Allport and Murray on Allport’s Personality

Abstract

In the winter of 1946–1947, graduate students in the Department of Social Relations at Harvard, then in its second year, heard Gordon Allport, Henry Murray, and Kurt Lewin each talk about his distinctive approach to personality in the presence of the others and comment about the others’ theories. New graduate students were then required to participate in two proseminars: one on methods chaired by Jerome S. Bruner, the other on concepts led by Talcott Parsons. Most of the advanced students turned out for the occasions (December 15, 1946, and January 6, 1947) when these three originators of personality psychology held forth. I was a privileged participant and took full telegraphic notes. I remember sharing the common feeling that we were participating in a joust of Olympians. When I returned to my notes a quarter century later, they still evoked for me the excitement of the occasion. I select here the interchange between Allport and Murray on Allport’s theory. What follows is a paraphrase rather than a verbatim recording. I try, however, to err on the side of fidelity rather than felicity of expression. I let each protagonist speak in the first person.

This chapter is adapted from Smith (1971) with permission.