Personality and Self-Concept

Defining Personality - Mostly, the behaviour of an individual is organized into coherent pattern. Although
a person’s behaviour changes somewhat to deal with many different circumstances, there is a tendency to
behave in a consistent manner throughout various situations. Personality and self-concept are two
psychological notions used to account for the organized totality of the consumer’s makeup. Three major
aspects of similarity while defining personality are –

1. They focus on unique characteristics that account for differences between individuals rather than on
how people are alike.
2. They stress the consistency of an individual’s dispositions rather than changes in his or her actual
behaviour across different situations.
3. Each definitions includes a behavioural tendency to reflect how an individual’s personality will tend
to influence his or her actions and reactions to environmental situations.
Measuring Personality – personality is a multidimensional concept in nature, with many interacting
elements. Four popular approaches are –

1. Rating Methods – Typically involves one or more evaluators assessing predetermined personality
characteristics of a subject on a number of standardized rating scales.
2. Situational Tests – Under this method, a situation is devised that closely resembles a typical real-life
situation. A scenario is provided to a group as a focus of discussion and the behaviours are observed.
3. Projective Techniques – The objective is to uncover the basic organization of an individual’s
personality as well as his underlying conflicts and motives. Typically, Rorschach test and Thematic
Apperception Test (TAT) is used.
4. Inventory Schemes – It helps avoiding subjective scoring. The personality inventory minimize the
potential problems by exposing subjects to a large number of standardized questions with pre
specified answer options from which they can select.
Major Personality Theories –

1. Psychoanalytic Personality Theory – Freud, proposed that every individual’s personality is the
product of a struggle among three interacting forces – id, ego and superego. The id operates on the
principle of pleasure, i.e. it tends to avoid tension and seeks immediate pleasure. It tends to operate
at a very subjective and unconscious level and is not fully capable of dealing with objective reality.
The ego comes into being because of the limitations of the id in dealing with real world. It operates
on what is called as reality principle. The superego constitutes the moral part of the individual’s
psychic through internalizing the values of society.
 2. Social Theories – This theory minimized the role of id-based instincts that Freud emphasized. Instead,
stressed that childhood experiences in relating to theirs produce feelings of inferiority, insecurity, and
lack of love. A CAD (Compliant, Aggressive, and Detached) instrument was developed to measure
people’s interpersonal orientations within a consumer context.
3. Trait and Factor Theories – Traits are general and are relatively stable personality characteristics
which influence tendencies to behave. Factor theories are based on the quantitative technique of factor
analysis, which explores the interrelationship between various personality measures across a large
number of individuals.
Self-Concept – In this consumers provide descriptions of themselves, as opposed to having descriptions
made by outside observers.
How the self-concept Develops – Four particular views of self-concept development are –
1. Self-Appraisal 2. Reflected Appraisal 3. Social Comparison 4. Biased Scanning
Consumer Behaviour and Self-Concept/Product Image Congruence -

1. Consumers form their self-concepts through psychological development and social interaction.
Because the individual’s self-concept has value to him. He will act to define, protect, and further it.
2. Products and brands are perceived by consumers as having images or symbolic meaning.
3. Because of their symbolic role, selective possession, display, and use of these good-symbols assist
an individual in defining and enhancing his self-concept for himself and for others.
4. Therefore, the behaviour of individuals will be motivated toward furthering and enhancing their
self-concept through the consumption of goods as symbols.
5. The brands that will be preferred are those that the consumer perceives as having images which are
most consistent with his self-concept.

Perceived self- Perceived brand

image image

Terminal values

Preferred brands Unacceptable

brands