Personality

What is Personality

What does personality mean? People use different terms like good, popular, strong, honest, weak, polite etc. Personality is not easily defined. Basically, personality refers to our attempts to capture or summarize an individuals essence. Personality is person-ality, the science of describing and understanding persons. No two people are exactly the same - not even identical twins. Some people are anxious, some are risk-taking; some are phlegmatic, some highly-strung; some are confident, some shy; and some are quiet and some are loquacious.

What is Personality

Personality comes from the Greek word "persona", meaning "mask" The word personality derives from the Latin word persona which means mask. The study of personality can be understood as the study of ?masks? that people wear. These are the personas that people project and display, but also includes the inner parts of psychological experience which we collectively call our ?self?.

What is Personality

The word personality was also traced to Latin words per sona which are translated as, to speak through. According to Gordon Allport, personality is, the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychological systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment.

Definitions

Fred Luthans defines the term personality as, how people affect others and how they understand and view themselves, as well as their pattern of inner and outer measurable traits and the person-situation intervention. Robbins defines personality as, the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others.

Personality

When we talk of personality, we dont mean that a person has charm, a positive attitude toward life, a smiling face or a place as a finalist for Happiest and Friendliest in this years Miss World contest. When Psychologist talk of personality, they mean a dynamic concept describing the growth and development of a persons whole psychological system. Rather then looking at parts of the person, personality looks at some aggregate whole that is greater then the sum of the parts.

Big Five Model

Personality traits of an executive / supervisor influences the behaviour of the employees in an organization. Personality traits like talkative, smiling, exhibitive in facial expressions and assertiveness are highly appropriate for superiors to inspire, lead and motivate the subordinates. Similarly, traits like openness and frankness of the managers reduce dysfunctional activities and conflicts, and enables the subordinates to concentrate on work related activities and increase productivity.

Big Five Model

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The major personality traits which influence the job behaviour and job performance are labeled as Big-Five Personality Traits Extroversion: a) People who prefer extroversion get the energy from their interaction with other people. b) These type of people develop and maintain wide-range of social network. c) Extroversion represents a persons interest in the external world. d) Persons interest in the external world can be exhibited through sociability, talkativeness and assertiveness.

Big Five Model

Extroverts are Social, talkative and social.

Big Five Model

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2.

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Agreeable: Highly agreeable people are co-operative, warm and trusting. Individuals with agreeable traits think from the view-point of their employees or clients. Good Nature: It includes respecting the employees ideas, views, opinions, values and considering them in decision making. Cooperative: traits regarding attitude & practice of superiors of an organization help the company in moulding the job behaviour & increasing the job performance. Trusting: means being relied upon or confidence in the truth of anything. It is resting on the integrity.

Big Five Model

1. 2. 3. 4.

Conscientiousness: it refers to governing or regulating the work activity by conscience. Conscientiousness is a measure of reliability. Person with a high level of conscientiousness are reliable, organised, dependable and persistent. Following are the conscientious traits Responsible Dependable Persistent Achievement-Oriented

Big Five Model

Emotional Stability : Some executives absorb the actions, reactions, views, feelings, attitudes, outcome of activities etc. and maintain stability in their emotions. Consequently, they tend to be calm, self- confident and secure. Openness to Experience:
Imaginative Artistically Sensitive Intellectual

Primary Personality Traits

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2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

12.
13. 14. 15.

Reserved Less Intelligent Affected by feelings Submissive Serious Expedient Timid Tough-minded Trusting Practical Forthright Self-assured Conservative Group Independent Uncontrolled

Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs.

Outgoing More Intelligent Emotionally Stable Dominant Happy go lucky Conscientious Venturesome Sensitive Suspicious Imaginative Shrewd Apprehensive Experimenting Self-sufficient Controlled

The Self Concept

Almost all the people try to understand themselves by virtue of their qualities, characters, actions, reactions, responses etc. This process in personality theory is called the self concept. This process involves the interaction of the background. Ones own psychology, values, social, economic, religion and other internal factors of oneself. The concepts of self-esteem and self efficacy are concerned with self-concept.

Determinants of Personality

There has been debate whether the leaders are born or made? It has been viewed after a long debate that leaders are both born and made. Similarly, there has been an argument as whether personality is determined at birth or is the result of individuals interaction with the environment. Added to this, it is also argued that situation is another factor that determines personality. Now, we shall discuss these broad determinants of personality.

Determinants of Personality
Heredity: Certain physical and psychological characteristics
like facial attractiveness, temperament, gender, muscle composition, energy level, biological rhythms etc. either substantially or partly are inherited from ones parents. They are inherited by the parents biological, physiological and psychological make-up. Research studies show that traits like shyness, fear, height, distress are mostly caused by inherited genetic characteristics. They also show that genetics accounts from around 50% of personality differences and more than 30% of the variation in occupational and leisure interests. However it is strongly argued that personality factors are not completely dictated by heredity, but they are also determined by the environment.

Determinants of Personality

Environment: Environmental factors are those which encircle us and which influence our behaviour. Culture is the most important factor among environmental factors that influences personality. E.g. Most of the Indian are humble, obedient, tolerant, non-materialistic, noncompetitive and tend to sacrifice. Hindu religious texts, saints, parents and elders teach these cultural values.

Determinants of Personality

Situation: Situation change based on the shifts in environmental factors. E.g. The stable economic environment before 1990s has turned into more dynamic and volatile environment due to globalization of the world economies and information technology innovations. These shifts led to more competitive and challenging market E.g. Japan Different situation demand different aspects of ones personality. Therefore, individuals personality changes in order to meet the situational demands.

Determinants of Personality

We may conclude that heredity, environment and situation influence personality. Heredity states the outer limits of the personality, while environment develops the personality relevant to the normal circumstances and the situation influences the individual to realize and exhibit his/her potential personality in tune with its requirements. Thus, the interactive conglomeration of heredity, environment and situation makes the individual personality.

Personality Theories

Psychologist and other human behaviour theories developed personality theories based on research studies. These personality theories are grouped into
Psychoanalytic theories Scio-psychological theories Trait theories Holistic theories

Personality Theories
Psychoanalytic

theories

Various psychologists contributed to the development of Psychoanalytic theory. These psychologist include Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Karen Horney and Eric Fromm. Sigmund made a significant contribution to the theory compared to other psychologist. According to Sigmund Freud there is a unconscious frame work that motivates the human mostly. These three aspects are Id, the Ego, the Super ego. These three aspects are inter related with each other.