To “Correlate Psychology and Social Ethics”: Gordon Allport and the First Course in American Personality Psychology

Abstract

This article explores the historical origins of what is widely regarded as the "first course in American personality psychology": Gordon Allport's 1925 course entitled "Personality: Its Psychological and Social Aspects." It argues that thejrofessional focus and disciplinary context of Allport's course were much more complicated than is generally believed. Far from being a completely novel and distinctively psychological venture, Allport's course drew upon the moral concems and the pedagogical and discursive practices of Harvard's Department of Social Ethics. Allport's course on "Personality" represented a subtle attempt to bring Victorian concerns with character development together with the newly emerging ideal of objectivity.

?A coherent datum of perception?: Gordon Allport, Floyd Allport, and the politics of ?personality?

“…At that time, Gordon went to Germany on a postdoctoral fellowship (G. Allport, 1967). After a brief and unsatisfactory stay in Berlin, he settled in Hamburg where he began an intensive course of study with William Stern (Nicholson, 1996). An accomplished philosopher and a distinguished psychologist (Hardesty, 1976;Kreppner, 1992), Stern quickly dislodged Floyd as Gordon's main intellectual mentor.…”

“…Gordon rapidly assimilated the broad outline of Stern's program (Nicholson, 1996). In 1924, he put these new insights into practice in the form of a published article, "The Study of the Undivided Personality" (G. .…”

“…Floyd and Gordon Allport were among the earliest enthusiasts of the "personality" in American psychology (Nicholson, 1997(Nicholson, , 1998Parker, 1991). The two worked closely on investigations of "personality" at Harvard in the early 1920s, and together they published one of the first papers on the measurement of traits (Allport & Allport, 1921).…”

“…Floyd had in fact played an important role in his younger brother's decision to go to graduate school in the first place, and he remained an important influence throughout the course of Gordon's dissertation research (Nicholson, 1996). Floyd's influence was reflected in both the topic his brother selected -personality -and in the philosophical rationale on which the study was based.…”

The nature ofThe Nature of Prejudice

“…Once the department was in place, however, Allport regularly offered Social Relations 284, a seminar in "Prejudice and Group Conflict," co-teaching at different points with historian Oscar Handlin and psychologist Daniel Levinson, among others. Allport brought to his teaching of the social psychology of prejudice a broad range of scientific theory and practice, shaped by his earlier intellectual connections to social ethics and Gestalt psychology (Nicholson, 1997(Nicholson, , 1998Pandora, 1997), as well as his central interests in personality psychology (Allport, 1937) and psychology of religion (Allport, 1950a). As "Soc Rel 284" developed, Allport drew on the emerging social science literature of that period.…”