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- Title
The general and the unique in psychological science.
- Authors
Allport, Gordon W.
- Abstract
Some artists, literati, some psychiatrists, perhaps a few clinical psychologists, would say that to generalize about personality is to lose it. According to them an individual, as an integral datum cannot belong to scientific psychology. He can be represented only by the methods of biography, drama, or other artistic portraiture. In this article the term "morphogenic psychology," has been introduced which is actually borrowed from, but not identical with the usage in, biology. Biologists admit that morphogenic biology lags far behind molecular biology. So too does morphogenic psychology lag far behind dimensional psychology. The commonalities in personality are the horizontal dimensions that run through all individuals. The focus is chiefly upon these commonalities for example, upon the common traits of achievement, anxiety, extraversion, dominance and creativity. The purpose is to suggest certain procedures that seem to be morphogenic in nature, or at least semi-morphogenic, and yet to be at the same time controlled, repeatable, reliable.
- Publication
Journal of Personality, 1962, Vol 30, Issue 3, p405
- ISSN
0022-3506
- Publication type
Academic Journal
- DOI
10.1111/j.1467-6494.1962.tb02313.x