Personality

• A person’s general style of

interacting with the world
• People differ from one another
in ways that are relatively
consistent over time and place
 Personality

“Characteristic pattern of thinking,

feeling and acting.”

Four major perspectives on Personality

Psychoanalytic - unconscious motivations

Trait - specific dimensions of personality
Humanistic - inner capacity for growth
Social-Cognitive - influence of environment
Different Perspectives

• Psychodynamic
• Unconscious, motivation, conflict, anxiety
• Humanistic
• Positive growth, realization of potential
• Trait
• Categorize and describe
• Cognitive- Social Learning
• Think, act, and respond to environment
Psychoanalytic Approach
• Developed by Sigmund Freud
• Emphasizes unconscious motivation -
the main causes of behavior lie buried in
the unconscious mind
• “Personality arises from conflict
between agressive,pleasure-seeking
impulses and social restraints”
• “Personality forms during the first few
years of life,rooted in unresolved
conflicts of early childhood”
 Psychoanalytic Approach

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

• Unconscious mental processes

employed by the ego to reduce anxiety
Defense Mechanisms

• Repression
• Rationalization
Anxiety • Displacement
• Projection
• Regression
• Sublimation

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Defense Mechanisms
• Repression - keeping anxiety-producing thoughts out
of the conscious mind
• Reaction formation - replacing an unacceptable wish
with its opposite
• Displacement - when a drive directed to one activity
by the id is redirected to a more acceptable activity by
the ego
• Sublimation - displacement to activities that are
valued by society
• Projection - reducing anxiety by attributing
unacceptable impulses to someone else
• Rationalization - reasoning away anxiety-producing
thoughts
• Regression - retreating to a mode of behavior
characteristic of an earlier stage of development
The Unconscious & Assessment

How can we assess personality?

(i.e., the unconscious)

Objective Tests?
No - tap the conscious
Projective Tests?
Yes - tap the unconscious
Thematic Apperceptions Test (TAT)
Rorschach Inkblot Test
The Humanistic Perspective

Maslow’s Roger’s
Self-Actualizing Person-Centered
Person Perspective

“Healthy” rather than “Sick”

Individual as greater than the sum of test scores
Humanistic

Carl Rogers
• Self-Concept
• Unconditional Positive Regard
• Fully functioning person
Roger’s Person-Centered Perspective
People are basically good
with actualizing tendencies.

Given the right environmental

conditions, we will develop
to our full potentials

Genuineness, Acceptance, Empathy

Self Concept - central feature
of personality
Social-Cognitive Perspective

Behavior learned through

conditioning & observation

What we think about our situation

affects our behavior

Interaction of
Environment & Intellect
Reciprocal Determinism
Personal/
Cognitive
Factors

Environment
Behavior
Factors

Internal
Internal World
World ++ External
External World
World == Us
Us
Traits versus Types
• Traits represent single dimensions of
personality
• Types represent constellations of traits
 Trait Perspective
No hidden personality dynamics…just basic personality
dimensions

Traits - people’s characteristic

behaviors & conscious motives

How do we describe & classify different personalities?

Personality Traits

Personality
PersonalityDeterminants
Determinants
••Heredity
Heredity
••Environment
Environment
••Situation
Situation
 Other Personality Traits at Work

• Self-Efficacy
• A person’s beliefs about his or her
capabilities to perform a task.
• Authoritarianism
• The extent to which a person
believes that power and status
differences are appropriate within
hierarchical social systems such as
organizations.
Machiavellianism

Conditions
ConditionsFavoring
FavoringHigh
HighMachs
Machs
••Direct
Directinteraction
interaction
••Minimal
Minimalrules
rulesand
andregulations
regulations
••Distracting
Distractingemotions
emotions
 Other Personality Traits at Work

• Machiavellianism
• People who possess this
personality trait behave to gain
power and control over the
behavior of others.
• High mach’s are very similar to
psychopaths
• Charming with no remorse, guilt,
or empathy
Risk-Taking
• High Risk-taking Managers
• Make quicker decisions.
• Use less information to make decisions.
• Operate in smaller and more entrepreneurial
organizations.
• Low Risk-taking Managers
• Are slower to make decisions.
• Require more information before making decisions.
• Exist in larger organizations with stable
environments.
• Risk Propensity
• Aligning managers’ risk-taking propensity to job
requirements should be beneficial to organizations.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Personality
PersonalityTypes
Types
• •Extroverted
Extrovertedor
orIntroverted
Introverted(E(Eor
orI)I)
• •Sensing
Sensingor
orIntuitive
Intuitive(S
(Sor
orN)
N)
• •Thinking
Thinkingor
orFeeling
Feeling(T
(Tor
orF)
F)
• •Perceiving
Perceivingor
orJudging
Judging(P(Por
orJ)J)
The Big Five
Model
A Big Five Personality Profile
Personality Types
Emotional Intelligence
• Ability to recognize and regulate our own
emotions
• Ability to recognize and influence others emotions
• Self-motivation
• The ability to form effective long-term
relationships with others
Emotional Intelligence (EI)
•Self-awareness
•Self-management
•Self-motivation
•Empathy
•Social skills
.