Personality
By A J Thomas
Definition
• Personality refers to individual differences in
characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and
behaving. It represents the sum total of several
attributes which manifest themselves in an
individual to organise and integrate all the
qualities so as to give meaning to life and the
uniqueness of the situation which influences an
individuals behaviour.
• According to N.L. Munn, “Personality may be
defined as the most characteristic integration of
an individual’s structure modes of behaviour,
interests, attitudes, capacities, abilities and
aptitudes.”
Determinants of
Personality
• Heredity
• Physical
Biological features
• Brain
• Bio-feed
back
Personality
• Family
Environment • Society
• Culture
• Situations
Measurement of Personality
• Projective Methods- Rorschach and TAT
• Personality inventories
• Interview Methods
• Case history method
• Observation method
Big 5 Theory
• Openness to Experience
Openness suggests characteristics that include having broad
range of interests and willing to try out even most unusual
ideas. They are intellectually curious, sensitive to beauty, and
tend to hold unconventional beliefs.
• Conscientiousness
People with higher score on conscientiousness tend to be self
disciplined, dutiful and prefer planned behaviour to a
spontaneous one.
• Extraversion
People with high score on extraversion gain energy when
exposed to the external world. They tend to be action-oriented,
enthusiastic, visible to people, and are capable of asserting
themselves.
• Agreeableness
People with high score on this trait are trustworthy, helpful,
kind, considerate, generous and do not hesitate to compromise
their interests with others.
• Neuroticism
The tendency to experience anger, depression,
anxiety and other forms of negative emotions are
seen in people with high score on neuroticism. It is
also called emotional instability.
Psychoanalytical theory-Sigmund
Freud
Psychoanalysis was founded by Sigmund Freud(1856-
1939). Freud believed that people could be cured by
making conscious their unconscious thoughts and
motivations, thus gaining insight. According to him,
the human behaviour is formed through an
interaction between three components of the mind,
i.e. Id, Ego and Super Ego.
• Id- Id is the primitive part of the mind that seeks
immediate gratification of biological or instinctual
needs. The biological needs are the basic physical
needs and while the instinctual needs are the
natural or unlearned needs, such as hunger, thirst,
physical desires etc. Id is the unconscious part of
the mind; that act instantaneously without giving
much thought to what is right and what is wrong.
• Ego- Ego is the logical and the conscious part of
the mind which is associated with the reality
principle. This means it balances the demands of
Id and super-ego in the context of real life
situations. Ego is conscious and hence keep a
check on Id through a proper reasoning of an
external environment.
• Super ego- The Super-Ego is related to the social
or the moral values that an individual inculcates
as he matures. It acts as an ethical constraint on
behaviour and helps an individual to develop his
conscience. As the individual grows in the society,
he learns the cultural values and the norms of the
society which help him to differentiate between
right and wrong.
Defence mechanism-
Erikson Stages
• Infancy stage (Trust v/s Mistrust)- Hope
• Early childhood (Autonomy v/s Shame and
Doubt)- Will
• Play age (Initiative v/s Guilt)-Purpose
• School age (Industry v/s Inferiority)-
Competency
• Adolescence (Identity v/s Role Diffusion)-
Fidelity
• Early adulthood (Intimacy v/s isolation)-
Love
• Adulthood (Generativity v/s Stagnation)-
Care
• Mature adulthood (Integrity v/s Despair)-
Immaturity-Maturity theory- Chris Argyris
Immaturity Maturity
Characteristics Characteristics
• Passive • Active
• Dependence • Independence
• Few ways of • Diverse behaviour
behaving • Deep interests
• Shallow interests • Long time
• Short time perspective
perspective • Super ordinate
• Subordinate position
position • Self awareness and
• Lack of self control
awareness
Other theories
• Trait theory- Allport
• Machiavellianism
• Introversion and Extroversion
Locus of Control-
• locus of control is the degree to which
people believe that they have control over
the outcome of events in their lives, as
opposed to external forces beyond
their control. –
• 2 types Internal and External Locus
Interna Extern
l al
