Gordon W. Allport, Psychologist, Soc Rel Dept. Architect, Retires

Gordon W. Allport '19, Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics, will retire from the Harvard faculty this summer.

A teacher at Harvard for 40 years, Allport has a world-wide reputation as an authority on the psychology of personality.

His book, Personality: A Psychological Interpretation, is considered the standard work in its field. Among his other well-known books are: The Individual and his Religion, and The Psychology of Rumor, which grew out of his World War II studies of morale and rumor among civilians.

Prejudice Study

Probably his best known work is The Nature of Prejudice, a lengthy study of racial and religious intolerance, which appeared in 1954.

Allport's books have been translated into German, Greek, Korean, Japanese, Swedish and other languages.

In 1936 Allport helped to establish the first separate Department of Psychology at Harvard. Up to that time psychology was taught by the Department of Philosophy. Ten years later he was one of the architects of the Department of Social Relations, which combined sociology, social anthropology, and social and clinical psychology.

Allport became the first Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics in 1966.

The American Psychological Foundation awarded Allport its Gold Medal, the highest award in American psychology, in 1963. He holds honorary degrees from four universities and he is a past president of several psychological associations. In addition, Allport is an honorary fellow of the British Psychological Society and an honorary member of similar associations in Germany, Austria, and France.