THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

Several theories are there

regarding personality but the
most prominent are
 Type
 Trait

 Psychoanalytic
 Social learning
 Humanistic
Type theory
According to type theory people are
grouped into identifiable categories.
• One basis for classification is the
structure of the body.
• Kretschmer & Sheldon are credited
with this classification.
• In this theory a relation ship is
established between features of face
or body and personality.
With reference to type theory
 A short, plump person (endomorph)
was said to be social, relaxed, and
even tempered.
 A tall, thin person (endomorph) was
characterized as controlled, self
conscious, and fond of isolation.
A heavy set muscular individual
(mesomorph) was described as loud,
heartless, and fond of physical
activity.
Type theories are simple and popular
but carry no substance.

 Another basis to type personality is

psychological factors

 One of the Freud's pupil the Swiss

psychologist Carl Jung, divided
personalities into INTROVERTS &
EXTROVERTS.
INTROVERTS

These people are shy , quiet, and

reserved. Technically speaking these
people are characterized by greater
sensitivity and concern for feelings
and are more comfortable in dealing
with conceptual things.
EXTROVERTS
Extroverts are outgoing, social
individuals .technically extroverts are
more oriented towards other people,
events and objects.
Type theories are simple as they are
based on physical attributes or
psychological factors for
categorization of personalities. But
the theories fail to explain
complexities of personality.
TRAIT THEORY
A personality trait is understood as
being an enduring(lasting) attribute of
a person that appears consistently in a
variety of situations.

We can rate an individual on a scale of

intelligence, emotional stability,
aggressiveness, creativeness or any of
a number of other dimensions.
When we informally describe people
with adjectives such as friendly,
intelligent we actually use trait terms.

Traits are reactions not something a

person possesses. (e.g. one does not
possess shyness, one feels and acts
shy in certain situations, he may
behave quite forwardly in some other
situation)
Psychoanalytic theory
Psychoanalytic theory owes its origin to
SIGMUND FREUD. He developed the
first comprehensive personality theory.
FREUD linked the human mind to an
iceberg- only a small segment of which
protruded(stick out) above the surface
of the water. This portion of the mind
represents conscious experience. While
the much larger mass below water level
represents the unconscious
 It is a store house of impulses,
passions, and primitive instincts that
affect our thoughts and behavior.
 Freud saw personality as being
composed of three elements – id, ego,
super ego. This tripartite division of
personality is known as the structural
model of mental life.
The id: the word “id” is the Latin word for “it” and refers
exclusively to the innate(inborn) component of
personality.
The id is the mental agency containing everything
inherited, present at birth, and fixed in the individual’s
constitution, especially instinct(nature, character).
It is raw, animalistic, unorganized, knows no laws, obeys
no rules and remains basic (essential/fundamental) to
the individual throughout the life.
Id , as the original personality system, expresses the
primary principle of all human life the immediate
discharge of psychic energy (libido) produced by animal
drives (especially sex and aggression), which when pent
up creates tension through out the personality system,
immediate tension reduction is called the pleasure
principle., and the id obeys it.
The id according to Freud employs to get rid of
tension. two things are important here reflex
action & primary process.
primary process refers to attempts of an
individual to form a mental image of the
object that will remove the tension.
A hungry man for example experiences partial
gratification by imagining a delicious meal.
In reflex action the id responds automatically
to the sources of irritation, thus promptly
removing the tension, examples of such reflex
mechanism are sneezing, coughing
The Ego: Mental images doesnot satisfy needs,
reality must be considered. This is the role of ego.
The ego developed out of id and it deals with real
world.
The Super Ego: In order to function constructively
in society, one must acquire system of values,
norms, ethics, and attitudes which are reasonably
compatible with that society. The super ego the
third part of personality represents the
internalized representation of the values and
morals of society as taught to the child by parents
and others.
Super Ego judges whether an action is right or
wrong according to the standards of the society.
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
According to social learning theory “much
of human behaviour is either learnt or
modified by learning”.
through learning one acquires knowledge,
language, attitudes, values, manual skills,
fears etc.
There are two ways of learning
1. Learning through reinforcement
(strengthening, support), direct
experience.
Reinforcement is there when a behavior is
increased or maintained by its consequences.
Reinforcement may be either positive or
negative. The term comes from behavioral
psychologists -- those who focus on the
factors that cause and maintain behaviors (or
actions).
And learning by observing others, also called
vicarious (explicit, sensational, shocking) learning
According to Social learning theorists
reinforcement is always not necessary for
learning.
They believe that an individual can learn
by observing the actions of others and
by noting the consequences of those
actions.
The Social learning theories of personality
regard a situation as an important
determinant of behaviour.
A persons action in a given situation
depends upon the specific
characteristics of a situation, the
individuals understanding of the
situation and the past observation.
THE HUMANISTIC APPROACH
This theory emphasizes on the man’s
positive nature and his push
towards growth and self
actualization.
Their emphasis is also on the “here
and now” rather than on events in
early childhood that may have
shaped the individual’s personality.
CARL ROGERS & ABRAHAM MASLOW are
credited with the humanistic theory of
personality.
ROGERS SELF THEOTY
 For Rogers, behavior depends on how an
individual perceives the world.
 Rogers theory to personality is described
as phenomenological(Phenomenology is the
study of the individual subjective[biased,
one sided]experience,feelings and private
concepts, as well as his views of the world
and self)
 For Rogers behavior is dependant upon how one
perceives the world
 Behavior is the result of immediate events that are
actually perceived & interpreted by the individuals.
 This approach emphasizes the self and its
characteristics.
 This theory is often referred to as self theory
personality because the best way for understanding
behavior is from the internal frame of reference of
the individual himself.
 Thus Roger has a great sense of respect for
human nature. He explained that human organism
has a natural tendency to move in the direction of
differentiation, self responsibility, co operation
and maturity.
 There are two basic concepts exists :

Self and self actualization

Self consists of the ideas, perceptions, and values
that characterise “I” “me”.
Self actualization is the basic motivating force
representing the inherent tendency of the
organism to develop all its capabilities.
Maslow’s self actualization theory
 Abraham maslow is regarded as the spiritual
father of humanism in American psychology.
 The humanist psychology of Maslow postulates
man as a self actualizer.
 By self actualization Maslow meant the
development of full individuality in harmony
with all parts of personality.
CONCEPTS CENTRAL TO HUMANISTIC APPROACH

 An individual is an integrated whole

 Animal research is irrelevant to human behavior
 Human nature is essentially good
 Man has creative potential
 Psychological health of man is most important.
 The big five personality factors

the "Big Five" factors (or Five Factor

Model; FFM) of personality are five broad
domains or dimensions of personality which
are used to describe human personality.
Personality is composed of external traits and no two
individuals are same. Since long scholars of
personality are trying to isolate the personality
traits.
But about 100 years ago a few personality experts
tried to condense and catalogue many personality
traits that had been described over the years.
They found 1000s of words in Roget's Thesaurus
and Webster's dictionary representing personality
characteristics.
They arranged these words into 171 clusters, then
further reduced them to 5 abstract personality
dimensions using rare sophisticated techniques.
These 5 dimensions are known as the “Big five
personality dimensions”
 Today, many contemporary personality
psychologists believe that there are five basic
dimensions of personality, often referred to as the
"Big 5" personality traits. Previous trait theorist
had suggested a various number of possible traits,
including Gordon Allport's list of 4,000 personality
traits, Raymond Cattell's 16 personality factors and
Hans Eysenck's three-factor theory.
 However, many researchers felt that Cattell's
theory was too complex and Eysenck's was too
limited in scope. As a result, the five-factor theory
emerged to describe the basic traits that serve as
the building blocks of personality.
 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:
Extroversion: This trait includes characteristics such as
excitability, sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness and
high amounts of emotional expressiveness.

On the contrary introverts are less sociable, less talkative,

less assertive and more reluctant to begin relationship
Agreeableness: This personality dimension
includes attributes such as trust, warm, kindness,
affection, and co-operative. individuals with these
traits always think from the view point of their
employees or client s accept the proposals, needs
or requests of the employees.
People who score low on agreeableness focus more
on their own needs then the needs of other.
Conscientiousness: Common features of this dimension
include high levels of thoughtfulness, with good impulse
control and goal-directed behaviours. Those high in
conscientiousness tend to be organized and mindful of
details. these persons are likely to be organized,
systematic, careful, thorough, responsible self disciplined
and achievement oriented. These people focuses on
relatively few goals at one time.
A person with low conscientiousness nature tend to focus on
a higher number of goals at one time. Consequently the
individual is more disorganised, care less and
irresponsible as well as less thorough and self disciplined.

.
Emotional stability: Some people absorb the
actions, reactions, views, feelings attitudes etc.
and at the same time maintain their emotional
stability. Such people are calm, self confident and
secure.

People who are emotionally unstable tend to be

nervous, anxious, depressed and insecure
Openness to experience: imaginative, artistically
sensitive, intellectual, creative and curious people
are open to new job experiences, learning,
absorbing and integrating them with their
previous experience & knowledge. Such
individuals think and analyse rationally and
understand systematically.
On the other hand people with low levels of
openness tend to be less receptive to new ideas
and less willing to change their minds. They also
tend to have fewer and narrow interests and be
less curious and creative.
The big five personality traits were a huge
success among the researchers as well as
the managers.
But the research was conducted at USA and
its generalization to other cultures brought a
lot of unanswered questions.