Personality

PSYC 4P18
Dr. Hall

What is Personality?

• Relatively stable set of psychological characteristics that

in uence the way an individual interacts with the world.

• Key features:
1. Personality is relatively consistent across time and place

2. Personality in uences interaction with the world, especially

other people

3. Personality helps us make sense of and predict behaviour

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Why are we interested in personality?

• Hiring decisions
• Personnel psychology
• Self insight

The Myers-Briggs Type

Indicator

• One of the most popular

personality tests in the world

• 89 of the Fortune 100 companies

use it

• Problems:
• Assumes we are either one
thing or another (introverted
OR extroverted; thinking OR
feeling)

• Not reliable
• Does not predict behavior
Personality
The ve factor model

Big five personality traits

1. Openness to Experience

2. Conscientiousness

3. Extraversion

4. Agreeableness

5. Neuroticism
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“Big Five” Personality Dimensions

High Low

Openness to Experience Curious and original Resistant to change

Conscientiousness Dependable and responsible Careless and impulsive

Extraversion Sociable and talkative Withdrawn and shy

Agreeableness Tolerant and cooperative Intolerant and rude

Neuroticism Depressed and anxious Stable and con dent

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Breakout activity

• On your own, please complete the big-5 personality test:

• https://projects. vethirtyeight.com/personality-quiz/
• Read through your results and note down your scores so you have a record.
• Form groups of 5-6 people:
• Share your general reaction to the test and the questions you completed.
• Do you feel like you learned something about yourself from your big-5 scores? Do your scores feel
consistent with how you see yourself? Was there anything that surprised you?

• Do you think your partner and/or friends would agree with these results?
• If you were hiring someone, what type of personality traits might you look for?
• Do you think it is ethical to screen for certain personality traits when hiring?
• Can you foresee any problems with screening for certain personality traits?
• Can you anticipate any advantages?

Big Five at Work

Openness

• Why is it Relevant?
• More creative
• More exible and autonomous
• What does it A ect?
• Learning new things
• Adaptable to organizational change
• Enhanced leadership
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Big Five at Work
Conscientiousness

• Why is it Relevant?
• Greater e ort, persistence, and discipline
• Better organized and better planning ability
• What does it A ect?
• Higher performance
• Enhanced leadership
• Greater longevity
• Not good with change

Big Five at Work

Extraversion

• Why is it Relevant?
• Better interpersonal skills
• Greater social dominance
• More emotionally expressive
• What does it A ect?
• Higher job and life satisfaction
• Higher performance in jobs requiring teamwork/interaction
• Enhanced leadership
• More risk taking behaviour
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Big Five at Work
Agreeableness

• Why is it Relevant?
• Better liked
• More compliant and conforming
• What does it A ect?
• Higher performance in jobs requiring teamwork/interaction
• Lower levels of deviant behavior
• Lower levels of overall career success

Big Five at Work

Neuroticism

• Why is it Relevant?
• More negative thinking and emotions
• More hyper-vigilant to danger
• What does it A ect?
• Lower job and life satisfaction
• Higher stress levels
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Personality and job satisfaction

Correlation with
Personality Trait
job satisfaction

Neuroticism -.29

Conscientiousness +.26

Extraversion +.25

Agreeableness +.17

Openness +.02

Personality and and income

Personality Trait Correlation with Income

Conscientiousness +.34

Neuroticism -.32

Extraversion +.24

Agreeableness -.11

Openness +.02
Discussion Activity

What job might someone high/low on this trait do well in?

Openness to Experience

Conscientiousness

Extraversion

Agreeableness

Neuroticism

Some notes about personality

• Your personality is not your destiny.

• Why do we do things?
• Our personality?
• The situation?
• A little bit of both?
• Personality predicts average behaviour over time.
 Weak situation Strong situation

Does personality change?

• Personality can shift over time.

• People are agents of their own change
Discussion

• Which of the ve personality traits have shown the most stability

over your lifetime?

• Which of the ve personality traits seem the least stable over

your lifetime? How has your personality changed along these
dimensions?

• Looking at your answers to the rst two prompts:

• What actions have you taken that have increased your
personality trait stability?

• What steps have you taken to change certain personality

traits?

How does work change personality?

• The transition from high school to college, university, or

vocational training is associated with increases in emotional
stability, agreeableness, and conscientiousness (Lüdtke, Roberts, Trautwein, & Nagy,
2011).

• No evidence of signi cant change after the transition into rst job
(Deventer, Lüdtke, Nagy, Retelsdorf, & Wagner, 2019) or retirement (Schwaba & Bleidorn, 2019).
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Leveraging your personality at work

Stability Change

Select Craft Stretch

Stability
Select
Choosing roles and situations that match your personality
 Stability
Craft
Intentionally modifying a role or situation to better align with your personality

Change
Stretch
Intentionally acting in ways that stretch your personality
 Discussion

• What are your personality strengths, and how might you

exploit them at work?

• What are your personality vulnerabilities, and how can

you address them at work?

• Re ecting on your personality strengths and

vulnerabilities, how might you select, craft, and stretch in
your work life?

Thanks!
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