The document provides an extensive overview of personality, including its definition, determinants, theories, and methods of measurement. It discusses how personality is shaped by biological, cultural, family, social, and situational factors, and explores various personality theories such as psychoanalytical, trait theory, and social learning theory. Additionally, it highlights instrumental methods for measuring personality traits and the concept of attributions in organizational behavior.

1. Meaning
Definition
Determinants
Theories of personality
Instruments to measure personality
Different attributions in organization
PERSONALITY
BY. Debajani Palai, Faculty IMIT

2. MEANING
 Personality is always associated with persons in a
social setting.
 It changes with the person & the society.
 For example – When a baby is born, it does not
really have a distinct personality of its own. Most
of them look similar & behave similarly, but as it
grows, emerges a new person. The reason is, as
it grows up, the surrounding factors shape up the
personality.
 The word personality is derived from the Greek
word “Persona” means Mask. So the study of
personality can be understood as the study of
invisible “masks” that people wear.

3. DEFINITION
 According to Kilpatrick – Personality is a person
among persons. There is no personality of one
man on a desert island.
 According to Murray – A person’s personality is
like all other persons, like some other persons &
like no other person.
 According to Psychologists, personality is our
external appearances & inner awareness.
 According to MGT, personality is the sum total of
ways in which an individual reacts & interacts with
others.

4. DETERMINANTS OF
PERSONALITY
 Biological factors
 Cultural factors
 Family factors
 Social factors
 Situational factors

5. BIOLOGICAL FACTORS
 HEREDITY – It is also known as gene character.
Children’s physical structure, facial attractiveness, temperament &
energy level are inherited from their parents. Both psychological
& physical characteristics can be transmitted through heredity.
PHYSICAL FEATURES – It refers to tall, short, thin, fat, white,
black etc which influence the person’s personality.
BRAIN – Human behavior can be easily understood by the study of
brain. In human brain there are definite areas related to pain &
pleasure & on that basis personality can be judged .
BFT – Bio-Feedback Technique helps to control gastric, BP,
hormonal secretions etc. In BFT the individual learns the internal
rhythms of a particular body process through electronic signals
that are feedback from equipment that is wired to the body.

6. CULTURAL FACTORS
 Culture is our deep rooted tradition, thought,
belief, ideology & norms which can be transferred
from generation to generation.
 The culture can be learned from family, friends &
social groups.
 The culture largely determines attitudes towards
independence, aggression, competition &
cooperation.
 On the basis of culture personality of persons are
different.

7. FAMILY FACTORS
 Environment of home created by parents has
direct influence on children.
 For example, children who live under love,
affection, warm & care of parents are different
from the children who live lack of love & affection.
 Parents play very important role in personality
development of children. So children take parents
as their role model & follow them.

8. SOCIAL FACTORS
 Social factors are family, social groups &
socialization.
 Religious organizations, educational institutions,
private & GOVT. associations greatly influence
the personality of individuals. This is known as
socialization.

9. SITUATIONAL FACTORS
 Situation influences personality of persons.
 Example – Learning environment modifies the
behavior & develop personality by enhancing
knowledge, skill & ability.
 Changing situation also help to make people
adaptive.

10. THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
 psychoanalytical theory
 Socio-psychological
 Extroverts & Introverts
 Type theory
 Self theory
 Trait theory
 Social learning
 Johari Window
 Transactional Analysis

11. PSYCHO-ANALYTICAL
THEORY
 It is also known as Intra-psychic theory &
developed by Freud.
 According to Freud the components of personality
are Id, Ego, Superego.
 ID – Id is completely unconscious & inaccessible.
It operates according to the pleasure principle &
avoids pain. It can not act by itself. It can only
wish, imagine &demand. Id consists of Life
Instinct (hunger, thirst etc. ) & Death Instinct (
aggressive & destructive ).
 As long as we live we need food & water &
sometimes we take sudden actions.

12. SUPER EGO
 It is our conscience, based on values, help to
differentiate should & should not of the
personality. Super ego has two parts –
conscience & ego ideal.
 Conscience – It consists of all the behaviors for
which we have been punished & about which we
feel guilty. For example – respect to elders. If we
misbehave them we feel guilty.
 Ego ideal – It consists of all the behaviors for
which we have been praised & rewarded. For
example – when we achieve success, when we
win competition.

13. EGO
 There is an ongoing conflict between the id &
super ego. The ego serves to manage the conflict
& maintain a balance between both.
 The ego is the logical, rational, realistic part of the
personality.
 Ego gains energy from id & gains moral from
super ego & makes itself practical.
 Id – unconscious state.
Super ego – very conscious state
Ego – preconscious state.

14. SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL
THEORY
 It is the happy blending of both society & individual &
introduced by Horney.
 Individual gets every thing from society & society
shapes personality of human beings.
 Human personality can be judged through some basic
inter personal aspects, such as – complaint,
aggressive & detached.
 Complaint – Complaint people are dependent on
other people & move toward others.
 Aggressive – Aggressive people are motivated by the
need for power & move against others.
 Detached – Detached people think that they are self-
sufficient & move away from others.

15. Extroverts & Introverts
 This theory is developed by Jung. He states that
there are two types of people – Extroverts &
Introverts.
 Extroverts – are optimistic with broad vision, open
minded, out going, sociable & kind.
 Introverts – are pessimistic with narrow vision,
closed minded, inward directed, less sociable &
little kind.

16. Type A & B Personality ( Meyer
Friedman & Ray Rosenman)
 Type A personality – aggressive & hurry always,
more urge for social status, need quick
achievement, feel impatient with little problem,
can not cope with leisure time, always moving,
walking & eating rapidly, not calm & cool & think
2/more things simultaneously.
 Type B Personality – not aggressive & hurry,
always calm & cool, play or make fun in leisure,
work according to satisfaction, say no to Stress,
HBP, Heart problems etc.

17. SELF THEORY
 Self theory focuses on I, me & myself.
 It consists of 4 aspects – self-image, ideal- self, looking-
glass self & real-self.
 Self-image – It refers to one’s own picture on his/her own
eyes. It is the way one sees oneself. For example – who
am I, what is my personality. Self identity & self
reorganization are two important parts of this theory.
 Ideal- self – It refers to the ideal position one would like to
be. Here a person selects some specific characteristics of
persons & imitate those.
 Looking glass – self – It refers to how others perceive us.
Face-to-face interactions provide cues about how others
see us as an individual.
 Real – self – It is what one really is. Above three may co-
ordinate or may not.

18. TRAIT THEORY
 It is developed by Eysenck. According to him
managers must know different traits of personality
in order to understand their employees.
 Personality traits are – dominant, reserved,
outgoing, cool, aggressive etc.

19. Big 5 Model of Personality
 1. Positive Affectivity/ Extraversion:- It is the
tendency of a person to experience positive
emotional states and feel good about oneself,
others and entire world.
 2. Negative Affectivity/ Neuroticism: - It is the
tendency to experience negative emotional state
and view oneself, others and the world negatively.
 3. Agreeableness: - It is the tendency to get along
well with others (Agree with others).
 4. Conscientiousness: - It is the extent to which a
person is careful, scrupulous and preserving.
 5. Openness to Experience: - It is the extent to
which a person is original, broad insight and

20. SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
 Under social learning theory we can discuss
personality characteristics in organization.
 Managers have to lead, guide & motivate
employees from different back grounds. So they
have to focus on thoughts, perception, belief,
attitude of employees
 There are different aspects related to personality
must be studied by managers to motivate
employees & achieve the goal of the
organization.

21. CONT…..
 The social learning theory consists of different
characteristics of personality.
 These are – locus of control
 Self esteem
 Self efficacy
 Self monitoring
 Positive & negative affect
 Risk taking

22. LOCUS OF CONTROL
 It states that the extent to which one controls his
fate or controlled by his fate.
 It can be of 2 types – internal & external
INTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL
 Persons belong to internal locus of control think
that they are the masters of their own fate.
 They are self confident, hard worker, risk taker,
self motivator, participative & they get high job
satisfaction.
 They praise & blame themselves for their
success & failure accordingly.

23. External locus of control
 Persons belong to external locus of control
believe that thy are controlled by their own fate.
 They strongly believe that what happens to them
are controlled by outside forces like – luck or
chance.
 They praise & blame others for their success &
failure accordingly.
 They are less participative in decision making.
 They are less satisfied with their job.

24. SELF ESTEEM
 It refers to self respect / self value / self worth. It
can be high or low.
 Persons having high self esteem are confident.
 They believe on their strength rather than
weakness.
 They have positive feelings about themselves &
others.
 They are more satisfied with their jobs.
 They take high risk & get high success.

25. Low self esteem
 Persons having low self esteem can be biased by
external factors & they have less confidence on
themselves.
 They do not want to take risk.
 They are less satisfied with their jobs.
 They want to please others & depend on positive
feedback given by others.
Managers should encourage employees to
raise their self esteem by giving them appropriate
challenges & opportunities for success.

26. SELF EFFICACY
 It refers to self efficiency & capability.
 It is an individual’s belief that he/she is capable of
performing a task.
 Higher is the level of self-efficacy, higher will be
the self confidence.
 At the same time they can easily overcome from
the obstacles of negative situations.
 People having high self efficacy prefer to take
challenges & also respond negative feed back.
 They give their own efforts & motivate themselves
to achieve success.

27. SELF MONITORING
 It refers to the ability of an individual to adjust with
external situational factors.
 People who come under self monitoring category
better know what is appropriate or correct.
 Self monitors control the behavior of themselves
& of others.
 They are very flexible & adaptive on the basis of
situations.
 People who do not monitor themselves are
stagnant or static by their nature.

28. RISK TAKING
 Some people want to take risk & try to prove
themselves, while others avoid risk.
 High risk taking managers make more rapid
decisions & use less information.
 People hesitate to take risk always want to
remain in safe zone.

29. JOHARI WINDOW
It identifies 4 areas of awareness of the personality
which are based on
 How much we know ourselves &
 How much others know us.
On this basis there are 4 windows
 Open window
 Unknown window
 Blind window
 Hidden window

30. DIAGRAM OF JOHARI
WINDOW
ASPECTS OF
PERSONALITY
Known to Self Not known to Self
KNOWN TO OTHERS Open Window Blind Window
NOT KNOWN TO
OTHERS
Hidden Window Unknown Window

32. OPEN WINDOW
 This window suggests a transparent & open
personality.
 People who belong to this category do not have
double face.
 They are aware of their own self & do not hide
any aspect of their personality to others.
 Mutual sharing of information, trust & confidence
leads to this category.
 Only drawback is sometimes people may take a
disadvantage of our openness.

33. UNKNOWN WINDOW
 It contains information that neither we know nor
others know.
 Sometimes our fear, anxiety, insecurity are a
product of this black spot.
 It also contains information about our hidden
potential which can be explored by becoming
more open, experimenting, doing something
adventurous in life.

34. BLIND WINDOW
 Certain aspects of our personality are known to
others but may not be known to us.
 Blind window can reveal both the positive & the
negative traits of one’s personality to others.
 If taken positively, the blind window is a great help
in creating self awareness leading to personality
development.
 Of course others should play very important role
in unearthing aspects of our life.

35. HIDDEN WINDOW
 Everyone is a moon & has a dark side which he
never shows to anybody. (Mark Twain)
 This window contains information about aspects
of our personality that we know but do not wish to
reveal others.
 This is experienced when we meet somebody for
the first time.
 The newly recruited people are usually cautious
about opening out their self to others. Over a
period of time they may shift to open window.

37. TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
 It has been developed by Eric Berne & Thomas
Harris. .
 It is a psychotherapy for people who want to
change rather than adjust, to people who want
transformation (change) rather than
confrontation(adjustment).
 It enables persons to establish self control & self
direction & to discover the reality of a freedom of
choice.

38. T.A.
 Transaction - In T.A. the unit of social interaction
is called as transaction.
 Transactional Stimulus – If 2 / more people
encounter each other, as time passes by, sooner
or later one of them will speak or give some other
indication of acknowledge the presence of others
which is called the transactional stimulus.
 Transactional Response – Another person then
says or does something which is in some way
related to the stimulus which is called as a
transactional response.
 T.A. is about analyzing these transactions &
identifying the state that is Parent, Adult or Child.

40. 3 - STATES OF MIND
 According to this analysis people come through 3
states of mind such as Parent, Adult & Child.
 Parent State of Mind – People in a parent state
act in commanding way & they are dominating &
critical by nature.
 Adult State of Mind – People in adult state
behave in a mature manner & are rational.
 Child State of Mind – people in a child state of
mind act in a childish or immature manner.

41. INSTRUMENTS TO MEASURE
PERSONALITY
 To apply personality theories in their
organizations, managers first must measure the
personalities of their organizations’ members.
 As personality is a subjective matter it is very
difficult to measure.
 Personality can be measured through different
subjective tools such as - projective tests,
behavioral measures & self-report questionnaires.

42. PROJECTIVE TEST
 During projective tests, individuals are shown a
picture or image or photo & are asked to describe
what they see or to tell a story about it.
 The main aim behind projective test is that each
individual responds to the stimulus in a way that
reflects his or her unique personality.
 The individual being assess ( evaluate) may look
at the same picture & see different things at
different times.
 Also, the assessor may apply his or her
knowledge in interpreting the information about
the individual’s personality.

43. BEHAVIORAL MEASURES
 Behavioral measures of personality examine an
individual’s behavior in a controlled situation.
For example
 We might assess a person’s sociability by
counting the number of times he/she approaches
strangers at a party.
 Some potential problems with behavioral
measures include the observer’s ability to stay
focused & the way the observer interprets the
behavior.
 Additionally, some people behave differently
when they know they are being observed.

44. SELF-REPORT
QUESTIONNAIRE
 It is the most common measurement method.
 In this method individuals respond to a series of
questions, usually in an agree/disagree or
true/false format.
 One of the more widely recognized
questionnaires is the MMPI (Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality Inventory), a
comprehensive test assessing a variety of traits.
 Another self-report questionnaire is the NEO
personality Inventory which also measures basic
traits.
 Sometimes people answer the questions in terms

45. ATTRIBUTIONS IN
ORGANIZATIONS
 Personality attributes explain how we pinpoint the
causes of our own behavior & that of other
people.
 Attributes in OB can be broadly categorized into 2
parts – internal attributions & external attributions.
 We can attribute events to an internal source of
responsibility (something within the individual’s
control) or an external source (something outside
the individual’s control).

46. Example
 Suppose you perform well on an exam. You might
say you topped the test because you are smart or
because you studied hard. This internal attribution
credits your ability or effort.
 Alternatively, you might make an external
attribution for your performance by saying it was
an easy test or that you had good luck.

47. Cont….
 Achievement-oriented individuals attribute their
success to ability & their failures to lack of effort,
both are internal causes.
 Failure-oriented individuals attribute their failures
to lack of ability & they may develop feelings of
incompetence or even go on depression.