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Lecture notes of 6 pages for the course Behaviour in organisations at QUB (Chapter 4)
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Chapter 4 - Personality and self-identityWhat is personality?
A relatively enduring pattern of thinking, feeling and acting that characterizes a person’s unique
response of her/his environment (pg 101)
Personality refers to individuality – people different significantly from each other in how
they think, feel and act
Personality is influenced by social context and traits
Personality refers to a stable set of characteristics and tendencies that a person possesses,
people seem to behave somewhat consistently over time and across different life situations
– need to find the causes of behavioural patterns (what is the enduring aspect of personality
Diversity of personality is important in a workplace
To establish personality can involve testing – poor instrument for selecting people, may
prevent others from appreciating a person’s potential to contribute to an organisation
Trait theories of personality
Trait – a relatively enduring personal characteristic
Core traits displayed consistently can be used to predict and understand behaviour
Gordon Allport:
Distinguished central traits (personal characteristics that are apparent to others and shape
their behaviour, descriptive terms, e.g.: conscious, reliable) from secondary traits (more
specific to certain situations, have less impact on behaviour, e.g.: dislikes crowds)
Found clusters of traits linked to specific behaviour (introversion-extroversion)
Raymond Cattell:
Extended Allport’s ideas by identifying 16
basic behavioural clusters – source traits
(the building blocks upon which
personality is built)
Developed the ‘16-personality factor
questionnaire’ – measures individual
differences on each of the dimensions,
provides personality profiles for
individuals and groups of people
Eysenck’s three-factor model of personality
Concluded that normal personality can be understood in terms of three basic factors/ dimensions
which are bipolar dimensions (opposite of each other):
, Introversion- extroversion (shy, reserved nature), (sociable, spontaneous)
Stability – instability
Psychoticism (egocentric and antisocial nature, aggression, coldness), opposite would be
self-control (even-tempered, emotionally stable)
His trait theory of personality has received considerable support because the three dimensions
have been replicated in factor analyses performed by many different researchers
The five-factor model of personality
Proposes that personality is organized around 5 core dimensions – openness,
conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism
When a person
is placed on a
specific point
on each of
these 5 core
personality
dimensions,
the essence of
that person’s
personality is
captured
It uses a
smaller number of variables
May be universally applicable (consistent in both men and women in different countries)
Has severe limitations. To capture the true personality, we need to pay attention to how
traits interact with one another to affect various behaviours – there is a tendency to
make predictions based off a single personality trait without taking into account other
factors
The psychodynamic theory of personality
Developed by Sigmund Freud
Proposed that personality is a mix of conscious
and sub conscious processes. Expressed as
linking Id, ego and superego
o Id – the unconscious portion of
personality. Primitive and instinctive
aspects of personality (represents our
basic needs and urges)
o Ego – functions at a conscious level.
Negotiates a compromise between the
pressure of the id and the demands of
reality
o Superego – tells us what we should and
shouldn’t do. It determines which
actions are permissible and punishes wrongdoing with feelings of guilt
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