Biographical and Theoretical Notes
1897 Nov 11 Born in Montezuma, Indiana as the youngest of four boys (Harold,
Floyd, Fayette, & GW, in descending order of age).
Father was John Edwards Allport (b. 1863), a "country doctor" who came to this
career after working in business; mother was Nellie Edith (Wise) Allport (b.
1862) who had been a school teacher.
Raised in Glenville (Cleveland), OH in a home "marked by plain Protestant piety
and hard work" (Allport, 1967, p. 4)
His older brother, Floyd (1890-1978), attended Harvard University before Gordon,
both as an undergraduate and as a graduate student. And while Gordon
collaborated on two early papers with Floyd in the 1920s, their approaches to
psychology diverged and they shared no further professional authorship together.
G. W. did admire his brother's "fierce personal and professional integrity"
(Allport, 1967, p. 13) and occasionally relied upon Floyd for professional
advice and critique.
1915 Graduated 2nd in a class of 100 from Glenville High School
1915-1919 Attended Harvard as an undergraduate with interests in psychology and
social ethics.
He studied psychology with Hugo Münsterberg, Edwin B. Holt, Leonard Troland,
Walter Dearborn, Ernest Southard, and Herbert Langfeld. His brother, Floyd, also
served as an instructor in experimental psychology (Allport, 1967).
While attending Harvard College, he did field and volunteer social work in the
West End of Boston and through a variety of organizations including the Phillips
Brooks House.
1919-1920 Taught English and Sociology in Constantinople (Istanbul) at Robert
College
1920 Encounter with Sigmund Freud in Vienna at which Freud misinterpreted a
remark of Allport's; this led to a lifelong distaste by Allport for quick
psychoanalytic interpretations.
1920-1922 Doctoral studies at Harvard in Psychology. Ph.D. awarded for a
doctoral dissertation: "An Experimental Study of the Traits of Personality: With
Special Reference to the Problem of Social Diagnosis" (Mentor: Herbert S.
Langfeld with William McDougall and James Ford as readers)
1922-1924 Sheldon Traveling Scholarship which brought him in 1922-23 to Germany
and in 1923-24 to Cambridge University, UK
In Germany he studied with Stumpf & Dessoir, the Gestaltists (Werthheimer,
Köhler, & E. Spranger) in Berlin as well as Heinz Werner and Wilhelm Stern (in
Hamburg). He gained a very broad and deep understanding of the currents in
German psychological research. He noted that "Germany had converted me from my
undergraduate semifaith in behaviorism" (Allport, 1967, p. 12)
In England, he found himself mulling over much of what he had experienced in
German psychology; he did work with both Frederick Bartlett and Ivor A. Richards
in minor fashion.
1925 Married Ada Lufkin Gould who was trained as a clinical psychologist. Their
son, Robert, was born June 29, 1927 and later became a pediatrician (Nicholson,
2003).
1924-1926 Lectureship in social ethics at Harvard University
1924, 1925 Taught a course, "Personality: Its Psychological and Social Aspects,"
at Harvard, perhaps the first offered in the U.S.