1. PERSONALITY & INDIVIDUAL
Chapter 3
PERSONALITY & INDIVIDUAL
DIFFERENCE

2. Strong and weak situations
Table 3.1

3. The study of individual difference
Genetic influences
Environmental influences
- Family
- Society, community and culture
- Experience

4. Relationship between the determinants of personality
Figure 3.1

5. Nomothetic perspectives
Eysenck and the study of personality types:
Extroversion
Neuroticism
Cattell and personality characteristics - 16 factors Including:
Warmth
Liveliness
Sensitivity
self-reliance
The ‘Big Five model:
Extraversion
Emotional Stability
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Openness to experience

6. Eysenck and personality types
Figure 3.2

7. Cattell and personality characteristics
Figure 3.3

8. Cattell and personality characteristics
Figure 3.4

9. Idiographic perspectives
Cooley:
The looking-glass self - We begin to see (understand) ourselves as others see us through the responses that we generate from others
Mead:
I - The unique, spontaneous and conscious aspects of the individual
Me - The internalized norms and values learned through experience within society

10. Rogers’ View of the ‘I’ and ‘me’
Figure 3.5

11. Freud and psychoanalysis
There are three levels of mental activity:
Unconscious
Pre-conscious
Conscious
The mind consists of three areas: Id
Ego
Superego
The main forms of ego defence mechanism:
Sublimation
Repression
Denial
Projection
Reaction formation
Regression
Isolation
Undoing

12. Jung and the cognitive approach
Three levels of personality:
A conscious level
An unconscious level
A collective unconscious
Four different approaches to information gathering:
Sensing
Intuiting
Thinking
Feeling

13. Jung’s cognitive styles
Figure 3.6

14. Differences between Jung’s cognitive styles
Table 3.2

15. Personality dimensions particularly relevant in organizations
Table 3.3

16. Other personality traits relevant in organizations
Locus of Control - Rotter, (1966)
Need for Cognition - Cacioppo & Petty (1982)
Self-monitoring - Snyder (1974)
Proactive Personality
Need for Achievement )
Need for Power ) McClelland
Need for Affiliation )

17. Developing psychometric tests
Step 1. Initial ideas often emerge from practical need
Step 2. The development of appropriate test items is a creative process
Step 3. The final forms of the test are developed and the administration arrangements designed
Step 4. The standardization and ‘norming’ process
Step 5. Reliability and validity analyzes applied to data

18. Psychometrics
Three ways in which tests can measure individual difference:
Performance versus standard
Norm-referenced measurement
Criterion-referenced measurement
There are different forms of validity and reliability:
Face validity
Predictive
Construct validity
Test/retest reliability
Alternative form reliability
Split half reliability

19. ABILITY: INTELLIGENCE AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Physical abilities - people’s capacity to control and deploy their bodies and to manipulate their physical environment
Cognitive abilities - a broad range of mental capabilities. The most often general terms for these abilities is intelligence
Intelligence - the general mental ability to solve problems and successfully deal with environmental conditions and demands in varying situations
Emotional intelligence - the ability to carry out accurate reasoning about emotions and the ability to use emotions and emotional knowledge to enhance thought

20. Emotional intelligence
Dulewicz and Higgs model:
The drivers - The two traits of motivation and decisiveness are responsible for energizing individuals to achieve their goals
The constrainers - The two traits of conscientiousness and integrity, and emotional resilience perform the function of modifying the potential of the drivers to push to excess or in the wrong direction
The enablers - The three traits of sensitivity, influence and self-awareness help to ensure that the other traits operate in the social context involving the individual and other people

21. Organizational applications of individual difference
Recruitment and selection
Development
Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ)
Assessment Centres
Discrimination
Stress and bullying
The testing business