What is Personality?
- Personality is the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interact with others. Personality
also known as the pattern of relatively enduring ways that a person feels, think & behave.
Personality Theories
a) Type theory of personality - in this theories, relationship is established between features of face or body
and the personality.
b) Trait theorists - Its describe personalities by a set of features.
- Its involve determining the basic traits that provide a meaningful description of personalities.
- Its involves finding some way to measures these.
c) Psychoanalytic theory - Personality is composed of three elements: id, ego & super ego.
- Id, refer to exclusively to innate component of personality inherited at birth, seeks pleasure.
- Ego, relates to reality, tests reality
- Super ego, is a set of norms, values, ethics and attitudes which are reasonable compatible with the society. It decides whether an action is wrong or right and strives for perfection.
d) Social learning theory - Is personality regards situation to be an important determinant of behavior
e) Humanistic approach - In studying the personality emphasises on the person's potential for self-direction
and freedom of choice
Personality Determinants
- Similar to the arguments on nature vs nurture. Nurture is based on our experience. Individual personality is
the result of heredity, environment and situation.
- Heredity - Refers to the factors that were determined when personality was first conceived. Such factor include physical stature, facial attractiveness, gender, temperament etc.
- Environment - The environment can be an impact our personality. The environmental determinants may influence our personality such; we are raised, our early conditioning, the norm among our family, friend and social group, experience & others
- Situation - An individual personality can be change in different situations.
- Family - Family will absolutely influence the personality of their child. At early age, parents is a role model for their child in term of value, behavior.
- Social - This social process happen in group or the organization. Its begin with mom/dad then goes to family member, social group, friend at school, work team etc
- Its enduring characteristic that describe an individual behavior. Over the years philosophers and
psychologist have tried to isolate personality traits. Recent researches have condensed these into
measurable models.
The Big Five Model
- Openness to experience -Is a personality dimension that describes someone in terms of imagination, sensitivity and curiosity
- Conscientiousness - Is a personality dimension that describes someone who is responsible, dependable, persistent and organized
- Extroversion - Is a personality dimension describing someone who is sociable, gregarious and assertive
- Agreeableness - Is a personality dimension that describes someone who is good-natured, cooperative and trusting
- Neuroticism (emotional stability) - Is a personality dimension that describes someone as calm, self-confident and secure.
Value
- A set of beliefs about particular things that we hold as important to us as individuals.
- Instrumental values - Alternative behavior or means we use to achieve desired ends
- Terminal values - Desired end states or life goals
Value Conflicts
- Intrapersonal value conflicts - Occurs when highly ranked instrumental and terminal values pull an individual in different directions
- Interpersonal value conflicts - Occurs when combinations of instrumental and terminal values inevitably spark disagreements between infividuals
- Individual-organization value conflicts - Occurs when value espoused or enacted by the organization collide with employee's personal values.
