Gordon Willard Allport

Gordon Willard Allport (1897–1967) was an American psychologist and regarded as a leading theorist in the subject of personality development. Born in Indiana, USA, he received his PhD in Psychology from Harvard University in 1922 and did further studies at the universities of Berlin, Hamburg and Cambridge. He had spent more than three decades of his life lecturing at Harvard University. From 1936 to 1946, he holds the Chair of Psychology at Harvard University. He was also appointed as President of the American Psychological Association in 1939. Allport had made important contributions in the fields of social psychology and psychology of religion. His book, The Nature of Prejudice, continues, even till today, to be the most comprehensive work on the subject of prejudice. Other than studying the nature of prejudicial thought and behaviour, Allport had also devoted his entire life developing a theory of personality. For his contributions in the field of psychology, he was awarded the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award to Psychology by the American Psychological Association in 1964. Amongst some of his works are Personality: A Psychological Interpretation (1937), The Individual and His Religion (1950), Pattern and Growth in Personality (1961) and The Nature of Prejudice (1954).