PERSONALITY

1. PERSONALITY Sandra Venugopal Dept. of Psychology

2. Introduction • What is Personality? • Personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior. • It is a person’s internally based characteristic way of acting and thinking. • What is character? • Personal characteristics that have been judged or evaluated.

3. Contd. • Temperament: Refers to the basic part of a person’s personality that is present from birth. It includes the natural tendencies or ways of reacting to things, like how emotional, energetic, or calm someone is. • Temperament influences how people respond to the world around them, but it doesn’t change much over time. For example, some people are naturally more easy-going, while others may be more sensitive or intense.

4. Type and Trait • Personality Type: This refers to a broad category that groups people based on common patterns in their behavior, like being an "introvert" or "extrovert." It's like putting people into specific boxes or categories. • Personality Trait: This refers to specific characteristics or qualities that make up someone's personality, like being "friendly," "curious," or "organized." Traits are individual parts that vary in degree rather than fitting into a single category.

5. TRAITS • What are traits? • CENTER OF PERSONALITY • Unique characteristics that shape or influence our behaviour. • These characteristics typically set us apart from other people. • Example: Respectful, Genuine • When you are a respectful person, you have a tendency to show the same in your behaviour. Hence traits shape our behaviour.

6. Traits Cont. • Different psychologists have approached to explain personality from different angles. • The earliest efforts to explain personality were to classify people in certain categories and label these categories according to some commonly shared characteristics. • This was followed by trait approach and various other explanations.

7. HOW DOES PERSONALITY WORK? • Also called psychological mechansims : Like traits. • They are the processes of personality. Inputs Decision Rules Output

8. Example • Input: This refers to how a person perceives or interprets a situation. For example, if someone sees a challenging task, they might view it as an opportunity (positive input) or as a threat (negative input). • Decision Rules: These are the internal thought processes or ways of deciding how to act. For example, a person might decide, “I should try this challenge because I like learning new things" (positive decision rule) or “I should avoid this because I might fail" (negative decision rule). • Output: This is the actual behavior or response based on the input and decision. In the same example, the person might either take on the task (positive output) or avoid it (negative output).

9. Where does personality come from? • Genetics - Inherited • Environment • Trends going on in your culture • All these may explain from where you get the personality. • Co-create personalities and personality of people when you interact.

10. COMMON PERSONALITY THEORIES • Trait Theories • Type Theories • Behavioral Theory • Humanistic Theory • Biological Theory • Psychoanalytic Theory

11. Why is personality important? • Freedom v/s Determinism • Do we choose our behavior? • If he had to change, can we change it if we want to or are we determined to become specific type of person? Hereditary v/s Environment • Where does our personality come from? • Nature v/s Nurture – Interactionism

12. Continued.. • Unique or Universal • What are we? Proactive or Reactive As humans, do we act according to our initiatives or do we respond only to stimuli. These questions are vital to answer to predict future behaviour.

13. TYPE APPROACH • According to Morgan and King, “ A type is simply a class of individuals said to share a common collection of characteristics.” • It means that people are classified into categories according to the characteristics they share in common. • For example, some people prominently show tendencies of being outgoing, happy-go-lucky nature, • mixing with people, less task orientation etc. These people are classified as extrovert. • A number of thinkers have given their typological models to explain personality, • some of which include (i) Hippocrate’s typology (ii) Kretchmer’s typology(iii) • Sheldon’s typology, (iv) Jung’s typology.

14. HIPPOCRATE’S TYPOLOGY • In 400 B.C. Hippocrates attempted to explain personality in terms of body fluid or humors. He postulated that our body has four types of fluid; yellow bile, black bile, blood and phlegm. Every person is characterised by the prominence of one type of fluid which determines the temperament of the person concerned. • Thus he classified people into four types which are given below: • a) Choleric– people with predominance of yellow bile are irritable, restless and hot blooded. • b) Melancholic – people with high black bile are sad, depressed and devoid of hope in life • c) Sanguinary – When blood content is high the person remains cheerful, active and he is optimistic in life. • d) Phlegmatic– predominance of phlegm makes a person calm and quiet and usually their behaviour is marked by inactiveness.

15. KRETSCHMER’S TYPOLOGY • Kretschmer was a German psychiatrist who on the basis of his observation of patients classified people into four types. He used the physical constitution and temperament for this purpose The four types he talked about included: • Pyknic Type – Such people are short in height with heavily built body type. They have short, thick neck. Temperament wise they exhibit characteristics of being social and cheerful. They are happy-go-lucky, they like to eat and sleep. Kretschmer called them “cycloid” as they have high probability of falling prey to manic-depressive type of psychopathology.

16. Contd. • Asthenic Type – Such persons are tall and thin with underdeveloped muscles. They are also underweight. They are irritable and shirk away from responsibility. They have the habit of day dreaming and are lost in the world of fantasy. Temperament wise they are categorized as “schizoid” and may develop disorder of schizophrenia.

17. Schizoid Personality Disorder is a condition where a person tends to be emotionally detached and prefers to be alone. People with this disorder often avoid social relationships, show little interest in interacting with others, and don't express much emotion. They may seem distant or indifferent and usually choose solitary activities. Despite this, they generally do not feel lonely and are content with their isolated lifestyle.

18. Contd. • Athletic Type– These are muscular types and have well built muscles and are neither tall nor short. They have stable and calm nature and are able to adjust themselves to changes in the environment. • Dyspalstic Type – This category includes people who do not exhibit any of the characteristicsmentioned above but are mix of all three types.

19. Sheldon’s Typology • Sheldon on the basis of physical constitution categorised personality into somatotypes. Analysed photographs of 4000 students and classified their personality into three basic types. • These three types are: (i) Endomorphic (ii) Ectomorphic (iii) Mesomorphic. • i) Endomorphy– Such persons are short and fatty with a round shape of body. Endomorhphic people are similar to “pyknic” type mentioned by Kretschmer. They like to eat and drink and make merry. They are gregarious by nature and have leisurely attitude toward life. Temperament wise Sheldon termed them “viscerotonia.”

20. Contd. • ii) Mesomorphy – These people are muscular types. Their muscles and bones are quite well developed and they are physically well shaped. These people generally are considered to be toughminded, risk taking, assertive and aggressive. They like to boss over others. Sheldon called these personalities as “somatotonia” • iii) Ectomorphy – Such people are tall but thin. Sheldon called them “cerebrotonia”. These people like to remain away from people.

21. Jung’s Typology • Jung postulated personality theory based on psychological characteristics. • He divided people into two broad types i.e. extroverts and introverts. • Extroverts – Such people are socially oriented. They like to mix up with people, are fun loving, optimistic. They are realistic in their approach towards life. Often • such people exhibit leadership qualities. • Introverts – They are the opposite of extroverts. They do not like to mingle with people. They have very few friends. They are self-centered and conservative. Such people are dogmatic in the sense that they follow traditions and customs of the society without ever giving thought to their justifiability.

22. Contd. • Jung’s classification has been criticised on the ground that it is not possible to divide people into two watertight compartments because a significant number of people do not fall in either of the categories. They exhibit characteristics of both the extrovert and introvert type. To compensate for this they placed such persons into another category called ambiverts.

23. Assumptions of Type Theory • Categorization into Fixed Types: • Type theories assume that all individuals can be classified into specific categories (e.g., introvert or extrovert). However, in reality, people may exhibit characteristics of both types depending on the situation. • Inflexibility of Traits: • It is assumed that individuals with one dominant characteristic (e.g., introversion) will also possess all other traits typically associated with that type (e.g., emotional sensitivity). This assumption does not always hold true as individuals may not exhibit all related traits.

24. Contd. • Lack of Explanation for Personality Development: • Type theories focus on describing personality structure but fail to explain how personality develops or the factors that influence its growth and change over time.

25. TRAIT THEORIES • According to trait theory personality is made up of different traits. Traits are the building blocks and human behaviour can be described in terms of these traits. • A trait generally is a description of behaviour. • For example, friendliness, social, assertive are words that describe human behaviour.

26. ALLPORTS TRAIT THEORY • Two types of traits- common traits and personal traits. • COMMON TRAITS: The traits found in the majority of persons living in a society or culture. Thus people of a society or culture can be compared on that trait. • For example. If X shows a trait of cooperativeness in his behaviours in various situations, • and if similar behaviours are obtained in a large number of persons from that community or culture, this trait will be considered common Trait.

27. Contd. • Common traits thus are those which are reflected in the behaviour of most of the persons in a society or a community or culture. • Example: In many cultures, being polite is a common trait. Most people in that society will generally say “please” and “thank you” because it’s part of how they were raised and what’s expected. This politeness is something shared by many people, not unique to just one person.

28. Contd. • Personal traits: Unique qualities that make someone different from others in their society, community, or culture. • These traits are not shared with other people around them, so they can’t be directly compared to others. A person develops these traits mostly through the process of growing up and learning from parents or caregivers.

29. Contd. • The rules and behaviors taught by parents (like what’s right and wrong) shape the person's personality in a way that’s unique to them. • These personal traits are very consistent, meaning they show up in almost everything the person does, no matter what situation they’re in • .In short, personal traits are the special qualities someone has that make them different from others, shaped by their upbringing and visible in all their behaviors • Eg: parsimony: choosing simplest and straightforward explanation.

30. Contd. • Three sub- categories of personal traits: • a. Cardinal disposition • b. Central disposition • C. Secondary disposition

31. Cardinal Dispositions • Definition: Cardinal traits are powerful traits that completely shape how a person behaves. They influence everything the person does. • Example: Mahatma Gandhi’s strong belief in peace and non-violence was a cardinal trait. His commitment to non-violence showed in everything he did, whether he was in India or abroad. This trait guided his entire life and actions. • Cardinal traits are rare but dominate a person’s life.

32. Central Dispositions • Definition: Central traits are key characteristics that help describe most people. Usually, a person has 5-10 central traits, and these are the main traits people notice and use to describe someone’s personality. • Example: Imagine someone with traits like honesty, punctuality, cleanliness, and generosity. Because of these traits, they are always on time, are straightforward with others, keep things organized, don’t waste resources, and are willing to help others. These central traits define this person’s personality and how they act in different situations. • Central traits are important and define a person’s core personality.

33. Secondary Dispositions • Definition: Secondary traits are weaker and less consistent. They don’t shape a person’s overall personality as much and are often related to personal preferences. • Example: Things like hairstyle, clothing choices, or favorite foods are secondary traits. They might change over time and don’t strongly affect how we understand the person’s overall personality. • Secondary traits are smaller, often changeable, and have less impact on overall personality.

34. Cattell’s Theory of Personality • Raymond Bernard Cattell (1905-1998) was a British born American Psychologist and researcher. • Known for his psychometric research into intrapersonal psychological structure(16PF). • Educated in Britain , awarded PhD in 1929 from the University of London. • Cattell tried to further advance the trait approach advocated by Allport. • He made many contributions to psychology but is most renowned for his theory of personality and discovered 16 underlying traits.

35. Cattell’s Theory of Personality • Cattell(1970) define Personality as that “which permits a prediction of what a person will do in a given situation”. • Cattell used statistical approach to study personality than observational and qualitative data. He applied FACTOR ANALYSIS to personality and categorized data into three parts.

36. FACTOR ANALYSIS • FACTOR ANALYSIS is a technique that is used to reduce a large number of variables into fewer number of factors by identifying common characteristics within the data. This technique extracts maximum common variance from all variables and put them into a common score. • For example , traits like “outgoing,” “talkative,” and “sociable” cluster together under the Extraversion factor. Factor analysis helped reduce many individual traits into these five broad factors.

37. Three data types • 1. Life data • Experimental data • Questionnaire data

38. The 16 source traits • Allport identified 4,500 traits of which Cattell took the list and removed all the synonyms, reducing the number down to 171 words related to personality which he called Trait elements. • In the next step, he found how they are related and found that each trait elements correlated high with some and low with others. So he formed some specific group and called them Surface Traits. • The surface traits were examined in terms of correlation and found there was overlapping. The removal of such overlapping led to desired dimensions which he called the Source Traits.

39. Contd. • Ultimately Cattell applied factor analysis to the list of words and it led him to identify the 16 individual source traits that are central to his personality theory. • He described these personality traits that each person possesses to varying degrees.

40. They are as follows: Warmth Reasoning 3. Emotional stability Dominance Liveliness Rule- consciousness Social-boldness Sensitivity Vigilance Abstractedness Privateness Apprehension Openness to change Self-reliance Perfectionism Tension

41. Personality Traits • Cattell’s Trait Theory divides personality traits into different categories to explain human behavior. • Key concepts: Surface Traits, Source Traits (including Environmental Mould and Constitutional Traits), and types of Source Traits (Dynamic, Ability, and Temperamental).

42. Surface Traits • Definition: Traits that are found on the periphery of personality, easily visible in day-to-day interactions. • Characteristics: Show up clearly in behavior (explicit) and are easy to notice. • Example: If someone often jokes and laughs, we see humor as a surface trait.

43. Source Traits • Definition: Traits that form the core structure of personality. • Characteristics: Not always obvious (not observable in day to day interaction); they show up when several surface traits combine. • Example: Sociability, humor, and kindness (surface traits) can combine to show a source trait like friendliness.

44. Types of Source Traits • Cattell mentioned two types of source traits i.e. environmental mould traits and constitutional traits. • Environmental Mould Traits: Traits shaped mostly by the environment (e.g., culture, experiences). • Example: Respect for traditions could be a result of family values. • Constitutional Traits: Traits mainly influenced by genetics. • Example: High energy levels may be inherited from parents.

45. Other Types of Source Traits • Dynamic Traits: Traits that motivate or direct behavior toward a goal. • Example: A strong belief in girls’ education might inspire someone to work with an NGO to support education for women. • Ability Traits: Traits that help achieve a goal by providing the necessary skills. • Example: Musical ability is needed to become a musician. • Temperamental Traits: Traits related to a person’s emotional state and energy levels. • Example: A calm temperament helps someone stay steady under pressure.

46. EYSENCK’S PERSONALITY THEORY • Hans Eysenck, a German psychologist believed that human behaviour is determined by a series of attributes or traits. • People have different personalities from one another because of the difference in the extent of magnitude to which they carry each trait. • Came up with the famous Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) to categorize people based on personalities.

47. More about P traits • People are born with personality traits, and they are influenced by our genetics. • Environmental, social, and situational factors can influence these traits, but in minimal. • External influences matter to 25% of influence, whereas 75% influences are genetic.

48. Personality Dimensions • He developed this theory based on biological factors arguing that individuals inherit a type of nervous system that affects their ability to adapt to environment. • Used factor analysis and grouped certain factors into three different dimensions. • Eysenck grouped several traits together to initially form two dimensions. • Introversion/ Extraversion • Neuroticism/ Stability • Psychoticism/ Socialisation

50. Introversion/ Extraversion • Introverts are people who are quiet, reserved, pessimistic, serious and are more focused towards oneself. • Extroverts are the people who are carefree, outgoing, thrill seekers and are optimistic. • According to Eysenck, Extroverts inherit an under-aroused (relaxed, calm) nervous system so they seek stimulation from outside. • Introverts inherit over-aroused nervous system (excited already) thus they are already aroused from within and do not require stimulating environment.