Program title – Define Personality

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Tutorials

1. What is personality?

Ans. – Personality is a dynamic concept that includes sum total of

physical features and emotions, attitudes, motivations and other
psychological traits. It is a good combination of physical and
psychological traits. These traits include both acquired and inherited
characteristics.

Personality is just like the mask, that is used to show characteristics of a

person, hide some unwanted features, and express the role played by a
person.

2. “Heredity determines the personality.” Argue to support and

contradict the statement.

Ans. – There are two important dimensions of an individual’s

personality. They are most responsible for how people behave.
Personality traits are persisting characteristics. They show consistency
in behaviour in spite of changing circumstances or environment.

They define habitual pattern of behaviour, thoughts and emotions. They

provide foundation for predicting behaviour. Personality traits don’t
change over time but we can mould behaviour traits to some degree.

3. What is the meaning of big five traits?

Ans. – The trait theory suggests that individual personalities are

composed of broad characteristics. Consider how you would describe
the personality of your friend. Normally you would list a number of traits
such as even-tempered, low-profiled, open-minded etc. We can describe
the traits of a person because they are relatively stable characteristics
that make people behave in certain ways. The combination and
interaction of various traits make the person unique.

Presently the researchers have enlisted five traits that are called as big
five traits. They are as follows –

1. Openness - Being curious, original. Intellectual, creative

and open to new ideas.

2. Conscientiousness- Being organized, systematic, punctual,

achievement oriented, and dependable.

3. Extraversion - Being outgoing, talkative, sociable, and

enjoying social situations.

4. Agreeableness - Being affable, tolerant, sensitive, trusting,

kind, and warm.

5. Neuroticism - Being anxious, irritable, temperamental and

moody.

4. What is the origin of term personality?

Ans. - The term personality is evolved from Latin term ‘persona‘.

‘Persona’ means mask’ and it helps to understand some modern
connotations of the term ‘personality’. Now let us see the three aspects
that shape our personality. Masks help people understand the person
and his role in the following way-

 ‘how people affect others –‘ – the first impression.

  ‘how people understand and view themselves –‘ what we try to
show to and hide from others.

 ‘how others interpret or understand them –‘

5. Why the study of the concept ‘personality’ is important in

understanding others?

Ans. – A review of personality literature offers general guidelines that

can focus on various behaviours of people. The trait theory of
personality helps us in predicting behaviours of people. This will reduce
the communication gap between two persons.

Inherited traits affect the acquired traits. If we understand the cause-

effect relationship between these two, we can mould our behaviour to
some extent.