American psychologist (1897-1967).
The initiator of the development of a systematic approach to the study of personality. According to Allport’s theory, personality is a developing and open psycho-physiological system, the core of which is the human self (“Personality: a psychological interpretation”, 1937). A feature of this system is the desire of the individual to realize his life potential, to self-actualization. Allport believed that a systematic approach in psychology would make it possible to overcome the limitations of both the mechanistic view of a person, characteristic of behaviorism and cybernetics, and theories that explain the specific behavior of a person by incorporeal acts hidden in the depths of her inner world. He believed that the personality in its manifestations follows social rather than biological motives to a greater extent, and on this basis subjected to experimental study the hierarchy of cultural values that different types of people are guided by. He put forward the position that the motives that arise on biological soil can later become independent of it and function independently (the principle of functional autonomy).