Personality

What is Personality?
 When we describe people using terms such as quiet,
passive, loud, aggressive, sociable, etc, we are
describing their personalities
 The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts
and interacts with others; measurable traits a person
exhibits.
 Personality is the relatively stable set of
psychological attributes that distinguish one person
from another.
 Personality determinants
1. Heredity
It refers to those factors that were determined at
conception
2. Environment
The culture, our early conditioning, the norms among
our families, friends, social groups
3. Situation
Different situations call for different aspect of one’s
Personality.
 The “Big Five” Personality Factors

Emotional Stability

(Stable, confident, effective) (Nervous, self-doubting,

moody)

Agreeableness

(Warm, tactful, considerate) (Independent, cold, rude)

Extraversion

(Gregarious, energetic, self-dramatizing) (Shy, unassertive, withdrawn)

 Conti…

Conscientiousness

(Careful, neat, dependable) (Impulsive, careless, irresponsible)

Openness to experience

(Imaginative, curious, original) (Dull, unimaginative, literal-minded)

 Other relevant personality traits
1. Locus of Control
The degree to which people believe they are masters
of their own fate or destiny.
A. Internals (Internal locus of control)
Individuals who believe that they control what
happens to them.
B. Externals (External locus of control)
Individuals who believe that what happens to them
is controlled by outside forces such as luck or
chance
 Conti…
2. Self-Monitoring
A personality trait that measures an individual’s ability
to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational
factors.
3. Self Esteem
Individuals’ degree of liking or disliking themselves.
4. Risk taking
The propensity to assume or avoid risks
5. Machiavellianism
Machiavellianism is manipulating or influencing other
people as a primary way of achieving one's goal.
 Perception
What is perception?
o A process by which individuals organize and
interpret their sensory impressions in order to give
meaning to their environment.
o The process of receiving information about &
making sense of the world around us.
o People’s behavior is based on their perception of
what reality is, not on reality itself.
o The world as it is perceived is the world that is
behaviorally important.
Factors influencing Perception
 Conti…
Person perception: Making judgments about
others
Attribution Theory
When individuals observe behavior, they attempt
to determine whether it is internally or
externally caused.
Attribution Process : the perceptual process of
deciding whether an observed behavior or
event is caused largely by internal or by
external factors
 Conti…
 It suggests that behavior is determined by a
combinations of perceived internal & external forces
 Internal forces: relate to personal attributes such as
ability, skill, personality, amount of effort, etc
 External forces: relate to environment factors such
as organizational policies, the manner of supervisor,
luck, easy tasks, etc
 Conti…
• Distinctiveness: the extent to which the same person
behaves in the same way in other situations.
• Consensus: the extent to which other people in the
same situation behave in the same way.
• Consistency: the degree to which the same person
behaves in the same way at different times.
Conti…
 Errors and Biases in Attributions
1. Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency to underestimate the influence of external
factors and overestimate the influence of internal
factors when making judgments about the behavior of
others.
2. Self-Serving Bias
The tendency for individuals to attribute their own
successes to internal factors while putting the blame
for failures on external factors.
 Other perceptual errors
1. Halo Effect
Drawing a general impression about an individual on
the basis of a single characteristic
2. Stereotyping
Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the
group to which that person belongs.
3. Projection bias
Attributing one’s own characteristics to other people.
4. Primacy effect
A perceptual error in which we quickly form an opinion
of people based on the first information we receive
about them.