Video http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=videos+of+gordon+allport&docid=1217357218541&FORM=VIRE#

Bibliography http://allpsych.com/personalitysynopsis/allport.html Information: http://allpsych.com/personalitysynopsis/allport.html   http://www.psych.westminster.edu/psy311/allport/ppframe.htm  http://shrike.depaul.edu/~kmerz/index.htm http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/allport.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Allport#Bibliography Photos: http://cdn.woldcnews.com/wp-content/uploads//2009/08/harvard-logo.jpg http://filipspagnoli.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/gordon-allport.jpg http://www.nndb.com/people/009/000117655/gordon-allport-2-sized.jpg http://homepage.univie.ac.at/michael.trimmel/mws00_skokanitsch2_image13.gif http://www.nonformality.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/thenatureofprejudice.jpg http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51466ZJ4Z1L._SL500_AA240_.jpg http://images.google.com/hosted/life/f?q=gordon+allport&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgordon%2Ballport%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1R2GGLL_en%26sa%3DN%26start%3D18%26um%3D1&imgurl=88cb719e96510ff6