Module 2

Personality
&
Attitude
-Sugandh Katyal
 Understanding Personality
"Personality is to Man what Perfume is to Flower."

The word personality comes from

the Latin root Persona, meaning
"mask". According to this root,
personality is the impression we
make on others, the mask we
present to the world.
Personality refers to the enduring characteristics,
and behavior that comprise a person’s unique
adjustment to life, including major traits, interests,
drives, values, self-concept, abilities, and emotional
patterns.

Personality help predict & explain a

person's behavior. Stable, consistent &
distinctive set of mental and emotional
characteristics a person exhibits when
alone or in an environment.
“Although no single definition is acceptable to all personality
theorists, we can say that personality is a pattern of relatively
permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both
consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior.”
-Personality Psychologist Feist and Feist
 Traits vs Characteristics
A character refers to the distinctive qualities that
make up an individual. A trait, on the other hand, is
a feature of an individual who is inherent. While a
character needs to be built and absorbed by a person,
a trait comes genealogically.

Character, it is to be understood in the sense of quality.

A character is usually to be imbibed. Unlike a character
that needs to be molded, a trait is inherent. It can be said
that trait is all about inheritance whereas character is
about associations.
 Traits and characteristics influence our behavior, not
dictate it. These characteristics typically set us apart from
other people. For example, you may describe yourself as a
“respectful” or “genuine” person. These are two
personality features.

When you are a respectful person, you have a tendency to

be respectful to people around you. But you may act
outside of these traits due to well, really anything - a sick
day, a bad history with someone, or nervousness may
cause you to act out of character.
Any heritable feature is called a character while the
alternative form of a character is called trait.
 How do we display
personality traits?
Process of
Personality

Input Decision Output

rules
Traits and characteristics are the individual words that
we use to describe people. The process is the people
follow based on these traits.

They determine the output (and sometimes, what kind of

input we encounter in the first place.)
 Let’s say you are a courageous person. The “input” is a
dangerous situation. You have rules and make decisions
on how to act. The “output” is to face the danger. If you
are not a courageous person, your output will might be
fleeing the scene.
 Role of Nature & Nurture
in Personality Development

One's personality is shaped by a combination of nature

(genetic) and nurture (environmental) influences.

Nature refers to how genetics influence

an individual's personality, whereas
nurture refers to how their environment
(including relationships and experiences)
impacts their development.
Nature refers largely to our genetics. It includes the
genes we are born with and other hereditary factors
that can impact how our personality is formed and
influence the way that we develop from childhood
through adulthood.

Nurture encompasses the environmental factors that

impact who we are. This includes our early childhood
experiences, parenting styles, the way they we were
raised, social relationships, learned experiences, and
the surrounding culture.
Debate: Nature vs Nurture in Personality
Big 5 Factor of Personality
Many contemporary personality psychologists believe
that there are five basic dimensions of personality, often
referred to as the "Big 5" personality traits.

Many people use an acronym to remember the Big Five:

OCEAN. The Big Five are: Openness,
Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness,
Neuroticism
Openness is creativity and intrigue, Conscientiousness is
thoughtfulness, Extraversion is sociability, agreeableness
is kindness, and Neuroticism often involves sadness or
emotional instability.
 Meaning of Attitude
An attitude is a negative or positive evaluation of
an object which influence human’s behaviour
towards that object. –MICHEAL HOGG

An attitude is a learned predisposition to

respond in a favorable or unfavorable manner
toward people, an object, an idea or a situation-
MARTIN FISHBEIN
“Attitude is an evaluation of things in terms of liking or
disliking, favor or unfavored, positive or negative, and
pro or anti.” It is a learned tendency to evaluate a
certain way.
Different peoples can have different attitude towards
same thing or idea. For example, some people think
internet’s use for students as a positive thing that it
helps students in their studies. But some people think
the use of internet for students as a negative thing
because students tend to waste a lot of time in mindless
activities on the internet.
 Nature of Attitude
An attitude is somewhere between a belief, a stance, a
mood, and a pose.

Attitude is a complex mental state involving beliefs,

feelings, behaviors, personality, emotions, motivations,
values and dispositions to act in certain ways.

An attitude exists in every person’s mind. It helps to

define our identity, guide our actions, and influence
how we judge people.
Although the feeling and belief components of attitude
are internal to a person, we can view a person’s
attitude from his or her resulting behavior.

Attitude helps us define how we see situations, as well

as define how we behave toward the situation or
object.

Attitude provides us with internal cognitions or beliefs

and thoughts about people and objects.
Attitudes are often the result of experience or upbringing.
They can have a powerful influence over behavior and
affect how people act in various situations. While
attitudes are enduring, they can also change.

Attitudes can also be explicit and implicit. Explicit

attitudes are those that we are consciously aware of and
that clearly influence our behaviors and beliefs. Implicit
attitudes are unconscious but still have an effect on our
beliefs and behaviors.
Components of Attitude
 Cognitive Component

Your thoughts and beliefs about the subject.

Cognitive components are the set of information, facts,
idea and knowledge about an object.
Example -
• An orange is rich in vitamins. It is good for skin. It
has a good taste.
• Saver bulbs consumes less electricity than ordinary
bulbs.It has a brighter light. It is more durable.
 Affective Component

How the object, person, issue, or event makes you

feel.
This component consists of emotions and feeling
towards an object. It can be liking or disliking,
favoring or unfavoring, and positive or negative
evaluating toward the object.
Example -
• I like orange.
• I like saver-bulbs because saver-bulbs are good
 Behavioral Component
How attitude influences your behavior.
It is the tendency to behave towards the object-e.g.,
how the individual act towards the object depending
upon cognitive (facts towards the object) affective
(emotions towards the object) components.
Example -
• I eat an orange daily.
• I buy and use saver-bulbs in my home
 Attitude is important because it can influence your
ability to move through the world. For instance,
maintaining a positive attitude can help you achieve
measurable success in your personal and professional
life.
Your outlook can greatly impact your health, social
life, earning potential, productivity, ability to
overcome obstacles and more.
With a positive attitude, excelling in these various
domains of life can become a much simpler endeavor
—creating enormous benefits that can significantly
improve the quality of your life.

Comparatively, if you maintain a negative or skeptical

attitude, you may not be able to access the same
benefits.
A positive attitude may enable you to reduce your
stress level, cope with challenges in a healthy and
productive way, achieve actionable goals and maintain
overall mental and physical wellness. Therefore, it's
important to purposefully seek methods of maintaining
a positive attitude throughout your interactions with
others, time spent at work and in your personal or
recreational time. While this can be a challenging task,
especially in the face of life stressors, it can help foster
noteworthy advantages in your daily life and lead to
increased satisfaction in your career, relationships and
more.
How to maintain positive attitude
Start your day off right
Curate a positive workspace
Generate a routine you can follow
Reframe your interactions
Practice using positive language
Avoid gossiping
Show your appreciation for others
Be kind to yourself
Take breaks when you need them
Have something to look forward to
Practice mindfulness
Generate a routine you can follow
Reframe your interactions
Practice using positive language
Avoid gossiping
Show your appreciation for others
Be kind to yourself
Take breaks when you need them
Have something to look forward to
Practice mindfulness
 Attitudinal Change

Attitudes are important because they can guide

thought, behavior, and feelings. Attitude change
occurs anytime an attitude is modified. Thus,
change occurs when a person goes from being
positive to negative, from slightly positive to very
positive, or from having no attitude to having one.
 Attitude change can be categorized into two general
types of processes: (1) those that occur when one puts
forth relatively little cognitive effort, and (2) those that
occur with relatively high cognitive effort.
 Factors Affecting Attitudinal
Change

1. Characteristics of the existing attitude

2. Source Characteristics
3. Message Characteristics
4. Target Characteristics
Prejudice is an unjustified or incorrect attitude (usually
negative), preconceived opinion that is not based on
reason or actual experience. For example, a person
may hold prejudiced views towards a certain race or
gender etc.
In social psychology, a stereotype is a fixed,
over generalized belief about a particular group
or class of people. By stereotyping we infer that
a person has a whole range of characteristics
and abilities that we assume all members of that
group have.
Discrimination is an action or a decision that
treats a person or a group badly for reasons
such as their race, age or disability unfairly or
prejudicially.