Module 1

Personality refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and

behaving. The study of personality focuses on two broad areas: One is understanding individual
differences in particular personality characteristics, such as sociability or irritability. The other is
understanding how the various parts of a person come together as a whole (American
Psychological Association)
Personality concerns the most important, most noticeable parts of an individual's psychological
life. Personality concerns whether a person is happy or sad, energetic or apathetic, smart or dull.
Over the years, many different definitions have been proposed for personality. Most of the
definitions refer to a mental system -- a collection of psychological parts including motives,
emotions, and thoughts. The definitions vary a bit as to what those parts might be, but they come
down to the idea that personality involves a pattern or global operation of mental systems. Here
are some definitions:
"Personality is the entire mental organization of a human being at any stage of his development.
It embraces every phase of human character: intellect, temperament, skill, morality, and every
attitude that has been built up in the course of one's life." (Warren & Carmichael, 1930, p. 333)

(In an acknowledged overstatement) "Personality is the essence of a human being." (Hall &
Lindzey, 1957, p. 9, characterizing statements by Gordon Allport)
"An individual's pattern of psychological processes arising from motives, feelings, thoughts, and
other major areas of psychological function. Personality is expressed through its influences on
the body, in conscious mental life, and through the individual's social behavior." (Mayer, 2005)

Personality is a diverse predictability quotient that describes an individual's behavior in every

experiential environment. Individuals behavior is determined by his personality characteristics
and situational factors, which are changeable during time. In order to exchange and predict job

satisfaction, knowledge about individual's personality characteristics and his surroundings is

required.

HISTORICLE INCEDENCE

The study of personality has a long history. For example, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and
Machiavelli, among numerous other philosophers and writers, explored human personality in
their works. Many of their books reveal compelling insights into the human psyche. Modern
theorists to a large extent echo the theories set forth by these earlier thinkers.

Plato

Plato (427347 BCE) saw the human soul as the seat of personality. In his well-known dialogue,
The Republic (c. 390 BCE), he said that the soul consists of three basic forces guiding human
behavior: reason, emotion, and appetite. Reason is given the highest value whereas emotion and
especially appetite are regarded as the lower passions. Plato believed the most powerful of
these forces is reason, which keeps the more primitive forces of appetite and emotion at bay.

Aristotle

Aristotle (384322 BCE), one of Platos students and the teacher ofAlexander the Great, referred
to the seat of personality as the psyche. His description of the psyche suggests that he was the
first biological psychologist. Aristotle proposed that the psyche is the product of biological
processes. He also saw the psyche as including a set of faculties that he placed in a hierarchy of
importance. The first faculty that Aristotle distinguished is the nutritivethe human organisms
basic drives to meet its bodily needs. This faculty can be found in plants as well as in animals
and people. The next and higher faculty is the perceptual, which

Aristotle defined as the aspect of mind that interprets sensory data. Animals as well as people
have a perceptual faculty. The last and highest faculty is the intellectual, which Aristotle saw as
unique to human beings.

In Greek medicine around 2,500 years ago it was believed that in order to maintain health,
people needed an even balance of the four body fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black
bile. These four body fluids were linked (in daft ways by modern standards) to certain organs and
illnesses and also represented the Four Temperaments or Four Humours (of personality) as they
later became known. Spiritually there are other very old four-part patterns and themes relating to
the Four Temperaments within astrology, the planets, and people's understanding of the world,
for example: the ancient 'elements' - fire, water, earth and air; the twelve signs of the zodiac
arranged in four sets corresponding to the elements and believed by many to define personality
and destiny; the ancient 'Four Qualities' of (combinations of) hot or cold, and dry or moist/wet;
and the four seasons, Spring, Summer Autumn, Winter. The organs of the body - liver, lungs, gall
bladder and spleen - were also strongly connected with the Four

Temperaments or Humours and medicinal theory.

Four Temperaments - Earliest Origins

Hippocrates c.370BC -Galen c.190AD

Cheerful- Sanguine

Somber- Melancholic

Enthusiastic -Choleric

Calm- Phlegmatic

The Four Temperaments or Four Humours continued to feature in the thinking and
representations of human personality in the work of many great thinkers through the ages since
these earliest beginnings, and although different theorists have used their own interpretations and
descriptive words for each of the temperaments through the centuries.

PERSONALITY THEORIES

Type Theory

Personality type theory aims to classify people into distinct CATEGORIES. i.e. this type or that.
Personality types are synonymous with "personality styles".

Types, refers to categories that are distinct and discontinuous. e.g. you are one or the other.

This is important to understand, because it helps to distinguish a personality type approach from
a personality trait approach, which takes a continuous approach.

To clearly understand the difference between types and traits, consider the example of the
personality dimension of "introversion". We can view introversion as:
A personality trait approach says you can be anywhere on a continuum ranging from introversion
to extraversion, with most people clustering in the middle, and fewer people towards the
extremes

Allport and Odbert (1936, cited in Funder, 1999) found over 17,000 words in the dictionary
which referred to psychological differences between people, e.g., trustworthy, shy, arrogant.

Typically, modern personality taxonomies have emphasized between two, three, four, and five
personality types, through to identifying 16 or more subtypes.

The Four Humors - Ancient Greeks (~2000 BC - 0 AD)

Ancient Greek philosophers such as Hippocrates 400 BC and Galen, 140/150 AD classified 4
types of "humors" in people. Each type was believed to be due to an excess of one of four bodily
fluids, corresponding to their character. The personalities were termed "humors".

Character- Humor Fluid Corresponding- Trait in the Big 5

Irritable -Choleric yellow bile- Agreeableness

Depressed- Melancholic black bile- Neuroticism

Optimistic -Sanguine Blood -Openness to experience

Calm -Phlegmatic Phlegm- Neuroticism

Somatotypes - William Sheldon, 1940's

William Sheldon (1940, 1942, cited in Phares, 1991) classified personality according to body
type. He called this a persons somatotype.

Jungian Types, Myers-Briggs, & the Four Temperaments

Jungian psychological types are probably the most widely used and amongst the best-known in
everyday life. Jung's typology emerges from Jung's deep, holistic philosophy and psychology
about the person. Jung's typology is not, unfortunately, always included in mainstream
personality courses, because it wasn't empirically-driven. Jung viewed the ultimate psychological
task as the process of individuation, based on the strengths and limitations of one's psychological
type.

Myers-Briggs developed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a commercially available

questionnaire, which is widely used in business and training, etc. and which provides information
and exercises for better understanding one's own personality type and others with who the
individual interacts and works.

Keirsey has renamed and reconceptualized the Jungian types, but they relate very closely to the
Jungian types. Keirsey refers to "temperaments" rather than personality.

Underlying all these typologies are four personality traits (functions):

Extroversion(E)---Introversion(I)

Do you recharge your energy via external contact & activity (Extroversion) or spending time in
your inner space (Introversion)?
Intuition(N)---Sensing(S)
Do you rely on your inner voice (Intuition) or observation (Sensing)?

Thinking(T)---Feeling(F)
When making decisions, what do you rely most on? Your thoughts or your feelings?

Judgement(J)---Perception(P)
Do you tend to set schedules and organize your life (Judgement), or do you tend to leave the

Type A / B Personalities

Meyer Friedman, an American cardiologist, noticed in the 1940's that the chairs in his waiting
room got worn out from the edges. They hypothesized that his patients were driven, impatient
people, who sat on the edge of their seats when waiting. They labelled these people

"Type A" personalities. Type A personalities are work-aholics, always busy, driven, somewhat
impatient, and so on. Type B personalities, on the other hand are laid back and easy going.
"Type A personality" has found its way into general parlance.

TRAIT THEORY

GORDON ALLPORT

Gordon Allport was born in Montezuma, Indiana, in 1897.

He emphasized the importance of studying the individual person and of focusing on that persons
conscious motivation. He focused on understanding the persons conscious motivation and
proposed the idea of Functional Autonomy in which the mature adult human being operates on
the basis of factors in the present and future, not the past, Therefore, conscious thoughts and
wishes are more important than unconscious needs and impulses.

He believed that personality was always developing and changing but he added that there is
within each person some kind of central organization that holds the components of personality
together. Also believes that personality is not just hypothetical but made up of both mental and
neural elements.

Traits play an important part in Allports theory. He sees Traits as predisposing the person to
perceive various stimuli as having similar meaning as well as to respond to such stimuli with
behaviors that are similar. A trait is a generalized and focalized neuropsychological system
(peculiar to the individual), with the capacity to render many stimuli functionally equivalent, and
to initiate and guide consistent (equivalent) forms of adaptive and expressive behavior.
He distinguishes between the:
Common Traits traits to common to most people in a given culture

Personal Traits (dispositions) traits that are unique to each person. Personal dispositions vary in
how general they are for each person.

The first level of generality:

Cardinal dispositions are so general that almost every act of the person reflects it

Example: Narcissistic. Cardinal dispositions are actually quite rare.

Central dispositions are tendencies that are highly characteristic of the person, while not
explaining every aspect of the person. Each person has around 5-10 central dispositions. For
example, a person may be nice, shy, lonely, and sad.

Secondary dispositions more focalized. These traits are usually tied to a particular situation.
Example, someone who is usually nice suddenly acts mean. These dispositions are also rare.

Allport also distinguishes a trait from a habit, attitude, or type.

Habit like a trait, but has determining tendency

Trait more general, as it applies to more situations and provides for a greater variety of
responses. Stable, not situational.

 Attitude is more general than a habit, but is usually more specific than a trait, and tends to be
more focused on the environment while a trait is more focused on the self. Guides behavior,
learned.

Type is a category that is larger than traits, habits and attitudes. In fact, it subsumes them all.
A type describes certain combinations of traits, habits and attitudes that a person

possesses.

Man can be said to have a trait; but he cannot be said to have a type. Rather he fits a type....types
exist not in people or in nature, but rather in the eye of the observer. Type includes more than is
in the individual.

Eysenck's 1950s theory measures personality using two scales:

introversion-extraversion

stability-instability (unemotional-emotional)

The 'Big Five' Factors Personality Model - OCEAN

The strengths of the Big Five Factor model lie in its speed and ease of use and this makes it a
very useful tool for gaining a rapid overview of a person's key drivers.

Factor 1: Agreeableness (A)

How do you react to others opinions? When you agree to them easily, you are considered
agreeable. However, your strong reactions qualify you as challenger in the words of Howard and
Howard (2001). There are some other correlated traits for agreeableness.

A Higher Degree in A

The five factor model of personality considers you as good natured, sympathetic and forgiving.
You are considered as tolerant, agreeable and courteous. You prove an excellent team member.
You strive to bring harmony amongst your mates. You are friendlier, approachable and
appeasing. You can ignore your own needs for others.

However, you are not a good leader. You prefer to work in background. You keep your opinions
to yourself to avoid conflict. You are easily influenced. But you are a born social reformer. You
can prove an excellent teacher. The psychology is one of the best fields for you.

A Lower Degree in A

Five factor model of personality considers you as critical, analytical and tough. You are
expressive in your opinions. You dont hide your reactions. You want your efforts and
achievements to be acknowledged. You can challenge. You are a born leader.

However, you may not prove a good team leader. Extreme degrees qualify you as a rude, callous
and self-centered person. You are viewed as hostile. You are not considered cooperative. Your
love for power can lead you to be an autocrat.

You are considered suitable for those careers where you are given freedom to exercise your will.
Military leadership, public administration and management are the best career dimensions for
you.

Factor 2: Openness to Change (O)

Five facto model of personality considers you open for change when you accept new thoughts,
ideas and changes.

However, you are considered close to change when you avoid new experiments and follow rules
and regulations very strictly. The other correlated personality traits with different degrees are
mentioned below.

A Higher Degree in O

You qualify to be counted as original, creative and curious. You believe that change is more than
essential for social evolution. You love revolutions. You enjoy complexities of things and strive
to find out their solutions. You can handle new systems, technologies and tools with great ease.
You always build a big picture but tend to ignore vital details.

You are considered suitable for the careers where a lot of creativity, novelty and originality is
involved.

A Lower Degree in O

The five factor model of personality qualifies you as a resistant to change. You are traditional.
You love peaceful environment, secure jobs and serene family life. You spend a lot of time on
details. You can execute plans very well.

However, you are not a good planner. Your focus on details may cause you to ignore big picture.
You accept change only when there is no way out. The careers where rules and regulations are to
be followed very strictly are considered suitable for you. You can prove a good judge, accountant
and auditor. No one can be better financial manager than you.
Factor 3: Extraversion (E)

Five factor model of personality considers your preferred way to handle your environment very
important. Different criteria are adopted when you apply for a job of cricket commentator and for
a position of a script writer. You can identify what level of degree you require to go for your
dream job.

A Higher Degree in E

The five factor model considers you social, friendlier and talkative. You are often assertive and
energetic. You can do many tasks successfully at a time. You prefer to lead others. You are
charismatic. However, you rely upon others without knowing them very well. You are considered
fit for politics, sales and public related careers.

A Lower Degree in E

You are considered private, serious and skeptic. You dont rely on others easily. You keep your
secrets to yourself. You are often quiet. You prefer environment where you can work alone.
Production management, natural sciences and art related careers are considered suitable for you.

Factor 4: Conscientiousness (C )

A Higher Degree in C

The five factor model of personality considers you an organized, focused and timely achiever of
your goals. You plan things and follow that route strictly. You are not easy to be distracted.

However, you tend to be workaholic. You are self-disciplined. You are considered confident,
dutiful and reliable. You often prove a strong executive in any organization.

A Lower Degree in C

The five factor model of personality considers you careless, relaxed and unorganized. You dont
plan things and pursue your goals with a flexible approach. Some day you work a lot and other
day you go on vacations. You are spontaneous. However, you are not considered good for
projects where deadlines are to be followed.

Factor 5: Neuroticism (N)

A Higher Degree in N

The five factor model considers you nervous, unstable and vulnerable to negative emotionality.
You are never satisfied with your life. You are inflamed easily. You are reactive and often fail to
recover from depression shock easily. You always feel a need for stability. In extreme cases, you
may be advised clinical treatment. You have optimistic approach to life.

A Lower Degree in N

The five factor model of personality considers you emotionally stable, strong nerved and
composed person. You are often calm and optimist. You recover from depression periods very

easily. You can find out the best out of the worst. You love peace and security. You are often
satisfied with your life. You are a valuable candidate for careers in air traffic, controllers and
airline pilots, finance management and engineering.

Benefits from study of personality.

1) Increasing personal integrity: The greater self-awareness that comes from self-study has led to
greater personal integrity by discarding what was false and revealing what is true. This should be
the first step of any psychotherapy or spiritual path to find out who we really are in personal
terms. Then we look for who we are in "transpersonal" terms.
2) Increasing personal freedom: This is due to conscious control of life resulting from release
from subconscious controls and external influences.
3) Objectification of self and other: With an overall personality system in mind, we can see that
myself and others are all pieces of a pattern.
4) Increasing tolerance and understanding of others: A personality chart on someone, it helps to
get to know them quicker and can relate to them easier. It helps understand their motives and
perceptions and values. With their traits known, we can begin to see people for who they really
are. We can think, feel and act more appropriately and lovingly toward them.

Nature Vs Nurture
One of the oldest arguments in the history of psychology is the Nature vs Nurture debate. Each
of these sides have good points that it's really hard to decide whether a person's development is
predisposed in his DNA, or a majority of it is influenced by this life experiences and his
environment. As of now, we know that both nature and nurture play important roles in human
development, but we have not known yet whether we are developed majorly because of nature or
due to nurture.
Nature
The coding of genes in each cell in us humans determine the different traits that we have, more
dominantly on the physical attributes like eye color, hair color, ear size, height, and other traits.
However, it is still not known whether the more abstract attributes like personality, intelligence,
sexual orientation, likes and dislikes are gene-coded in our DNA, too.
One of the hottest issues against nature theory is that there may be an existing "gay gene", which
explains that gays are actually born that way. Another issue is that the criminal acts, tendency to
divorce and aggressive behavior causing abuse can be justified by the "behavioral genes" once
the researchers have proven their existence.
On the other hand, the behavioral genes are somewhat proven to exist when we take a look at
fraternal twins. When fraternal twins are reared apart, they show the same similarities in
behavior and response as if they have been reared together.
Nurture

The nurture theory holds that genetic influence over abstract traits may exist; however, the
environmental factors are the real origins of our behavior. This includes the use of conditioning
in order to induce a new behavior to a child, or alter an unlikely behavior being shown by the
child. According to John Watson, one of the strongest psychologists who propose environmental
learning as a dominating side in the nature vs nurture debate, once said that he can be able to
train a baby randomly chosen in a group of 12 infants, to become any type of specialist Watson
wants. He stated that he could train him to be such regardless of the child's potentialities, talents
and race.
Although it is true that fraternal twins raised apart have remarkable similarities in most respects,
still the intervention of the environment have caused several differences in the way they behave.
In the end, we are still left with the confusing question: Are we born this way, or do we behave
according to our life experiences? The nature vs nurture debate goes on and on, but still, it is a
fact that we have traits that are predetermined by our genes, but we can still choose who we want
to be as we travel through our lifetime.

Nature refers to all of the genes and hereditary factors that influence who we are from
our physical appearance to our personality characteristics.

Nurture refers to all the environmental variables that impact who we are, including our early
childhood experiences, how we were raised, our social relationships, and our surrounding
culture.
Even today, different branches of psychology often take a one versus the other approach. For
example, biological psychology tends to stress the importance of genetics and biological
influences. Behaviorism, on the other hand, focuses on the impact that the environment has on
behavior.

Do inherited traits or life experiences play a greater role in shaping your personality? The nature
versus nurture debate is one of the oldest issues in psychology. The debate centers on the relative
contributions of genetic inheritance and environmental factors to human development.
Some philosophers such as Plato and Descartes suggested that certain things are inborn, or that
they occur naturally regardless of environmental influences. Nativists take the position that all or
most behaviors and characteristics are the result of inheritance.
Advocates of this point of view believe that all of our characteristics and behaviors are the result
of evolution. Genetic traits handed down from parents influence the individual differences that
make each person unique.
Other well-known thinkers such as John Locke believed in what is known as tabula rasa, which
suggests that the mind begins as a blank slate. According to this notion, everything that we are
and all of our knowledge is determined by our experience.
Empiricists take the position that all or most behaviors and characteristics result from learning.
Behaviorism is a good example of a theory rooted in empiricism. The behaviorists believe that
all actions and behaviors are the results of conditioning. Theorists such as John B
Watson believed that people could be trained to do and become anything, regardless of their
genetic background.

For example, when a person achieves tremendous academic success, did they do so because they
are genetically predisposed to be successful or is it a result of an enriched environment? If a man
abuses his wife and kids, is it because he was born with violent tendencies or is it something he
learned by observing his parents behavior?
A few examples of biologically determined characteristics (nature) include certain genetic
diseases, eye color, hair color, and skin color. Other things like life expectancy and height have a
strong biological component, but they are also influenced by environmental factors and lifestyle.

An example of a nativist theory within psychology is Chomsky's concept of a language

acquisition device (or LAD). According to this theory, all children are born with an instinctive
mental capacity that allows them to both learn and produce language.

Some characteristics are tied to environmental influences. How a person behaves can be linked
to influences such as parenting styles and learned experiences. For example, a child might learn
through observation and reinforcement to say 'please' and 'thank you.' Another child might learn
to behave aggressively by observing older children engage in violent behavior on the
playground.
One example of an empiricist theory within psychology is Albert Bandura's social learning
theory. According to the theory, people learn by observing the behavior of others. In his
famous Bobo doll experiment, Bandura demonstrated that children could learn aggressive
behaviors simply by observing another person acting aggressively.
How Nature and Nurture Interact
What researchers do know is that the interaction between heredity and environment is often the
most important factor of all. Kevin Davies of PBS's Nova described one fascinating example of
this phenomenon.
Perfect pitch is the ability to detect the pitch of a musical tone without any reference.
Researchers have found that this ability tends to run in families and believe that it might be tied
to a single gene. However, they've also discovered that possessing the gene alone is not enough
to develop this ability. Instead, musical training during early childhood is necessary to allow this
inherited ability to manifest itself.

Height is another example of a trait that is influenced the interaction of nature and nurture. A
child might come from a family where everyone is tall, and he may have inherited these genes
for height. However, if he grows up in a deprived environment where he does not receive proper
nourishment, he might never attain the height he might have he had grown up in a healthier
environment.

Contemporary Views of Nature Vs Nurture

Throughout the history of psychology, however, this debate has continued to stir up controversy.
Eugenics, for example, was a movement heavily influenced by the nativist approach.
Psychologist Francis Galton, a cousin of the naturalist Charles Darwin, coined both the
terms nature versus nurture and eugenics, and believed that intelligence was the result of
genetics. Galton believed that intelligent individuals should be encouraged to marry and have
many children, while less intelligent individuals should be discouraged from reproducing.
Today, the majority of experts believe that both nature and nurture influence behavior and
development. However, the issue still rages on in many areas such as in the debate on the origins
of homosexuality and influences on intelligence. While few people take the extreme nativist or
radical empiricist approach, researchers and experts still debate the degree to which biology and
environment influence behavior.
Increasingly, people are beginning to realize that asking how much heredity or environment
influence a particular trait is not the right approach. The reality is that there is not simple way to
disentangle the multitude of forces that exist. These influences include genetic factors that
interact with one another, environmental factors that interact such as social experiences and
overall culture, as well as how both hereditary and environmental influences intermingle.
Instead, many researchers today are interested in seeing how genes modulate environmental
influences and vice versa.

Today, many researchers believe that they are five core personality traits. Evidence of this theory
has been growing over the past 50 years, beginning with the research of D. W. Fiske (1949) and
later expanded upon by other researchers including Norman (1967), Smith (1967), Goldberg
(1981), and McCrae & Costa (1987).
The "big five" are broad categories of personality traits. While there is a significant body of
literature supporting this five-factor model of personality, researchers don't always agree on the
exact labels for each dimension.
However, these five categories are usually described as follows:
1. Extroversion:
Extroversion is characterized by excitability, sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness and high
amounts of emotional expressiveness. People who are high in extroversion are outgoing and tend
to gain energy in social situations.
People who are low in extroversion (or introverted) tend to be more reserved and have to expend
energy in social settings.
2. Agreeableness:
This personality dimension includes attributes such as trust, altruism, kindness, affection and
other prosocial behaviors. People who are high in agreeableness tend to be more cooperative
while those low in this trait tend to be more competitive and even manipulative.
3. Conscientiousness:
Standard features of this dimension include high levels of thoughtfulness, with good impulse
control and goal-directed behaviors. Those high on conscientiousness tend to be organized and
mindful of details.
4. Neuroticism:

Neuroticism is a trait characterized by sadness, moodiness and emotional instability. Individuals

who are high in this trait tend to experience mood swings, anxiety, moodiness, irritability and
sadness. Those low in this trait tend to be more stable and emotionally resilient.
5. Openness:
This trait features characteristics such as imagination and insight, and those high in this trait also
tend to have a broad range of interests. People who are high in this trait tend to be more
adventurous and creative. People low in this trait are often much more traditional and may
struggle with abstract thinking.
It is important to note that each of the five personality factors represents a range between two
extremes. For example, extraversion represents a continuum between extreme extraversion and
extreme introversion. In the real world, most people lie somewhere in between the two polar
ends of each dimension.

Big 5 Personality Research

McCrae and his colleagues have also found that the big five traits are also remarkably universal.
One study that looked at people from more than 50 different cultures found that the five
dimensions could be accurately used to describe personality.
Based on this research, many psychologists now believe that the five personality dimensions are
not only universal; they also have biological origins. Psychology David Buss has proposed that
an evolutionary explanation for these five core personality traits, suggesting that these
personality traits represent the most important qualities that shape our social landscape.
Final Thoughts

Always remember that behavior involves an interaction between a person's underlying

personality and situational variables. The situation that a person finds himself or herself in plays
a major role in how the person reacts. However, in most cases, people offer responses that are
consistent with their underlying personality traits.
These dimensions represent broad areas of personality. Research has demonstrated that these
groupings of characteristics tend to occur together in many people. For example, individuals who
are

sociable

tend

to

be

talkative.

However, these

traits

do

not

always

occur

together. Personality is a complex and varied and each person may display behaviors across
several of these dimensions.