Personlality theories

Personality
&
Theories of Personality
Presenter
M.Shahid Khan
M.Phil Education
shahidbarki@yahoo.com
11/26/2014 Personality and its Theories 1

Study of Personality
 Study of Personality is an attempt to describe
and explain how people are similar, how they
are different, and why every individual is
unique. It tries to explain the whole person.
 The branch of psychology which study
personality is called Personality Psychology
or Personology.

Introduction
Etymology of the term Personality
 The term Personality has been derived from the
Latin word “ Persona” which means Mask, was
associated with Greek theater in ancient times.
The Greek actors commonly used to wear masks
on their faces during their performances on the
stage. The mask worn by the actors was called
“Persona”.
Personality was thought to be the effect and
influence which the individual wearing a mask
left on the audience.

Introduction
 The psychologists have defined the term
personality in various ways but they were not
completely successful in explaining it, in clear
and definite terms, because human behavior
is very complex and personality is not a fixed
state but a dynamic totality, which is
continuously changing due to interaction with
the environment.

Definition
 Personality can be defined as a dynamic
and organized set of characteristics
possessed by a person that uniquely
influences his or her behaviors in various
situations.
 According to Lundberg Kolb
“each individual’s characteristically recurring
patters of behaviour are known as
personality”.

Definition
 Burger, suggests that personality can be
defined as consistent behavioral patterns and
intrapersonal processes originating within the
individual.
 Note elements of this definition: Personality is
consistent, along time and across situations.
Personality is our intrapersonal processes,
our emotional, motivational, and cognitive
processes that affect how we feel and how
we act.

Definition
 The pioneering American psychologist,
Gordon Allport (1937) who devoted most of
his time for research on personality, defines
Personality as:
“It is the dynamic organization within the
individual of those psychological systems that
determine his unique adjustment to the
environment”.

 The concept of personality seems like a
simple one, hundreds of years have gone into
studying it and we still don't agree how it
develops.
 Personality theories are attempts at
understanding both the characteristics of our
personality and the way these characteristics
develops and impact our life.

 Four Theories of Personality are:
1. Trait Theories
2. Learning Theories
3. Psychoanalytical Theories
4. Phenomenological Theories

1.Trait Theory
The trait theories suggests that individual
personalities are composed of traits.
What is Trait?
Any characteristic in which one person differs from
another in a relatively permanent and consistent
way. E.g. friendly, anxious, excitable, intelligent, we
are using trait terms.
Trait theory is focused on identifying and measuring
these individual personality characteristics.

Trait Theory
 In 1940 William Sheldon an American Psychologist,
classified human personalities based on body build.
 Endomorph (A short, plump person)
Socialable, relaxed and even-tempered
 Ectomorph (A tall, thin Person)
Restrained, self conscious and found of solitude
 Mesomorph (A Heavy, Muscular Person)
Noisy, callous and fond of physical activity.

Jung’s Theory of Two Types
Carl Jung (Swiss Psychologist) divided
personalities into:
1. Introvert Type.
Shy, self-centered person whose attention
is focused inward.
2. Extrovert Type.
Bold, outgoing person whose attention is
directed outward.

Gordon Allport’s Trait Theory
 In 1936, Gordon Allport found that one English-language
dictionary alone contained more than 4,000
words describing different personality traits. He
categorized these traits into three levels:
 Cardinal traits: govern the direction of one's life. e.g
Freudian, Behaviorist.
 Central traits: operate in daily interactions, as
illustrated by a tendency to always try to control a
situation. Terms such as intelligent, honest, shy are
central traits.
 Secondary traits: These are the traits that are
sometimes related to attitudes or preferences and
often appear only in certain situations or under specific
circumstances. Some examples would be getting
anxious when speaking to a group or impatient while
waiting in line.

Eysenck’s Three Dimensions of Personality
 British psychologist Hans Eysenck developed
a model of personality based upon three
traits:
 Extraversion (as opposed to introversion)
 Neuroticism (as opposed to emotional
stability)
 Psychoticism (as opposed to impulse control)

Raymond Cattell Trait Theory
 Trait theorist, Raymond Cattell in 1973, reduced the
number of main personality traits from Allport’s initial
list of over 4,000 down to 171.
 Next, Cattell rated a large sample of individuals for
these 171 different traits. Then, using a statistical
technique known as factor analysis, he identified
closely related terms and eventually reduced his list
to just 16 key personality traits. According to Cattell,
these 16 traits are the source of all human
personality. He also developed one of the most
widely used personality assessments known as the
Sixteen Personality Factors (16PF).

The Big Five
 According to The Big Five theory given by by
McCrae and Costa in 1980, most human
personality traits can be boiled down to five
broad dimensions of personality.

The Big Five
 Extraversion/Introversion: described in terms such
as talkative, sociable, vs. turned inward
 Agreeableness/Antagonism: described in terms
such as good natured, cooperative, likable vs.
hostile
 Conscientiousness/ Undirectedness: described in
terms such as responsible, neat, task motivated vs.
disorganized
 Stability/Instability: described in terms such as calm,
composed vs. uncertain, insecure
 Openness to experience/Conforming: described in
terms such as flexible, original, creative, daring vs.
rigid, conventional, conforming, noncreative.

2.Learning Theory
 Learning theorists in contrast to Trait theorists
emphasize the importance of environmental or
situational determinants of behaviour.
For social learning theorists, behaviour is the result
of a continuous interaction between person and
environment.
The interaction of individual differences and specific
situations is crucial for predicting behaviour.

Learning Theory
Peoples behaviors are learned responses.
Learning Theory has two Branches:
A. Behaviorism – John Watson & BF Skinner
believed outside influences mold us (parents,
society etc.) rewards, punishments
B. Social Learning Theory – (more
contemporary view) focuses on the importance of
learning by observation.

Learning Theory
 Learning Theory —3 Tenets
 Consequences influence behavior
 Humans can learn by observing others
 Individuals are more likely to model behavior
observed in people they identify with.

3.Psychoanalytical Theory
 Psychoanalytical theory approaches
personality from a view point that is quite
different either of the two theories we have
discussed so far. Instead of studying traits or
individual reactions the psychoanalyst Like
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) looks for the
unconscious motives of the behaviour.
 The psychoanalytic approach focuses on the
role of the unconscious mind in studying
personality.

Personality Structure
1. Id = unconscious = pleasure principle
- Primary process thinking: wish fulfillment
- I want it now! Instant gratification
- Part of the iceberg that is submerged underwater
2. Ego = conscious = reality principle
- What are the real-world consequences of my actions?
- secondary process thinking: reality testing
- part of the iceberg that is above water and aware of reality
3. Superego = preconscious = morality principle
- What is the proper way to behave? Parents/Society
- Conscience: should nots
- Part of the iceberg that is just under the water but can
sometimes surface

Psychosexuality and Unconscious
 According to Freud, life includes both
pleasurable and painful experiences. Freud
believed that many of our experiences,
particularly the painful episodes of childhood,
are buried in our unconscious. Although we
may not consciously recall these
experiences, they continue to influence our
behaviour and thus our personalities.

4.Phenomenological Theory
 Some psychologists did not believe trait,
behaviorist and psychoanalytic explanations
of personality.
They felt that these theories ignored the
qualities that make humans unique among
animals, such as striving for self-determination
and self-realization. In the
1950s, some of these psychologists began a
school of psychology called humanism.

Phenomenological Theories
 The Phenomenological approach to the
study of personality, emphasis on
subjective experiences- the individual
private view of the world.
 They are concerns with how the individual
perceives and interprets events- the
individual’s phenomenology.

Phenomenological Theories
 Humanistic psychologists try to see people’s
lives as those people would see them. They tend
to have an optimistic perspective on human
nature. In the humanistic view, people are
responsible for their lives and actions and have
the freedom and will to change their attitudes
and behavior.
 Two psychologists, Abraham Maslow and Carl
Rogers, became well known for their humanistic
theories.

Carl Rogers’s Theory of Self
 Rogers assumes that every individual has the
motivation and ability to change and that we
are the best experts on ourselves.
The most important concept in Rogers’s
theory of personality is the self. The self
consists of all the ideas, perceptions and
values that characterize “I” or “Me”; it
includes the awareness of “what I am” and
“what can I do”.

 Roger uses two terms; Congruence and
Incongruence.
Rogers said that people’s self-concepts often do
not exactly match reality. For example, a person
may consider himself to be very honest but often
lies to his boss about why he is late to work. This
is Incongruence.
If the parent shows unconditional love, the child
can develop congruence. Children whose
parents provided conditional love would continue
in adulthood to distort their experiences in order
to feel accepted.

 Results of Incongruence
 Rogers thought that people experience
anxiety when their self-concepts are
threatened. To protect themselves from
anxiety, people distort their experiences so
that they can hold on to their self-concept.
People who have a high degree of
incongruence are likely to feel very anxious
because reality continually threatens their
self-concepts and thus their personality .

Maslow’s Theory of
Self-Actualization
 The highest rung on Abraham Maslow’s
ladder of human motives is the need for
self-actualization.
Maslow said that human beings strive for
self-actualization, or realization of their full
potential, once they have satisfied their
more basic needs.

Maslow’s Theory of
Self-Actualization
 Maslow described several characteristics that
self-actualizing people share:
 Awareness and acceptance of themselves
 Openness and spontaneity
 The ability to enjoy work and see work as a
mission to fulfill
 The ability to develop close friendships without
being overly dependent on other people
 A good sense of humor
 The tendency to have peak experiences that are
spiritually or emotionally satisfying

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