Personality

Personality
y Personality is the sum total of ways in which an

individual refers to and acts with others. y Personality is a stable set of characteristics and tendencies that determine those commonalities and differences in the psychological behaviors(thoughts, feelings, and actions) of people that have continuity in time and that may not be easily understood as the sole result of the social and biological pressures of the moment.

Determinants of Personality
y Cultural y Familial y Situational
y Biological: a) the heredity b) the brain c) physical features.

Personality Theories
y Psycho-analytical theory y Type theory y Trait theory y Social learning theory y Self-theory

Intrapsychic Theory
y Freud remains the most influential theorist in the area of

personality. y According to Freud the human mind is composed of the three elements a) the preconscious b) the conscious c) the unconscious. y The items in the mind that can be recognized only through Freuds association method are preconscious. The conscious element is concerned with thought, feelings, beliefs and desires that we probe during introspection.
y The final component the unconscious is basically

concerned with ideas and wishes that can not be learned through introspection but can be determined by hypnotism , analysis of dreams and Freudian therapeutic techniques.

y According to Freud the conscious is guided by a reasoned

reality principle and the unconscious is guided by the famous hedonistic principle of pleasure. Freud developed an organization of personality consisting of the three structures within the human mind the id, the ego, and the super ego. y These parts of the mind are primarily responsible for originating human actions and reactions and modifications.

Psycho-analytical theory
Three structures of human mind y Id: The aspects of personality concerned with the primitive gratifications of motives with little regard for the consequences or the realities of life. y EGO: A term referring to the self and to ways of behaving and thinking realistically. y SUPER EGO: It is that which corresponds to what is commonly called conscience; it imposes restrictions and keeps a person working towards ideals acquired in childhood.

Type theories
y Personality type theory aims to classify people into distinct

categories. Personality types are synonymous with personality styles. y Type refers to categories that are distinct and discontinuous. For example, you are one or the other. This is important to understand, because it helps to distinguish a personality type approach from personality trait approach, which takes a continuous approach.

Trait theory
y Trait theorists view personality from the standpoint of the

understanding traits. Among trait theorist are included Allport, Cattell and Sheldon. y Allport is of the opinion that each individual possesses a set of traits that are not shared by any other individuals. He emphases the uniqueness of personality. y Cattell has extensively worked on the traits in various work settings employing a number of psychological measures. On the basis of factors analysis he developed factor concepts such as tender-mindedness, somatic anxiety, dominance etc.

y Sheldon extended physical structure by asserting that

physique consists of three components: endomorphs( soft and spherical structure ) , mesomorphs ( tough and muscular body) and ectomorphs ( linear and fragile ). The relative existence of these three physical aspects , he assumed three aspects of temperament: viscerotonia ( love of comfort and affection ), somatotonia ( love of physical adventure and risk taking ) and cerebrotonia( restraint and inhibition ). Although he assumed a close relationship between respective aspects of structure and personality, there is no evidence to support this view.

Evaluation of Trait Theories

y When compared to type theories, trait theories have some sense.

Instead of making unrealistic attempt to personality into discrete, discontinuous categories, trait theories give recognition to continuity of personalities. But the trait theories suffer from the following limitations: a) Trait may be too abstract. For example, the scale of measuring anxiety may be abstract. b) Trait approach focuses on isolated traits without specifying how these trait are organized within the personality. Without knowing which traits are more important and how they are related to other traits of an individual , it is not possible to make adequate description of an individuals personality. c) Another fundamental problem or drawback of this theory is that they are essentially descriptive rather than analytical.

Social learning theory

y Learning is defined as the relatively permanent behavioral

change . As we learn we alter the way we perceive our environment, the way we interpret the incoming stimuli., and therefore the way we interact or behave. This new way of approaching a very successful theory marked a transition away from strict behaviorism and toward a concept known as social learning theory.

Self theory
y This theory rejects both psycholoanalytic and

behaviouristic conception of human nature as too mechanistic, portraying people as creatures helplessly tossed about by internal instincts or external stimuli. Carl Rogers and his associates have developed the self theory that places emphasis on the individual as an initiating, creating, influential determinant of behavior within the environmental frame work. y To understand Rogers theory we have to understand a) the self concept b) the organism and c) the development of self.

Self concept
y The self consists of all perception, ideas, values and

characteristics that characterizes I or ME. It includes What I am and What I can do. Rogers defines the self-concept as organized, consistent, conceptual gestalt composed of perceptions of I or Me and the perceptions of the relationships of I or Me to these perceptions. y Here I refers to the personal self and me and the perceptions of the relationships of I or me to these perceptions. I is personal self and me refers to the social self.

The organism
y The organism is essentially the locus of all

experience. The totality of experience is the field known to the person himself and is frequently referred to as frame of reference. Behavior of an
individual is largely determined by this field and not by the stimulating conditions of the events in the external field or environment.

The development of self-personality

y The fundamental force motivating the human

organism is self actualization i.e. a tendency toward fulfillment , toward the maintenance and enhancement of the organism. The tendency of self actualization of both the organism and the self subject to the profound influence of the social environment.

Evaluation of self theory

y Self concept is the result of ones perceptual process. It is a

cognitive factor and maintained through thinking- related activities. The self theory is appreciated on the ground that it is organized around that the individual largely determines personality and behavior whereas in other theories, the individual is the medium through which behavior is elicited after having been acted upon by elements over which he has no control.

Types of personality
y Personality and behavior: personality and behavior

of people in the organization are intricately linked. For example, the researcher have extensively investigated the relationships between the big five personality factors and job performance. Their findings indicate that the employees who are responsible, dependable, persistent and achievement oriented perform better than those who lack these traits.

y Self esteem: it is the result of an individuals continuing evaluation of himself or herself. In other words, people develop, hold and sometimes modify opinions of their own behavior, abilities, Appearance and worth. These general assessments reflect responses to the people and situations successes and failures and the opinions of others.

y Locus of control: it refers to the extent to which

individuals believe that they can control events affecting them. Individuals who have a high internal LOC( internals) believe that their own behavior and actions primarily, but not necessarily totally, determine many of the events in their lives. On the other hand , individuals who have high external LOC ( externals) believe that chances, fate of other people primarily determine what happens to them.

y Goal orientation: Another individual difference of importance for behavior in work settings is goal orientation or the preference for one type of goal versus another. Specifically , two orientation are considered important in terms of understanding some aspects of individual job performances. A learning goal orientation is a predisposition to develop competence by acquiring new skills and mastering new situations.

Introversion and Extroversion

y In everyday usage, the words introvert and extrovert

describe a persons congenially; an introvert is shy and retiring, whereas an extrovert is socially gregarious and outgoing. The terms have similar meaning when used to refer to personality dimensions. y One of the most striking implications of the introversion-extroversion personality dimension involves task performance in different environments.

Implications of personality on organization

Authoritarianism is closely related to dogmatism but is narrower in scope.
y Dogmatism: It refers to the rigidity of a persons beliefs. y The authoritarian personality describes someone who adheres to

conventional values, obeys recognized authorities, exhibits a negative view of society, respects power and roughness, and opposes the expression of personal feelings. y In organizations the authoritarian personality probably is subservient to authority figures and may even prefer superiors who have a highly directive, structured leadership style. Both dogmatism and authoritarianism and are related to the intellectual openness factor.