Personality Traits - Final
Personality Traits - Final
What is personality?
People use different terms like good, popular, strong, honest, weak, polite, etc., to
denote personality.
The word personality can be traced to the Latin words ‘per sona’ which are
translated as “to speak through”.
Definition:
Acc. to Gordon Allport, personality is “the dynamic organization
within the individual of those psychological systems that determine his
unique adjustments to his environment.”
Acc. to Luthans, the way people affect others depends on their personality
traits.
Personality traits include: height, weight, facial features, colour, dimensions,
etc.
Personality traits are enduring characteristics like shyness, submissiveness,
laziness, timidity, loyalty, aggressiveness, creativity, dynamism, etc., exhibited
in a large number of situations.
Allport and Odbert identified 17,953 personality traits.
It is highly difficult to predict the individual behaviour based on such a large
number of traits.
R. B. Cattell reduced this number to 171.
He further reduced them to 16 personality factors, which he called the source or
primary traits.
The 16 personality factors are found to be generally steady and constant sources
of behaviour.
They help in predicting individual behaviour in specific situations.
R. B. Cattell -- Sixteen Personality Traits
Extraversion or Introversion (E or I)
Sensing or Intuition (S or N)
Thinking or Feeling (T or F)
Judgment or Perception (J or P)
These classifications are classified into 16 personality traits
Extremes Interims
The self-concept
Almost all people try to understand themselves by virtue of their qualities,
characters, actions, reactions, responses, etc.
This process in personality theory is called the Self-concept.
This process involves the interaction of the background, one’s own psychology, values,
social, economic, religious and other internal factors of oneself.
The concepts of self-esteem (deals with the perceived competence) and self-efficacy
(deals with the perceived performance based on the situation) are concerned with self-
concept.
Determinants of Personality
Heredity –
biological, physiological and psychological characteristics like
facial attractiveness, temperament, gender, muscle
composition, energy level etc., either substantially or partly
are inherited by one’s parents.
Environment –
factors which encircle us and which influence us. Like culture
– which is learnt from family members, friends, peers, social
groups and teachers, etc.
Situation –
Individual’s personality changes in different situations, in
order to meet the situational demands.