Introduction to personality
ASMAA
SYEDA HUDA RABBANI
PRIYANKA GOHEL
What is personality?
Personality
• According to American Psychological Association,
“Personality refers to, individual differences in
characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and
behaving.”
• “Personality is the dynamic organization within the
individual, of those psycho-physical systems that
characterize his/ her characteristic adjustment to
the environment” – Allport
• Raymond Cattell defines personality as, the traits
that predict a person’s behavior.
• "personality" stems from Latin word persona-
mask
• personality = the unique and relatively stable ways
in which people think, feel, and behave.
• It should not be confused with
• Character = value judgements of a person’s moral
and ethical behavior.
• Temperament = refers to consistent individual
differences in behavior that are biologically based
and are relatively independent of learning, system
of values and attitudes
THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
• PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES - Attempt to explain
human behavior in terms of the interaction of various
components of personality.
• TRAIT THEORIES - Attempt to learn what traits make up
personality and how they relate to actual behavior
• SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORIES - Attribute difference in
personality to socialization, expectations, and mental
processes
• HUMANISTIC THEORIES - Focus on private, subjective
experience and personal growth.
• BEHAVIORIST PERSONALITY THEORY - Focus on the
inner workings of personality, especially internal conflicts
and struggles.
Psychoanalytic
• Sigmund Freud
• The three divisions of the mind are the conscious,
preconscious, and unconscious. The unconscious can
be revealed in dreams.
• The three parts of the personality are the id, ego, and
superego.
• The id works on the pleasure principle and the ego
works on the reality principle.
• The superego is the moral centre of personality,
containing the conscience, and is the source of moral
anxiety.
• The conflicts between the demands of the id and the
rules and restrictions of the superego lead to anxiety
for the ego, which uses defence mechanisms to deal
with that anxiety.
• five psychosexual stages of personality development.
• The personality develops in a series of psychosexual
stages: oral-(id dominates), anal (ego develops),
phallic (superego develops),latency (period of sexual
repression), and genital (sexual feelings reawaken
with appropriate targets).
• The Oedipus and Electra complexes (sexual
"crushes" on the opposite-sex parent) create
anxiety in the phallic stage, which is resolved
through identification with the same-sex parent.
• Fixation occurs when conflicts are not fully
resolved during a stage, resulting in adult
personality characteristics reflecting childhood
inadequacies.
Neo Freudians- Psychodynamic
Social relationships are fundamental to personality
(A) Analytical psychology
• Carl Jung - Swiss psychologist
• Psychic energy – motivate individual in different
ways. Made of three interactive systems – ego,
personal unconsciousness, collective
unconsciousness
• Archetypes- persona, anima/ animus, shadow
and self
• Personality Attitude types: introvert and extrovert
• Functions: thinking, feeling, sensation, intuition
• Personality types: 8
(B) Individual psychology
• important concept in Adler’s theory. They are as
follows:
Inferiority complex -individual suffers from
feelings of inadequacy and guilt, i.e, inferiority
complex which arises from childhood.
Overcoming this complex is essential for
optimal personality development.
inferiority feeling >>>> inferiority complex
Style of life- A unique character structure or
pattern of personal behaviors and
characteristics by which each of us strives for
perfection. Basic styles of life include the
dominant, getting, avoiding, and socially useful
types
Order of birth
(C) Karen Horney
• Horney viewed neuroses as a sort of coping
mechanism that is a large part of normal life.
Horney defined neurosis as the "psychic
disturbance brought by fears and defenses
against these fears, and by attempts to find
compromise solutions for conflicting tendencies
10 neurotic needs can be classified into three broad
categories:
1. Needs that move you towards others. These
neurotic needs cause individuals to seek affirmation
and acceptance from others and are often described as
needy or clingy as they seek out approval and love.
2. Needs that move you away from others. These
neurotic needs create hostility and antisocial behavior.
These individuals are often described as cold,
indifferent, and detached.
3. Needs that move you against others. These neurotic
needs result in hostility and a need to control other
people.
(D) Erik Erikson
• Erikson developed a theory based on social rather
than sexual relationships, covering the entire life
span.
• epigenetic principle-people grow in a sequence that
occurs over time and in the context of a larger
community.
• conflicts are centered on either developing a
psychological quality or failing to develop that quality.
• During these times, the potential for personal growth
is high but so is the potential for failure.
• Mastery Leads to Ego Strength
Psychosocial
Stages: A Summary
Chart
Age Conflict Important Events Outcome
Infancy (birth to 18
months) Trust vs. Mistrust Feeding Hope
Early Childhood (2 Autonomy vs.
to 3 years) Shame and Doubt Toilet Training Will
Preschool (3 to 5
years) Initiative vs. Guilt Exploration Purpose
School Age (6 to 11 Industry vs.
years) Inferiority School Confidence
Adolescence (12 to Identity vs. Role Social
18 years) Confusion Relationships Fidelity
Young
Adulthood (19 to 40 Intimacy vs.
years) Isolation Relationships Love
Middle
Adulthood (40 to 65 Generativity vs. Work and
years) Stagnation Parenthood Care
Maturity (65 to Ego Integrity vs.
death) Despair Reflection on Life Wisdom
Trait theories
• Personality traits are "enduring patterns of
perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the
environment and oneself that are exhibited in a
wide range of social and personal contexts.“
• A trait is what we call a characteristic way in which
an individual perceives, feels, believes, or acts.
• Assumptions:
1. Traits are relatively stable over time,
2. Traits differ among individuals
3. Traits influence behavior.
(A) GORDON ALLPORT
[Link] Traits: Traits that dominate an individual's
whole life, often to the point that the person becomes
known specifically for these traits.
[Link] Traits: These are the general characteristics
that form the basic foundations of personality. Terms
such as intelligent, honest, shy and anxious are
considered central traits.
[Link] Traits: These are the traits that are
sometimes related to attitudes or preferences and often
appear only in certain situations or under specific
circumstances.
(B) CATTELL: SOURCE AND
SURFACE TRAITS
Raymond Cattell: from Devon, England, believed that
there were two basic categories of traits:
1. Surface Traits: Features that make up the visible
areas of personality.
2. Source Traits: Underlying characteristics of a
Personality.
Cattell identified 16 basic traits by means of a statistical
technique called Factor [Link] developed the 16PF
to measure these traits.
(C) EYSENCK'S THREE
FACTORY THEORY
• Hans Eysenck, English psychologist, believed
that there are three fundamental factors in
personality:
1. Introversion versus Extroversion
2. Emotionally Stable versus Unstable (neurotic)
3. Impulse Control versus Psychotic
The first two factors create 4
combinations, related to the four
basic temperaments recognized
by ancient Greeks:
1. Melancholic (introverted +
unstable): sad, gloomy.
2. Choleric (extroverted +
unstable): hot-tempered,
irritable.
3. Phlegmatic (introverted +
stable): sluggish, calm.
4. Sanguine (extroverted +
stable): cheerful, hopeful.
Big five personality
Lewis goldenberg
These five primary personality traits are
extraversion (also often spelled extroversion),
agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness,
and neuroticism.
Social cognitive personality
theory
Theoretical origins in behaviourism.
1. Emphasizes the role of learning in personality.
2. Instead of studying what's going on inside the
person (traits), studies what is going on outside the
person (environment).
3. How does the environment shape personality?
(A) ALBERT BANDURA
1. Self-system: The set of cognitive processes by which
a person observes, evaluates, and regulates his/her
behavior.
2. Bandura proposed that what we think of personality is
a product of this self- system.
3. Children observe behavior of models (such as
parents) in their social environment. Particularly if they
are reinforced, children will imitate these behaviors,
incorporating them into personality.
4. Bandura also proposed that people observe their own
behavior and judge its effectiveness.
5. Self-efficacy: A judgment of one's effectiveness in
dealing with particular situations.
• Bandura also emphasized the importance of
cognition in personality development.
•
• People develop a sense of self- efficacy: Our
beliefs about our ability to achieve goals.
•
• Individuals with higher self-efficacy: accept greater
challenges and try harder to meet challenges.
• Bandura also discusses the notion of Reciprocal
Determinism: The individual and the environment
continually influence one another.
(B) ROTTER'S THEORY OF LOCUS OF CONTROL
• Julian Rotter: American psychologist, began as a
Freudian!
• His personality theory combines learning principles,
modeling, cognition, and the effects of social
relationships.
• External locus of control: perception that chance or
external forces beyond personal control determine
one's fate.
• Internal locus of control: perception that you control
your own fate.
• Learned Helplessness: a sense of hopelessness in
which a person thinks that he/she is unable to
prevent aversive events
Humanistic personality theories
MASLOW AND ROGERS
• Rejected Freud's pessimistic view of personality.
• More optimistic/positive about human nature.
• Humans are inner-directed.
• Health growth involves Self actualization. "Be all you
can be."
• Given the right environmental conditions, we can
reach our full potential.
Abraham Maslow
Self-actualization is the culmination of a lifetime of inner
directed growth and improvement.
• Challenging ourselves to the fullest.
• Characteristics of the self-actualized person:
✓ Creative and open to new experiences.
✓ Committed to a cause or a higher goal.
✓ Trusting and caring of others, yet not dependent.
✓ Have the courage to act on their convictions.
Maslow hierarchy of needs
Carl Rogers
• Self-concept: Our image or perception of
ourselves (Real Self versus Ideal Self).
• We change our behavior to obtain approval.
• What we need is: Unconditional positive regard.
• Anxiety signifies that we are not being true to
our ideal self.
Behavioristic
• John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner
• behavioural theories dominated psychology during the
early half of the twentieth century.
• Today, behavioural techniques are still widely used in
therapeutic settings to help clients learn new skills and
behaviours.
• The school of behaviourism emerged in the 1910s,
led by John B. Watson.
Classical Conditioning
Ivan Pavlov was a noted Russian physiologist who went on to
win the 1904 Nobel Prize for his work studying digestive
processes. It was while studying digestion in dogs that Pavlov
noted an interesting occurrence his canine subjects would
begin to salivate whenever an assistant entered the room.
Operant Conditioning
B.F. SKINNER'S THEORY
• Skinner's theory is based on operant
conditioning, which means when the organism is
operating on the environments, the organism will
encounter a special kind of reinforcing stimulus
or simply a reinforcement.
• Reinforcement increases a behaviour and
punishment decreases or ends it.
Genetics and Culture
• Behavioural genetics is a field of study of the relationship
between heredity and personality
• Studies with both identical and fraternal twins, those
either raised together or raised apart, assist researchers
in investigating the role of genetics and environment on
the development of personality.
• e Adoption studies of twins or no twin siblings also
provide valu- able information.
• Studies of twins and adopted children have found
support for a genetic influence on many personality
traits, including intelli gence, leadership abilities,
traditionalism, nurturance, empathy, assertiveness,
neuroticism, and extraversion.
• Cross-cultural research has found support for
the five-factor model of personality traits in a
number of different cultures.
• Future research will explore the degree to which
child-rearing practices and heredity may
influence the five personality factors.
• Adoption studies of twins or nontwin siblings
also provide valu- able information.
Evolutionary theories
• Charles Darwin first introduced the concepts of
evolution and natural selection in the mid-1800s. His
work sparked an entire field of evolutionary biology.
• Later, other scientists explored Darwin’s premises to
explain human behavior. According to this
framework of evolutionary theories, human
personality is primarily the result of genes and most
useful traits.
• Ultimately, evolutionary theory states that
personality characteristics that increased your
ancestors’ chances for survival are the traits you
may have at the core of your personality today.
Personality Assessment
Personality assessment is a proficiency in professional
psychology involves the administration, scoring and
interpretation of empirically supported measures of
personality traits and styles in order to increase the
accuracy of behavioural prediction in a variety of contexts
and settings (e.g. Organization)
Personality assessment, in its broadest sense, includes
any technique that is used to describe or make inferences
about the characteristic traits, attitudes, beliefs, values,
needs, motives, emotional states, coping styles, or
aspirations of an individual.
History Of Personality
Assessment
• Began in late 1800’s in Europe to aid the expanding
science of psychiatry
• 1920 : was first used for personnel by Robert
Woodworth as part of a U.S. Army program
• Early personality tests were designed to assess a single
personality dimension.
• 1931 : Robert Bernreuter created a test ( Brenreuter
Inventory ) to provide scores for several personality
characteristics became widely used.
• 1934: Humm-Wadsworth Temperament Scale - Tested
self interest, emotionality and harmony.
• 1940 : Hathaway and McKinley’s Minnesota Multiphasic
Personality Inventory ( MMPI) became widely used in
military as well as adapted for clinical assessment and
Research.
• WWII : U.S. Government used Personality
assessments in recruitment of special forces.
• 1957 : Cattell and Stice published Sixteen Personality
Factors Questionnaire
• 1970’s : Personality Assessment widely criticized in
Personnel selection due to claims of it leading to
discrimination.
• 1985 : NEO- Personality Inventory Based on Five Factor
Model of Personality
• 1990’s: High Risk and specialized occupations gave
personality assessments a comeback
Methods of Personality
Assessment
Objective : Objective tests represent the most familiar and
widely used approach to assessing personality. Objective
tests involve administering a standard set of items, each of
which is answered using a limited set of response options
(e.g., true or false; strongly disagree, slightly disagree,
slightly agree, strongly agree). Responses to these items
then are scored in a standardized, predetermined way
16 PF
The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16 PF)
The 16PF is an objectively scorable test devised to give
the most complete coverage of personality possible in a
brief time. The test was designed for individuals aged 16
and above by Raymond Cattell.
The instrument’s ability to provide comprehensive,
objective information in an efficient manner makes it a
powerful tool for industrial and organizational application
such as employee selection, promotion, development,
coaching or outplacement counselling.
Reliability :
The test-retest varying from 0.70 to 0.87
Internal consistency value was 0.75
Eysenck’s Personality Inventory
The Eysenck Personality Inventory was developed by
Hans and Sybil Eysenck's which is a self-report
instrument. It measures two pervasive, independent
dimensions of personality, Extraversion-Introversion and
Neuroticism-Stability, which account for most of the
variance in the personality domain. The instrument is
comprised of 57 yes/no items.
Reliability:
The EPI Manual notes reliability estimates for the EPI
ranging from 0.81 to 0.97 for test–retest reliability and from
0.74 to 0.91 for split-half reliability.
MMPI
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is
the most common psychometric test devised to assess
personality traits and psychopathology. The original MMPI
was developed by Starke R. Hathaway and J. C. McKinley,
faculty of the University of Minnesota, and first published
by the University of Minnesota Press in 1943.
• The MMPI provides broad information about aspects of
personality and the existence of components of
psychopathology.
• The MMPI is completed by indicating true/false to a
series of declarative statements that identify personal
beliefs or symptomatology.
Reliability : This is a widely known test and the test-retest
reliability is recorded as 0.50 to 0.80.
NEO 5
Initially developed by McCrae and Costa 1987 the NEO
FFI 3 Is a 60 item version of the NEO PI 3 that provides a
brief , comprehensive measure of the five domains of
personality. This test is widely used in industrial and
organizational psychology to predict the performance of
their employees.
The five domains are neuroticism, extroversion, openness
in experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness.
Projective Tests
Projective tests are a type of personality test in which the
individual must respond to ambiguous scenes, words or
images to evoke responses that may reveal facets of the
subject’s personality by projection of internal attitudes,
traits and behaviour patterns upon external stimuli.
Examples
Rorschach Inkblot test
Thematic Apperception Test ( TAT )
Rorschach Inkblot Test
Designed by a a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Hermann
Rorschach, The Rorschach is a performance-based task or an
assessment measure that assesses a broad range of personality,
perceptual, and problem solving characteristics, including thought
organization, perceptual accuracy and conventionality, self-image
and understanding of others, psychological resources, schemas,
and dynamics. The task provides a standard set of inkblot stimuli,
and is administered and coded according to standardized
guidelines
The Rorschach test, used in conjunction with other diagnostic
tools, is a projective measure for identifying a person's state of
mind and various personality traits.
Reliability: Low Reliability as two examiners can arrive at two very
different conclusions when looking at the same person’s reponse
Thematic Apperception Test ( TAT )
The Thematic Apperception Test, or TAT, is a
projective psychological test. Its adherents assert that the TAT taps
a subject's unconscious to reveal repressed aspects of personality,
motives and needs for achievement, power and intimacy, and
problem-solving abilities.
The TAT is popularly known as the picture interpretation technique
because it uses a standard series of provocative yet ambiguous
pictures about which the subject is asked to tell a story. There are 31
picture cards in the standard form of the TAT. The subject is asked to
tell as dramatic a story as they can for each picture presented
TAT remains widely used as a tool for research into areas of
psychology such as dreams, fantasies, mate selection and what
motivates people to choose their occupation
Reliability : Internal consistency is often quite low for TAT scoring
system.
Advantages of personality testing
• Gaining a deeper insight into the candidate’s core
values and preferences
• Personality tests can also benefit the candidates
• Improving the company culture and employee
productivity
• More effective interview process
• Consistent hiring
Limitations of personality testing
• Costs
• Candidates can lie
• Time-consuming
• Not all tests are suitable for all situations
Research studies
Predicting employee attitudes to workplace diversity from personality, values,
and cognitive ability
The current study assessed the predictive validity of broad and narrow
measures of personality, values, and cognitive ability on employee attitudes to
workplace diversity. Australian working adults (N = 731; 66% female; mean
age = 43, SD = 12) completed the 200-item HEXACO Personality Inventory,
Schwartz's Portrait Values Questionnaire, ACER measures of numeric, verbal,
and abstract reasoning ability, the Attitudes Toward Diversity Scale, and four
scales measuring prejudice towards female workers, ethnic workers, older
workers, and workers with a disability. Results showed that Honesty–Humility,
Extraversion, Openness, and cognitive ability (especially verbal) predicted more
positive attitudes to workplace diversity. Valuing power, security, and tradition
more, and valuing universalism less was associated with more negative attitudes
to workplace diversity.
• How workplace support for the COVID-19 pandemic and personality traits affect
changes in employees' affective commitment to the organization and job-related
well-being
How do organizational responses to environmental disruptions affect employees'
job-related well-being? As the COVID-19 pandemic has led to new ways of working,
increased health concerns, and added responsibilities, employees are facing
important challenges in doing their work that can affect their job-related well-being.
This study aims to understand how different types of work support (i.e., perceived
organizational support and supervisor accessibility) in response to environmental
disruption interact with personality traits (i.e., core self-evaluations and future focus)
to influence changes in employees' affective commitment to their organization and
in their job-related well-being. We develop a moderated mediation model and test it
on data collected from 295 individuals working in the United Kingdom. We find that
work support for the COVID-19 pandemic, both perceived organizational support
and supervisor accessibility, is associated with more positive changes in employees'
job-related well-being and that this effect is mediated by changes in employees'
affective commitment to their organization. Furthermore, we find that personality
traits moderate the relationships between these two types of support and changes
in affective commitment to the organization, with those relationships being more
positive for employees with low core self-evaluations and for those with a high
future focus.
references
• Mihalache, M., & Mihalache, O. R. (2021). How workplace support
for the COVID ‐19 pandemic and personality traits affect changes
in employees’ affective commitment to the organization and job‐
related well‐being. Human Resource Management, 61(3), 295–
314. [Link]
• Anglim, J., Sojo, V., Ashford, L. J., Newman, A., & Marty, A. (2019,
December). Predicting employee attitudes to workplace diversity
from personality, values, and cognitive ability. Journal of Research
in Personality, 83, 103865.
[Link]
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