Download Personality

Personality
We will discuss…
 Meaning and Definition;
 Determinants of personality: Heredity, Environment and Situational
Factors
 Theories of personality: Trait Theory, Type Theory, Psycho Analytic
Theory, Humanistic and Learning Theory
 Measurement of Personality
Psychology is a science in which behavioural and other evidence is used to understand the internal
processes leading people (and members of other species) to behave as they do.
The term ‘personality’ often appears in our day-to-day discussion. The literal meaning of
personality is derived from the Latin word persona, which refers to the mask used by actors in
the Roman theatre for changing their facial make-up.
For a layman, Personality may refer to the physical or external appearance of an individual.
For example, when we find someone ‘good-looking’, we often assume that the person also has a
charming personality. This notion of personality is based on superficial impressions, which may
not be correct.
Personality refers to our characteristic ways of responding to individuals and
situations.
• Certain catchwords (e.g., shy, sensitive, quiet, concerned, warm, etc.) are often used
to describe personalities. These words refer to different components of personality.
• Personality characterises individuals as they appear in most circumstances.
Consistency in behaviour, thought and emotion of an individual across situations
and across time periods characterises her/his personality.
• For example, an honest person is more likely to remain honest irrespective of time
or situation. However, situational variations in behaviour do occur as they help
individuals in adapting to their environmental circumstances.
DEFINING PERSONALITY
• Allport (1948) : “ Personality is a dynamic organisation within an individual of those psychophysical systems
that determine his unique adjustment to his environment”.
Aspects of Allport’s definition :
1) Dynamic Organisation : Personality is not static. It is constantly evolving and changing and is regarded as
motivational and as self regulating. It is a process that is going on at every moment and bringing some or
other modifications slower or faster.
2) Psychophysical system : Personality is neither exclusively mental nor exclusively physical. The organisation
entails the operation of both mind and body, intricably fused into personality unity.
3) Determine : the system of personality is within an individual and has determining tendencies which when
aroused by the stimuli evokes a response by which personality is then known to be.
4) Unique : Every adjustment of every person is unique in time, place and quality. In this sense the activities as
well as the potentialities of two seemingly alike persons are actually very different in quality
5) Adjustment to his environment : This refers to dealing with the environment. How a person adjusts to
physical, geographical, social and environmental surroundings, express his personality.
• Eysenck (1971): “Personality is more or less stable and enduring organisation of a person’s
character , temperament , intellect and physique, which determine his unique adjustment to
the environment”
In simple words…
• Personality is the unique way in which each individual thinks, acts and feels throughout life.
• Personality refers to unique and relatively stable qualities that characterise an individual’s
behaviour across different situations over a period of time.
FEATURES OF PERSONALITY
Personality is characterised by the following features:
1. It has both physical and psychological components.
2. Its expression in terms of behaviour is fairly unique in a given individual.
3. Its main features do not easily change with time.
4. It is dynamic in the sense that some of its features may change due to internal or external
situational demands.
Thus, personality is adaptive to situations.
DETERMINANTS OF PERSONALITY…
Heredity : Heredity refers to the features that are inherited by an individual from his parents. Physical
characteristics such as, height, weight, colour, health status, etc. are the examples of physical inheritance
in an individual. Certain cognitive aspects like, intelligence, decision taking skills, stress appraisal abilities
are also inherited which consequently affects the overall personality. (Quote examples)
Environment : Environment refers to the social and cultural surroundings of an individual. The way the
individual is brought up, his interaction with his community, the cultural values that an individual is
exposed to, all make up the environment of an individual. (Quote examples)
Situational : These factors influence a person’s behaviour from time to time. These can be observed when
a person behaves contrastingly and exhibits different traits and characteristics in different situations. For
example, a person’s behaviour will be different when he is in office, in front of his boss, than when he is
with his friends. (Quote examples)
Theories of
Personality
Type
Psychoanalytic
Trait
Theories of
Personality
Humanistic
Behavioural
i. Type
APPRAOCH
Theories of
Personality
(1)
Hippocrate
(2)
Charak
Samhita
(Ayurveda)
(3)
Sheldon
(4)
Carl JUng
The type approaches attempts to comprehend human personality by examining certain broad patterns in
the observed behavioural characteristics of individuals. Each behavioural pattern refers to one type in
which individuals are placed in terms of the similarity of their behavioural characteristics with that
pattern. These approaches classified human personalities depending upon the behavioural characteristics,
somatic structure, blood types, fluids in the body.
I. HIPPOCRATES Type Approach
• According to Hippocrates, human body consists of four types of
humours or fluids – Blood, Yellow bile, Phlegm and black bile.
• The predominance of one of these four types of fluids which are
all present in one’s body gives him unique temperamental
characteristics leading to a particular type of personality.
• Sanguine – It has blood as a dominant fluid in the body and such
a person is light hearted, optimistic, happy, hopeful, and
accomodating.
• Choleric – It is dominated by yellow bile having temperamental
characteristics of irritability, anger, and strong active
imagination.
• Phlegmatic – It is dominated by Phlegm or mucus and are
basically cold, calm, slow or sluggish and indifferent.
• Melancholic – It has the dominance of black bile. It is
characterised by bad temper, dejection, sadness, depression,
pessimism and are self involved.
ii. Charak Samhita (Ayurveda)
 Classifies people into the categories of vata, pitta and kapha on the basis of three
humoural elements called tridosha. Each refers to a type of temperament, called prakriti
(basic nature) of a person.
 A person with a predominantly Vata constitution will have physical and mental qualities
that reflect the elemental qualities of Space and Air. That is why Vata types are commonly
quick thinking, thin, and fast moving.
 A Pitta type, on the other hand, will have qualities reflective of Fire and Water, such as a
fiery personality and oily skin.
 A Kapha type will typically have a solid bodily frame and calm temperament, reflecting
the underlying elements of Earth and Water.
 Apart from this, there is also a typology of personality based on the trigunas, i.e. sattva,
rajas, and tamas.
 Sattva guna includes attributes like cleanliness, truthfulness, dutifulness, detachment,
discipline, etc.
 Rajas guna includes intensive activity, desire for sense gratification, dissatisfaction, envy
for others, and a materialistic mentality, etc.
 Tamas guna characterises anger, arrogance, depression, laziness, feeling of helplessness,
etc.
All the three gunas are present in each and every person in different degrees. The dominance
of one or the other guna may lead to a particular type of behaviour.
III. ShELDON’S BODY TYPES
Sheldon classified human beings into discrete types according to their physical structures
(body types) and attached certain temperamental characteristics.
 Endomorphs: The endomorphs are fat, soft and round. By temperament they are relaxed
and sociable. These are easy going and affectionate personalities.
 Mesomorphs: The mesomorphs have strong musculature, are rectangular with a strong
body build. They are energetic and courageous. They are self assertive. They like taking
risk and are adventurous.
 Ectomorphs : The ectomorphs are thin, long and fragile in body build. They are brainy,
artistic and introvert. They are pessimistic, unsociable and reserved.
These body typologies are simple, and have limited use in predicting behaviour of individuals.
They are more like stereotypes which people hold.
IV. CARL JuNg’S TYPOLOgY
Jung has proposed another important typology by grouping people into introverts and
extraverts. This is widely recognised.
 INTROVERTS are people who prefer to be alone, tend to avoid others, withdraw
themselves in the face of emotional conflicts, and are shy.
 EXTRAVERTS are sociable, outgoing, drawn to occupations that allow dealing directly
with people, and react to stress by trying to lose themselves among people and social
activity.
Ii. Trait
APPRAOCH
Theories of
Personality
(1)
Gordan
Allport
(2)
Raymond
Cattell
(3)
H.J. Eysenck
Trait approach focuses on the specific psychological attributes along which individuals tend to differ in consistent and
stable ways. For example, one person may be less shy, whereas another may be more; or one person may be less friendly,
whereas another may be more. Here “shyness” and “friendliness” represent traits along which individuals can be rated in
terms of the degree of presence or absence of the concerned behavioural quality or a trait.
“A trait is considered as a relatively enduring attribute or quality on which one individual differs from another. They
include a range of possible behaviours that are activated according to the demands of the situation”.
The following are the main features of traits :(a) traits are relatively stable over time, (b) they are generally consistent across
situations, and (c) their strengths and combinations vary across individuals leading to individual differences in personality.
The figure illustrates the manner in which a trait operates…
RESPONSE
STIMULI
Lack of
friends
Peers
Parties
TRAIT
Avoidance of
Social gathering
SHYNESS
Hobbies
Seminars
Enjoyment of
solitary activities
Reluctance to
participate in
discussions
I. ALLPORT’S trait approach
Gordon Allport is considered the pioneer of trait approach. He proposed that individuals possess a number of
traits, which are dynamic in nature. They determine behaviour in such a manner that an individual approaches
different situations with similar plans. The traits integrate stimuli and responses which otherwise look dissimilar.
Allport argued that the words people use to describe themselves and others provide a basis for understanding
human personality. He analysed the words of English language to look for traits which describe a person.
• Cardinal traits are highly generalised dispositions. They indicate the goal around which a person’s entire life
seems to revolve. Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violence and Hitler’s Nazism are examples of cardinal traits. Such
traits often get associated with the name of the person so strongly that they derive such identities as the
‘Gandhian’ or ‘Hitlerian’ trait.
• Central traits are less general than cardinal traits and are more in number in a person. These traits are often
used in writing a testimonial or job recommendation for a person. When we describe somebody’s behaviour,
we are usually referring to central traits such as intelligent, sincere, kind, possessive , competitive, honest etc.
• Secondary traits The least generalised characteristics of a person are called secondary traits. Traits such as
‘likes mangoes’ or ‘prefers ethnic clothes’ are examples of secondary traits.




II. RAYMOND CATTELL’S FACTOR ThEORY
Raymond Cattell believed that there is a common structure on which people differ from each other. He
tried to identify the primary traits from a huge array of descriptive adjectives found in language.
He applied a statistical technique, called factor analysis, to discover the common structures. He found 16
basic personality factors including emotional stability, outgoingness, assertiveness, self assurance self
discipline etc. He distinguished between Source traits and surface traits.
The source traits are stable, and are considered as the building blocks of personality. They are simply a
collection of trait elements of greater or lesser amount which go together in many different individuals
and circumstances. These can be seen easily in other individuals. Surface traits that result out of the
interaction of source traits. For example, shyness, being quiet and disliking crowds might all be surface
traits related to the more basic source trait of introversion, a tendency to withdraw from excessive
stimulation.
He developed a test, called Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF), for the assessment of
personality.
III. h.J. EYSENCk’S DIMENSIONS OF PERSONALITY
 H.J. Eysenck proposed that personality could be reduced into two broad dimensions. These are biologically and
genetically based. Each dimension subsumes a number of specific traits.
These dimensions are:
(1) Neuroticism vs. emotional stability : It refers to the degree to which people have control over their feelings. At one
extreme of the dimension, we find people who are neurotic. They are anxious, moody, touchy, restless and quickly
lose control. At the other extreme lie people who are calm, even-tempered, reliable and remain under
control.
(2) Extraversion vs. introversion : It refers to the degree to which people are socially outgoing or socially withdrawn.
At one extreme are those who are active, gregarious, impulsive and thrill seeking. At the other extreme are people who
are passive, quiet, cautious and reserved.
 In a later work Eysenck proposed a third dimension, called Psychoticism vs. Sociability, which is considered to
interact with the other two dimensions mentioned above. A person who scores high on psychoticism dimension
tends to be hostile, egocentric, and antisocial.
 Eysenck Personality Questionnaire is the test which is used for studying these dimensions of personality.
Theories of
personality
Psychoanalytic
APPROACH
Propounded by SIGMUND FREUD who was a physician, and developed this theory in the
course of his clinical practice
hypnosis to treat people with physical and emotional problems.
Freud used free association (a method in which a person is asked to openly share all the
thoughts, feelings and ideas that come to her/his mind), dream analysis, to understand the
internal functioning of the mind.
The approach focuses on:
the role of the unconscious mind in the development of personality.
Biological causes of personality differences
• Id
• Ego
• Superego
Psychosexual Stages of
Development
• Conscious
• Preconscious
• Unconscious
Structure of Personality
Levels of Consciousness
Psychodynamic approach
• Oral
• ANAL
• PHALLIC
• Latency
• GEnital
Psychodynamic approach
I. Levels of Consciousness
Freud’s theory considers the sources and consequences of
emotional conflicts and the way people deal with these. In
doing so, it visualises the human mind in terms of three
levels of consciousness:
1)Conscious: which includes the thoughts, feelings and
actions of which people are aware. The uppermost part of
one’s mind. This is very similar to STM.
2)Preconscious: which includes mental activity of which
people may become aware only if they attend to it closely.
Information is available but not currently conscious.
3)Unconscious : which includes mental activity that people
are unaware of. Information that cannot be brought to
consciousness easily or voluntarily.
Psychodynamic approach
II. Structure of personality
According to Freud’s theory, the primary structural elements of personality are three:
1) Id: It is the source of a person’s instinctual energy. It deals with immediate gratification of primitive needs, sexual
desires and aggressive impulses. It works on the pleasure principle, which assumes that people seek pleasure and try to
avoid pain. Id does not care for moral values, society, or other individuals.
2) Ego: It grows out of id, and seeks to satisfy an individual’s instinctual needs in accordance with reality. It works by the
reality principle, and often directs the id towards more appropriate ways of behaving. Thus, while the id is demanding,
unrealistic and works according to pleasure principle, the ego is patient, reasonable, and works by the reality principle.
3) Superego: The best way to characterise the superego is to think of it as the moral branch of mental functioning. The
superego tells the id and the ego whether gratification in a particular instance is ethical. It helps control the id by
internalising the parental authority through the process of socialisation.
Thus, in terms of individual functioning Freud thought of the unconscious as being composed of three competing forces.
In some people, the id is stronger than the superego; in others, it is the superego. The relative strength of the id, ego and
superego determines each person’s stability.
Psychodynamic approach
III. Psychosexual stages of development
Freud proposed a five-stage theory of personality (also called psychosexual) development. Problems encountered at any stage may
arrest development, and have long-term effect on a person’s life.
1) ORAL(0-1 yr):A newborn’s instincts are focused on the mouth. This is the infant’s primary pleasure seeking centre. It is through
the mouth that the baby obtains food that reduces hunger. The infant achieves oral gratification through feeding, thumb sucking, biting
and babbling. It is during these early months that people’s basic feelings about the world are established. Thus, for Freud, an adult who
considers the world a bitter place probably had difficulty during the oral stage of development.
2) ANAL(1-2 yrs): It is found that around ages two and three the child learns to respond to some of the demands of the society. One
of the principal demands made by parents is that the child learns to control the bodily functions of urination and defecation.
3) PHALLIC(3-6 yrs): At around ages four and five children begin to realise the differences between males and females. They
become aware of sexuality and the sexual relationship between their parents. During this stage, the male child experiences the
Oedipus Complex, which involves love for the mother, hostility towards the father, and the consequent fear of punishment or
castration by the father (Oedipus was a Greek king who unknowingly killed his father and then married his mother). A major
developmental achievement of this stage is the resolution of the Oedipus complex. This takes place by accepting his father’s
relationship with his mother, and modelling his own behaviour after his father.
Psychodynamic approach
III. Psychosexual stages of development(2)
4)LATENCY(6 to puberty): This stage lasts from about seven years until puberty. During this period, the
child continues to grow physically, but sexual urges are relatively inactive. Much of a child’s energy is
channelled into social or achievement related activities.
5)GENITAL(puberty to death): The person attains maturity in psychosexual development. The sexuality,
fears and repressed feelings of earlier stages are once again exhibited. People learn to deal with members of the
opposite sex in a socially and sexually mature way. However, if the journey towards this stage is marked by
excessive stress or over-indulgence, it may cause fixation to an earlier stage of development.
Theories of
personality
Humanistic
Approach
Carl Roger’s
Self Theory
Abraham
Maslow’s Need
Hierarchy
• The Humanistic theories are mainly developed in response to Freud’s theory.
• Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow have particularly contributed to the development of humanistic
perspective on personality
• They wanted psychology to focus on the things that make people uniquely human, such as
subjective emotions and the freedom to choose one’s own destiny.
• Humanistic Theories focus on the positive aspect of human personality.
IV.HUMANISTIC APPROACH
(1)CARL ROgER’S ThEORY OF SELF
• Rogers(1961) believed that human beings are always striving to fulfil their innate capacities and
capabilities and to become everything that their genetic potential will allow them to become.
• The most important idea proposed by Rogers is that of a fully functioning person.
• He believes that fulfilment is the motivating force for personality development. People try to
express their capabilities, potentials and talents to the fullest extent possible. There is an inborn
tendency among persons that directs them to actualise their inherited nature.
• Rogers makes two basic assumptions about human behaviour:
(a)Behaviour is goal-directed and worthwhile.
(b)People (who are innately good) will almost always choose adaptive, self-actualising behaviour.
IV.HUMANISTIC APPROACH
(1)CARL ROgER’S ThEORY OF Self
(2)
• Rogers’ theory grew out of his experiences of listening to patients in his clinic. He noted that self was an
important element in the experience of his clients. Thus, his theory is structured around the concept of self.
• The theory assumes that people are constantly engaged in the process of actualising their true self.
• Self –Actualisation: a tendency to fulfil one’s innate capacities and capabilities, striving for excellence.
• Rogers suggests that each person also has a concept of ideal self. An ideal self is the self that a person would
like to be.
• Real Self is one’s actual perception of characteristics, traits and abilities that form the basis of the striving for
self actualisation.
• When there is a correspondence between the real self and ideal self, a person is generally happy. Discrepancy
between the real self and ideal self often results in unhappiness and dissatisfaction.
• Rogers’ basic principle is that people have a tendency to maximise self-concept through self-actualisation. In
this process, the self grows, expands and becomes more social.
IV.HUMANISTIC APPROACH
(2)MASLOw’S NEED hIERARChY
 The theory is also known as theory of Self Actualisation.
 Maslow’s model can be conceptualised as a pyramid in which
the bottom of this hierarchy represents the basic to survival
such as, hunger, thirst, etc.
 Only when these needs are met, the need to be free from
threatened danger arises. This refers to the safety needs of
physical and physiological nature.
 Next comes the need to seek out other people, to love and to
be loved.
 After these needs are fulfilled, the individual strives for esteem,
i.e. The need to develop a sense of self worth.
 The next higher need in hierarchy reflects an individual’s
motive towards the fullest development of potential, i.e. self
actualisation. A self actualised person is self aware, socially
responsive, creative, spontaneous, open to novelty, and
challenge.
 She/he also has a sense of humour and capacity for deep
interpersonal relationships.
IV.HUMANISTIC APPROACH
(2)MASLOw’S NEED hIERARChY
 Lower level needs (physiological) in the
hierarchy dominate as long as they are
unsatisfied. Once they are adequately
satisfied, the higher needs occupy the
individual’s attention and effort.
 However, it must be noted that very few
people reach the higher needs because
they are concerned with lower order
needs.
(2)
Behavioural approach
• This approach does not give importance to the internal dynamics of behaviour. The behaviourists believe
in data, which they feel are definable, observable, and measurable.
• They focus on learning of stimulus-response connections and their reinforcement.
• According to them, personality can be best understood as the response of an individual to the environment.
They see the development simply as a change in response characteristics, i.e. a person learns new
behaviours in response to new environments and stimuli.
• Different learning principles that involve the use of stimuli, responses, and reinforcement in different
ways. The theories of classical conditioning (Pavlov), instrumental conditioning (Skinner), and
observational learning (Bandura) are well-known to you. These theories view learning and maintenance of
behaviour from different angles. The principles of these theories have been widely used in developing
personality theories.
Behavioural approach (2)
• For most behaviourists, the structural unit of personality is the response. Each response is a behaviour,
which is emitted to satisfy a specific need.
• For example, all of us eat because of hunger, but we are also very choosy about foods children do not like
eating many of the vegetables (e.g., spinach, pumpkin, gourds, etc.), but gradually they learn to eat them.
Why do they do so?
• According to the behavioural approach, children may initially learn to eat such vegetables in anticipation
of appreciation (reinforcement) from their parents. Later on they may eventually learn to eat vegetables not
only because their parents are pleased with this behaviour, but also because they acquire the taste of those
vegetables, and find them good. Thus, the core tendency that organises behaviour is the reduction of
biological or social needs that energise behaviour. This is accomplished through responses (behaviours)
that are reinforced.
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY:
• In social learning theory Albert Bandura (1977) agrees with the behaviourist
learning theories of classical conditioning and operant conditioning. However,
he adds two important ideas:
1. Mediating processes occur between stimuli & responses.
2. Behavior is learned from the environment through the process of
observational learning.
SLT:
• Children observe the people around them behaving in various ways.
This is illustrated during the famous Bobo doll experiment (Bandura,
1961).
• Individuals that are observed are called models. In society, children
are surrounded by many influential models, such as parents within
the family, characters on children’s TV, friends within their peer group
and teachers at school. Theses models provide examples of behavior
to observe and imitate, e.g. masculine and feminine, pro and antisocial etc.
SLT:
• First, the child is more likely to attend to and imitate those people it
perceives as similar to itself. Consequently, it is more likely to imitate
behavior modeled by people of the same sex.
• Second, the people around the child will respond to the behavior it
imitates with either reinforcement or punishment. If a child imitates
a model’s behavior and the consequences are rewarding, the child is
likely to continue performing the behavior.
• If parent sees a little girl consoling her teddy bear and says “what a
kind girl you are”, this is rewarding for the child and makes it more
likely that she will repeat the behavior. Her behavior has been
reinforced (i.e. strengthened).
SLT:
• Reinforcement can be external or internal and can be positive or
negative. If a child wants approval from parents or peers, this
approval is an external reinforcement, but feeling happy about being
approved of is an internal reinforcement. A child will behave in a way
which it believes will earn approval because it desires approval.
• Third, the child will also take into account of what happens to other
people when deciding whether or not to copy someone’s actions. A
person learns by observing the consequences of another person’s (i.e.
models) behaviour e.g. a younger sister observing an older sister
being rewarded for a particular behaviour is more likely to repeat that
behaviour herself. This is known as vicarious reinforcement.
SLT:
• SLT is often described as the ‘bridge’ between traditional learning
theory (ie. behaviourism) and the cognitive approach. This is because
it focuses on how mental (cognitive) factors are involved in learning.
• Unlike Skinner, Bandura (1977) believes that humans are
active information processors and think about the relationship
between their behavior and its consequences. Observational learning
could not occur unless cognitive processes were at work. These
mental factors mediate (i.e. intervene) in the learning process to
determine whether a new response is acquired.
SLT:
• Therefore, individuals do not automatically observe the behaviour of
a model and imitate it. There is some thought prior to imitation and
this consideration is called mediational processes. This occurs
between observing the behavior (stimulus) and imitating it or not
(response)
• Four mediational processes identified by Bandura are:
1. Attention.
2. Retention.
3. Reproduction
4. Motivation.