What is Personality?

What is Personality?
Personality
The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts
and interacts with others.

Personality Traits
Enduring characteristics Personality
Personality
that describe an Determinants
Determinants
individual’s behavior. • •Heredity
Heredity
• •Environment
Environment
• •Situation
Situation

© 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved. 4–3

4–3
Personality of an individual also affects human
behaviour. It is the sum total of an individual’s
psycho-physical systems that determine his/her
behaviour in a given environment/situation.
It has been derived from the latin word
personare. It means ‘to speak through’.
Originally the term denoted the mask worn by
the actors in the ancient Greek dramas.
Personality includes both internal and external
aspect of a person.
 Personality Determinants
HEREDITY: refers to those factors that were determined at
conception. Physical structure, facial attractiveness, gender,
temperament, energy level etc.
ENVIRONMENT: Among the factors that exert pressures on
our personality formation are the culture in which we are
raised, our early conditioning, the norms among our family,
friends and social groups etc.
SITUATION: A third, the situation, influences the effects of
heredity and environment on personality. An individual’s
generally stable and consistent, does change in different
situations.
 Personality Traits

Cattel’s
Cattel’s
Sixteen
Sixteen
Primary
PrimaryTraits
Traits
Types of Personality
1. Introvert/ Extrovert
2.Type A / Type B
3.Juding/Perceptive
Personality Types
Personality Types
 Introvert and Extrovert
Personality
Introvert Personality: are oriented to the
subjective world , avoid social contracts and
initiating interaction with other group mates,
withdrawn and quiet.
Extrovert Personality: are just contrary to
introverts. They are very friendly, sociable,
lively, aggressive & express their feelings &
ideas openly. More suitable & successful for
sales activities , publicity & PR.
 Judging & Perceptive
Personalities
Judging: people like to follow a plan, make
decisions & need only that what is
essential for their work.
Perceptive: they are the people who adapt
well to change, want to know all about a
job & at times may get overcommitted.
 Theories of Personalities
Type Theory: personality classification was made on
two bases-
BODY BUILD: establish relationship between one’s body
build/features & personality.
Short/Plumb Body(social & relaxed)
Tall/Thin Person(restrained & self conscious)
Heavy set muscular body(noisy, fond of physical activity.

PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTOR: based on the assumptions

that personality is the totality of a person’s interacting
sub-systems. Classified into- introvert, extrovert and
Ambiverts.
 Trait Theorty
Describe personality on the basis of
individual trait.
Trait is the characteristic of a person in
which he/she differs from another – shy,
aggressive, lazy, ambitious, loyal,
submissive.
 Psychoanalytic Approach

Rational, Information
planful, in your
mediating Conscious immediate
dimension Ego awareness
of personality
Superego Preconscious Information
which can
Moralistic, easily be
judgmental, made
Unconscious conscious
perfectionist
dimension of
personality Id Thoughts,
feelings,
urges, and other
Irrational, information
illogical, that is difficult
impulsive to bring to
dimension of conscious
personality awareness
 Psychoanalytic Approach

Conscious - Ego
Conscious

all things we
Superego Preconscious
are aware
of at any Unconscious
given Id
moment
 Psychoanalytic Approach

Preconscious - Ego
Conscious

everything that
Superego Preconscious
can, with a little
effort, be Unconscious
brought into Id
consciousness
 Psychoanalytic Approach

Unconscious Ego
Conscious

- inaccessible
Superego Preconscious
warehouse of
anxiety- Unconscious
producing Id
thoughts and
drives
 Psychoanalytic
Divisions of the Mind
Id - instinctual drives present at birth
– does not distinguish between reality and fantasy
– operates according to the pleasure principle
Ego - develops out of the id in infancy
– understands reality and logic
– mediator between id and superego
Superego
– internalization of society’s moral standards
– responsible for guilt
ID seeks pleasure
EGO verifies reality
SUPER EGO strive for perfection.
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
Learning defined as any change in
behaviour that occurs as a result of
experience. It occurs as reinforcement and
observing others.
SLT emphasis on how an individual
behaviour or acts in a given situation.
SELF THEORY-Carl Rogers ST is composed
of I/Me. 4 factors in ST-

Self image- is one’s image of oneself. This is

how one sees oneself. Indicates the reality of a
person.
Ideal self-refers to what one would like to look
like.
Looking Glass Self- refers to how others are
perceiving the individual. Mean the way an
individual think people perceive about him.
Real Self- is what one actually is.
Major Personality Attributes
Influencing OB
Locus of control
Machiavellianism
Self-esteem
Self-monitoring
Propensity for risk taking
Type A personality
Locus of Control
Machiavellianism

Conditions
ConditionsFavoring
FavoringHigh
HighMachs
Machs
••Direct
Directinteraction
interaction
••Minimal
Minimalrules
rulesand
andregulations
regulations
••Distracting
Distractingemotions
emotions
 Machiavellianism
refers to an individual propensity to manipulate
people for solving his/her interest.
An individual high in Mach tend to be cool, logical
and assessing the system him, maintains
emotional distance, tries to control people, events
and situations by manipulating the system to his
advantage.
It considered as good in jobs that need bargaining
skills or jobs offering rewards for winning.
Self-Esteem and Self-
Monitoring