Personality &

Perception : Part 2
 Personality & Perception: Part 2 (Concept)

What are Big Five Personality Traits?

• It is suggested taxonomy or grouping for
personality traits
• Differences btw people’s personalities can be
broken down in 5 major traits.
• Each one reflects key part of how a person feels,
thinks, and behaves
• These traits were established by D. W. Fiske
(1949)
• Associated researchers: Norman (1967), Smith
(1967) and Goldberg (1981).
Big Five Personality traits
• Openness to experience: intellectual curiosity
and creative imagination
• Conscientiousness: organization,
productiveness, responsibility
• Extroversion: sociability, assertiveness; its
opposite is Introversion
• Agreeableness: compassion, respectfulness,
trust in others
• Neuroticism: tendencies toward anxiety and
depression
What is Dark Triad?
• It comprises personality traits of narcissism,
Machiavellianism, and psychopathy.
• It is defined as dark because of their malevolent
qualities.
Components of Dark Triad
• Narcissism
• Machiavellianism
• Psychopathy
Personality Measurement
Methods of Personality Measurement
1. Subjective Methods: It consists of
• Observation
• Case Study Method
• Interview
• Autobiography
• Cumulative Record Card
2. Objective Methods:
• Rating Scales: Used to rate various personality
traits, adjustment, emotions, etc.
• Check lists
• Controlled Observation
• Sociogram
• Personality Inventories
3. Projective Methods:
• It enables a subject to project internal feelings,
attitudes, needs, wishes to an external object.
• Major projective techniques:
o Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
o Children’s Apperception Test (CAT)
o Rorschach’s Ink-Blot Test
o Projective Questionnaires
o Sentence Completion Test
o Psychodrama
o Drawing, Painting and Sculpture
4. Psycho-Analytic Methods
• Word Association Test:
o Here, subject is presented word list, one at a
time and is asked to give first word that
comes to his mind.
o The responses and the time taken are
recorded by tester for interpretation.
• Free Association Test:
o Here, subject is allowed to talk for hours
together, and traits and behaviour are noted.
• Dream Analysis:
o Here, dream of the subject is analyzed, and
unconscious behaviour is interpreted.
o Effective psychoanalytic method to locate
unconscious behaviour.
Personality Inventory
• It is self-assessment tool that career counselors
and other career development professional’s use
• It helps people learn about their personality
types.
• Reveals information about individuals' social
traits, motivations, strengths, and weaknesses.
Important Personality Inventories
1. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
• It is developed by Katharine Briggs and Isabel
Briggs Myers
• It is based on Carl Jung's theory of personality
type.
• Looks at 16 personality types that indicate how
an individual prefers to energize, perceive and
information.
2. Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire
(16PF):
• Companies may use it to help with staff selection
• It was devised by Cattell (1995)
• It is based on just 16 source traits

3. NEO Personality Inventory:

• It looks at five dimensions of personality.
• It is used to confirm or clarify the results of other
inventories.
4. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory (MMPI)
• It specifically tests abnormal behaviour patterns
in personality (Butcher & Rouse, 1996)
• This questionnaire has 567 statements.
• Person taking test must answer “true”, “false”, or
“cannot say”.
What do you mean by Perception?
• Way of looking at or understanding something’ or
simple ‘an opinion’.
• Process by which individuals organize and
interpret their sensory impressions to give
meaning to their environment.
Perceptual Process
• It follows series of steps which starts with an
exposure to stimuli and ends with an
interpretation of the stimuli.
• It is usually, unconscious which happens without
our awareness.
Perceptual Process:
• Selection
• Organization
• Interpretation
1. Selection
• It is the first stage of perception
• Our brain has limited capacity, so, it cannot
attend to all stimuli.
• We unconsciously or consciously select stimuli
and ignore others.
• Selected stimulus becomes attended stimulus.
2. Organization
• In this stage, stimuli are mentally arranged in a
meaningful pattern.
• It occurs unconsciously.
• Many principles are proposed to explain
organisation process
• Perceptual schema helps in information
organizing or grouping of the stimuli based on
appearances, interactions, etc.
3. Interpretation
• Based on one’s experiences, expectations, needs,
beliefs, and other factors.
• Subjective in nature.
• Same stimuli can be interpreted differently by
different individuals.
Define Perceptual selectivity
• It is the process by which individuals select
certain stimuli for attention instead of others.
• It is the process by which individuals select
objects in the environment for attention
Classification of Perceptual selectivity
1. External Factors
• Size:
• Intensity:
• Repetition:
• Motion:
• Contrast:
• Novelty and Familiarity:
2. Internal or Personal Factors
Components of Internal or Personal Factors
• Self-Concept
• Belief
• Needs
• Expectation
• Response Disposition
• Interest
• Learning
Define Perceptual organization
• It is the process of grouping visual elements
together so that meaning of visual can be
determined.
• It allows individuals to make sense of the things
that they see at a rapid pace.
• It is explained by Gestalt psychologists
• Stimulus plays an integral role in perceptual
organization theory.
Principles of Perceptual organization
1. Closure:
• Gestalt psychologists claimed that when we
receive incomplete sensations, we tend to
overlook incompleteness and perceive image or
sound as a complete or finished unit.
• This tendency to fill the gaps is referred to as
closure.
2. Pragnanz:
• Indicates fullness or completeness.
• Referred to as law of simplicity or law of good
figure.
• Describes the tendency of human mind to
perceive objects in an environment in as simple a
manner as possible.
3. Proximity:
• Describes the tendency of a human mind to
perceive objects that are near to each other
• Human mind segregates objects in groups as per
its perception.
4. Similarity
• Describes the tendency of human mind to
perceive the objects that are similar to a single
group and not as individual entities.
5. Continuity:
• Describes human tendency to perceive the
objects that extends itself into space in a similar
pattern of colour, size and shape without a break,
a whole figure.
6. Inclusiveness:
• Describes human tendency to perceive the
objects of pattern more readily than other
figures.
Common types of perceptual errors
1. Accuracy in judgment
• Similarity error: assuming that people who are
similar to us will behave like us.
• Contrast error: Comparing people to others
rather than to some absolute standard.
• Overweighting of negative information:
tendency to overreact to negative things.
• Tendency to be positive or negative on one’s
race, age, or sex.
• First-impression error: forming 1st
impressions that are resistant to change.
2. Perceptual defense
• Tendency for people to protect themselves
against ideas, situations or objects that are
threatening.
3. Stereotyping
• Belief that all members of a group share similar
traits and behaviors.
4. Halo effect
• Tendency to color everything we know about a
person
• This is due to one recognizable favorable or
unfavorable trait.
5. Projection
• Tendency to see one’s traits in others.
6. Role of culture:
• Culture influences our perception in selecting
information and exhibiting behavioral pattern
7. Horn Effect
• When an individual is completely evaluated on
negative quality or feature perceived.
• This results in an overall lower rating than
acceptable rate.
8. Recency Effect
• When most recent information influences our
judgment, even though we have other
information of the person.
9. Self-serving Bias
• Tendency of attributing success to internal causes
while failure to external causes.
• Represents one’s tendency to take more personal
responsibility.
10. Self-fulfilling prophecy:
• People’s preconceived expectations and beliefs
determine their behavior
• This serves to make their expectations come
true.
 Practice set
1. Which of the following are the preferences of the
Myers–Briggs personality type indicator?
A. Types of social interaction
B. Preference for gathering data
C. Preference for decision making
D. A and B
E. A, B and C
Sol: E
•The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator is a set of
psychometric questionnaires designed to weigh
psychological preferences in how people perceive
the world and make decisions.
•Myers Briggs model of personality was developed
by Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers, is
established on four preferences that includes types
of social interaction, preference for gathering data,
preference for decision making and style of decision
making.
•So, E is the correct answer.
2. Which of the following are the sixteen
personality dimensions as described by Raymond
Cattell?
1. Abstractedness
2. Apprehension
3. Dominance
4. Judgement
Choose the correct code:
A. 1, 2 and 3
B. 2, 3 and 4
C. 1, 3 and 4
D. 1, 2 and 4
E. 1, 2, 3 and 4
Sol: A
•Raymond Cattell has analyzed Allport's list and
whittled it down to 171 characteristics, mostly by
eliminating terms that were redundant or
uncommon.
•According to him, there is a continuum of
personality traits and presented 16 personality
dimensions: Abstractedness, Apprehension,
Dominance, Emotional stability, Liveliness,
Openness to change, Perfectionism, Privateness,
Reasoning, Rule-consciousness, Self-reliance,
Sensitivity, Social boldness, Tension, Vigilance and
Warmth.
•So, A is the correct answer.
3. Which of the following principles of perceptual
organization perceive elements as belonging to the
same group if they seem to complete some entity?
A. Law of Similarity
B. Law of Closure
C. Law of Proximity
D. Law of Common region
E. Law of Continuity
Sol: B
•According to the law of closure of Perceptual
Organization, we perceive elements as belonging to
the same group if they seem to complete some
entity.
•The Law of Closure is the tendency of the human
mind to fill in the gaps and perceive meaningful
objects is simply known as the law of closure as it
closes the gap in literal terms.
•So, B is the correct answer.
4. Which of the following principle of perceptual
organization holds that points that are connected
by straight or curving lines are seen in a way that
follows the smoothest path?
A. Law of Similarity
B. Law of Closure
C. Law of Proximity
D. Law of Continuity
E. Law of Common region
Sol: D
•The law of continuity holds that points that are
connected by straight or curving lines are seen in a
way that follows the smoothest path and in other
words, elements in a line or curve seem more
related to one another than those positioned
randomly.
•Example: Amazon uses continuity to communicate
that books of similar topics that are available for
purchase.
•So, D is the correct answer.
5. Which of the following errors in perception refer
to a false perception in one or more of the sensory
modalities that occur during wakefulness and in the
absence of external stimulation?
A. Halo effects
B. Projection
C. Hallucinations
D. Horn Effect
E. Recency effect
Sol: C
•Hallucinations are the type of error that refers to a
false perception in one or more of the sensory
modalities that occur during wakefulness and in the
absence of external stimulation.
•They are usually experienced in the real outside
world, and not within the mind of the person
concerned and differ from imagination.
•They are an experience that appears to take place
without any outside source and are an alleged
perception of something which is not there.
•So, C is the correct answer.
6. Which of the following are the projective
technique methods that enable a subject to project
internal feelings, attitudes, needs, wishes to an
external object?
1. Word Association Test
2. Thematic Apperception Test
3. Projective Questionnaires
Choose the correct code:
A. 1 and 2
B. 2 and 3
C. 1 and 3
D. 2 only
E. 3 only
Sol: B
•Projective Methods of Personality Measurement
enables a subject to project internal feelings,
attitudes, needs, wishes to an external object.
•Major projective techniques are Thematic
Apperception Test (TAT), Children’s Apperception
Test (CAT), Rorschach’s Ink-Blot Test, Projective
Questionnaires, Sentence Completion Test,
Psychodrama, Drawing, Painting and Sculpture.
•So, B is the correct answer.
7. Which of the following is a projective
psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of
inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using
psychological interpretation and complex
algorithms?
A. Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
B. Children’s Apperception Test (CAT)
C. Rorschach’s Test
D. Projective Questionnaires
E. Psychodrama
Sol: C
•Rorschach’s Ink-Blot Test was developed in 1921
and uses ten irregular-ink-blots standing against a
white background.
•Each inkblot is shown in a fixed number of ways
and the testee (person who is tested) is asked to
report what he sees.
•It is a projective psychological test in which
subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and
then analyzed using psychological interpretation,
complex algorithms, or both.
•It is used to examine a person's personality
characteristics and emotional functioning. And has
been employed to detect underlying thought
disorder, especially in cases where patients are
reluctant to describe their thinking processes
openly.
•So, C is the correct answer.
8. Which of the following perceptual errors holds
the tendency of attributing own success to internal
causes while failure to external causes?
A. Perceptual defense
B. Stereotyping
C. Halo effects
D. Self-Serving Biasness
E. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Sol: D
•Perceptual errors of Self-serving Biasness are the
tendency of attributing own success to internal
causes while failure to external causes.
•It represents one’s tendency to take more
personal responsibility for success rather than for
failure.
•It is any cognitive or perceptual process that is
distorted by the need to maintain and enhance self-
esteem, or the tendency to perceive oneself in an
overly favorable manner.
•So, D is the correct answer.
9. When a company releases a bad product that
destroys loyalty and positive market perception, it
is known as ________________.
A. Recency Effect
B. Halo Effects
C. Horn Effect
D. Self-Serving Biasness
E. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Sol: C
•The horn effect is a type of cognitive bias that
happens when you make a snap judgment about
someone based on one negative trait.
•When a company releases a bad product that
destroys loyalty and positive market perception, it
is a horn effect.
•This effect is the tendency to underestimate and
dislike a person because he is not good in one of
the fields.
•So, C is the correct answer.
10. Which of the following perceptual errors is a
cognitive bias in which those items, ideas, or
arguments that came last are remembered more
clearly than those that came first?
A. Perceptual defense
B. Halo effects
C. Projection
D. Horn Effect
E. Recency effect
Sol: E
•The perceptual error of recency effect is a
cognitive bias in which those items, ideas, or
arguments that came last are remembered more
clearly than those that came first.
•It is increased when too much information is
presented too quickly, and it is reduced when
coupled with other tasks.
•So, E is the correct answer.