PERSONALI

TY
THEORIES

Organizational
Behaviour

Submitted by:
Engr. Tayyaba & Engr.
Pakeeza
B.sc Industrial engg &
Management
University of Punjab
PERSONALITY:
Most people use the term "personality "to identify the most obvious
characteristic of a person or to refer to that person's social skills.
Personality may be defined as:
“The dynamic organization within an individual of those
systems that determine his or her characteristic behavior
and thought.”
According to this definition personality has following dimensions:
• Organized
• Active or changing
• Unique
• Stability is implied and
• There may be multiple causes of our behavior

PERSONALITY THEORIES:
“Theories of personality organize what we do know,
stimulate new research, and formally specify a view
of personality.”
Psychologists are mainly interested in personality to:
(1) Explain why people with similar heredity, experience, and
motivation may react differently in the same situation.
(2) Explain why people with different heredity, past experiences,
and/or motivation may nevertheless react similarly in the same
situation.
Which personality theory we're discussing largely determines how we
define personality, what elements of personality are being emphasized,
and what techniques of study will be applied.
Personality theories have been divided into five groups:
i. Trait theories
ii. Psychoanalytic theories
iii. Behavioral or social learning theories
iv. Self-Growth theories
v. Modern big five theories

SUMMARIES OF PERSONALITY THEORIES:

BIOLOGICAL (OR TRAIT) THEORIES:

William Sheldon’s Theory of Constitutional Psychology:
• Sheldon in his theory proposed that body features might be used
to influence and thus predict certain features of personality.
 • According to Sheldon each of us could be rated on a 7-point scale
as to the amount of each form represented in our body on three
different general forms of human physique identified by him.
• He suggested that continuity, or a high correlation, exists
between physique and behavior.

Raymond B. Cattell’s Factor Theory:

• Raymond B. Cattell relied on data collected from three sources
for the description and analysis of personality: a person's life
record, self-ratings, and objective tests.
• Through complex statistical analyses, Cattell identified major
personality factors both within individuals and across people in
general .e.g. outgoing—reserved, stable—emotional, suspicious—
trusting etc.
• Cattell distinguishes between surface traits, which are
observable patterns of behavior, and source traits, which he
viewed as underlying, internal traits responsible for our overt
behavior; general traits -- those possessed by all -- and
specific traits -- those typical of only one person.

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES:
Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory:
• Sigmund Freud argued that we are not even aware of all the
forces controlling our behavior -- we are subject to unconscious
urges.
• He established the iceberg model of the human mind. He
believed just like the greater part of an iceberg lies below the
water, the greater part of the human mind remains below the
surface of the conscious. He labeled the part of the mind above
the water the conscious, and the parts below the
preconscious and unconscious. The conscious mind we are
aware of, the preconscious mind we can be aware of by focusing
on it and the unconscious remains a mystery.
• Freud developed the concepts of the id, ego, and superego as
separate but interacting systems. The id (the initial system
present at birth) has to do with our most basic desires without
any regard for the needs or concerns of others. The ego serves to
balance the demands of the id against those of the superego by
realistically assessing the limits imposed by the real world. It
serves an executive function to maximize the benefits to the
whole person. The superego being the last of the three to
develop is concerned completely with the good of society.
• According to Freud, unconscious urges, forces of life, wealth
of instincts (both life and death instincts which show a balance
 between aggression and a pursuit of pleasure) and experiences
of childhood impact our behavior.

Carl Jung’s Theory of Analytical Psychology:

• Carl Jung believed that we harbor within us not only our own
thoughts, but also what he called a collective unconscious. This
was viewed as the accumulated memories and urgings of the
whole human race, based on certain common elements of our
experience. We each have parents, and we each experience a life
of sunrises and sunsets, tragedies and celebrations, feasts and
deprivations.
• Jung was interested in opposites. He gave the concepts of
introversion (a turning inward) and extraversion (a looking
outward). For Him, the successful person can bring the opposing
parts of his person (inclinations toward introversion and
extraversion, among others) together.

Alfred Adler’s Theory of Individual Psychology:

• Alfred Adler assumed that since we have little control over our
life in childhood, we grow up feeling inferior.
• The battle to overcome this feeling of inferiority becomes a style
of life. Those who fail to master the feelings of inferiority, or who
remain overly worried about it even when they have mastered it,
are said to have developed an inferiority complex.

LEARNING THEORIES:
Dollard and Miller's Stimulus-Response Theory:
• Miller developed their theory of personality stressing the
importance of learning. A/c to them in order to learn one must
want something, notice something, do something, and get
something. Stated more exactly, these factors are drive, cue,
response, and reward. We may be stimulated into action mainly
by primary drives such as hunger. Stimulus may also come to
acquire drive-like properties & may cause behavior. Cues guide
us & encourage us to respond.
• Reinforcement is any response that reduces our drive level; it will
tend to occur again. We are likely to do again whatever response
reduces our hunger.
• They argue that our personality is based on our most recent
learning experiences. We change from day to day and month to
month. Our personality, then, is composed of habits – the learned
associations between drives, appropriate cues, and responses.

B. F. Skinner and Personality as Behavior:

 • For Skinner, nobody is "neurotic" – we simply show a variety of
ineffective modes of escape. We are not "frustrated"; we are
simply replacing one response with another. According to
Skinner, much of our behavior, especially in the company of
others -- involves freely emitted "operants" or responses. If an
operant is reinforced, Skinner asserts, we will be more likely to
emit that operant in a similar situation.
• We must learn stimulus generalization so that we will emit
responses to a variety of similar, if not identical, situations.
Likewise, we must learn to stimulus discrimination i-e when to
and when not to emit certain responses. Skinner emphasizes the
importance of generalized reinforcers -- such things as money
and social approval.

Bandura and Social Learning:

• He suggested that environment causes behavior, true; but
behavior causes environment as well. He labeled this concept
reciprocal determinism: The world and a person’s behavior
cause each other.
• He established that there were certain steps involved in the
modeling process of learning. Attention: If you are going to learn
anything, you have to be paying attention. Retention: you must
be able to retain -- remember -- what you have paid attention to.
Reproduction: You have to translate the images or descriptions
into actual behavior. Motivation: And yet, with all this, you’re still
not going to do anything unless you are motivated to reproduce,
i.e. until you have some reason for.
• He believed that punishment is not the right way to motivate the
people and bring about the significant changes in the personality.
Excessive punishment can de-motivate the people and it has
adverse effects on human psychic.
SELF-GROWTH THEORIES:
Carl Rogers and Person-Centered Theory:
• According to Rogers, "behavior is basically the goal-directed
attempt of the organism to satisfy its needs as experienced, in
the field as perceived. Rogar defines the organism as the focal
point of all experience. The total of the experience is called the
phenomenal field. As a person grows from infancy to adulthood
and gains experience, what eventually emerges, as part of the
phenomenal field, is the self.
• Rogers assumes we each possess an inherited urge or need for
self-actualization. This is thought to be a tendency to develop
and utilize all of our potential. We assess everything we do and
assign a value, positive or negative, to it. If it feels good when we
 are doing it, or even thinking about it, then it is good and should
be done.
• The final concept that is important in Rogers' theory is termed
unconditional positive regard, or acceptance. It causes us to seek
acceptance, warmth, and love from the valued people in our life.

Maslow's Holistic Theory:

• Maslow proposed a hierarchy of needs – basic needs and what
some have called "metaneeds." The basic needs are the needs of
hunger, affection, security, self-esteem, and self-actualization
needs. Metaneeds refer to needs for goodness, order, unity,
justice, and so forth. Clearly more than one of the metaneeds
may be operating at any given time.
• One of Maslow's major contributions was to suggest that healthy
people might not simply be the opposite of sick people.
According to him self-actualizing people will be oriented toward
reality accepting of self, of others, and of nature more
spontaneous problem-centered (not self-centered) more
detached from others and desire more privacy self-sufficient and
independent.

A Modern Theory of Personality-Big Five:

• This five-factor model of personality represents five core traits
that interact to form human personality which are: Openness,
Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and
Neuroticism.
• Openness is a general appreciation for art, emotion, adventure,
unusual ideas, imagination, curiosity, and variety of experience.
People who are open to experience are intellectually curious and
sensitive to beauty. People with low scores on openness tend to
prefer familiarity over novelty. They are conservative and
resistant to change.Conscientiousness is a tendency to show
self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement.
Extraversion is characterized by positive emotions and the
tendency to seek out stimulation and the company of others.
They tend to be quiet, low-key, deliberate, and less involved in
the social world.
• Agreeableness is a tendency to be compassionate and
cooperative rather than suspicious towards others. Disagreeable
individuals place self-interest above getting along with others.
Neuroticism is the tendency to experience negative emotions,
such as anger, anxiety, or depression. It is sometimes called
emotional instability. Individuals who score low in neuroticism
tend to be calm, emotionally stable, and free from persistent
negative feelings.
COMPARISON OF PERSONALITY THEORIES:

BIOLOGICAL (OR TRAIT) THEORIES:

William Sheldon’s Theory of Constitutional Psychology:
• Sheldon proposed that our personality totally depends on our
physique. He totally ignored the affect of childhood &
environment on human, also the role of human’s experience &
learning on its personality.
• Sheldon’s theory is limited by the problem that we cannot rate
someone's personality or behavior without seeing him or her
behave. The raters of behavior must also see the physique of the
body that is behaving. The measures and ratings are thus
confused in this theory.
• His theory is not theoretical at all. Rather is empirical or data
oriented.

Raymond B. Cattell’s Factor Theory:

• Cattell concentrared on too many personality traits. Though his
theory is right to some extent in the aspect that our personality
is composed of many traits. But he didn’t analyze that how these
traits are developed in a person as discussed in the learning &
self-growth theories.
• In Raymond B. Cattell’s theory by collapsing so many data, the
individual person is lost in the process.

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES:
Sigmund Freud and Alfred Alder’s Theory:
• Freud made us aware of two powerful forces and their demands
on us. Back when everyone believed people were basically
rational, he showed how much of our behavior was based on
biology whereas Alder gave the wonderful concept of impact of
childhood on personality.
• Freud & Alder argued about our unawareness of all the forces
controlling our behavior and placed too much emphasis on
heredity and childhood experiences. They placed too little
emphasis on the role of daily experience in determining our
behavior as in self-growth theories. Their theories seem to paint
a desolate picture of human and couldn’t be easily tested in
laboratory.

Carl Jung’s Theory of Analytical Psychology:

• Carl Jung has explained the concept of unconscious better than
FREUD
 • Jung tries to bring everything into his system. He has little room
for chance, accident, or circumstances. Personality -- and life in
general -- seems "over-explained" in Jung's theory.

LEARNING THEORIES:
Dollard and Miller's Stimulus-Response Theory:
• Concept of personality -- id, ego, and superego -- of Freud's
Psychoanalytic theory is collapsed in Miller’s Learning theory into
habits. Freud's instincts become drives in this theory. Where
Freud emphasizes childhood experiences, the Dollar and Miller
stress the effects of more recent experiences. Both these
theories emphasize the long-term stability of the consequences
of past experience.
• The issues of reinforcement are most controversial part of this
theory.

B. F. Skinner and Personality as Behavior:

• Skinner in his Learning theory rejects Freud's concept of
unconscious urges as excess baggage. He also rejects the main
beliefs of self-growth theories because of too much appeal by
these theorists to internal, not-directly-observable processes.
• Skinner doesn’t have a proper theory of personality, not even a
(social-) learning of personality development. Yet the principles
of operant conditioning can be applied to the derivation of
statements about hoe personality is formed and how it functions.

Bandura and Social Learning:

• Albert Bandura concentrates on learning by observation whereas
skinner just concentrates on observable behaviors. On the other
hand, Dollard and Miller emphasize internal processes such as
motivation, drive, drive-reduction and reinforcement.

SELF-GROWTH THEORIES:
Carl Rogers and Maslow’s Theories:
• Rogers and Maslow clearly objected to studying only a portion of
humans (as in trait, psychoanalytic and learning theories),
preferring to consider humans as a whole, complete, healthy,
growing organism.
• Both Roger and Miller pay little attention to childhood
experiences or unconscious determinants of behavior.
• The most common criticism concerns the methodology of
Maslow: Picking a small number of people that he himself
declared self-actualizing and coming to conclusions about what
self-actualization is in the first place does not sound like good
science to many people. Also Maslow placed such constraints on
 self-actualization. Maslow limits it to something only two percent
of the human species achieves.
• The self-growth theories are descriptive, but not analytic. They
do not yield to precise prediction or test. In these theories the
self is emphasized as opposed to having a broader social,
interactive, other-centered focus.

A MODERN THEORY OF PERSONALITY-BIG FIVE:

• There are limitations to the scope of Big Five as an explanatory
or predictive theory. Big Five does not explain all aspects of
human personality such as Religiosity, Honesty, Thriftiness,
Conservativeness, Snobbishness, Sense of humor, Identity, Self-
concept, and Motivation.
• Big Five is not theory-driven. It is merely a data-driven
investigation of certain descriptors that tend to cluster together
under factor analysis.

CONCLUSION:
The best theory according to us is BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING
THEORY because:
• Bundura had given the excellent approach towards the learning
process of people, their style of thinking, and the kinds of
reinforcement.
• He believed that human being and his environment are inter-
related with each other and they both have strong impact on
each of them.
• He also gave the very good ideas about the reinforcement
models.
• The most significant aspect of his theory is his concepts about
punishment & its adverse affects.