LECTURE 3 PERSONALITY. H OW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY IN THREE WORDS ?

LECTURE 3PERSONALITY

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY IN THREE WORDS?

DEFINING PERSONALITY

We can define Personality as the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others.

CAN WE MEASURE PERSONALITY?

MEASURING PERSONALITY

It is worth noting the importance that personality tests have in the hiring process.

The most common means of measuring

personality is through self-report surveys, with which individuals evaluate themselves by rating themselves on a series of factors such as

“I worry a lot about the future”

(There is always the possibility of one lying so it is a bit risky)

WHAT DO YOU THINK PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT IS?

DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY

Personality development is the development of the organized pattern of behaviors and attitudes that makes a person distinctive. Personality development occurs by the ongoing interaction of temperament, character, and environment.

PERSONALITY DETERMINANTS

PERSONALITY DETERMINANTS

There is no black and white answer. Personality may be the result of both hereditary and

environmental factors. However, research in personality development has tended to

better support the importance of heredity over the environment.

PERSONALITY THEORIES

Behavioral Theories Behavioral theories suggest that

personality is a result of interaction between the individual and the environment. Behavioral theorists study observable and measurable behaviors, rejecting theories that take internal thoughts and feelings into account.

PERSONALITY THEORIES

Psychodynamic TheoriesPsychodynamic theories of

personality are heavily influenced by the work of Sigmund Freud, and emphasize the influence of the unconscious mind and childhood experiences on personality.

Freud believed the three components of personality were the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is responsible for all needs and urges, while the superego for ideals and moral. The ego moderates between the demands of the id, the superego, and reality.

Erikson believed that personality progressed through a series of stages, with certain conflicts arising at each stage. Success in any stage depended upon successfully overcoming these conflicts.

PERSONALITY THEORIES

Humanist Theories Humanist theories emphasize the

importance of free will and individual experience in the development of personality. Humanist theorists emphasized the concept of self-actualization, which is an innate need for personal growth that motivates behavior. Humanist theorists include Carl Rogers andAbraham Maslow.

Trait TheoriesThe trait theory approach is one

of the largest areas within personality psychology. According to this theory, personality is made up of a number of broad traits. A trait is basically a relatively stable characteristic that causes an individual to behave in certain ways.

THE BIG FIVE MODEL OF PERSONALITY DIMENSIONS

WHICH OF THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY DIMENSIONS BEST DESCRIBES YOU?

PERSONALITY ATTRIBUTES INFLUENCING OB

Core Self-evaluation

Self-esteem

Locus of Control

Machiavellianism

Narcissism

Self-monitoring

Risk taking

Type A vs. Type B personality

Proactive Personality

PERSONALITY ATTRIBUTES INFLUENCING OB

Self Esteem

Individuals’ degree of liking or disliking themselves.

Locus of Control

The degree to which people believe they are masters of their own fate.

Internals (Internal locus of control) Individuals who believe that they control what happens to them.

Externals (External locus of control)Individuals who believe that what happens to them is controlled by outside forces such as luck or chance.

PERSONALITY ATTRIBUTES INFLUENCING OB

Machiavellianism (Mach)

Degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify means.

Narcissism

The tendency to be arrogant, have a grandiose sense of self-importance, require excessive admiration, and have a sense of entitlement.

PERSONALITY ATTRIBUTES INFLUENCING OB

Self-Monitoring

A personality trait that measures an individual’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors.

Risk-Taking

Aligning managers’ risk-taking propensity to job requirements should be beneficial to organizations.

PERSONALITY ATTRIBUTES INFLUENCING OB

Personality TypesType A: Always moving, walking, and eating rapidly; Feel impatient with the rate at which most events

take place; Strive to think or do two or more things at once;Cannot cope with leisure time; Obsessed with numbers, measuring their success

in terms of how many or how much of everything they acquire.

PERSONALITY ATTRIBUTES INFLUENCING OB

Type B1. Never suffer from a sense of time urgency with its

accompanying impatience;2. Feel no need to display or discuss either their

achievements or accomplishments;3. Play for fun and relaxation, rather than to exhibit

their superiority at any cost;4. Can relax without guilt.

Proactive Personality: People who identify opportunities, show initiative, take action, and persevere until meaningful change occurs.

WHICH OF THE ATTRIBUTES ABOVE THAT INFLUENCE OB DO YOU THINK BEST DESCRIBES YOU?

PERSONALITY TEST 1. During an argument with a

colleague, he tells you that you are stupid and suck at your job. What would your first reaction be?

A. I tell him that his comment is way out of line and demand an apology from him.

B. I walk away and later report the matter to my supervisor.

C. I think of the first mean thing I can think about him and blurt it out to him.

D. I walk away but make a commitment to make him pay for embarrassing me.

2. You are late for an appointment due to the fact that you were stuck in a traffic jam. You finally arrived but instead of receiving you the desk clerk is on a phone conversation. She has you waiting and continues with her conversation which you by now figure out is personal. How do you react?

A. I become excessively annoyed and irritated and do everything I can to show her that I am.

B. I keep ticking my fingers on the desk, rolling my eyes at her, and stewing my teeth.

C. I ask her kindly for a moment, tell her that I am already late and ask her to announce my presence to whom it concerns.

D. I completely disregard her and look for another assistant who would be able to help me immediately.

3. You have been a loyal employee at a firm for the past 5 years. You get an offer to work for another firm where you will be paid much more than what you are currently earning. You would:

A. Accept the other job because you would be earning more.

B. Consider your current firm and be loyal and reject the other offer.

C. Look at other aspects of the other job and compare them with your current job before making a decision.

D. Talk to your current employer and see if he can give you a matching or better offer.

4. What do you do in your free time?

A. I spend time with my family and friends.

B.I try to fill it with as much work as possible.

C.I do not have free time. I am constantly busy.

D. I spend it trying to improve myself.

5. You are playing a game with your younger brother and sisters, you

A. Make sure you play better than they so that others can notice you instead of them.

B. Do everything to win the game.

C. Focus on having fun with your siblings instead of winning.

D. Let them win and enjoy the pleasure of seeing them happy.

6. Your partner tells you that you have gained weight. To him/ her it is a minor remark and does not have any hidden meaning. You however get angry and offended. You normally tend to get angry and offended at minor things.

A. Frequently

B. Sometimes

C. Never

D. Rarely

7. Your neighbor is refurbishing his house. You:

A. Make it your top priority to get your house refurbished as soon as possible and to make it better than his.

B. Do not even notice.

C. Start nasty rumors about the manner in which he obtained the money to refurbish his house.

D. Think it would be nice if you can refurbish your house also but know that you don’t need a refurbished house to be happy but you are happy for him.

8. You have a deadline to meet and are having difficulties reaching it. Your assistance offers to put in some extra hours to assist you and helps you meet your deadline but also to get the project. What is your attitude toward giving her credit?

A. She does not deserve credit because she is just doing her job.

B. She deserves credit but in public.

C. She should be given the credit she deserves as a motivation to increase her future performance.

D. There is no need to give her credit

9. You have a heavy work load and tons of deadlines to meet. You are highly frustrated and when you are frustrated,

A. People should stay away from you.

B. People can be around me but should try not to prove me or cause me to loose my temper.

C. I try to be alone as much as possible so I do not say or do something I might regret.

D. I start saying nasty things to those around me and get them frustrated too.

10. My friends are planning a trip to the beach and invited me to go along.

A. This is my kind of activity and I absolutely will not miss going.

B. I have too much work to do and cannot afford to take part in this.

C. I do not like nor take part in recreational activities.

D. I do not mind going along and might go along if nothing better comes up

11. The company has planned an event to which you cannot afford to be late. Your colleague asked you to give him a lift. You agree only if he would be at your house at 8.00 P.M. so you could be on time. It’s 8.00 P.M. you are ready to go but he is not at your house. You call him and he said he will be there in 15 minutes. You:

A. Get very angry and upset on the phone and let him know how angry you are

B. You wait for him

C. You go away without him

D. You wait for him but make a promise to yourself that you will never let him ride with you again.

12. Things that are not really threats and things that you cannot change or that are unexplainable worry you.

A. Always

B. Sometimes

C. Rarely

D. Never

13. A quotation that you made was accepted however you realize that you made a mistake which would cause my company to loose money.

A. I inform my supervisor of the mistake I made

B. I am not comfortable in admitting my mistake so I do not tell anyone

C. I approach the client myself and explain the mistake and ask him not to tell anyone

D. I disregard the matter and hope that it is not discovered

14. A friend of yours sent you flowers unexpectedly. How do you feel?

A. I feel that he/she only sent the flowers because he/she wants something

B. I do something nice for him/her also.

C. This makes me feel uncomfortable but also happy.

D. I feel guilty that I do not do such things for my friends.

15. After hours of extra work, you get an order which guarantees your employer a monthly income for the next three years; however he does not give you any praise, positive feedback nor commission. How do you feel?

A. I feel fine. I know that I did a great job and I do not need praises to make me feel better.

B. I feel angry because I put so much effort into my work but he does not seem to appreciate it.

C. I feel disappointed. Some praises or positive feedback would have been appreciated.

D. I feel disappointed and decide to talk to him about it.

16. You frequently receive the following feedback: “All you do is work, work, and work. You do not know how to relax.”

A. Completely agree

B. Mostly agree

C. Completely disagree

D. Mostly disagree

17. Those around you are a disappointment and find it hard to live up to your expectations.

A. Frequently

B. Sometimes

C. Rarely

D. Never me and find it difficult to live up to my expectation

18. Your best friend tells you that she does not mind being perfect at the things that she does. She does not want to be the best. Being average is just fine. What do you think about being average?

A. I need to be the best at everything I do.

B. Being average is unacceptable.

C. The word “average” is not in my vocabulary.

D. I think you should be the best you can even if means being just average.

19. Your friend is constantly talking to you about her feelings or emotions. Others say that she is week and need others to make feel better about herself. You

A. Completely agree

B. Completely disagree

C. Partially agree

D. Partially disagree

20. You are asked to make a cake; however, you do not know how to make a cake and are sure if you try it will not come out perfect. You

A. Are not willing to take the chance I do not know how to deal with failure.

B. Are willing to try even though I might fail or the results might not be perfect.

C. Do not really care about the outcome. I care about the challenge.

D. Need perfect results.

21. If someone cannot do something for you sooner or later or if they cannot help you or make you better in any way, you are not interested in being their friend.

A. Frequently

B. Rarely

C. Sometimes

D. Never

22. Others find it easy to share their secrets with you.

A. Frequently

B. Rarely

C. Sometimes

D. Never

23. You eat a proper home cooked food:

A. Twice a day

B. Once a day

C. Several times per week

D. I eat on the go. I do not have time to cook or eat at home.

24. Those around you constantly compare you to others. You are:

A. Happy with this because others at least think I am worth comparing.

B. Not happy with this. I do not appreciate being compared with others.

C. Indifferent about this. It does not really matter to me.

D. Frustrated about this because it is something that happens a lot.

25. If you can make twice as much as you earn now, you are going to be happy.

A. I agree with this because money makes us happy.

B. I agree to some extent because money gives you comfort and security.

C. I disagree to some extend because money tend to bring unhappiness.

D. I totally disagree. Money does not make you happy.

26. A serial killer still has some good in him.

A. I completely agree. There is some good in everyone.

B. I completely disagree. There is no good in a serial killer.

C. I am not sure.

D. I wouldn’t know. It’s not my place to judge others.

27. You feel guilty if you spend your free time doing things other than work.

A. Frequently

B. Sometimes

C. Rarely

D. Never

28. Those around you constantly keep telling you that you should plan for the future. I

A. Completely agree with them

B. Disagree with them. I deal with things as they come and don’t see the need to plan.

C. I agree with them but I don’t know where to begin planning

D. I don’t think about my future.

29. Categorize the four types of tasks in the order you would tackle them: difficult tasks, easy tasks, challenging tasks, time consuming tasks

A. Easy, challenging, difficult, time consuming

B. Time consuming, difficult, challenging, easy

C. Difficult, easy, challenging, time consuming

D. Challenging, time consuming, easy, difficult

30. You set a goal to loose 5 pounds in 1 month; however, instead of losing 5 pounds you gain two. How does this influence future goal that you might set?

A. I do not set goals nor plan for the future.

B. I will try to be more realistic in the goals that I set.

C. I will not make future goals since that it is not possible to reach them anyways.

D. This would not influence my goals in anyway. One set back does not mean that I will fail at my other goals too.

RESULTS! WHAT TYPE ARE YOU? Type A - You are competitive, a

high achiever and have a high sense of time urgency. It has been proven that people with type A personality traits felt insecure at one point of their lives and so they decided to fight the insecurity by changing their lives and making achievements as fast as they can.

Type B - You are relaxed, laid back and not easily stressed. You can be a high achiever but are not that competitive. You delay work and do it in the last moment.

Type C - You love details and can spend a lot of time trying to find out how things work and that makes you very suitable for technical jobs. You are not assertive at all you always suppress your own desires even if there is something that you dislike. The lack of assertiveness results in tremendous stress and sometimes in depression.

Type D - D stands for distressed, you have a negative outlook towards life and are pessimistic. You might become socially withdrawn as a result of fear of rejection even if you like to be around people.