GORDON ALLPORT On of the most influential trait theorists was Harvard psychologist Gordon Allport,who died in 1967. His major works on personality were Personality:A Psychological Interpretation (1937) and Pattern and Growth in Personality (1961). Allport regarded traits as the basic building blocks of psychological organization, serving to integrate what would other-wise be dissimilar stimuli and responses. For her,sitting next to a stranger on an airplane,visiting the family,and working with others at the office are all equivalent situations in that they all evoke what is for her an interrelated set of responses: being interested,personable,helpful,pleasant,outgoing,warm,and attentive. In other words,her trait of friendliness serves as a unifying element,creating an equivalence class of stimuli,an equivalence class of responses,and providing the link between them.