LYCEUM OF THE EAST-AURORA

Maria Aurora, Aurora 3202

Professional
Development and
Applied Ethics
LESSON 1
INTRODUCTION OF PERSONALITY

CRISTEL ANNE A.
LLAMADOR
INSTRUCTOR
PERSONALITY-INTRODUCTION

In modern organizations, personality attributes of a manager are considered important, since

they affect the entire behavioural pattern of the person. In common parlance, personality
refers to the impression, which an individual form on others through his personal attributes
making attractive or unattractive view.

Early Philosophical Roots

It is a fact that psychological factors of an individual are rarely known to others. An individual’s
personality is not a superficial fact or occurrence that can be easily understood, merely on his
personal appearance. Personality is the whole aspect of an individual from general point of
view. It includes a person’s physical, psychological and emotional aspects.

Omnibus – This personality view is the aggregate of recognizable pattern of properties-of

qualities.
ii. Integration and configuration – Under this view of personality, the organization of personal
attributes is stressed.
iii. Hierarchical – This aspect mainly deals with adaptation, survival and evolution of the person
to the environment.
iv. Distinctiveness – the definition of this category speaks the uniqueness of each personality.

The word “personality” originates from the Latin word persona, which means “mask.”
Personality as a field of study began with Hippocrates, a physician in ancient Greece, who
theorized that personality traits and human behaviors are based on four separate
temperaments associated with four fluids of the body known as “humors”. This theory, known
as humorist, proposed that an individual’s personality was the result of the balance of these
humors (yellow bile, black bile, phlegm, and blood), which corresponded to four dispositions
(grumpy, melancholy, calm, and cheer, respectively). While this theory is no longer held to be
true, it paved the way for further discoveries and insight into human personality.

Interestingly, several words in the English language that describe personality traits are rooted in
humorist: “bilious” means bad-tempered, which is rooted in humorists’ thought that yellow
bile was associated with grumpiness; “melancholic” is from the Greek words for “black bile,”
again rooted in humorists’ thought that black bile was associated with depression. Similarly,
“phlegmatic” describes a calm personality and “sanguine” (from the Latin for “blood”) a
cheerful or playful one.
At its most basic, personality is the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
that make a person unique. It is believed that personality arises from within the individual and
remains fairly consistent throughout life.

While there are many different definitions of personality, most focus on the pattern of
behaviors and characteristics that can help predict and explain a person's behavior.

Explanations for personality can focus on a variety of influences, ranging from genetic
explanations for personality traits to the role of the environment and experience in shaping an
individual's personality.

A great deal of modern personality psychology is influenced by, and attempts to answer, the
following five philosophical questions about what really determines personality:

Freedom versus determinism: How much, if any, of an individual’s personality is under their
conscious control?

Heredity versus environment: Do internal (biological) or external (environmental) influences

play a larger role in determining personality?

Uniqueness versus universality: Are individuals generally more alike (similar to each other) or
different (unique) in nature?

Active versus reactive: Is human behavior passively shaped by environmental factors, or are
humans more active in this role?

Optimistic versus pessimistic: Are human’s integral in the changing of their own personalities
(for instance, can they learn and change through human interaction and intervention)?

Approaches to Studying Personality

• Psychodynamic theory, originating with Sigmund Freud, posits that human behavior is
the result of the interaction among various components of the mind (the id, ego, and superego)
and that personality develops according to a series of psychosexual developmental stages

• Neo-Freudian theorists, such as Adler, Erikson, Jung, and Horney, expanded on Freud’s
theories but focused more on the social environment and on the effects of culture on
personality.
• Learning theories, such as behaviorism, regard an individuals’ actions as ultimately being
responses to external stimuli. Social learning theory believes that personality and behavior are
determined by an individual’s cognition about the world around them

• Humanistic theory argues that an individual’s subjective free will is the most important
determinant of behavior. Humanistic psychologists such as Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers
believed that people strive to become self-actualized—the “best version” of themselves.

• Biological approaches focus on the role of genetics and the brain in shaping personality.
Related to this, evolutionary theories explore how variation in individual personalities variance
may be rooted in natural selection.

• Trait theorists believe personality can be conceptualized as a set of common traits, or

characteristic ways of behaving, that every individual exhibits to some degree. In this view, such
personality traits are different from person to person but within an individual are stable over
time and place

• With any of these theories, it is important to keep in mind that the culture in which we
live is one of the most important environmental factors that shapes our personalities. Western
ideas about personality are not necessarily applicable to other cultures, and there is evidence
that the strength of personality traits varies across cultures.

The Biological Perspective on Personality

The biological perspective on personality emphasizes the internal physiological and genetic
factors that influence personality. It focuses on why or how personality traits manifest through
biology and investigates the links between personality, DNA, and processes in the brain. This
research can include the investigation of anatomical, chemical, or genetic influences and is
primarily accomplished through correlating personality traits with scientific data from
experimental methods such as brain imaging and molecular genetics.

Temperament

In psychology, “temperament” refers to the personality tendencies that we show at birth (and
that are therefore biologically determined). For example, Thomas and Chess (1977) found that
babies could be categorized into one of three temperaments: easy, difficult, or slow to warm
up. After birth, environmental factors (such as family interactions) and maturation interact with
a child’s temperament to shape their personality (Carter et al., 2008).
Research suggests that there are two dimensions of our temperament that are important parts
of our adult personality: reactivity and self-regulation (Rothbart, Ahadi, & Evans, 2000).
Reactivity refers to how we respond to new or challenging environmental stimuli; self-
regulation refers to our ability to control that response (Rothbart & Derryberry, 1981; Rothbart,
Sheese, Rueda, & Posner, 2011). For example, one person may immediately respond to a new
stimulus with a high level of anxiety while another barely notices it.

Genetics and Personality

The field of behavioral genetics focuses on the relationship between genes and behavior and
has given psychologists a glimpse of the link between genetics and personality. A large part of
the evidence collected linking genetics and the environment to personality comes from twin
studies, which compare levels of similarity in personality between genetically identical twins.

The Brain and Personality

The biological approach to personality has also identified areas and pathways within the brain
that are associated with the development of personality. A number of theorists, such as Hans
Eysenck, Gordon Allport, and Raymond Cattell, believe that personality traits can be traced back
to brain structures and neural mechanisms, such as dopamine and seratonin pathways.
Researchers using a biological perspective will seek to understand how hormones,
neurotransmitters, and different areas of the brain all interact to affect personality

Learning Activity 1.1

Direction: Essay type answer the questions below. To help you assess your understanding of the origins
of geography, you will now complete Learning Activity 1.1. If you have difficulty with this learning
activity, ask your learning partner for help or contact your instructor. Write your answers in yellow pad
paper (Submit your output until 8:30 pm) August 20, 2021

1. Explain the statement “An individual’s personality is not a superficial fact or occurrence that can
be easily understood, merely on his personal appearance.” (15points)
2. Personality. Inherited or socially constructed? Explain (15points)
3. What is personality and why is it important? (10points)
4. In Humanistic theory why individual’s subjective free will is the most important determinant of
behavior? (10points)
5. Are individuals generally more alike (similar to each other) or different (unique) in
nature? Explain your answer (10points)
Assignment:

Introduce yourself creatively, let's see what you already know about yourself.

Grading System for the Assignment

Content - 40%
Creativity -30%
Presentation -30%
100%

Deadline: August 27, 2021

“The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a
choice.” – Brian Herbert, author.