Unit 04 personality in educational psychology Course code 0840 Educational psychology from ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD. prepared by Ms. SAMAN BIBI & Mariam Rafique

1. COURSE CODE:840
Educational Psychology
UNIT-4
PERSONALITY

2. PERSONALITY
• Personality refers to individual differences in
characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and
behaving.
• Personality embraces moods, attitudes, and opinions
and is most clearly expressed in interactions with
other people.
• It includes behavioral characteristics,
both inherent and acquired, that distinguish one
person from another and that can be observed in
people’s relations to the environment and to
the social group.

3. • Personality is a mirror of what you do and say.
• Essentially, your personality defines who are you.
• Your behavior reflects your personality and
informs how different you are from others.
• A common saying in field of personality
psychology is; “Some things change; some things
stay the same.”
• According to Allport (1961), “Personality is a
dynamic organization, inside the person, of
psychophysical systems that create the person’s
characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings and
behaviors.”

4. • Social identity is a part of human personality.
• Social identity is about how you present yourself to
others.
• Social identity is a theory formed by Henri Tajfel and
John Turner to understand the psychological basis of
intergroup discrimination.
• Social identity is the self that is show to other
people.
• This is the part of ourselves that we use to create an
impression, to let other people know who we are
and what they can expect from us.

5. • An individual’s personality is the complex of mental
characteristics that makes them unique from other
people.
• It includes all of the patterns of thought and
emotions that cause us to do and say things in
particular ways.
• At a basic level, personality is expressed through our
temperament or emotional tone. However
personality also colors our values, beliefs, and
expectations.

6. Characteristics of Personality
1. Personality is something which is unique in each individual:
• Personality refers to internal as well as external qualities, some of
which are quite general.
• It is unique to each individual.
• It is not possible for any other individual to reproduce or imitate the
qualities of the personality of the individual.
2. Personality refers particularly to persistent qualities of an
individual:
• Every individual has certain feeling as well as other permanent
traits and qualities.
• Personality is mainly composed of the persistent or permanent
qualities that exhibit themselves in form of social behavior and
attempt to make adjustment with the environment.

7. 3. Personality represents a dynamic orientation of
organism to environment:
• Personality represents the process of learning.
• It takes place in reference to the environment.
• We do not acquire all the traits of personality all at
once.
4. Personality is greatly influenced by social
interactions:
• Personality is not an individual quality.
• It is a result of social- interaction.
• In other words, it means that when we come in contact
with other members of the society, we acquire certain
qualities while we exhibit certain others.
• All these come to form personality.

8. 5. Personality represents a unique organization of
persistent dynamic and social predisposition:
• In personality various qualities are not put together.
• They are, in fact, integrated into one.
• This integration is nothing but a result of organization
which may be different from man to man.
• The behavior of a person directed to one particular
individual may differ from the behavior of another
person.
• That is why we put the condition of suitable
environment.
• This suitability is concerned with individual specificity.

9. Psychic Structure of the Personality
• The Psychic structure consists of (a) attitudes (b) traits, (c)
sentiments (d) feelings and emotions (e) values and ideals.
• Attitudes influence the psychic structure and latter on,
physiological structures.
• Traits are inherent as well as the acquired qualities of an
individual.
• Sentiments and Emotions play a very vital role in the
development of the personality.
• Human behavior is very much influenced by sentiments
and emotions.
• Emotions are short – lived while sentiments are
permanent.
• Sentiments may be termed as permanent emotions.

10. • Feeling is again more short-lived.
• It is the feeling that turns into an emotion.
• Feeling and emotion play a vital role in the
development of the personality of an
individual.
• Values and Ideals also influence the
development of personality to a large extent.
• Almost all our behaviors are more or less
guided by values and ideas.

11. Social and Cultural Structure
• Every society has a culture of its own and in the
atmosphere of that socio cultural background, the
personality of individual develops in its own way.
• The attitudes of an individual are largely influenced
by cultural order.
• We find difference in the behaviour of individuals
due to sociocultural environment.
• That is why culture play an important role in the
development of personality.

12. Views of Personality Theories
I Trait Theories:
• Attempt to learn what traits make up personality & how
they relate to actual behavior.
II Psychodynamic Theories:
• Focus on the inner workings of personality, especially
internal conflicts & struggles.
III Humanistic Theories:
• Focus on private, subjective experience & personal
growth.
IV Social-Cognitive Theories:
• Attribute difference in personality to socialization,
expectations & mental processes.

13. 1. JUNG’S THEORY OF TWO TYPES
• Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist who was a
Freudian disciple, believed that we are one of
two personality types:
 Introvert: Shy, self-centered person whose
attention is focused inward.
 Extrovert: Bold, outgoing person whose
attention is directed outward.

15. 2. EYSENCK’S THREE FACTOR THEORY
• Hans Eysenck, English psychologist, believed that there are
three fundamental factors in personality:
 Introversion versus Extroversion
 Emotionally Stable versus Unstable (neurotic)
 Impulse Control versus Psychotic
The first two factors create 4 combinations, related to the four
basic temperaments recognized by ancient Greeks:
• Melancholic (introverted + unstable): sad, gloomy
• Choleric (extroverted + unstable): hot-tempered, irritable
• Phlegmatic (introverted + stable): sluggish, calm
• Sanguine (extroverted + stable): cheerful, hopeful

17. 3. CATTELL: SOURCE & SURFACE TRAITS
• Raymond Cattell from Devon, believed that
there were two basic categories of traits:
 Surface Traits:
• Features that make up the visible areas of
personality.
 Source Traits:
• Underlying characteristics of a personality.

19. 4. Psychoanalytic Perspective Of
Personality SIGMUND FREUD
Elements Of Personality (Freud’s View):
The Id
The Ego
The Superego

22. BEHAVIOURISTIC THEORIES
• Behaviorism, which is the study of how people develop
patterns of behaviors through either association of two
things or through rewards and punishments.
• Behaviorists believe that all human behavior is driven by
instinct.
• Behaviorists believe that conditioning and learning explain
the actions of humans.
• Because of this, behaviorists believe that personality is
actually a set of learned responses called habits.
• They also believe that all behavior is controlled by certain
stimuli that encourage the behavior.
• Behaviorists explain personality development as constant
conditioning based on positive and negative reinforcement.

23. HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE OF PERSONALITY
• Humanistic perspective focuses on what makes us uniquely
human, such as emotions and freedom to choose our
destiny.
• A major element of the humanistic perspective is the self-
actualizing tendency, which is the tendency to want to live
up to one’s potential.
• Within this tendency are two competing concepts.
• The “real self” is the individual’s perception of his or her
actual characteristics.
• The “ideal self” is the perception of who that individual
wishes to be.

26. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
• Individual differences are the more-or-less enduring
psychological characteristics that distinguish one person from
another and thus help to define each person's individuality.
• Individual differences are the ways in which people differ from
each other.
• Every member of an organization has its own way of behavior.
• It is important for managers to understand individual
differences because they influence the feelings, thoughts, and
behavior of employees.
• Individual differences can be divided into two categories:
i. personality differences
ii. capacity differences

27. Types of Individual Differences
1 . Physical differences:
• Shortness or tallness of stature, darkness or fairness
of complexion, fatness, thinness, or weakness are
various physical individual differences.
2. Differences in intelligence:
• There are differences in intelligence level among
different individuals. We can classify the individuals
from super-normal (above 120 I.Q.) to idiots (from 0
to 50 I.Q.) on the basis of their intelligence level.

28. 3. Differences in attitudes:
• Individuals differ in their attitudes towards different
people, objects, institutions and authority.
4. Differences in achievement:
• It has been found through achievement tests that
individuals differ in their achievement abilities. These
differences are very much visible in reading, writing &
in learning mathematics.
5. Differences in motor ability:
• There differences are visible at different ages. Some
people can perform mechanical tasks easily, others
even though they are at the same level, feel much
difficulty in performing these tasks.

29. 6. Racial differences:
• There are different kinds of racial differences.
Differences of environment is a normal factor in
causing these differences.
7. Differences due to economic status:
• Differences in children’s interests, tendencies and
character are caused by economic differences.
8. Emotional differences:
• Individuals differ in their emotional reactions to a
particular situation.
• Some are irritable and aggressive and they get
angry very soon. There are others who are of
peaceful nature and do not get angry easily.

30. CAUSES OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
1. Heredity:
• One of the most significant and chief causes of
individual differences is heredity.
• Individuals inherit various physical traits like; face
with its features, color of eyes and hair, type of
skin, shape of skull and size of hands, color
blindness, baldness, and mental traits like
intelligence, abstract thinking, aptitudes etc.
• Now it is an admitted fact that heredity
differences result in the quantity and rate of
physical as well as mental development being
different in different individuals.

31. 2. Environment:
• Environment significantly influences individual
differences.
• Changes in child’s environment are reflected in the
changes in his personality.
• Psychologically speaking, a person’s environment
consists of sum total of stimulation which he receives
from conception until his death.
• Environment consists of physical, intellectual, social,
moral, political, economic and cultural forces.
• All these forces cause individual differences.
• Modern psychologists believe that individual differences
are caused by both heredity and environment.
• Personality is the outcome of mutual interaction
between heredity and environment.

32. 3. Temperament and emotional stability:
• Some people are by temperament active and
quick, while others are passive and slow, some
humorous and others short tempered.
• Emotional stability of the individual is
differently affected by physical, mental and
environmental factors.
• Differences in emotional stability cause
individual differences.

33. Role of Individual Differences in
Education
Proper knowledge of the individual’s potentialities
• The first step in making provision for the individual
differences is to know about the abilities, capacities,
interests, aptitudes and other personality traits of
individual pupils.
• For this purpose, help from intelligence test, cumulative
record card, interest inventories, attitude scales,
aptitude tests and measures for assessing personality
traits should be taken.

34. Role of Individual Differences in
Education
Adjusting the curriculum
• The curriculum should be as flexible and differentiated as
possible.
• It should have the provision for a number of diversified
courses and co-curricular experiences.
• It should provide adjustment suiting the local requirements
and potentialities of the students in different groups.

35. Role of Individual Differences in
Education
Ability grouping
• In the light of the results derived from various tests for
knowing individual differences in terms of individual
potentialities in various dimensions, the students in a class or
area of activity can be divided into homogenous groups.
• Such division can prove beneficial in adjusting instruction to
varying individual differences.

36. Role of Individual Differences in
Education
Adjusting the method of teaching
• Every teacher should be somewhat free to formulate his own
plan and strategy and adopt instructional procedure which
he finds most suited to the particular types of pupils under
him.
• He should try to follow a different procedure or method of
instruction suiting the requirements of varying ability groups
of his pupils.

37. Role of Individual Differences in Education
 Educational Guidance:
• Teacher should impart educational guidance
to the students while keeping in view their
individual differences.
• He can assist them in the selection of
educational career, selection of subjects,
selection of books, selection of hobbies and
co-curricular activities and in many other
areas connected with education.

38. Other measures of individualizing instructions
1. The size of the class or section should be as small as
possible.
2. The teacher should try to pay individual attention the group
under instruction.
3. The teacher should keep in view the individual differences
of his students while engaging them in drill or practice work
in classroom or assigning home task
4. In case ability grouping is not possible and more specifically
under the prevalent system of class teaching, special
coaching and guidance program for both the dull and gifted
children is most helpful.