Personality

The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and interacts with others.

Personality is a pattern of stable states and characteristics of a person that influences

his or her behavior toward goal achievement

The Environment

• Organization

• Work group

• Job

• Personal life

Variables Influencing Individual Behavior

The Person

• Skills & abilities

• Personality

• Perceptions

• Attitudes

•Values

• Ethics

Behavior

B = f(P,E)

DEFINITION

Personality is relatively stable set of characteristics that

influences an individual’s behavior

It is a subjective phenomenon.

DEFINITION, Allport

Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of

those psycho-physical systems that determine his characteristic

and behavior and thought.

Definitions: Mackinnon (1959)

• Personality refers to “factors” inside people that explain their behavior

• The sum total of typical ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that makes a person unique.

Dynamic: ever changing

Psychophysical

Organized and integrated

Unique: specific features in every individual

Adjustment to environment

Self conscious. Only for human being

Social: develop through social interaction

Characteristics of Personality

3 Facts to Consider When Defining “Personality”

Individuals are unique

Individuals behave differently in different situations

Although individuals are unique and behave inconsistently across situations,

there is considerable commonality in human behavior

Personality: a person’s internally based characteristic way of acting and thinking

Character: Personal characteristics that have been judged or evaluated

Temperament: Hereditary aspects of personality, including sensitivity, moods,

irritability, and distractibility

Personality Trait: Stable qualities that a person shows in most situations

Personality Type: People who have several traits in common

Personality: Some Terms

A)Heredity and biological factors

- Physique

- Intelligence

- Sex differences

- Nervous system

- Chemical organisation

Biology and Personality

Personality dimensions are influenced by genes.

1. Brain-imaging procedures show that extraverts seek stimulation because their

normal brain arousal is relatively low.

2. Genes also influence our temperament and behavioral style. Differences in

children’s shyness and inhibition may be attributed to autonomic nervous

system reactivity.

B) Environmental factors

- Family

- Geography

- Life pattern

- Childhood experience

- Neighbourhood

- Friends

- School

- Media

- Cloths

- Culture

Personality & Environments

How we view and treat people influences how they treat us.

Our personalities shape situations.

Anxious people react to situations differently than relaxed people.

Our personalities shape how we react to events.

The school you attend and the music you listen to are partly based on your dispositions.

Different people choose different environments.

Specific ways in which individuals and environments interact

Culture

People maintain their self-esteem even with a low status by valuing things

they achieve and comparing themselves to people with similar positions.

C) Emotional reaction

- Aspiration

- Aptitudes and attitude

- Interest

- Motivation

- Intellectual level

Well balanced personality

Good physical appearance

Emotional stability

High intellectual ability

High degree of social adjustment

High moral characters

Good temperament

Good directedness

Tremendous commonsense, drive and pragmatic thinking

Well balanced personality according to Allport

1. Self- extension

- First requirement of mature personality

- Strive based towards a destination

- Definite goal in life

- Will not denied from this goal because of defeat or momentary pleasure

- These goals represent of extension of self


2. Self objectification

A mature person look at himself objectivity.

- He has insight

- He accept his weaknesses

- He evaluates himself in terms of his potentialities

- Sense of realities


3. Unifying philosophy of life

- A mature personality lives according to some accepted philosophy of life

developed to his own satisfaction

- His life will be value oriented

THEORIES

Trait Theory: understand individuals by breaking down behavior patterns

into observable traits.

Psychodynamic Theory: emphasizes the unconscious determinants of

behavior

Humanistic Theory: emphasizes individual growth and improvement

Integrative Approach: describes personality as a composite of an

individual’s psychological processes

PERSONALITY TRAITS

• A personality trait is a personality characteristic that endures over time and

across different situations

• Trait theories of personality focus on measuring, identifying and describing

individual differences in personality in terms of traits

• Focus is on what is different- not what is the same

• Can be used to predict behaviour based on traits

Assessing Traits

Personality inventories are questionnaires (often with true-false or agree-disagree

items) designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors assessing several

traits at once.

PERSONALITY TRAITS

Enduring characteristics that describe an individual’s behavior.

Personality traits are described on a continuum – showing either end of the trait.

Strengths and Limitations of trait theories

Provide useful descriptions of personality and its structure

Provided the foundation of valid and reliable personality devices

Can lead people to accept and use oversimplified classifications and descriptions

Underestimate socio-cultural influences on behaviour

Methods of Measuring Personality

Personality cannot be quantitatively measured but appraise personality to help us

to:

• know about the physical, mental, emotional and social behavior of the individual

• For the purpose of guidance and selection of personnel

• To appear of teacher competence


1- Subjective methods, ask the individual to evaluate himself, Data is also is

collected with the help of his friend also

- Autobiography: is the story about subject that has written by himself.

- Case history method

- Interview technique

- Questionnaire

- Inventories

2- Objective methods

3- Projective method

Subjective method- autobiography

Autobiography is faithful record of ones past and future

Subjects write about aims, ambitions, achievement, attitude and experience

Advantages:

it is economical and useful to explore the personality

Limitations:

The subject exaggerates his qualities

It may be full of irrelevant and insignificant things.

Since subjects writes from memory it may fail.

Language handicap


Subjective method- Case history method

Information collected about heredity & environment features.

Physical, intellectual, academic, emotional & social history.

Data about nature of delivery, health of child at birth, relationship with parent

and sibling, physical diseases, to know about cases of maladjustment

Advantages:

Useful in clinical method

More systematic and scientific

Limitations:

Time consuming

Difficult to collect data


Subjective method- Interview technique

Face to face interaction between interviewers and interviewee

Ask question and get information

Ambitions, aspiration and many other trait is known

Limitation

Subjective

Costly

Time consuming

Need experts and trained person


Subjective methods- Questionnaires

o A list of question may be given to an individual.

o The respondent himself fills it . We judge personality based on the answer given

Limitation:

o Subject may not show his emotional feeling.


Subjective methods- Inventories

• Specially designed to seek answers about the person and his personality traits.

• The items are addressed to the sense that the respondent is asking the question

to himself

examples:

- Personal data sheet (116 items) related to feeling, worries and symptoms of

mental disorders.

- MMPI

- EPI


Subjective methods- Inventories- MMPI

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

• is the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests.

• It was originally developed to identify emotional disorders.

• 550 items indicating specific personality traits

• Individual reads items and responses in yes, no or doubtful category will be given.

The MMPI was developed by empirically testing a pool of items and then selecting

those that discriminated between diagnostic groups.


MMPI Test Profile

Subjective methods- Inventories- (EPI)

Eysenck personality inventory(EPI)

• For assessing tendencies

• Two dimension of personality considered is stable- unstable and introvert-

extrovert


• Subjective methods- Inventories- The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator(MBTI)

• Based on :

– People are fundamentally different

– People are fundamentally alike

– People have preference combinations for extraversion/introversion,

perception, judgment

• Briggs & Myers developed the MBTI to understand individual differences

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator(MBTI)

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator(MBTI)

A personality test that taps four characteristics and classifies people into 1 of 16

personality types.

Personality Types

Extroverted vs. Introverted (E or I)

Sensing vs. Intuitive (S or N)

Thinking vs. Feeling (T or F)

Judging vs. Perceiving (P or J)

Myers-Briggs Sixteen Primary Traits

Personality Types

TYPE A

1. are always moving, walking, and eating rapidly;

2. feel impatient with the rate at which most events take place;

3. strive to think or do two or more things at once;

4. cannot cope with leisure time;

5. are obsessed with numbers, measuring their success in terms of how many or how much of everything they acquire.

TYPE B

1. never suffer from a sense of time urgency with its accompanying impatience;

2. feel no need to display or discuss either their achievements or accomplishments;

3. play for fun and relaxation, rather than to exhibit their superiority at any cost;

4. can relax without guilt.

Objective Methods

Do not depend upon subjects’ own statements but upon his overt behavior as

revealed to others

It is more scientific

Examples :

1- Rating scales

2- Judgment of one person by another

3- Rating can be done by teachers, parents, examiner in 5 points, 3 points 7 points, 9

or 11 point rating


Projective Technique

- For studying unconscious mind of individual.

- To project ones’ own unconscious wishes, thought, fears and hopes

- They assess the total personality

Examples:

• Rorschach inkblot test

• Thematic Apperception test

• Play technique

• Word Association test

• Semtemu completion test


Projective Technique- Rorschach inkblot test

Developed by Rorschach in 1921

Based on perceptual approach

Consist of 10 cards- bisymmetrical inkblot

Cards are presented one after another.

Analyzing based on responses to

- Whole or part is seen

- Determinant( which feature or color)

- Content

- Popularity( common or popular)


Projective Technique- Thematic apperception test

- Developed by Murray and Morgan

- 30 pictures show different life situation( 10 for men, 10 for women, 10 for both)

- 20 picture are shown to each subject

- Subjects has to answer questions by building the story about pictures.

What has led to the incident?

What are the present condition?

What will be future results?

The subject arrange the material based on his life and revealed his personality.


Projective Technique- Play Technique

- Through play social and abnormal behavior can be known

- Children show their feelings of tension, fears and aggression to the object they

use to play.

- They are given opportunity to play freely to toys.

- Situations are to planned and controlled.


Projective Technique- Word association Test

Speak the first word that comes to mind after listening to stimuli's word


Projective Technique- Sentence completion test

- Beginning of some sentences are given that need to complete it by subject.

- Indicates their feeling, liking and disliking.


How is Personality Measured?

Projective Test - elicits an individual’s response to abstract stimuli

Behavioral Measures - personality assessments that involve observing an individual’s

behavior in a controlled situation

Self-Report Questionnaire - assessment involving an individual’s responses to

questions

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) - instrument measuring Jung’s theory of

individual differences.

Big Five Personality Traits

Extroversion

This trait includes characteristics such as:

excitability,

sociability,

talkativeness,

assertiveness, and

high amounts of emotional expressiveness.

Sociable, gregarious, and assertive

I love excitement and am a cheerful person


Agreeableness

This personality dimension includes attributes such as:

Trust,

Altruism,

Kindness,

Affection, and other prosaically behaviors.

Good-natured, cooperative, and trusting.

People find me warm and generous and selfless


Conscientiousness

Common features of this dimension include high levels of thoughtfulness,

with good impulse control and goal-directed behaviors

Responsible,

dependable,

persistent, and organized.

People find me reliable and I keep my house clean


Emotional Stability

Individuals high in this trait:

Tend to experience emotional instability,

Anxiety, moodiness, irritability, and sadness.

Calm, self-confident,

Secure (positive) versus nervous, depressed, and insecure (negative).

Am very moody I often feel sad and down


Openness to Experience

This trait features characteristics such as :

Imagination and insight,

High in this trait also tend to have a broad range of interests.

I am a very curious person & enjoy challenges

Imaginativeness, artistic, sensitivity, and intellectualism

Role of the teacher in the Personality development of students

Respect for the individuality of each child

Teacher should act as guide

Firm in tearm of disciplines.

Teacher should be source of inspiration

Show love and patience

Understand children: be a physician, mental hygienist, philosopher a

moralist and an artist to the child

Role of the teacher in the Personality development of students

Teacher is a spiritual presepeor, communicator and provider of knowledge

Teacher as a facilitator & manager of learning

Teacher as a ideal person, a role model

Teacher as a agent of social change and spearhead of change in society

Character and personality of teacher

Teachers love for the profession

Teacher love for children

Education

Personality