UNIT 2

PERSONALITY

Define personality?
Personality refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and
behaving. The study of personality focuses on two broad areas: One is understanding individual
differences in particular personality characteristics, such as sociability or irritability. The other is
understanding, how the various parts of a person come together as a whole.
Five major traits underlie personality, according to psychologists. They are
introversion/extroversion, openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and
neuroticism.

4 types of human behavior:

A study on human behavior has revealed that 90% of the population can be classified
into four basic personality types: Optimistic, Pessimistic, Trusting and Envious. However, the
latter of the four types, Envious, is the most common, with 30% compared to 20% for each of
the other groups.
Jung defined eight personality types:

1. Extraverted Sensing (modern types: ESFP, ESTP)

2. Introverted Sensing (modern types: ISTJ, ISFJ)

3. Extraverted Intuition (modern types: ENFP, ENTP)

4. Introverted Intuition (modern types: INFJ, INTJ)

5. Extraverted Thinking (modern types: ESTJ, ENTJ)

6. Introverted Thinking (modern types: ISTP, INTP)

7. Extraverted Feeling (modern types: ESFJ, ENFJ)

8. Introverted Feeling (modern types: INFP, ISFP)

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 NATURE OF PERSONALITY

Personality is defined as the characteristic set of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns
that evolve from biological and environmental factors. While there is no generally agreed upon
definition of personality, most theories focus on motivation and psychological interactions with
one's environment.

Personality is a sum of physical, mental and social qualities in integrated manner. On the basis of
definitions it may be said that there are two main approaches to the study of personality: (i) the
psychological and (ii) the sociological. The psychological approach considers personality as a
certain style peculiar to the individual. This style is determined by characteristic organisation of
mental trends, complexes, emotions and sentiments.

The sociological approach considers personality in terms of status of the individual in the group,
in terms of his own conception of his role in the group of which he is a member. What others
think of us plays a large part in the formation of our personality.

Thus, personality is the sum of the ideas, attitudes and values of a person which determine his
role in society and form an integral part of his character. Personality is acquired by the individual
as a result of his participation in group life.

Characteristics of Personality:
New comb has discussed personality in the light of certain characteristics and traits. These
characteristics and traits are as follows:
1. Personality is something which is unique in each individual:
Personality refers to internal as well as external qualities, some of which are quite general. But it
is unique to each individual. It is not possible for any other individual to reproduce or imitate the
qualities of the personality of the individual.

2. Personality refers particularly to persistent qualities of an individual:

Every individual has certain feeling as well as other permanent traits and qualities. Personality is
mainly composed of the persistent or permanent qualities that exhibit themselves in form of
social behaviour and attempt to make adjustment with the environment.
3. Personality represents a dynamic orientation of organism to environment:
Personality represents the process of learning. It takes place in reference to the environment. We
do not acquire all the traits of personality all at once.

4. Personality is greatly influenced by social interactions:

Personality is not an individual quality. It is a result of social- interaction. In other words, it
means that when we come in contact with other members of the society, we acquire certain
qualities while we exhibit certain others. All these come to form personality.

5. Personality represents a unique organisation of persistent dynamic and social

predisposition:
In personality various qualities are not put together. They are, in fact, integrated into one. This
integration is nothing but a result of organisation which may be different from man to man. The
behaviour of a person directed to one particular individual may differ from the behaviour of
another person. That is why; we put the condition of suitable environment. This suitability is
concerned with individual specificity.

NATURE OF PERSONALITY:
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(REFER THE BELOW LINKS FOR THE APPROACHES TO PERSONALITY TOPIC…)

(THE RED COLOR LINK INDICATES THE EASY UNDERSTANDABLE AND RELEVANT
INFORMATIONS)

PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH

https://study.com/academy/lesson/psychodynamic-approach-in-psychology-definition-lesson-
quiz.html

https://explorable.com/psychodynamic-theories-of-personality

https://www.sparknotes.com/psychology/psych101/personality/section2/
 HUMANISTIC APPROACH

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-psychology/chapter/humanistic-perspectives-on-
personality/

PSYCHO SOCIAL APPROACH

https://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html

https://www.psychologynoteshq.com/erikerikson/

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

https://www.verywellmind.com/piagets-stages-of-cognitive-development-2795457

https://www.cleverism.com/piagets-theory/

MORAL DEVELOPMENT

https://explorable.com/theory-of-moral-development

https://www.psychologynoteshq.com/kohlbergstheory/

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

https://www.learning-theories.com/social-learning-theory-bandura.html

https://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/social-learning/