The document discusses the concept of personality. It defines personality as a relatively stable set of characteristics that influence an individual's behavior. Personality is determined by both hereditary and environmental factors, as well as situational conditions. Two major frameworks for identifying personality traits are discussed: the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which categorizes people into 16 types based on preferences for extroversion/introversion, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, and judging/perceiving; and the Big Five model, which describes personality along the dimensions of extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience.

1. PERSONALITY
Dr. Ravinarayana K.S.

2. INTRODUCTION
 Our personality shapes our behaviour.
 So, if we want to better understand the
behavior of some-one in an organization, it
helps if we know something about his or her
personality.

3. MEANING
 Derived from Latin word PERSONA - a role
adopted by an actor or any person.
 Term was introduced in late 14 century to
mean “quality or fact of being a person” or “a
distinctive character’’.

4. WHAT IS PERSONALITY?
 The sum total of the physical, mental,
emotional, and social characteristics of an
individual.
 Personality is the totality of habits, attitudes
and traits that result from socialization and
characterizes us in our relationship with
others.

5. ANDERSON AND PARKER
 Personality represents those structural and
dynamic properties of an individual or
individuals as they reflect themselves in
characteristic responses to situations.

6.  “Personality is the sum total of ways in which an
individual REACTS ; and INTERACTS with
others.”
 Personality is complex. It is the sum total of an
Individual’s psychological traits, characteristic,
motives, habits, attitudes and beliefs.
 Combination of a set of physical and mental
characteristics that reflect how a person looks,
thinks, acts and feels.

7. In simple words we can say that personality is-
A relatively stable set of characteristics that
influences an individual’s behavior

8. DETERMINANTS OF PERSONALITY
 Was the personality predetermined at birth,
or was it the result of the individual’s
interaction with his or her surroundings?
 Personality appears to be a result of both
influences.
 In addition, today we recognize a third factor-
the situation.

9.  Thus, an adult’s personality is now generally
considered to be made up of both hereditary
and environmental factors, moderated by
situational conditions.

10. HEREDITY
 Refers to those factors that were determined
at conception.
 Physical stature, facial attractiveness,
gender, temperament, energy level etc. Are
generally considered to be either completely
or substantially influenced by who our
parents are;

11.  The heredity approach argues that the
ultimate explanation of an individual’s
personality is the molecular structure of the
genes, located in the chromosomes.
 Researchers have studied 100 sets of
identical twins who were separated at birth
and raised separately.

12. FOR INSTANCE
 One set of twins who had been separated for
39 years and raised 45 miles apart were
found to drive the same model and color car,
chain smoked the same brand of cigarette,
owned dogs with the same name.

13.  If personality characteristics were completely
dictated by heredity, they would be fixed at
birth and no amount of experience could alter
them.
 But personality characteristics are not
completely dictated by heredity

14. ENVIRONMENT
 Among the factors that exert pressures on
our personality formation are the culture in
which we are raised; our early conditioning;
the norms among our family, friends, and
social groups and other influences that we
experience.
 These environmental factors play a
substantial role in shaping our personalities.

15. FOR INSTANCE
 Culture establishes the norms, attitudes, and
values that are passed along from one
generation to the next and create
consistencies over time.

16.  For instance, North Indians have
experienced invasions and wars for
centuries. This has made them aggressive,
industrious, competitive, ambitious and
enterprising
 whereas, South Indians in contrast have
been able to preserve and devote
themselves to classical art, music and
literature.

17.  Careful consideration of the arguments favoring
either heredity or environment as the primary
determinants of personality forces the
conclusion that both are important.
 Heredity provides us with inborn traits and
abilities, but our full potential will be determined
by how well we adjust to the demands and
requirements of the environment.

18. SITUATION
 A third factor, the situation, influences the
effects of heredity and environment on
personality.
 An individual’s personality, although
generally stable and consistent, does change
in different situations.

19. EXAMPLE
 Some situations- temple, an employment
interview- constrain many behaviors;
 Other situations- picnic in a public park-
constrain relatively few

20. PERSONALITY TRAITS
 The early work in the structure of personality
revolved around attempts to identify and
label enduring characteristics that describe
an individual’s behaviour.
 Popular characteristics include shy,
aggressive, lazy, submissive, ambitious, loyal
etc.- those characteristics, when they’re
exhibited in a large number of situations, are
called personality traits.

21. WHY HAS SO MUCH ATTENTION BEEN PAID TO
PERSONALITY TRAITS?
 The answer is: Researchers have long
believed that these traits could help in
employee selection, matching people to jobs
etc.
 For instance, if certain personality types
perform better on specific jobs, management
could use personality tests to screen job
candidates & improve employee job
performance.

22.  Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Big-Five
Model are the two approaches that have
become the dominant frameworks for
identifying and classifying traits.

23. THE MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR (MBTI)
 Is the most widely used personality-
assessment instrument in the world.
 It’s essentially a 100-question personality test
that asks people how they usually feel or act
in particular situations.
 On the basis of answers individuals give to
the test, they are classified as extroverted or
introverted, sensing or intuitive, thinking or
feeling, and judging or percieving.

24. EXTROVERTED VS. INTROVERTED-
 Extroverted individuals are outgoing,
sociable, and assertive.
 Introverted are quiet and shy.

25. SENSING VS. INTUITIVE
 Sensing types are practical and prefer
routine and order.
 Intuitives rely on unconscious processes and
look at the big picture.

26. THINKING VS. FEELING
 Thinking types use reason and logic to
handle problems
 Feeling types rely on their personal values
and emotions.

27. JUDGING VS. PERCIEVING
 Judging types want control, and prefer their
world to be ordered and structured.
 Percieving types are flexible and
spontaneous.

28.  Some of the organisations using MBTI are
Apple Computer, AT & T, Citigroup, GE, Tata
Motors, Indian Defence Services.

29. THE BIG-FIVE MODEL
 In recent years, an impressive body of research
supports that five basic dimensions underlie all
others and encompass most of the significant
variations in human personality. The Big Five
factors are:
 Extroversion
 Agreeableness
 Conscientiousness
 Emotional stability
 Openness to experience

30. EXTROVERSION
 This dimension captures one’s comfort level
with relationships.
 Extroverts tend to be gregarious, assertive,
and sociable.
 Introverts tend to be reserved, timid, and
quiet.

31. AGREEABLENESS
 This dimension refers to an individual’s
propensity to defer to others.
 Highly agreeable people are cooperative,
warm, and trusting.
 People who score low on this dimension are
cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic.

32. CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
 This dimension is a measure of reliability.
 A highly conscientious person is responsible,
organised, dependable, and persistent.
 Those who score low on this dimension are
easily distracted, disorganised, and
unreliable.

33. EMOTIONAL STABILITY
 This dimension taps a person’s ability to
withstand stress.
 People with positive emotional stability tend
to be calm, self-confident, and secure.
 Those with high negative scores tend to be
nervous, anxious, depressed, and insecure.

34. OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE
 This dimension addresses one’s range of
interests and fascination with novelty.
 Extremely open people are creative, curious,
and artistically sensitive.
 Those at the other end of the openness
category are conventional and find comfort in
the familiar.