UNIT VIII PERSONALITY

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• Personality -individual’s unique pattern
of thoughts, feelings and behaviors that
persist over time, and across situations.
• At one hand, personality is unique. It is
the characteristics that differentiate
one person from another person.
• And, at the other hand, it is relatively
stable and enduring.
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 G.W. Allport
“the dynamic organization within the
individual of those psychophysical
systems that determines his(/her)
unique adjustment to his(/her)
environment.”
• this definition emphasizes several
aspects:

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1. Dynamic organization –

Personality is dynamic. It is not merely additions of traits and qualities. It is

an active organization of different traits and qualities that is constantly
developing and changing.

The term organization refers to physical and mental traits combined into
one. Physical traits (general physique, color of the eyes, hair, shape of the
nose etc). (Psychological traits - interest, attitude, motive, sociability,
honesty etc.)

2.Psychophysical system –
psychophysical - personality is neither exclusively mental nor exclusively
physical.

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System - traits or groups of traits.
Traits - distinct mode of behavior of a more or
less permanent nature arising from the
individual’s native endowment as modified by
his/her experience.

3. Unique - Every person is unique in every respect.

4. Adjustment to the Environment –personality of

a person adapts itself to the changing situations
and circumstances.
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 According to Coleman

Personality is total sum of behavioural

and mental characteristics that is
distinctive of an individual
 

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 Determinants of personality
• Heredity or Biological determinants
Jim S. Jim L. Twins [Jim twins]
Striking similarity seen only in identical twins than
Fraternal twins.

• Environmental determinants [food, schooling, family,

society, culture, siblings,]
Margaret Mead (New guinea)
Masculinity (Leadership, aggressive, confident) and
Femininity (caring, emotional, shy)
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 Determinants of personality
• Biology Vs. Environment
• Innate Vs. Learned
• Nature Vs. Nurture

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 What is trait?

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• A trait is a stable characteristic of a person that explains
the consistencies in the behavior of an individual and the
differences in behavioral consistencies between
individuals.
• The trait approach holds that adult human beings exhibit

Unit VIII Personality

broad predispositions that are revealed through
consistencies in behavior, thoughts and feelings.
• These predispositions/characteristics when exhibited in a
large numbers of situations are called personality traits.
• These traits are possessed by all individuals but in varying
strengths/amounts. This variation also gives rise to
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difference in personality.
 Allport
• 18000 [17953] 3000 171

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 06/27/2023
Raymond B. Cattell
• According to Cattell, there are 16 traits that
describe the human personality. The traits are
named the primary traits or the source traits
(the less important ones are called surface

Unit VIII Personality

traits) – the steady and consistent source of
behavior
• The 16 primary/source traits are given in the
table in the next slide –
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 Cattell’s 16 personality factors

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1. Reserved Outgoing
2. Less intelligent More intelligent
3. Affected by feelings Emotionally stable
4. Submissive Dominant
5. Serious Happy-go-lucky
6. Expedient Conscientious
7. Timid Venturesome

Unit VIII Personality

8. Tough-minded Tender-minded
9. Trusting Suspicious
10. Practical Imaginative
11. Forthright Shrewd
12. Self-assured Apprehensive
13. Conservative Experimenting
14. Group-dependent Self-sufficient 12
15. Uncontrolled Controlled
16. Relaxed Tense
 MBTI (Myers- Briggs Type Indicator)

The four personality dimensions or traits are

• 1. (I) Introversion/Extroversion (E)
• 2. (P) perceiving/ Judging (J)
• 3. (S) Sensing /Intuition (N)
• 4. (T) Thinking/ Feeling (F)
By arrangement of each of personality
dimensions of these four pairs of personality
dimensions. 16 different types of personality can
be obtained.
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 Carl Gustav Jung
(I) Introversion/Extroversion (E)
(P) perceiving/ Judging (J)
(S) Sensing /Intuition (N)
(T) Thinking/ Feeling (F).

• IJST, IPST, EJST, EJNT

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 The “Big-Five” factors – the basic

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dimensions of personality
Goldberg

It is the most recent approach that describes the

basic dimensions of personality.

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According to this approach, there are five
dimensions of personality that underlie all
others. The Big Five factors are:
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 OCEAN

• O penness to experience: degree to which a

person is creative, innovative, curious, has
appreciation for art and beauty.
• C onscientious: degree to which a person is
dutiful, disciplined and aims for achievement.
• E xtraversion: degree to which a person is
outgoing, talkative, seek stimulation etc.
• A greeableness: degree to which a person is
compassionate, cooperative.
• N euroticisms: degree to which a person easily
experiences negative emotions.
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• High O penness to experience:
• High C onscientious:
• E xtraversion:
• High A greeableness:
• Low N euroticisms:.

• High C onscientious:

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 The "Big Five" Factors(OCEAN)

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• Factor I. High Openness to experience, people high on this
dimension are intelligent open to new ideas and interested in
cultural pursuits.
• Factor II High Conscientious, a person who rates high on this
dimension is self-disciplined, responsible and achieving. People low
on this factor is irresponsible, careless and undependable.
• Factor III Extraversion, rate how introverted or extroverted each

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person is.
• Factor IV High Agreeableness, refers to how friendly, nurturing and
caring a person is, as oppose to cold, indifferent, self-centered or
spiteful.
• Factor V Low Neuroticisms, refers to the presence of negative,
upsetting emotions. People who are high in neuroticism tend to be
anxious emotionally "sour" and irritable.

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 Personality Attributes and workplace

• LOCUS OF CONTROL
• MACHIAVELLIANISM
• SELF-ESTEEM (Self evaluation)
• SELF MONITORING
• RISK TAKING
• TYPE A/B personality

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1. LOCUS OF CONTROL: A degree to which people
believe they are masters of their own fate is
termed locus of control.
Types:
• i. Internals: are those who believe that they
shape their own destinies (more job satisfaction,
more successful, healthier, low absenteeism etc)
• ii. Externals: are those who believe their
outcomes are largely the result of forces outside
their control. (less satisfied with job, more
absent, conventional jobs)
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 Nicole Macvilli
• √ MACHIAVELLIANISM (Mach): the degree to
which a person wants to achieve power and
control behaviour of others.

• (High Machs win more, lose less, more

assertive, Low machs are just opposites)

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• SELF-ESTEEM (Self evaluation): The degree to
which people like or dislike themselves.

• (High self esteemed are more confident, more

successful, challenging jobs,

• Low self esteemed are apprehensive, involved

in deviant workplace behavior, convential jobs
etc)

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• SELF MONITORING: The individual’s ability to
manipulate his or her behaviour to external,
situational factors.

• (High Monitors can control behavior and

emotions, can fake emotions,

• chances of succeeding more than low self

monitors)

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• RISK TAKING: is a tendency among human
decision makers to take chance or possibility
of danger, loss, injury, etc.

• (High risk takers are impulsive, quick decision

makers,
• low risk taking more patient, collect a lot of
information before making decision)

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• Competitiveness, Time urgency and hostility

• TYPE A personality: A complex of personality and behavioural

characteristics, including competitiveness, time urgency, social
status insecurity, aggression, hostility, and a quest for
achievements.
• √ TYPE B personality: The reverse of Type A personality which do
not show high levels of competitiveness, time urgency, hostility
and can relax without guilt. They are RARELY stressed by the
desire to obtain a wildly increasing number of things or
participate in an endless growing series of events in an ever-
decreasing amount of time.
• (Though Type As are found to be more successful in diverse area
but still Type Bs are found to able to promoted to higher posts;
may be because of friendly nature and making more qualitatively
better decisions. Type As have higher chances of suffering for
cardiac diseases)
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Evaluation of Trait theories
Pros
• Psychologists are making efforts to
understand specific traits.
Cons

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• Mostly descriptive
• Do not explain how the traits develop, how
they influence the behavior, and why they
are important
• Controversy about the most important traits. 26
 Measuring personality
A. Objective Tests: are psychological tests that
measure an individual's characteristics in a way that is
independent of rater bias or the individual's own
beliefs.

Generally objective tests are like multiple choice

questions and respondents have to choose the option
that best suits for him/her.

Objective tests tend to be more reliable and valid

than projective or subjective tests.
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 MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory):

Devised by Hathaway and McKinley in 1939.

The current version of MMPI-2 contains the 566 items to
which the person has to respond in “true “or false. .e.g.

• Sometimes I hate voices telling me to do the bad things.

TRUE / FALSE
• At times, I am full of energy. TRUE / FALSE
• I am afraid of losing my mind. TRUE / FALSE
• Everyone hates me. TRUE / FALSE
• I get along well with others. TRUE / FALSE
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It includes 10 clinical scales related to different
group of clinical disorders as Hypochondriasis (Hs),
Depression(D), Hysteria(Hy), Psychopathic
deviation(Pd), Masculinity-femininity (Mf),
Paranoia(Pa), Psychasthenia (Pt), Schizophrenia(Sc),
Hypomania ( Ma) and Social Introversion( Si).

Besides the clinical scale if also includes 4 validity or

control scale.

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Strengths of M.M.P.I. are
• Easy and fast to administer.
• Easy to interpret.
• Reliable and valid
• As the questions and answers are Structured, this test has
more objectivity.

Limitations of M.M.P.I. are:

• Subjects make responses which are acceptable to others
which may not be actually true.
• Since the test items may not provide uniform meaning to all
persons, it may produce different profiles from time to time.
• Does not allow subjects to use their creativity

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• B. Projective Tests: a projective test is a
personality test designed to let a person
respond to ambiguous stimuli, presumably
revealing hidden emotions and internal
conflicts. It is less reliable than objective tests

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Strengths of projective tests are:
• Freedom to respond independently.
• As there is no wrong or right answers; chance of faking response is
low.
• Helps to assess unconscious motives.
 
Limitations of projective tests are:
• Difficult to administer and difficult to interpret.
• Less reliable.
• biased

The most widely used projective tests of personality are

• Rorschach test
• Thematic Apperception Test

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 Rorschach test
• developed by Hermann Rorschach in 1921;
• 10 cards (5 are black and grey, two are black and 3 are
entirely colorful)
• These are presented to the subjects on at a time in a
specific order and instructed to say what he sees in the blot
and what it makes to think him. There is no right or wrong
answers.
• Subject is allowed to turn the blot and look at it from
different angles and position. It is found that different
people see different things from same card.
• The responses are scored on the basis of total numbers of
items seen,
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 Thematic Apperception Test
• developed by Murray and Morgan in 1935.
• It consists of a set of 20 standard pictures, each picture
representing a different situation.
• There is also a blank card among these 20 cards to give free reign
to one's imagination.
• The pictures are ambiguous enough to allow different types of
interpretations by different personalities.
• The Sbject is presented with a series of such pictures one at a time
and is asked to make up a story describing the situation, the
events led up to it, how the characters felt and its outcome.
• The instructions particularly indicate that the story should have a
past, present and future.
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