UNIT 2

UNDERSTANDING THE INDIVIDUAL

Personality
 Unit Objectives
By the end of this unit students should be able
to:
1. Define personality
2. Explain the two approaches to personality
3. Explain different theories of personality
4. Explain importance of understanding
personality of employees at the work place
 Definition of Personality
• Psychologists have defined it as consisting of stable
characteristics which explain why a person behaves in a
particular way (Mullins, 2006)
• Those relatively stable and enduring aspects of an
individual that distinguish him/her from other people
and at the same time form the basis for our predictions
concerning his/her behaviour (Wright et al., 1970)
(we are like all other people, we are like some other
people, we are like no other people)
• Characteristic patterns of behaviour and modes of
thinking that determine a person’s adjustment to the
environment (Hilgrad et al., 1979)
 Understanding Personality
There is a great deal of disagreement over the
development, structure and dynamics of personality.
1.A number of differing and influential approaches
have been put forward over the years in order to
better understand what personality is ********
2. How do you describe/judge other people?
Do you just take one significant trait and use it to
describe the whole person? Eg. Reserved, aggressive,
sociable, calm, moody intelligent etc
This would be far too simplistic/unfair
People may display many traits and these may vary in
time and by situation
 Approaches to Personality
There are two approaches:
1. Nomothetic:
This seeks to identify and measure characteristics of
personality
2. Idiographic
This focuses on the uniqueness of the individual
and treats them as a whole
The first approach sees personality traits as generally
determined by genetics and fixed at birth
The second approach believes personality is a function
of upbringing and the experience of others
Nature vs nurture
 What would be the alternative approach?
View personality as a combination of internal
traits and environmental influences.

A feedback from the environment operates

where the environment responds to our
behaviour either positively or by pushing it
and causing the behaviour to be modified…

But how far can the environment force

behavioral/personality change in an
individual?
 Nomothetic Approach
Also considered as Trait theories of personality
The two main theories discussed under this
approach are:
1. Hans Eysenck’s theory of main personality types;
and
2. Raymond Cattell’s identification of personality
traits.
Gordon Allport was an early pioneer in the study of
traits, which he also referred to as dispositions.
1937 Allport came up with 17,000 traits
 Hans Eysenk
• Hans Eysenck found out that there were two major
differences which could be measured: extroversion and
stability
• Individuals in Eysenck’s theory could, therefore, be one of
four main personality types: Extrovert –Introvert/Stable –
Neurotic
• From this description, it is possible to predict likely
behaviours.
• Eysenck had a clear view about the constancy of personality
• He believed that personality was largely inherited and that
introverts and extroverts are born with differing physiological
tendencies
• Furthermore, he argued that the personality we are born
with is largely unalterable by environmental influences
 Cattell
Cattell’s work resembles Eysenck’s in the
methods used to study personality
• Cattell identified two types of personality
traits:
• surface traits – which seem to cluster
together consistently; and
• source traits – which seem to underlie and
determine the traits which are likely to
‘surface’ into behaviour.
• Cattell identified 16 personality factors (or
source traits)
• Cattell used questionnaires, observations and tests
over a period of 30 years (1950)
• A n improvement from Allport’s 17,000 traits (1937)
Steers (1984) – came up with a cluster of traits
Steers reduced traits to six:
1. Interpersonal style: trust, sociable
2. Social sensitivity: empathy
3. Ascendant tendencies: assertiveness, dominance
4. Dependability: integrity, self-reliance
5. Emotional stability: control, anxiety
6. Cognitive style: risk-taking, inflexible, complexity of
thought
 Idiographic/Psychoanalytic
Approach
• Concentrates on the unconscious bases of bvr
• Originates from the work of Sigmund Freud
• The unconscious, presents challenges in terms
of accessibility to information
• Only overt behaviour can be observed: so use
inference
• Sigmund says the conscious is just like the tip
of an iceberg
 Sigmund Freud
Considered 3 major elements of personality:
1. The structure
2. The development
3. The dynamics
 The Personality Structure
The structure consists of 3 parts:
1. The id
2. The ego
3. The superego
The id is the primitive pleasure seeking urge that
calls for immediate gratification
The ego tastes and obeys reality, it delays discharge,
learns and perceives
The superego represents the conscience: it
punishes and rewards; shaped by social values and
morals
• Freud’s stages highlight the importance of the
parent–child relationship
• The personality structure of the individual
develops as the child comes to terms with the
new changes at each stage of life.
 The Development of Personality
• Freud provided a view of personality throughout childhood
stages (psychosexual stages of the desire)
• Oral stage, first stage of development: baby’s mouth is the
focal point of pleasure; 12 to 18
• Then up to 3 years, anal stage :toilet training (early or harsh)
• At and after age of 3 -5, child reaches phallic stage with
oedipal conflict: identification of gender with some desires
around genitalia. Oedipus complex (in boys) and the Electra
complex (in girls).
• 5-6 years is the latency period: lasting until puberty (impulses
/desires are repressed)
• Adolescence to adulthood: genital stage till death
Note: Overindulgence or frustration at each stage has an
impact on someone's personality esp the early stages
 Ego Defense Mechanisms
• Freud also researched on anxiety
• When we are in an anxious state, there are
several defense mechanisms to neutralize that
state
• If not well managed, anxiety can lead to
neuroticism (neurosis) the unstable state
• There are 7 defense mechanisms:
Repression, Regression, Displacement,
Rationalization, Denial, Projection,
Sublimation
 Carl Jung
• A Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who
founded analytical psychology
• Jung and Freud worked together at some
point
• Jung supported the two opposing attitudes:
introversion and extroversion
• The introvert is most aware of his or her inner
world while the extrovert is characterized by
the outward movement of psychic energy.
 8 personality Types: Jung
• For Carl Jung, there were four functions that,
when combined with his two attitudes,
formed the eight different personality types
• The 4 cognitive functions are: thinking,
feeling, sensing, intuition.

• Refer to handout for the 8 types of personality

Carl Rogers
 Carl Rogers
• Rogers (1959) maintains that the human
"organism" has an underlying "actualizing
tendency", which aims to develop all
capacities in ways that maintain or enhance
the organism and move it toward autonomy
• According to Rogers, everyone strives to reach
an "ideal self".
• The actualizing tendency can be suppressed
but can never be destroyed without the
destruction of the organism (Rogers, 1977)
 The Self Concept Theory
• Carl Rogers went further and proposed the
“self-Theory”.
• The "self“ develops through interactions with
others and involves awareness of being and
functioning.
• The self-concept is "the organized set of
characteristics that the individual perceives as
peculiar to himself/herself“
• It is based largely on the social evaluations
he/she has experienced.
 According to Carl Rogers, the self-concept has three different
components:
• How others view you (me)
• The view you have of yourself : Self Image (i)
• How much value you place on yourself: self esteem (the self)
• What you wish you were really like: ideal self
• And then the real you: the real self
Rogers believed that people are inherently good and creative.
They become destructive only when a poor self-concept or
external constraints override the valuing process.
Carl Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-
actualization they must be in a state of congruence where the
ideal self = the real self
• How we think about ourselves, our feelings of
self-worth are of fundamental importance
both to psychological health and to the
likelihood that we can achieve goals and
ambitions in life and achieve self-
actualization.
• Self-worth may be seen as a continuum from
very high to very low. For Carl Rogers (1959) a
person who has high self-worth, that is, has
confidence and positive feelings about him or
herself, faces challenges in life, accepts failure
and unhappiness at times, and is open with
people.
• A person with low self-worth may avoid challenges in
life, not accept that life can be painful and unhappy
at times, and will be defensive and guarded with
other people.
• Rogers believed feelings of self-worth developed in
early childhood and were formed from the
interaction of the child with the mother and father.
As a child grows older, interactions with significant
others will affect feelings of self-worth.
• Rogers believed that we need to be regarded
positively by others; we need to feel valued,
respected, treated with affection and loved.
• Positive regard is to do with how other people evaluate and
judge us in social interaction.
• Rogers made a distinction between unconditional positive
regard and conditional positive regard.
• Unconditional positive regard is where parents, significant
others (and the humanist therapist) accept and love the
person for what he or she is. Positive regard is not withdrawn
if the person does something wrong or makes a mistake.
• The consequences of unconditional positive regard are that
the person feels free to try things out and make mistakes,
even though this may lead to getting it worse at times. People
who are able to self-actualize are more likely to have received
unconditional positive regard from others, especially their
parents in childhood.
• Conditional positive regard is where positive regard,
praise and approval, depend upon the child, for
example, behaving in ways that the parents think
correct. Hence the child is not loved for the person
he or she is, but on condition that he or she behaves
only in ways approved by the parent(s).
• At the extreme, a person who constantly seeks
approval from other people is likely only to have
experienced conditional positive regard as a child.
• The development of congruence is dependent on
unconditional positive regard
• A person whose self-concept is incongruent
with her or his real feelings and experiences
will defend because the truth hurts.
End of Unit 2

Group Exercise