| F.H.Allport was the third of four
boys. His youngest brother being Gordon W. Allport, also a famous psychologist. He received the
Ph.D. from Harvard in 1919 and then taught at the University of North Carolina and at Syracuse University until his retirement in 1957. He received the Distinguished
Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association and the Gold Medal Award
from the American Psychological Foundation. Allport is considered to be the father of experimental social
psychology. His first book. Social psychology, was based heavily on experimental and research studies. In both his
theories and research he set a direction in social psychology which was followed by psychologists in that
area for several decades. His behavioristic approach was in direct conflict with the instinct theories of William
McDougall. whose social psychology was also popular at the time. In his book, Allpon discussed such topics as
group experimentation, personality assessment, and the applications of psychology to many fields. His studies also
led the way for the examination of social behavior in field settings outside the laboratory in religion, politics, industry, and the
community. One of his most famous contributions to social psychology was the J curve hypotheses of conforming behavior, in which the institutional norm and the personality norm did not necessarily conform. He led the way for studies of attitude development, an area
which was to become extremely popular. He attacked group fictions such as the "group mind" and the fallacy which endowed entire groups with their own personality and attributes. In Theories of perception and the concept of structure, Allport reviewed theories of perception and forth his own theory of structure, which held that social structure had no anatomical or physical basis, but consistes of
circles of events that return upon themselves to compete and maintain the circle. |
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