PERSONALITY:

• "Personality is the entire mental organization of a human being at any stage

of his development. It embraces every phase of human character: intellect,
temperament, skill, morality, and every attitude that has beeen built up in
the course of one's life." (Warren & Carmichael, 1930, p. 333)
• Personality comes from the Greek word "persona", meaning "mask“

"I" is for personality

• Adams suggested that we get a good idea of what personality is by

listening to what we say when we use "I".  When you say I, you are, in
effect, summing up everything about yourself - your likes and dislikes,
fears and virtues, strengths and weaknesses.

• The word I is what defined you as an individual, as a person separate from

all others. (Schultz & Schultz, 1994, p.8)
 Five important personality traits:
1. Extraversion
• This refers to the extent to which a person is comfortable with other people.
• People who have a high degree of extraversion are sociable, talkative and friendly.

2. Agreeableness
• This refers to the extent to which a person subjugates his interests for the sake of the
group.
• People who are very agreeable give importance to maintaining harmony and do not
insist that others agree with what they say or follow their suggestions.

3. Conscientiousness
• This trait refers to the extent to which a person is responsible and achievement
oriented.
• They are responsible, dependable, persistent and highly achievement-oriented

4. Emotional stability
• This trait determines an individual’s ability to withstand stress.
• Individuals who have “positive” emotional stability feel emotionally secure and tend to
be calm.
• People who have “negative” stability are emotionally insecure and experience
feelings of anxiety, nervousness and depression.

5. Openness to experience
• This personality traits refers to an individuals’ range of interests and indicates how
innovative or how rigid he is in his beliefs.
 PERSONNALITY DETERMINANTS
1. Heredity
• The biological, physiological or psychological
characteristics that an individual is born with constitute
heredity.
2. Situation
• Different situations bring out different aspects of an
individual’s personality.
3. Environment
• Environmental factors include the culture of the society
in which an individual is brought up, the norms set by the
parents, teachers and other social groups with which the
individual interacts, and other situations and experiences
he undergoes in his life.
4. Locus of Control
• It refers to the degree to which people believe that they
can control their fate or any situation.
5. Machiavellianism
• Machiavellianism refers to the degree to which an individual
is practical in his approach, maintains an emotional distance
from others, and believes that ends justify the means.
6. Self-esteem
• The degree of liking an individual has for himself is referred
to as self-esteem.
• People with high self-esteem are generally confident.
• Individuals with low self-esteem lack confidence, look for
approval from others, and are not likely to take a stand which
opposes others’ views.
7. Self-monitoring
• Self-monitoring refers to the ability of an individual to adapt
his behavior to the demands of the situation.
8. Risk taking
• People who are highly risk-taking in their behavior make
decisions quickly without searching for much information.
AFFECT

AFFECT BEHAVIOUR
BEHAVIOUR

COGNITIVE COGNITIVE
 COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDES

COGNITIVE BELIEFS

STIMULI AFFECTIVE FEELINGS ATTITUDES

BEHAVIORAL BEHAVIORAL
INTENTIONS
Hall’s Career Stage Model
The model suggests that an individual goes through four stages during
his career –exploration, establishment, maintenance and decline.
• .In the exploration stage, the individual seeks an identity for himself,
attempts to understand himself and his personality, and tries out
various role in his career.
• The establishment stage, the employee tries to settle down in his job
and interact with co workers to develop good relationship with them
• In the maintenance stage, the productivity of an employee reaches its
peak and he feels the need to contribute something to the next
generation.
• The last stage in the career of an individual is the decline stage. In this
stage, the productivity of a person starts declining. In this stage, the
individual
• evaluates his lif eand career and tries to convince himself that he made
the right decisions in his life
 Levinson’s Theory of Adult Life Stages

• Daniel Levinson said personality of an individual develops with age and develops

uniformly throughout the adult years.
• Uniform progress is punctuated with periods of stability.

Periods of stability Periods of transition

22-28 years( adulthood) 28-33 years
33-40 years( settling down) 40-45 years
45-50 years( middle adulthood) 50-55 years
55-60 years( approaches old age) 60-65 year

• Maximum development takes place during mid-life transition(40-45 years).

• Attitude to work undergoes change during periods of transition.
• Earlier, Levinson had stated that periods of stability and mobility characterized
stages in the development of individuals; later he modified his
theory to state that lifecycle of individual is characterized by interplay of stability
and mobility
ATTITUDES:

• According to G.W. Allport, “Attitude is a mental and neutral state of readiness

organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon
individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related.”

• Krech and Crutchfield defined “attitude as an enduring organization of

motivational, emotional, perceptual and cognitive processes with respect to some
aspect of the individual’s world”

• According to Katz and Scotland, “Attitude is a tendency or predisposition to

evaluate an object or symbol of that object in a certain way”.

• Attitudes are a complex cognitive variables that have three basic characteristics:

they are directed toward an object about which a person has feelings, and
beliefs,  they persist unless changed in some way; and they range along a
continuum from positive to negative. 

•  Attitudes, being persistent often help employees adapt to their work environment

by providing a way of interpreting things or happenings in the environment. There
are four functions that attitudes have in this process: (1) they help people adjust to
their environment, (2) they help people defend their self-image, (3) they provide
people with a basis for expressing their values, and (4) they help supply standards
and frames of reference that allow people to organize and explain the world around
them
 Sources of attitudes:
• Attitudes are acquired from parents, teachers and members of the peer
group. The genetic make-up of a child initially determines his personality
and attitudes.

• Attitudes are influenced by the people whom he admires, respects or

fears. Individuals are more willing to modify their behavior and shape their
attitude to align with the behavior of people whom they look up to.

• The attitudes of people can be easily influenced and altered. Attitudes can

be changed by various means: by providing new information, by coercion
or threat, by resolving differences and by involving people in problem
solving.

• Attitudes can also be changed by providing the right type of feedback to

employees
Types of attitude

1) Positive attitude : The person more positive than negative benefits towards psychological
object is called positive attitude.
2) Negative attitude: The person more negative than positive benefits towards psychological
object Is called negative attitude.

 Attitude is Necessary to Reach Your Goals

All of us have certain goals or aims, in our lives. A child grows up keeping in mind his
goals and perspectives.

Goals without a positive attitude are not goals at all. There is no sense working towards
them, without a positive attitude, for there is no way to reach them. 
Without a positive attitude, there is no better way to overcome stress and problems, no
way to face temporary failure and to try again.
Not only does a positive attitude point the direction in which one should strive, but it is
also the power plant that enables us to proceed in that direction. 
The positive attitude always says, "I will" and "I can"; it never says, "I'll see if I can make
it.“
And when failure strikes, the positive attitude has a fall back position from which it will try
again and again, and if necessary in order to reach its goal, it may also try a different
route.
. It is a common saying that, 'Failure is the pillar of Success!'