A quick read on Personality theories and approaches to human mind and behavior, simplified for the time pressed HR professionals of today

1. WHAT LIES
Personality Theories in Psychology

2. WHAT IS PERSONALITY?
“Characteristic pattern of thinking,
feeling and acting”

3. WHY DO WE NEED TO
UNDERSTAND OUR PERSONALITY?

4. To understand
our motivations
For self
development
To understand
others better
WHY DO WE NEED TO
UNDERSTAND OUR PERSONALITY?
To become
Exceptional
Leaders
To understand
group dynamics
To help
others grow

5. WHAT ARE THE VARIOUS
THEORIES OF PERSONALITY?
1. Trait: specific dimensions of personality
2. Psychoanalytic: unconscious motivations
3. Humanistic: inner capacity for growth
4. Socio-Cognitive: influence of environment

6. TRAIT THEORY

7. TRAITS THEORY
Traits are relatively stable and consistent
personal characteristics.
Trait personality theories suggest that a
person can be described on the basis of
some number of personality traits.
o Allport identified some 4,500 traits
o Cattell used factor analysis to identify 30-35 basic traits
o Eysenck argued there are 3 distinct traits in personality:
Extraversion/introversion, Neuroticism and Psychotism

8. What trait
“dimensions”
describe
personality?
Combination of 2 or 3
genetically determined
dimensions
Extraversion/Introversion
Emotional Stability/Instability
Expanded set of factors
“The Big 5”, 16 PF
Extraversion,
Emotional Stability,
Agreeableness, Openness,
Conscientiousness etc

9. In 1936, psychologist Gordon Allport found that one Englishlanguage dictionary alone contained more than 4,000 words
describing different personality traits. He categorized these
traits into three levels:
Traits that dominate an
individual’s whole life,
often to the point that
the person becomes
known specifically for
these traits. Allport
suggested that cardinal
traits are rare and tend to
develop later in life.
These are the general
characteristics that form
the basic foundations of
personality. Terms like
intelligent, honest, shy
anxious are considered
central traits.
These are the traits that
are sometimes related
to attitudes or
preferences and often
appear only in certain
situations or under
specific circumstances.
Example impatient while
waiting in traffic.

10. Trait theorist Raymond Cattell reduced the
number of main personality traits from
Allport’s initial list of over 4,000 down to
171, mostly by eliminating uncommon
traits and combining common
characteristics. Next, Cattell rated a large
sample of individuals for these 171
different traits. Then, using a statistical
technique known as factor analysis, he
identified closely related terms and
eventually reduced his list to just 16 key
personality traits. According to Cattell,
these 16 traits are the source of all human
personality. He also developed one of the
most widely used personality assessments
known as the Sixteen Personality Factor
Questionnaire (16PF).

11. Emotional Stability
Extraversion
• Calm/Anxious
• Secure/Insecure
• Sociable/Retiring
• Fun Loving/Sober
Openness
• Imaginative/Practical
• Independent/Conforming
Agreeableness
• Soft-Hearted/Ruthless
• Trusting/Suspicious
Conscientiousness
• Organized/Disorganized
• Careful/Careless

12. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory (MMPI) is a self-report
personality inventory consisting of
550 items that describe feelings or
actions which the person is asked to
agree with or disagree with; many
scales estimating traits and qualities
of personality have been developed
using MMPI items such as anxiety,
depression, masculinity–femininity,
and paranoia.

13. While most agree that people can be described
based upon their personality traits, theorists
continue to debate the number of basic traits that
make up human personality. While trait theory
has objectivity that some personality theories lack
(such as Freud’s psychoanalytic theory), it also has
weaknesses.
Some of the most common criticisms of trait
theory center on the fact that traits are often poor
predictors of behavior. While an individual may
score high on assessments of a specific trait, he or
she may not always behave that way in every
situation. Another problem is that trait theories
do not address how or why individual differences
in personality develop or emerge.

14. PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY

15. PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
The first comprehensive theory of personality was
proposed by Sigmund Freud, known as the father
of Psychoanalysis.
A Medical Student from the University of Vienna,
Freud specialized in Nervous disorders and found
that some of his patients showed no physical cause
for nervous problems
Sigmund Freud
(1856-1939)

16. PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
The question boggled his mind
Q: So, What caused neurological symptoms in patients with no neurological
problems?
This was his answer to the question:
A: It had to do with the Human Mind. Not the one that e know of. Not the Conscious
mind but the Unconscious.
&
Hypnosis
=
Free Association
Psychoanalysis
Understanding the
Unconscious

17. Conscious Awareness
small part above surface
(Preconscious)
Unconscious
below the surface (thoughts, feelings,
wishes, memories)
Repression: banishing
unacceptable thoughts and passions
to unconscious Dreams & Slips

18. “Personality arises from conflict between aggressive,
pleasure-seeking impulses and social restraints”
Ego
Super Ego
Id

19. Ego
Super Ego
Super Ego: voice of conscience
that focuses on how
we ought to behave
Ego - seeks to gratify the
Id in realistic ways
Reality Principle
Id
Id - energy constantly striving to
satisfy basic drives
Pleasure Principle

20. When the inner war between id, ego
and superego gets out of hand, the
result is Anxiety
Ego protects itself from Anxiety via
Defense Mechanisms
Defense Mechanisms reduce or
redirect anxiety by distorting reality
Defense mechanisms refer to
unconscious mental processes that
protect the conscious person from
developing anxiety

21. Sublimation: person channels energy from unacceptable
impulses to create socially acceptable accomplishments
Denial: person refuses to recognize reality
Projection: person attributes their own unacceptable
impulses to others
Repression: anxiety-evoking thoughts are pushed into the
unconscious
Rationalization: Substituting socially acceptable reasons
Intellectualization: Ignoring the emotional aspects of a
painful experience by focusing on abstract thoughts, words,
or ideas
Reaction formation: Refusing to acknowledge unacceptable
urges, thoughts or feelings by exaggerating the opposite
state
Regression: Responding to a threatening situation in a way
appropriate to an earlier age or level of development
Displacement: Substituting a less threatening object for the
original object of impulse

22. How can we assess personality?
(i.e., the unconscious)
If you said Objective Tests, you are
wrong. They tap the conscious mind
only.
Projective Tests tap the unconscious.
I used two projective tests to
understand my Patients.
Thematic Appearance Test (TAT)
Rorschach Inkblot Test

23.  Rorschach Inkblot Test is the most
widely used projective test
 Consists of 10 inkblots designed by
Hermann Rorschach.
 It was used to identify people’s inner
feelings by analyzing their interpretations of
the blots

24. People express their inner motives
through the stories they make up
about ambiguous scenes

25. Current research contradicts many of Freud’s specific ideas. However, Psychoanalysis is
also becoming one of the most popular approaches to mental Health. Listed below are
some of Freud’s theories that were proven false in recent studies.
Development does not
stop in childhood
Dreams may not be
Unconscious wishes
Slips of the tongue are
likely competing “nodes”
in memory network

26. HUMANISTIC THEORY

27. HUMANISTIC THEORY
Humanistic theories view each person as
basically good and that people are striving for
self-fulfillment
o Humanistic theory argues that people
carry a perception of themselves and of
the world
o The goal for a humanist is to
develop/promote a positive self-concept
o Humanistic personality theories reject
psychoanalytic notions
FAMOUS HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVES
1
Roger’s Person Centered Perspective
2 Maslow’s Self Actualizing Person

28. We all have a sense of
“who we are”. I call
this a “Self Concept”
 We have needs for:
 Self-consistency (absence of conflict between self-perceptions)
 Congruence (consistency between self-perceptions and experience)
 Inconsistency evokes anxiety and threat
 People with low self-esteem generally have poor congruence between their
self-concepts and life experiences.

29. Carl Rogers, American psychologist; believed that
personality formed as a result of our strivings to
reach our full human potential.
Fully Functioning Person: Lives in harmony with
his/her deepest feelings and impulses
Self-Image: Total subjective perception of your body
and personality
Conditions of Worth: behaviors and attitudes for
which other people, starting with our parents, will
give us positive regard.
Unconditional Positive Regard: Unshakable love and
approval
Positive Self-Regard: Thinking of oneself as a good,
lovable, worthwhile person

30. o Many of the Humanists’ claims are un-testable.
o Humanists may have an overly-positive, rosy
view of humankind. They do not look at the
“dark side.”
o For the Humanists, the cause of all our
problems lies not in ourselves, but in others.
o Maslow’s characterization of self-actualized
individuals is very biased toward a certain
philosophical position.
o Most of the people Maslow identified as selfactualized had rather serious psychological
problems.

31. ▲ Abraham Maslow emphasized
the basic goodness of human
nature and a natural tendency
toward self-actualization.
▲ Only when all the lower level
needs are achieved, an
Individual can be self-actualized

32. o Efficient perceptions of reality
o Comfortable acceptance of self,
others, and nature
o Spontaneity
o Task Centering
o Autonomy
o Continued freshness of appreciation
o Fellowship with humanity
o Profound interpersonal relationships
o Comfort with solitude
o Non-hostile sense of humor
o Peak experiences

33. SOCIO-COGNITIVE THEORY

34. SOCIO-COGNITIVE THEORY
Behavior is learned through
conditioning & observation. Hence,
What we think about our situation
affects our behavior.
Each person has a unique personality
because unique personal histories
and interpretations shape our
personalities

35. Self-system: the set of cognitive processes by which
a person observes, evaluates, and regulates his/her
behavior. Bandura proposed that what we think of as
personality is a product of this self-system. Children
observe behavior of models (such as parents) in their
social environment. Particularly if they are
reinforced, children will imitate these behaviors,
incorporating them into personality.
He also proposed that people observe their own behavior and
judge its effectiveness.
Self-efficacy: a judgment of one’s effectiveness in dealing with
particular situations.

36. Julian Rotter, an American psychologist, began as a Freudian! His
personality theory combines learning principles, modeling, cognition, and
the effects of social relationships
External locus of control: perception that chance or external forces
beyond personal control determine one’s fate
Internal locus of control: perception that you control your own fate.
Learned Helplessness: a sense of hopelessness in which a person thinks
that he/she is unable to prevent aversive events

37. o Social-cognitive theories tend
to be overly-mechanical.
o Overemphasizes
environmental influences; gives
little or no consideration to the
possibility of innate personality
differences or the effects of
genetics.
o Does not recognize internal
human qualities such as hope,
aspiration, love, self-sacrifice

38. THANK YOU