PERSONALITY OR INDIVIDUAL BEHABIOUR Meaning of Personality The

PERSONALITY OR INDIVIDUAL BEHABIOUR Meaning of Personality: The word Personality has come from Latin ‘Per Sonare’ which translates to English as “To speak through”. The Latin term denote “Masks worn by actors in ancient Greece & Rome”. It aims for better understanding of the complexity of today’s employees. Personality emphasizes the role, which the person displays to others. In the organizational situation personality relates to socialization of individual in the organizational environment.

Personality means: (i) How people affect others. (ii) How they understand & view themselves (self concept). (iii) Individual pattern of inner & outer measurable traits (Characteristics). (iv) Person – Situation interaction. How people affect others primarily depends upon their external appearance (height, weight, facial appearance, color etc. ) & behaviour (vulgar, friendly, courteous etc. ). Thus personality describes our behaviour. Under which condition how one will react is known as his personality.

Definition of Personality : Personality is the Dynamic Organization within that individual of those Psychological & Physical systems that determines his Unique adjustment to Environment. Unique means each & every individual is a separate entity or differ in almost every aspect. Even the twins also differ. It is almost impossible in finding out a Replica of an individual. Thus we cannot change the personality of an individual but can be modified by teaching/training/practicing.

Significances of Personality : Personality factors are extremely important in organizational settings. Wrong kind of personality proves disastrous and undesirable tension and worries in the organization. The cost of such tension and worries are enormous from the point of view of employer- employee relations, peer relations and superior-subordinate relations. Sometimes, the personality difficulties are the root cause of strike, gherao etc. and often lead to turn over and job dissatisfaction. Following are the prominent significances of Personality : • Differs from person to person. • Based on hierarchy. • Influence of environment. • Influence of group. • Social values & system.

Personality Differences : There are 3 reasons for personality differences – 1. Some people arouse hostility and aggression in their associates, while others invoke sympathy and supportive responses because of their personality features. Similarly, some people encourage and others discourage free and open communication in view of their personality traits as perceived by subordinates and associates. 2. Personality characteristics tend to produce differential emotional reactions to stress. Some people tolerate severely stressful situations. While others are overwhelmed with tensions and anxieties under similar situations. 3. Individual personalities lead to individual differences in styles of coping with stress. Some people are problem oriented i. e. deal with objective situation in order to eliminate the stressful characteristics. Others happen to deal with emotional experiences, which the stress arouses, in them rather than determinants of the experience.

Development of Personality : Personality starts development when individual becomes in mother womb. The study of personality development can be divided into two separate but closely allied Approaches. (i) One approach attempts to identify specific Physical & Psychological stages that occur in human personality development. (ii) The other approach has tried to identify the important determinants of Personality. (i) (A) Sigmund Freud : As per this Behavioural Scientist the development of personality of a child progress through following four stages of Psycho-sexual development or Body language: ORAL -- Dependent ANAL -- Compulsive PHALLIC -- Adolescence GENITAL -- Mature

(B) Neo-Freudian Stages (by Erikson) : He emphasizes more attention towards Social adaptation of individual by identifying following eight psychological stages : · Mouth & Senses (Age 0 – 1 years ) · Eliminating organs and musculature (Age 1 – 2 years) · Locomotion & the Genitals (Age 3 – 5 years) · Latency (Age 6 – puberty) · Puberty & adolescence · Early adulthood · Young & Middle adulthood · Mature adulthood

(B) Cognitive Stages (by Jean Piaget) : As per this approach conscious instinctive are the critical variables in the developing personality as against the unconscious one described by Freud. The following stages had been identified by this approach : · Sensorimotor (Age 0 – 2 years) : When the individual receives knowledge from the surroundings through senses. · Preoperational (Age 2 – 7 years) : When the individual starts solving simple problems and to realize they are in a world of objects separate from themselves that they can control and affect i. e. Sensorimotor level shifted to conceptual & operational level. · Concrete stage of operational (Age 7 – 11 years) : At this stage the individual enter the concrete stage of cognitive development. He is able to understand concepts such as conservation i. e. the mass of an object remains constant no matter how much the form changes. · Formal operational (Age 11 yrs. & above) : At this stage the individual becomes mature, intelligent adult. Individual at this stage of conceptualization need not depend upon the manipulation of concrete objects. Further he has the capacity to analyze, reason, imagine & evaluate events.

(B) Immaturity to Maturity : This approach proposes that the human personality, rather than going through precise stages, progress along a continuum from immaturity as an infant to maturity as an adult on the basis of following seven dimentions : Immaturity characteristics Maturity characteristics Passivity Activity Dependence Independence Few ways of behaving Diverse behaviour Shallow interest Deep interest Short-term perspective Long-term perspective Subordinate position Superordinate position Lack of self-awareness Self-awareness and control

(ii) Determinants of Personality : The determinants of personality can be grouped in following categories : (A) Biological Contribution : Includes · The role of heredity · The role of the brain · Biofeedback - Scientists felt that certain biological functions such as brainwave pattern, gastric secretion, and fluctuations in blood pressure and skin temperature were beyond conscious control and hence contribute unique human personality. · Physical characteristics - An individuals external appearance is a vital ingredient in his personality. A person tall or short, fat or skinny, handsome or ugly, or black or white will influence the person’s effect on others and thus his personality.

(B) Cultural contribution : Cultural factors are considered to make a more significant contribution to personality. Culture is the key concept in analyzing the content of learning. Thus learning process plays an important role in individual’s personality. The method by which an infant is fed and is toilet trained, and makes the transition from adolescence to adulthood are all the examples of development of personality. The impact of cultural factors in organizational area can be recognized by noticing that workers are not influenced by the same culture as the managers are. Again the Technical/ Skilled workers are affected by a different culture than unskilled workers. (C) Contribution from family : Family is an important part in development of an individual’s personality development during childhood. Usually, the parent of the same sex as the child will serve as the model for the child’s identification

(D) Socialization process : Role of other relevant persons, groups and especially organizations greatly influence individual’s personality. This process of development in personality throughout one’s life is known as socialization. It involves the process by which a person acquires, from the enormously wide range of behavioural potentialities that are open to him starting at birth. The process starts with the initial contact between a mother and her new infant. After infancy, other members of immediate family and then the social group. In organizations newly joined employees have to learn form the group members on the values, norms and behaviour patterns. (B) Situational consideration : Immediate situation has the predominant role in final analysis of individual’s personality. In S-O-B-C model the individual interacting with the situation include individual’s personality to determine his behaviour.

Theories of Personality : On the basis of different opinion about personality by different scholars theories on this area have been classified into - Psychoanalytic; Type; Trait; Self & Social. Psychoanalytic Theories : (i)Sigmund Freud’s theory is based upon the concept of Id, Ego & Super-ego, which are interrelated, but conflicting psychoanalytic concept. · Id is the core of the unconscious. It constantly struggle for gratification &pleasure, is mainly manifested through the libido (sexual urges) and aggression e. g. strives for sexual relation & pleasure, warmth, food & comfort. As individuals develop & mature, they learn to control the id. Even then it remains a driving force throughout our life & an important source of thinking & behaving. · Ego is conscious. It represents logic and associated with the reality principle. The ego keeps the ego in check through the realities of the external environment. It is so constituted that it can interpret reality for the id through intellect & reasons. A conflicting situation arise between id & ego because id demands immediate pleasure while the ego dictates denial or postponement to a more appropriate time & place.

· Super-ego tries to resolve the conflict between id & ego, by supporting the ego state. Super-ego provides norms that enable the ego to determine what is right or wrong. It is mostly unconscious. Super-ego develops through absorption of cultural values and morals of a society. Thus the parents have the most influence on the development of the Super-ego. The ego concept implies that humans are rational but the id & super-ego and unconscious motivation give the impression that humans are very irrational. Thus according to Fred human behaviour is based on emotion

(i) Work of Carl Jung one of Freud’s colleagues has made an extension & modification of Freud’s work. Unconsciousness of Freud has been extended one step further by Jung. He believed that a collective unconscious exists in the personality which is deeper & more unknown to the person. These collective unconscious includes the cumulative experiences of all past generations, even those of primitive ancestors. He further explained that human based on collective & cumulative unconsciousness resulted to two different attitudes -Introversion & Extroversion. According to him these two opposite attitude or modes of reaction exist in every person but one will dominate the other.

Type Theory : Personality types has one of the following the three approaches. (i) Body- Type theory - It determines a relationship between features of face or body & personality. (ii) Psychological theory - It determines a relationship between body chemistry & personality. Certain chemical substances correlated to temperature. (iii) Behaviour or Psychological theory - This theory correlate between Introvert & Extrovert. Trait Theory : It is based on understanding & establishing identifiable traits. Combinations of such traits distinguish one’s personality from another’s. Allport, Cattell and Sheldon are the propagators of this theory. Allport says each individual possesses a set of traits, which are not shared by others. Cattell developed factor concepts such as tender mindedness, somatic anxiety and dominance. Shelldom says that physique consists of 3 – components : endomorph i. e soft & spherical structure, mesomorphy i. e. tough and muscular body and ectomorphy i. e linear & fragile elements which indicate specific personality patterns. Corresponding to physical traits, he assumed 3 aspects of temperament i. e. viscertonia means love of comfort and affection, somatotonia i. e. physical adventure and risk taking & cerebrotonia i. e. restraints and inhibition.

Self Theory : It is a significant part of personality of an individual. Roger’s defines it as organized, consistent, conceptual gestalt composed of perceptions of characteristics like “I” or “Me”. “I” refers to the self who one believes oneself to be and strive to be and “Me” relates to the manner an individual appears to others. I form private picture individual holds of him. The extent of “I” and “Me” play a critical role in determining individual’s behaviour. The greater the consistency between I & Me , the more harmonious relationship the individual will have with others. The individual’s expected behaviour will be consistent with both the manner he sees himself and the manner he perceives others see him. When there is marked difference between the two, then there is enhanced level of anxiety within the individual. Social Theory : The person – situation interaction that is emphasized by social learning. It is the study of cognitive & social learning. This theory states that personality becomes media ional process between the situation & the behaviour. It is the “O” part of S-O-B-C conceptual model of O. B.

Measurement of Personality : Organizations depend heavily upon tests & interviews to select personnel either entry-level jobs or internally to select someone for transfer or promotion. Thus test can be used for selection but can also be used for evaluation, promotion, transfer & research. Test is a systematic procedure for comparing the responses of 2 or more persons. Individual test is the one where one examiner & one examinee take part. While in Group Test, one examiner administers test to two or more persons. Test can also be classified as : Speed vs Power. In speed test, items of equal difficulty are to be answered in a specific period of time. The objective in this case is to answer as many questions as possible in allotted time. Whereas a “Power Test” has items of increasing difficulty & usually time is not a factor. Its purpose is to measure certain kind of capability.

Most familiar differentiation in tests is Aptitude Vs Achievement. The Aptitude test is designed for measuring potential ability & its attempt to predict success. Experience or past achievement is not suppose to influence the test outcome. Achievement test measures the ability- but the actual ability but not the potential ability. Achievement test measures past learning & experience. Intelligence Test : It provides operational definition of Intellectual capacity or Intelligence or Mental Ability. It is represented by Intelligence Quotient measurement. I. Q. = Mental Age / Chronological Age X 100 in which 100 is considered average. Two different scales for measuring I. Q. are : (i) Stanford- Binet Intelligence Scale. (ii) Wechsler- Adult Intelligence Scale.

Personality Test : In addition to intelligence tests Psychologists have developed various test to measure varied aspects of personality. These are done by - (i) Self Report Personality Inventories : · It relies on Paper-Pencil Test. · To be answered by ‘true or false’ statement. · It is based on assumptions that personality based on group of traits. · The purpose of the test is to measure traits like : introversionextroversion /dominance-submissiveness / independence-dependence. · Results are shown on an overall personality profile. · Since results are not empirical data thus fake information may be added. · The inventories are printed forms containing questions, adjectives or statements about human behaviour. · The individual is required to indicate his reactions to different items. · The inventories are scored & assessed in terms of %tile or statistical norms. · Less time consuming & easy to administer. · Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) & California Psychological Inventory (CPI) are 2 examples of this test.

(ii) Projective Technique : · Attempts to assess the whole personality rather than a set of traits. · Based on assumption that responses to unstructured stimuli are likely to indicate an individual’s underlying motives, attitudes, fears & aspiration. · They involve incomplete sentences, ambiguous picture & nebulous stimuli. · Subjects respond to stimuli by telling a story about what they see. · It is called projective as the individual attributes his own traits/ feelings in other persons or inanimate objects. · This reveals less conscious but crucial aspects of personality. · Rorschach Test & Thematic Appreciation Test (TAT) are 2 widely used projective tests. (iii) Situation Test : · Involves study of an individual in daily situation when he is interacting with others, solving problems or exploring new environment. · This predicts how he reacts in a specific situation. · To observe individual in a context, which is similar to the one for which, he is under review.