1. rsonality and Attitude Effects
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Be able to define personality and attitudes.
2. Explain how your attitude and personality has an effect in the workplace.
What Determines Our Personality?
Our personality is defined as a set of traits that can explain or predict a person’s
behavior in a variety of situations. In other words, personality is a set of characteristics
that reflect the way we think and act in a given situation. Because of this, our personality
has a lot to do with how we relate to one another at work. How we think, what we feel,
and our normal behavior characterize what our colleagues come to expect of us both in
behavior and the expectation of their interactions with us. For example, let’s suppose at
work you are known for being on time but suddenly start showing up late daily. This
directly conflicts with your personality—that is, the fact that you are conscientious. As a
result, coworkers might start tobelieve something is wrong. On the other hand, if you
did not have this characteristic, it might not be as surprising or noteworthy. Likewise, if
your normally even-tempered supervisor yells at you for something minor, you may
believe there is something more to his or her anger since this isn’t a normal personality
trait and also may have a more difficult time handling the situation since you didn’t
expect it. When we come to expect someone to act a certain way, we learn to interact
with them based on their personality. This goes both ways, and people learn to interact
with us based on our personality. When we behave different than our normal
personality traits, people may take time to adjust to the situation.
Personality also affects our ability to interact with others, which can impact our career
success. In a 2009 studyAngelina R. Sutin and Paul T. Costa, “Personality and Career
Success,” European Journal of Personality 23, no. 2 (March 2009): 71–84. by Angelina
Sutin et al., it was found that the personality characteristic of neuroticism (a tendency to
2. experience negative emotional states) had more effect than any personality
characteristic on determining future career success. In other words, those with positive
and hopeful personalities tend to be rewarded through career success later in life.
Although there is debate between whether or not our personalities are inherent when we
are born (nature) versus the way we grew up (nurture), most researchers agree that
personality is usually a result of both nature and our environmental/education
experiences. For example, you have probably heard someone say, “She acts just like her
mother.” She likely behaves that way because she was born with some of her mother’s
traits, as well as because she learned some of the behaviors her mother passed to her
while growing up.
Figure 1.1
Nature and nurture factors determine our personality.
Another example might be someone who grows up with their parents constantly having
parties. As a result, as an adult this person may end up organizing a lot of parties, too.
Or the influence of parties may create the opposite effect, where the person doesn’t want
to have parties at all. The environmental and educational experiences can create positive
3. or negative associations, which result in how we feel about any situation that occurs in
our lives.Alexandria Lupu, “Our Personality: Is It Genetically Inherited or Determined
by the Environmental Factors,” Softpedia News, July 2, 2006, accessed February 3,
2012, http://news.softpedia.com/news/Our-Personality-Is-It-Genetically-Inherited-or-
Determined-by-The-Environmental- Factors-28413.shtml
Our values help determine our personality. Our values are those things we find most
important to us. For example, if your value is calmness and peace, your personality
would show this in many possible ways. You might prefer to have a few close friends and
avoid going to a nightclub on Saturday nights. You might choose a less stressful career
path, and you might find it challenging to work in a place where frequent conflict occurs.
We often find ourselves in situations where our values do not coincide with someone we
are working with. For example, if Alison’s main value is connection, this may come out
in a warm communication style with coworkers and an interest in their personal lives.
Imagine Alison works with Tyler, whose core value is efficiency. Because of Tyler’s focus,
he may find it a waste of time to make small talk with colleagues. When Alison
approaches Tyler and asks about his weekend, she may feel offended or upset when he
brushes her off to ask about the project they are working on together. She feels like a
connection wasn’t made, and he feels like she isn’t efficient. Understanding our own
values as well as the values of others can greatly help us become better communicators.
4. Examples of Values
What are your topfive values? How do youthink this affectsyour personality?
Accomplishment,
success
Ease of use Meaning Results-oriented
Accountability Efficiency Justice Rule of law
Accuracy Enjoyment Kindness Safety
Adventure Equality Knowledge Satisfyingothers
All forone & one forall Excellence Leadership Security
Beauty Fairness Love,romance Self-givingness
Calm,quietude,peace Faith Loyalty Self-reliance
Challenge Faithfulness Maximumutilization Self-thinking
Change Family
Intensity(of time,
resources)
Sensitivity
Charity Familyfeeling Merit
Service (toothers,
society)
Cleanliness,orderliness Flair Money Simplicity
Collaboration Freedom,liberty Oneness Skill
Commitment Friendship Openness Solvingproblems
Communication Fun
Other’spointof view,
inputs
Speed
Community Generosity Patriotism Spirit,spiritualityinlife
5. Competence Gentleness Peace,nonviolence Stability
Competition Global view Perfection Standardization
Concernfor others Goodwill Personal growth Status
Connection Goodness Perseverance Strength
Contentoverform Gratitude Pleasure A will toperform
Continuous
improvement
Hard work Power Success, achievement
Cooperation Happiness Practicality Systemization
Coordination Harmony Preservation Teamwork
Creativity Health Privacy Timeliness
Customersatisfaction Honor Progress Tolerance
Decisiveness Human-centered Prosperity,wealth Tradition
Determination Improvement Punctuality Tranquility
Delightof being,joy Independence Qualityof work Trust
Democracy Individuality Regularity Truth
Discipline
Innerpeace,calm,
quietude
Reliability Unity
Discovery Innovation Resourcefulness Variety
Diversity Integrity Respectforothers Well-being
Dynamism Intelligence Responsiveness Wisdom
6. Source: http://www.gurusoftware.com/GuruNet/Personal/Topics/Values.htm
What about Our Attitudes?
Our attitudes are favorable or unfavorable opinionstoward people, things, or situations. Many things
affect our attitudes, including the environment we were brought up in and our individual
experiences. Our personalities and valuesplay a large role in our attitudes as well. For example,
many people may have attitudes toward politics that are similar to their parents, but their attitudes
may change as they gain more experiences. If someone has a bad experience aroundthe ocean, they
may developa negative attitude around beachactivities. However, assume that person has a
memorable experience seeingsea lions at the beach, for example, then he or she may change their
opinion about the ocean. Likewise, someone may have lovedthe ocean, but if they have a scary
experience, suchas nearly drowning, they may change their attitude.
The important thing to remember about attitudes is that they can change over time, but usually some
sort of positive experience needsto occur for our attitudes to change dramatically for the better. We
also have controlof our attitude in our thoughts. If we constantly stream negative thoughts, it is
likely we may become a negative person.
In a workplace environment, youcansee where attitude is important. Someone’spersonality may be
cheerfuland upbeat. These are the prized employeesbecause they help bring positive perspective to
the workplace. Likewise, someone with a negative attitude is usually someone that most people
prefer not to work with. The problemwith a negative attitude is that it has a devastating effect on
everyone else. Have youever felt really happy after a great day and when yougot home, your
roommate was in a terrible mood because of her bad day? In this situation, youcan almost feel
yourself deflating! Thisis why having a positive attitude is a key component to having good human
relations at work and in our personal lives.
But how do we change a negative attitude? Because a negative attitude can come from many sources,
there are also many sourcesthat can help us improve our attitude.
7. Changing Your Attitude
On the Motivation123 website, they describe the three things to consider when trying
to change your attitude.
Reams are written about improving your attitude; not so when it comes to defining that thing you’re
tryingto improve. In this checklist, we’re going to fix that.
Thoughthere are many waysto define attitude, I find the three checkpointsbelowto be the most
helpful. They make it clear not only what your attitude is made of but also how it affectswhat youdo.
1. How YouEnter
Before heading down South for a vacation, I expecteda relaxingand enjoyable time. Thisis the first
piece of your attitude: it is what youexpect before something happens.
For me, I expectedgoodthings. Someone with a more negative bent—at least in relation to
traveling—wouldpredict rough times ahead.
2. How YouLive through It
The secondpiece of your attitude is the way in which yougauge progress. Do younotice what is going
wrong? Going well? Somewhere in between?
I went to dinner the other night with a few friends. I’m alwayson the lookout for storiesto use on the
site, so when they started to comment on the place, I was drawn in. One friend noticedhow noisy the
restaurant was, how grumpy the waiter seemed, and how bad the foodtasted.
On the heels of this cheery testimonial, the friend sitting next to me said she lovedthe atmosphere,
the style of the tables, and her dinner. Two attitudeslooking for very different things.
3. How YouExit
8. The last role your attitude plays happens at the end of a situation or experience. At this point, your
attitude affectsthe way yousum things up.
I was watching a competition-basedreality show the other night and, when two people were sent
home, they were given the chance to talk to the cameraone last time.
They were asked what they would take away from the experience. The first reflectedonthe
friendships he had made and the goodtimes he had had. The second was angry and vengeful. To her,
the experience was a waste of time. Attitude strikesagain.
Reprinted with permission: Motivation123.com. Get hundreds of simple motivationtips, along with
your free Motivation123 Welcome Kit, at the Motivation123.comwebsite.
Visit http://www.motivation123.com today.
As Note 1.19"Changing Your Attitude" points out, our attitude is ultimately about how we set our
expectations;how we handle the situation when our expectationsare not met; and finally, how we
sum up an experience, person, or situation. When we focuson improvingour attitude on a daily
basis, we get used to thinking positively andour entire personality canchange. It goes without saying
that employersprefer to hire and promote someone with a positive attitude as opposedto a negative
one. Other tips for improvingattitude include the following:Richard Whitaker, “ImprovingYour
Attitude,” Biznick, September 2, 2008, accessedFebruary 3,
2012, http://biznik.com/articles/improving-your-attitude
1. When youwake up in the morning, decide youare going to have an excellent day. By having
this attitude, it is less likely youmay feeldisappointed when small things do not go your way.
2. Be consciousof your negative thoughts. Keep a journal of negative thoughts. Upon reviewing
them, analyze why youhad a negative thought about a specific situation.
3. Try to avoidnegative thinking. Think of a stop sign in your mind that stops youwhen you
have negative thoughts. Try to turnthose thoughts into positive ones. For example, instead of
saying, “I am terrible in math,” say, “I didn’t do well on that test. It just means I will study
harder next time.”
9. 4. Spend time with positive people. Allof us likely have a friend who always seems to be
negative or a coworker who constantly complains. People like this can negatively affect our
attitude, too, so steering clear when possible, or limiting the interactiontime, is a great way
to keepa positive attitude intact.
5. Spend time in a comfortable physicalenvironment. If your mattressisn’t comfortable and
youaren’t getting enough sleep, it is more difficult to have a positive attitude! Or if the light
in your office istoo dark, it might be more difficult to feelpositive about the day. Look
around and examine your physicalspace. Does it match the mental frame of mind youwant
to be in?
Self-Assessment:What’s My Attitude?
1. People would describe me as unhappy.
o True
o False
2. I complain right away if there is something I don’t like.
o True
o False
3. Being positive most of the time is far too unrealistic.
o True
o False
4. If I have a bad morning, the rest of my day is sure to be ruined.
o True
o False
5. I tend to think more about my weak points than my strong points.
o True
o False
6. I don’t give out compliments because I don’t want someone to get a big ego.
o True
o False
10. 7. In the past two weeks, I have called myself depressed.
o True
o False
8. I worry too much about things I can’t control.
o True
o False
9. It takesa lot to make me happy.
o True
o False
10. When I experience a failure, I usually just stop trying.
o True
o False
Now, count the number of true and false answers. The more false answers youhave, the better
attitude youtend to have. If youhave many true answers, what are some ways to help youchange to
a more positive attitude?
When considering our personality, values, and attitudes, we can begin to get the bigger picture of
who we are and how our experiencesaffect howwe behave at work and in our personal lives. It is a
good idea to reflect oftenon what aspectsof our personality are working well and which we might
like to change. With self-awareness (discussed further in Chapter 2 "Achieve PersonalSuccess"), we
can make changes that eventually result in better human relations.
Why Human Relations?
Our personality traits, attitude, and self-esteem have everythingto do with human relations. When
youare planting a vegetable garden, youwouldn’t fill the new garden with old soil that no longer has
nutrients in it. Doing this will result in your plants not growing as large as they can or couldeven
result in them not growing at all. If we look at our human relations ability, the same idea
applies. Personality, attitude, and self-esteem comprise the nutrient-rich soil required
for our human relations skills to grow. Our personality is how we see the world, either positive
11. and full of hope or negative and full of despair. Without a positive attitude, it can be difficult
to relate to others—because they may not want to be around us!Likewise, having a positive
self-image can give us the confidence to nurture relationships, resulting in positive human relations
as well. Just like the garden that needs soils rich in nutrients, our human relations
skills are the same. To make our human relationsskills grow, we need to look at our underlying
personality characteristics, attitudes, and self-esteemthat couldbe helping—or hindering—our
ability to relate to others.
KEY TAKE A WAY S
Personality is defined as a set of traits that predict and explain a person’s behavior. Values are closely
interwoven into personality, as our values often define our traits.
Our personality can help define our attitudes toward specific things, situations, or people. Most
people prefer to work with people who have a positive attitude.
We can improve our attitude by waking up and believing that the day is going to be great. We can
also keep awareness of our negative thoughts or those things that may prevent us from having a
good day. Spending time with positive people can help improve our own attitude as well.
EXERCISES
1. Visit http://www.thecolorcode.com. Find the section that allows you to take the personality test for
free, take the test, and then review the results. What color are you? How does this impact how you
relate to others either at school or at work?
2. Looking at Note 1.17 "Examples of Values", which five aremost important to you? Connect two to
three personality traits you possess as a result of these values. For example, if you value practicality
you might see this manifest through the importance placed on goods purchased or the type of
wardrobe you have.
3. In two or three paragraphs, discuss your attitude and name four specific strategiesyou will use to
improve your attitude.
Previous Section
12. Table of Contents
1.3 Human Relations: Perception’s Effect
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
1. Be able to explain influencers of perception that impact your ability to relate to others.
Why Does Perception Matter to Human Relations?
As we have discussed so far in this chapter, many things impact our human relations
with others. Perception is no different. Perception is the recognition and interpretation
of sensory stimuli based upon our memory. In other words, it is the way you interpret
data around you. The data could come from sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. For
example, if you wake up in the morning to the smell of coffee, your perception is likely
correct that your roommate is already awake. The challenge with perception in human
relations is that we may not always understand someone else’s perception and/or
assume their perception is our own. This is where disagreements and other
communication issues can occur. For example, if you perceive that your significant other
is too focused on spending time with friends, your interactions with her will be based
upon this perception. For example, you could be frustrated and short tempered. In a
workplace setting, perceptions can also cause miscommunications. For example, you
may perceive your coworker to be lazy because he always arrives to work at 8:15 a.m.
and the start time is 8 a.m. Suppose he has a child with a medical condition who needs
special schooling, and the school doesn’t open until 8 a.m.? Perhaps he has made
arrangements with your supervisor of which you are unaware. This perception can be a
dangerous one, since we don’t have all of the facts.
13. How many legs does this elephant have? This section on perception is going to address the
many ways we perceive things—and how these perceptions impact our ability to relate to
others.
Source: http://www.moillusions.com/2006/05/elephant-optical-illusion.html
The Monkey Business Illusion
(click to see video)
Researcher and professor Dan Simons provides a short video that looks at our own
perceptions.
What Influences Our Perception?
We have defined perception and given some example to show how perceptions can be
incorrect—negatively impacting relationships. But where do our perceptions come
from? There are a number of things that influence our perception.Rita Baltus, Personal
Psychology for Life and Work (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000), 27–29. First, our
14. heredity can be major influencers of our perception. Height, skin color, and gender
influence the way we see the world. For example, someone who is 5’ 2” may perceive an
object to be stored too high, while someone who is 6’ 2” may not have that same
perception.
Our needs impact our perception as well. Physiological needs, such as food and water
(or lack thereof), can influence how we feel about certain situations. Have you ever been
in a social situation where you were very hungry? If so, you know this impacted your
ability to socialize with other people. You may have found yourself less patient to listen
because you were concerned about when you were going to eat! Or if you have ever
taken a road trip and needed to use the restroom, your perception may be that the
highway lacks a sufficient number of rest areas.
Our peer group can also impact our perception. Our peers tend to determine what is
desirable or undesirable, thereby giving us information on how to interpret data around
us. You have experienced this personally, no doubt. If you perceive a brand of clothing
desirable, it is more likely your friends also feel similar. The same thing happens at
work; for example, suppose a supervisor uses Skype toconduct meetings because her
perception is that it is an efficient way todo business. It is highly likely that others in
your workgroup will perceive it as a useful tool, also.
Our interests impact our perception. If you like running marathons, your perception on
how much to spend on running shoes will be different from someone who prefers
kayaking for fun and needs a pair of athletic shoes. Assume your interest at work is to be
promoted. Your perception of work is very different than someone who can’t stand the
job and is looking for a position with a different company.
Our expectations are another driver of our perceptions. For example, research
performed by Ronald MelzackRonald Melzack et al., “Central Neuropasticy and
Pathological Pain,” Annals New York Academy of Sciences 933 (2001): 157–
15. 59. suggests our expectations about how much something will hurt alters our perception
after the fact. For example, if you are dreading getting a flu shot because you believe it
will hurt a lot (expectations), once you actually have it done, you may say, “That didn’t
hurt at all” (perception), because your expectation prepared you beforehand. In other
words, our expectations affect our perception after the fact. In this example, our
expectation was extreme pain, but when that didn’t occur, our perception was quite the
opposite. Our expectations and resulting perception can also be looked at in a work
setting. For example, if you have high expectations that your workgroup will win the
annual chili cook-off at your company picnic, but you don’t win, your perception could
be one of unfairness: “The judges like the marketing department better.” Likewise, if
your team wins the chili cook-off and you expected towin, your perceptions may be, “Of
course we won, we knew ours was the best.”
A halo effect or reverse haloeffect can also alter our perceptions. The halo affect
assumes that if a person has one trait we like, that all traits must be desirable. The
reverse halo effect is if we find an undesirable trait in someone, we assume all traits are
undesirable. Assume you don’t like the way your coworker, Mariette, speaks. You may
then make an assumption that all of Mariette’s traits are negative. Likewise, if you
believe Rhonda is a great dental hygienist, you may promote her to manage the other
dental hygienists. Later, if the other hygienists complain about her management style,
you may realize you promoted her because you thought her skill as a dental hygienist
meant she also had good management skills. In this case, the halo effect occurred.
Awareness of our own perceptions and what drives those perceptions is a key
component to being successful at work. If we know why we believe something to be
good, right, fair, negative, or unfair based on our perceptions, we can begin to let go of
some of our misperceptions. As a result, developing good relationships at work, respect,
and mutual understanding can create a better workplace.
Old Women/Young Women
16. (click to see video)
The classic optical illusion that shows our perceptions can be very different from other’s
perceptions. Do you see an old woman or a young woman in this picture?
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Personality is defined as a stable set of traits that can explain or predict a person’s
behavior in a variety of situations. Our personality affects the way we interact with
others. Our personality comes from both environmental factors and some factors we are
just born with (nature).
Values are the things we find important to us. If our values conflict with another’s, there
may be a miscommunication or other issues.
Attitudes can be favorable or unfavorable feelings toward people, things, or situations.
Our attitudes have a great impact on each other. If one person has a bad attitude, it is
likely to be contagious. We can do many things to change our attitude, but all include
making a conscious effort to be aware of our negative thoughts and feelings.
Perception refers to how we interpret stimuli such as people, things, or events. Our
perception is important to recognize because it is the driving force behind our reaction
to things.
Heredity, needs, peer group, interests, and expectations all influence our perception.
A halo effect or reverse halo effect can also influence our perception.
EXERCISES
1. In groups, discuss a situation where you have experienced the halo or reverse halo
effect. What was the outcome of the situation?
2. Think of at least five perceptions you had today. What influenced those perceptions?
Were your perceptions correct?
3. In groups, discuss a school, personal, or work situation where your perception was
wrong. What was the outcome?
17. Human relations is an important part to our career success. It is defined as relations with
or between people, particularly in a workplace setting. Because a company depends on
good human relations through its organizational structure, developing these skills is
important.
Technology has greatly impacted human relations because so much of our
communication occurs without the advantage of seeing body language. This can result in
miscommunications. Many workers telecommute to work. There are advantages and
disadvantages, a more notable disadvantage being the lack of human, face-to-face
contact.
There was an evolution in human relations study. In the classical school of management,
the focus was on efficiency and not on human relations.
Employees began to unionize in the 1920s due to lack of positive human relations, and
therefore the behavioral school of management was created. During this time period,
researchers began to focus on the human relations aspect of the workplace. One of the
major theories developed was the Hawthorne effect, which determined that workers
were more productive when they were being watched and cared about by researchers.
During the 1950s, the behavioral science approach looked at management techniques as
a way to increase productivity and human relations.
In the 1960s and beyond, sophisticated tools allow researchers to analyze more data and
focus on the statistical aspects of human relations and management data.
Personality is defined as a stable set of traits that can explain or predict a person’s
behavior in a variety of situations. Our personality affects the way we interact with
others. Our personality comes from both environmental factors and some factors we are
just born with (nature).
Values are the things we find important to us. If our values conflict with another’s, there
may be a miscommunication or other issues.
Attitudes can be favorable or unfavorable feelings toward people, things, or situations.
Our attitudes have a great impact on each other. If one person has a bad attitude, it is
18. likely to be contagious. We can do many things to change our attitude, but all include
making a conscious effort to be aware of our negative thoughts and feelings.
Perception refers to how we interpret stimuli such as people, things, or events. Our
perception is important to recognize because it is the driving force behind our reaction
to things.
Heredity, needs, peer group, interests, and expectations all influence our perception.
A halo effect or reverse halo effect can also influence our perception.
Self-esteem is defined as the opinion one has about their value as a person. This is
different than self-confidence, which refers to the belief someone has in themselves.
Both are important determinants to career and human relations success.
Self-efficacy is the confidence someone has to carry out a specific task. Self-confidence
and self-efficacy can come from a variety of sources.
Self-image is how you think others view you, while projection refers to how your self-
esteem is reflected in others.
The Johari window is a tool to look at our own self-esteemand learn how others view us.
The Johari window involves the open area, hidden area, blind area, and unknown area.
CHAPTER EXERCISE
1. Using the following adjectives, please select five to six that best describe you.
Once you have done this, have someone who knows you well select five to six
adjectives. Compare those you selected to those your friend selected, and then
place in the appropriate window of Johari’s model, the open area, blind area,
unknown area, or hidden area. Then answer the following questions:
a. What surprised you most about the adjectives your friend chose?
b. What are some ways you can make your hidden area more open? What are the
advantages to doing this?
c. How do you think this exercise relates to your self-esteem?
d. How can the information you gained about yourself apply to positive human
relations?
20. ersonality is the word commonly used to describe an individual’s collection (total person) of such
behavioral traits or characteristics. Personal style or personality is a relatively stable set of traits that
aids in explaining and predicting individual behavior. As noted, individuals are all different, yet
similar, in many ways. Why are some people outgoing and others shy, some loud and others quiet,
some aggressive and others passive? Traits are distinguishing personal characteristics. Personality
development is based on genetics, experience, and environmental factors. The genes you received
before you were born influence your personality traits. Your family, friends, school, and work also
influence your personality. In short, personality is the sum of genetics and a lifetime of learning.
Personality traits, however, can be changed, with work. For example, people who are shy can
change their thoughts and feelings to consciously use more outgoing behaviors. ersonality is the
word commonly used to describe an individual’s collection (total person) of such behavioral traits or
characteristics. Personal style or personality is a relatively stable set of traits that aids in explaining
and predicting individual behavior. As noted, individuals are all different, yet similar, in many ways.
Why are some people outgoing and others shy, some loud and others quiet, some aggressive and
others passive? Traits are distinguishing personal characteristics. Personality development is based
on genetics, experience, and environmental factors. The genes you received before you were born
influence your personality traits. Your family, friends, school, and work also influence your
21. personality. In short, personality is the sum of genetics and a lifetime of learning. Personality traits,
however, can be changed, with work. For example, people who are shy can change their thoughts
and feelings to consciously use more outgoing behaviors.
Thisis an editedandadaptedchapterbyDiener,E.& Lucas, R. E. (2019) fromthe NOBA serieson
psychology.Forfull attributionsee endof chapter.
Personality traits reflect people’s characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Personality traits imply consistency and stability—someone who scores high on a specific trait
like Extraversion is expected to be sociable in different situations and over time. Thus, trait
psychology rests on the idea that people differ from one another in terms of where they stand on
a set of basic trait dimensions that persist over time and across situations. The most widely used
system of traits is called the Five-Factor Model. This system includes five broad traits that can be
remembered with the acronym OCEAN: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion,
Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Each of the major traits from the Big Five can be divided into
facets to give a more fine-grained analysis of someone’s personality. In addition, some trait
theorists argue that there are other traits that cannot be completely captured by the Five-Factor
Model. Critics of the trait concept argue that people do not act consistently from one situation to
the next and that people are very influenced by situational forces. Thus, one major debate in the
field concerns the relative power of people’s traits versus the situations in which they find
themselves as predictors of their behavior.
Big five
Five-FactorModel of personality
OCEAN systemof traits
Person-situationdebate
Personality
Personalitytraits
Social learning
Learning Objectives
List anddescribe the “BigFive”(“OCEAN”) personalitytraitsthatcomprise the Five-FactorModel of
personality.
Describe howthe facetapproachextendsbroadpersonalitytraits.
Explainacritique of the personality-traitconcept.
Describe inwhatwayspersonalitytraitsmaybe manifestedineverydaybehavior.
Describe eachof the Big Five personalitytraits,andthe low andhighendof the dimension.
Give examplesof eachof the BigFive personalitytraits,includingbothalow andhighexample.
Describe howtraitsand social learningcombinetopredictyoursocial activities.
Describe yourtheoryof howpersonalitytraitsgetrefinedbysocial learning.
22. Introduction
When we observe people around us, one of the first things that strikes us is how different people
are from one another. Some people are very talkative while others are very quiet. Some are
active whereas others are couch potatoes. Some worry a lot, others almost never seem anxious.
Each time we use one of these words, words like “talkative,” “quiet,” “active,” or “anxious,” to
describe those around us, we are talking about a person’s personality—the characteristic ways
that people differ from one another. Personality psychologists try to describe and understand
these differences.
“Are you an introvert”?Inpopular
culture it’scommonto talkaboutpeople beingintrovertsorextrovertsasif these were precise
descriptionsthatmeantthe same thingforeveryone.Butresearchshowsthatthese traitsandothers
are quite variable withinindividuals.[Image:NguyenHungVu,https://goo.gl/qKJUAC,CCBY2.0,
https://goo.gl/BRvSA7]
Although there are many ways to think about the personalities that people have, Gordon Allport
and other “personologists” claimed that we can best understand the differences between
individuals by understanding their personality traits. Personality traits reflect basic dimensions
on which people differ (Matthews, Deary, & Whiteman, 2003). According to trait psychologists,
there are a limited number of these dimensions (dimensions like Extraversion,
Conscientiousness, or Agreeableness), and each individual falls somewhere on each dimension,
meaning that they could be low, medium, or high on any specific trait.
An important feature of personality traits is that they reflect continuous distributions rather than
distinct personality types. This means that when personality psychologists talk about Introverts
23. and Extraverts, they are not really talking about two distinct types of people who are completely
and qualitatively different from one another. Instead, they are talking about people who score
relatively low or relatively high along a continuous distribution. In fact, when personality
psychologists measure traits like Extraversion, they typically find that most people score
somewhere in the middle, with smaller numbers showing more extreme levels. The figure below
shows the distribution of Extraversion scores from a survey of thousands of people. As you can
see, most people report being moderately, but not extremely, extraverted, with fewer people
reporting very high or very low scores.
24. Figure 1. Distributionof ExtraversionScoresinaSample Higherbarsmeanthat more people have scores
of thatlevel.Thisfigure showsthatmostpeoplescore towardsthe middle of the extraversionscale,
withfewerpeoplewhoare highlyextravertedorhighlyintroverted.
25. There are three criteria that are characterize personality traits: (1) consistency, (2) stability, and
(3) individual differences.
1. To have a personalitytrait,individualsmustbe somewhatconsistentacrosssituationsintheirbehaviors
relatedtothe trait. For example,if theyare talkative athome,theytendalsotobe talkative atwork.
2. Individualswithatraitare alsosomewhatstable overtime inbehaviorsrelatedtothe trait.If theyare
talkative,forexample,atage 30, theywill alsotendtobe talkative atage 40.
3. People differfromone anotheronbehaviorsrelatedtothe trait.Usingspeechisnota personalitytrait
and neitheriswalkingontwofeet—virtuallyall individualsdothese activities,andthere are almostno
individualdifferences.Butpeopledifferonhow frequentlytheytalkandhow active theyare,andthus
personalitytraitssuchasTalkativenessandActivityLevel doexist.
A challenge of the trait approach was to discover the major traits on which all people differ.
Scientists for many decades generated hundreds of new traits, so that it was soon difficult to keep
track and make sense of them. For instance, one psychologist might focus on individual
differences in “friendliness,” whereas another might focus on the highly related concept of
“sociability.” Scientists began seeking ways to reduce the number of traits in some systematic
way and to discover the basic traits that describe most of the differences between people.
The way that Gordon Allport and his colleague Henry Odbert approached this was to search the
dictionary for all descriptors of personality (Allport & Odbert, 1936). Their approach was guided
by the lexical hypothesis, which states that all important personality characteristics should be
reflected in the language that we use to describe other people. Therefore, if we want to
understand the fundamental ways in which people differ from one another, we can turn to the
words that people use to describe one another. So if we want to know what words people use to
describe one another, where should we look? Allport and Odbert looked in the most obvious
place—the dictionary. Specifically, they took all the personality descriptors that they could find
in the dictionary (they started with almost 18,000 words but quickly reduced that list to a more
manageable number) and then used statistical techniques to determine which words “went
together.” In other words, if everyone who said that they were “friendly” also said that they were
“sociable,” then this might mean that personality psychologists would only need a single trait to
capture individual differences in these characteristics. Statistical techniques were used to
determine whether a small number of dimensions might underlie all of the thousands of words
we use to describe people.
The Five-Factor Model of Personality
Research that used the lexical approach showed that many of the personality descriptors found in
the dictionary do indeed overlap. In other words, many of the words that we use to describe
people are synonyms. Thus, if we want to know what a person is like, we do not necessarily need
to ask how sociable they are, how friendly they are, and how gregarious they are. Instead,
because sociable people tend to be friendly and gregarious, we can summarize this personality
dimension with a single term. Someone who is sociable, friendly, and gregarious would typically
be described as an “Extravert.” Once we know she is an extravert, we can assume that she is
sociable, friendly, and gregarious.
26. Statistical methods (specifically, a technique called factor analysis) helped to determine whether
a small number of dimensions underlie the diversity of words that people like Allport and Odbert
identified. The most widely accepted system to emerge from this approach was “The Big Five”
or “Five-Factor Model” (Goldberg, 1990; McCrae & John, 1992; McCrae & Costa, 1987). The
Big Five comprises five major traits shown in the Figure 2 below. A way to remember these five
is with the acronym OCEAN (O is for Openness; C is for Conscientiousness; E is
for Extraversion; A is for Agreeableness; N is for Neuroticism). Figure 3 provides descriptions
of people who would score high and low on each of these traits.
Figure 2. Descriptionsof the BigFive PersonalityTraits
27. Figure 3. Example behaviorsforthose scoringlow andhighforthe big5 traits
Scores on the Big Five traits are mostly independent. That means that a person’s standing on one
trait tells very little about their standing on the other traits of the Big Five. For example, a person
can be extremely high in Extraversion and be either high or low on Neuroticism. Similarly, a
person can be low in Agreeableness and be either high or low in Conscientiousness. Thus, in the
Five-Factor Model, you need five scores to describe most of an individual’s personality.
Traits are important and interesting because they describe stable patterns of behavior that persist
for long periods of time (Caspi, Roberts, & Shiner, 2005). Importantly, these stable patterns can
have broad-ranging consequences for many areas of our life (Roberts, Kuncel, Shiner, Caspi, &
Goldberg, 2007). For instance, think about the factors that determine success in college. If you
were asked to guess what factors predict good grades in college, you might guess something like
intelligence. This guess would be correct, but we know much more about who is likely to do
well. Specifically, personality researchers have also found the personality traits like
Conscientiousness play an important role in college and beyond, probably because highly
conscientious individuals study hard, get their work done on time, and are less distracted by
nonessential activities that take time away from school work. In addition, highly conscientious
28. people are often healthier than people low in conscientiousness because they are more likely to
maintain healthy diets, to exercise, and to follow basic safety procedures like wearing seat belts
or bicycle helmets. Over the long term, this consistent pattern of behaviors can add up to
meaningful differences in health and longevity. Thus, personality traits are not just a useful way
to describe people you know; they actually help psychologists predict how good a worker
someone will be, how long he or she will live, and the types of jobs and activities the person will
enjoy. Thus, there is growing interest in personality psychology among psychologists who work
in applied settings, such as health psychology or organizational psychology.
Facets of Traits (Subtraits)
So how does it feel to be told that your entire personality can be summarized with scores on just
five personality traits? Do you think these five scores capture the complexity of your own and
others’ characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors? Most people would probably
say no, pointing to some exception in their behavior that goes against the general pattern that
others might see. For instance, you may know people who are warm and friendly and find it easy
to talk with strangers at a party yet are terrified if they have to perform in front of others or speak
to large groups of people. The fact that there are different ways of being extraverted or
conscientious shows that there is value in considering lower-level units of personality that are
more specific than the Big Five traits. These more specific, lower-level units of personality are
often called facets.
30. To give you a sense of what these narrow units are like, Figure 4 shows facets for each of the Big
Five traits. It is important to note that although personality researchers generally agree about the
value of the Big Five traits as a way to summarize one’s personality, there is no widely accepted
list of facets that should be studied. The list seen here, based on work by researchers Paul Costa
and Jeff McCrae, thus reflects just one possible list among many. It should, however, give you an
idea of some of the facets making up each of the Five-Factor Model.
Facets can be useful because they provide more specific descriptions of what a person is like. For
instance, if we take our friend who loves parties but hates public speaking, we might say that this
person scores high on the “gregariousness” and “warmth” facets of extraversion, while scoring
lower on facets such as “assertiveness” or “excitement-seeking.” This precise profile of facet
scores not only provides a better description, it might also allow us to better predict how this
friend will do in a variety of different jobs (for example, jobs that require public speaking versus
jobs that involve one-on-one interactions with customers; Paunonen & Ashton, 2001). Because
different facets within a broad, global trait like extraversion tend to go together (those who are
gregarious are often but not always assertive), the broad trait often provides a useful summary of
what a person is like. But when we really want to know a person, facet scores add to our
knowledge in important ways.
Other Traits Beyond the Five-FactorModel
Despite the popularity of the Five-Factor Model, it is certainly not the only model that exists.
Some suggest that there are more than five major traits, or perhaps even fewer. For example, in
one of the first comprehensive models to be proposed, Hans Eysenck suggested that Extraversion
and Neuroticism are most important. Eysenck believed that by combining people’s standing on
these two major traits, we could account for many of the differences in personality that we see in
people (Eysenck, 1981). So for instance, a neurotic introvert would be shy and nervous, while a
stable introvert might avoid social situations and prefer solitary activities, but he may do so with
a calm, steady attitude and little anxiety or emotion. Interestingly, Eysenck attempted to link
these two major dimensions to underlying differences in people’s biology. For instance, he
suggested that introverts experienced too much sensory stimulation and arousal, which made
them want to seek out quiet settings and less stimulating environments. More recently, Jeffrey
Gray suggested that these two broad traits are related to fundamental reward and avoidance
systems in the brain—extraverts might be motivated to seek reward and thus exhibit assertive,
reward-seeking behavior, whereas people high in neuroticism might be motivated to avoid
punishment and thus may experience anxiety as a result of their heightened awareness of the
threats in the world around them (Gray, 1981. This model has since been updated; see Gray &
McNaughton, 2000). These early theories have led to a burgeoning interest in identifying the
physiological underpinnings of the individual differences that we observe.
Another revision of the Big Five is the HEXACO model of traits (Ashton & Lee, 2007). This
model is similar to the Big Five, but it posits slightly different versions of some of the traits, and
its proponents argue that one important class of individual differences was omitted from the
Five-Factor Model. The HEXACO adds Honesty-Humility as a sixth dimension of personality.
People high in this trait are sincere, fair, and modest, whereas those low in the trait are
31. manipulative, narcissistic, and self-centered. Thus, trait theorists are agreed that personality traits
are important in understanding behavior, but there are still debates on the exact number and
composition of the traits that are most important.
There are other important traits that are not included in comprehensive models like the Big Five.
Although the five factors capture much that is important about personality, researchers have
suggested other traits that capture interesting aspects of our behavior. In Figure 5 below we
present just a few, out of hundreds, of the other traits that have been studied by personologists.
33. Not all of the above traits are currently popular with scientists, yet each of them has experienced
popularity in the past. Although the Five-Factor Model has been the target of more rigorous
research than some of the traits above, these additional personality characteristics give a good
idea of the wide range of behaviors and attitudes that traits can cover.
34. The Person-Situation DebateandAlternatives
to the Trait Perspective
The way people behaveisonlyinparta product of theirnatural personality.Situationsalsoinfluence
howa personbehaves.Are youforinstance a“differentperson”asa studentina classroomcompared
to whenyou’re amemberof a close-knitsocial group?[Image:UOEducation,https://goo.gl/ylgV9T,CC
BY-NC2.0, https://goo.gl/VnKlK8]
35. The ideas described in this module should probably seem familiar, if not obvious to you. When
asked to think about what our friends, enemies, family members, and colleagues are like, some
of the first things that come to mind are their personality characteristics. We might think about
how warm and helpful our first teacher was, how irresponsible and careless our brother is, or
how demanding and insulting our first boss was. Each of these descriptors reflects a personality
trait, and most of us generally think that the descriptions that we use for individuals accurately
reflect their “characteristic pattern of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors,” or in other words, their
personality.
But what if this idea were wrong? What if our belief in personality traits were an illusion and
people are not consistent from one situation to the next? This was a possibility that shook the
foundation of personality psychology in the late 1960s when Walter Mischel published a book
called Personality and Assessment (1968). In this book, Mischel suggested that if one looks
closely at people’s behavior across many different situations, the consistency is really not that
impressive. In other words, children who cheat on tests at school may steadfastly follow all rules
when playing games and may never tell a lie to their parents. In other words, he suggested, there
may not be any general trait of honesty that links these seemingly related behaviors.
Furthermore, Mischel suggested that observers may believe that broad personality traits like
honesty exist, when in fact, this belief is an illusion. The debate that followed the publication of
Mischel’s book was called the person–situation debate because it pitted the power of personality
against the power of situational factors as determinants of the behavior that people exhibit.
Because of the findings that Mischel emphasized, many psychologists focused on an alternative
to the trait perspective. Instead of studying broad, context-free descriptions, like the trait terms
we’ve described so far, Mischel thought that psychologists should focus on people’s distinctive
reactions to specific situations. For instance, although there may not be a broad and general trait
of honesty, some children may be especially likely to cheat on a test when the risk of being
caught is low and the rewards for cheating are high. Others might be motivated by the sense of
risk involved in cheating and may do so even when the rewards are not very high. Thus, the
behavior itself results from the child’s unique evaluation of the risks and rewards present at that
moment, along with her evaluation of her abilities and values. Because of this, the same child
might act very differently in different situations. Thus, Mischel thought that specific behaviors
were driven by the interaction between very specific, psychologically meaningful features of the
situation in which people found themselves, the person’s unique way of perceiving that situation,
and his or her abilities for dealing with it. Mischel and others argued that it was these social-
cognitive processes that underlie people’s reactions to specific situations that provide some
consistency when situational features are the same. If so, then studying these broad traits might
be more fruitful than cataloging and measuring narrow, context-free traits like Extraversion or
Neuroticism.
In the years after the publication of Mischel’s (1968) book, debates raged about whether
personality truly exists, and if so, how it should be studied. And, as is often the case, it turns out
that a more moderate middle ground than what the situationists proposed could be reached. It is
certainly true, as Mischel pointed out, that a person’s behavior in one specific situation is not a
good guide to how that person will behave in a very different specific situation. Someone who is
extremely talkative at one specific party may sometimes be reticent to speak up during class and
may even act like a wallflower at a different party. But this does not mean that personality does
36. not exist, nor does it mean that people’s behavior is completely determined by situational factors.
Indeed, research conducted after the person-situation debate shows that on average, the effect of
the “situation” is about as large as that of personality traits. However, it is also true that if
psychologists assess a broad range of behaviors across many different situations, there are
general tendencies that emerge. Personality traits give an indication about how people will act on
average, but frequently they are not so good at predicting how a person will act in a specific
situation at a certain moment in time. Thus, to best capture broad traits, one must
assess aggregate behaviors, averaged over time and across many different types of situations.
Most modern personality researchers agree that there is a place for broad personality traits and
for the narrower units such as those studied by Walter Mischel.
Videos
Video1: GabrielaCintron’s –5 Factorsof Personality (OCEAN Song).Thisisastudent-made videowhich
cleverlydescribes,throughsong,commonbehavioral characteristicsof the Big5 personalitytraits.Video
2: Michael Harris’ – PersonalityTraits:The Big 5 and More.This isa student-made videothatlooksat
characteristicsof the OCEAN traitsthrough a seriesof funnyvignettes.Italsopresentsonthe Personvs
SituationDebate.Video3:DavidM. Cole’s –Grouchy with a Chanceof Stomping.Thisisa student-made
videothatmakesa veryimportantpointaboutthe relationshipbetweenpersonalitytraitsandbehavior
usinga handyweatheranalogy.
Vocabulary to Learn for this Chapter
Agreeableness
A personalitytraitthatreflectsaperson’stendencyto be compassionate,cooperative,warm,
and caringto others.People low inagreeablenesstendtobe rude,hostile,andtopursue their
owninterestsoverthose of others.
Conscientiousness
A personalitytraitthatreflectsaperson’stendencytobe careful, organized,hardworking,and
to followrules.
Continuousdistributions
Characteristicscango fromlowto high,withall differentintermediate valuespossible.One does
not simplyhave the traitor nothave it, butcan possessvaryingamountsof it.
Extraversion
A personalitytraitthatreflectsaperson’stendencytobe sociable,outgoing,active,and
assertive.
37. Facets
Broad personalitytraitscanbe brokendownintonarrowerfacetsoraspectsof the trait. For
example,extraversionhasseveral facets,suchassociability,dominance,risk-takingandsoforth.
Factor analysis
A statistical technique forgroupingsimilarthingstogetheraccordingtohow highlytheyare
associated.
Five-FactorModel
(alsocalledthe BigFive) The Five-FactorModel isawidely acceptedmodelof personalitytraits.
Advocatesof the model believethatmuchof the variabilityinpeople’sthoughts,feelings,and
behaviorscanbe summarizedwithfive broadtraits.These five traitsare Openness,
Conscientiousness,Extraversion,Agreeableness,andNeuroticism.
HEXACO model
The HEXACO model isanalternative tothe Five-FactorModel.The HEXACOmodel includessix
traits,five of whichare variantsof the traitsincludedinthe BigFive (Emotionality[E],
Extraversion[X],Agreeableness [A],Conscientiousness[C],andOpenness[O]).The sixthfactor,
Honesty-Humility[H],isunique tothismodel.
Independent
Two characteristicsortraits are separate fromone another–a personcan be highon one and
lowon the other,or vice-versa.Somecorrelatedtraitsare relativelyindependentinthat
althoughthere isa tendencyfora personhighonone to alsobe highonthe other,thisisnot
alwaysthe case.
Lexical hypothesis
The lexical hypothesisisthe ideathatthe mostimportantdifferencesbetweenpeople will be
encodedinthe language thatwe use to describe people.Therefore,if we wanttoknow which
personalitytraitsare mostimportant,we canlookto the language thatpeople use todescribe
themselvesandothers.
Neuroticism
A personalitytraitthatreflectsthe tendencytobe interpersonallysensitiveandthe tendencyto
experience negativeemotionslike anxiety,fear,sadness,andanger.
Opennessto Experience
38. A personalitytraitthatreflectsaperson’stendencytoseekoutandto appreciate new things,
includingthoughts,feelings,values,andexperiences.
Personality
Enduringpredispositionsthatcharacterize aperson,suchas stylesof thought,feelingsand
behavior.
Personalitytraits
Enduringdispositionsinbehaviorthatshow differencesacrossindividuals,andwhichtendto
characterize the personacrossvaryingtypesof situations.
Person-situationdebate
The person-situationdebateisahistorical debate aboutthe relativepowerof personalitytraits
as comparedto situational influencesonbehavior.The situationistcritique,whichstartedthe
person-situationdebate,suggestedthatpeopleoverestimate the extenttowhichpersonality
traitsare consistentacrosssituations.
References
Allport,G.W., & Odbert,H. S.(1936). Trait names:A psycholexical study. PsychologicalMonographs,47,
211.
Ashton,M. C.,& Lee,K.(2007). Empirical,theoretical,andpractical advantagesof the HEXACOmodel of
personalitystructure. Personalityand SocialPsychologicalReview,11, 150–166.
Caspi,A.,Roberts,B.W., & Shiner,R.L. (2005). Personalitydevelopment:Stabilityandchange. Annual
Reviewsof Psychology,56,453–484.
Donnellan,M.B.,Oswald,F.L., Baird,B. M., & Lucas,R. E. (2006). The mini-IPIPscales:Tiny-yet-effective
measuresof the BigFive factorsof personality. PsychologicalAssessment,18,192–203.
Eysenck,H. J.(1981). A modelforpersonality.New York:SpringerVerlag.
Goldberg,L.R. (1990). Analternative descriptionof personality:The BigFive personalitytraits. Journalof
Personalityand SocialPsychology,59,1216–1229.
Gray, J. A.(1981). A critique of Eysenck’stheoryof personality.In H.J. Eysenck(Ed.), A Modelfor
Personality (pp.246-276). NewYork:SpringerVerlag.
Gray, J. A.& McNaughton,N.(2000). The neuropsychology of anxiety:An enquiry into thefunctionsof
the septo-hippocampalsystem(second edition).Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress.
Matthews,G., Deary,I.J., & Whiteman,M.C. (2003). Personality traits.Cambridge,UK:Cambridge
UniversityPress.
McCrae, R. R., & Costa,P. T. (1987). Validationof the five-factormodel of personalityacrossinstruments
and observers. Journalof Personalityand SocialPsychology,52,81–90.
McCrae, R. R. & John,O. P.(1992). An introductiontothe five-factormodel anditsapplications. Journal
of Personality,60, 175–215.
Mischel,W.(1968). Personalityand assessment.NewYork:JohnWiley.
39. Paunonen,S.V.,& Ashton,M.S. (2001). Bigfive factorsand facetsand the predictionof
behavior. Journalof Personalityand SocialPsychology,81,524–539.
Roberts,B.W., Kuncel,N.R.,Shiner,R.,Caspi,A.,& Golberg,L. R. (2007). The powerof personality:The
comparative validityof personalitytraits,socioeconomicstatus,andcognitiveabilityforpredicting
importantlife outcomes. Perspectiveson PsychologicalScience,2, 313-345.
Two words attitude and personality are used interchangeably but there is a key difference
between these two words. Personality is basically a combination of quality or the characteristic
of any individual. On other hands, attitude refers to a way of thinking, belief or an emotion of an
individual.
Personality
Personality is basically defined as the quality of an individual. Simply, it defines who we are. We
meet numerous people in our life out of which we notice few people come up with a fun-loving
jolly nature who are carefree, full of life where are few people are conservative and strict. As we
observe people according to their personality we tend to talk with them or can connect with
them. The personality of an individual remains the same throughout the life. As it is more about
inheritance as it is believed that personality is developed in genetical form. Personality is
basically the sum of total personal characteristics namely physical and psychological. Sometimes
our values help more to define our personality.
In short, thoughts or emotions of an individual makes a personality. It remains the same for the
life time. Lastly, personality is an outcome of what an individual learn over the period of time.
Attitude
40. Attitude is all about thinking or feelings of an individual about a particular topic or a person or a
place. Depending on the experience, there is the possibility that an individual might change their
attitude. It is more about the thinking of an individual which is based on the environment from
where they belong. Our attitude changes as we gain more experience but the situation of an
individual.
In short, behavior or way of response or thinking in any particular situation of an individual
shows the attitude. It keep changing according to the situation. Lastly, attitude is the result of the
experience of an individual over the time.
Conclusion:
There is a very thin line of difference between personality and attitude. Though, we can say that
personality is all about who we are and attitude totally depends on you and the environment
where you reside. Personality is basically static while attitude is dynamic.
The effects of personality and
emotions on workplace
communication
All Management Learning Resources
individual differences and communication
41. By Aaron G., 26.01.2019
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Executive summary
Research on communication in the workplace has revealed that personality traits such
as assertiveness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extroversion tend to increase
the chance that someone will communicate at work. People with high self-esteem also
are less likely to remain silent at work. Emotions also affect communication, with anger
being likely to increase it and fear being likely to decrease it.
CONTENTSANCHORS
Personality traits and emotions affect communication
When we think about how people communicate, one of the major factors that often
comes to mind is personality. In our work lifes, many of us have anecdotally observed
assertive people who speak openly or people who tend to be quieter and refrain from
42. speaking often. In this CQ Dossier, we will go from anecdotal observations to empirical
research on these kinds of traits and their effects on communication.
Additionally, research has also demonstrated the role that emotions play in our
decisions to communicate with peers or superiors. When we are angry, we might blurt
out something that may not have been wise to say. The opposite might happen when
we are afraid of a situation. In this CQ Dossier, we will review the most salient
personality traits and emotional variables that affect communication. Note that
“personality traits” are generally referred to as “individual differences” interchangeably in
this CQ Dossier and in academic literature.
The Big 5 personality traits are a widely used concept to
describe personality
The personality traits in the “Big 5” also called Five Factor Model of Personality are
Openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and
neuroticism / negativity (Costa & McCrae, 1992). These traits have been well-studied for
decades, and they are believed to be fairly stable over a person’s life. When studying
the effects of personality on a given behavior, the “Big 5” usually are the first set of traits
that researchers tend to look at due to their ubiquity in the literature.
A significant relationship between personality and
communication exists
In fact, research has indicated significant relationships between four of the five
personality traits and communication. Specifically, a significant correlation was found
between communication and agreeableness, conscientiousness, extroversion, and
neuroticism among individuals asked to perform a group decision-making task (LePine
& Van Dyne, 2001).
People who are extraverted are sociable, gregarious, assertive, talkative, and active (Barrick
& Mount, 1991).
People who are neurotic are likely to be anxious, depressed, angry, easily embarrassed,
emotional, worried, vulnerable, or insecure (Barrick & Mount, 1991).
Agreeableness is related to caring, altruism, and emotional support versus competitiveness
and hostility (Howard & Howard, 1995).
Conscientiousness has been linked to educational achievement and the will to achieve.
Conscientious people are dutiful, orderly, responsible and thorough (Costa & McCrae, 1992).
Last, people who are open to experience tend to have broad interests and like novelty
(Howard & Howard, 1995).
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Which personality traits beyond the "Big 5" influence
communication?
There are some other personality traits not covered by the "Big 5" which are related to
workplace communication. We will have a look at assertiveness, proactive personality,
self-esteem and self-montoring as well as how to measure them as follows.
Assertiveness
Prior research by Detert and Edmondson (2011) demonstrated a significant correlation
between assertiveness and communication, including upward communication (i.e.,
talking to one’s boss). Assertiveness is usually measured in studies with a basic scale
that provides statements like “I try to lead others” and asks participants to score each
question on a 5-point scale from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree.
Proactive personality
Bateman and Crant (1993) created a measure of proactive personality intended to
identify differences among people regarding the extent to which they take action to
influence their environments. People with proactive personalities “identify opportunities
and act on them; they show initiative, take action, and persevere until they bring about
meaningful change” (Crant, 1995, p. 532). Not surprisingly, proactive personality has
been shown to correlate to communications in previous research (Bateman & Crant,
1993; Detert & Burris, 2007).
Someone with a proactive would generally disagree with the idea that withholding is the
right thing to do in a situation where there is an opportunity to speak-up. Proactive
personality can be measured with a basic survey that includes statements like, “If I see
44. something I don’t like, I fix it” with people asked to rate their agreement with each
statement on a 5-point scale from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree.
Self-esteem and contingent self-worth
LePine and Van Dyne (1998) found that global self-esteem played a role in an
individual’s decision to communicate in his or her work group. People with higher self-
esteem communicated more frequently and openly than people with low self-esteem. As
a construct, self-esteem has been criticized somewhat for its poor discriminant
validity (Judge, Erez, Bono, Thoresen, 2002), and research has since progressed to
include the construct of contingent self worth (Crocker, Luhtanen, Cooper, & Bouvrette,
2003).
This construct is specifically concerned with the extent to which an individual’s self-
esteem depends on appraisals and external factors. To that end, research has shown
that concerns about others’ appraisals lead to silence (Ashford et al., 1998; Milliken,
Morrison, and Hewlin, 2003). Therefore, people with lower self-esteem and people
whose self-esteem depends on the appraisals of others will communicate less than
those with high self-esteem or than those whose self-esteem does not depend on what
other people think of them.
Self-monitoring
In the population, there is variation in the degree to which we modify our behavior from
one situation to the next. Some people who are highly tuned-in to situational cues, and
they possess chameleon-like abilities to change their behavior from situation to
situation. These people are known as high self-monitors (Snyder, 1974). Given the
pragmatism and well-manicured images projected by high self-monitors (Snyder &
Gangestad, 2000), these individuals behave with deference toward authority and
carefully study peers to determine what they should and should not say. Low self-
monitors tend to express themselves openly, without significant self-censorship. High
self-monitors generally adjust to the culture much more adeptly.
Emotions have a significant impact on communication
Emotions are another important factor that impacts whether people are willing to speak-
up or not. In contrast to personality traits, emotions are less stable and triggered by
external factors.
45. Fear is a short-lived discrete emotion
The emotion of fear has generated considerable research in social and evolutionary
psychology. Fear is considered a discrete emotion that can be differentiated from other
emotions by the necessity for a discrete triggering event to induce it. It is relatively
short-lived compared to other emotions (Grandey, 2008; Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996).
Evolution has purportedly selected for humans that are born with a capacity to
understand hierarchy and to fear authority, preventing ill-advised challenges to higher-
status others (Seligman, 1971).
Individuals who did not have such an understanding would be more likely to get into
losing battles with higher status individuals whose resources would assure their victory
(Duntley, 2005). Therefore, a predisposition to recognize hierarchy and to fear authority
was passed on to modern humans (Erdal & Whiten, 1994; Kellerman, 2008).
Fear of authority undermines communication
For the reasons noted above, fear is associated with the urge to withdraw or to separate
oneself from the fearful stimuli (Frijda, 1986). Withdrawal from fearful stimuli and fear of
authority may have been wise in the days of clans and tribes, where challenges to
authority could lead to ostracism and death. In modern organizations, however, such
fear of authority can have negative consequences for the organization itself.
For example, a newly hired hospital orderly who notices poor organization of medical
supplies may find it too risky to recommend a better organizational system, despite
benefits that his recommendation would have for hospital staff and patients. This
hypothetical orderly is not alone, as numerous studies have demonstrated that fear still
underlies employee unwillingness to communicate (e.g., Chiang & Pepper, 2006;
Cortina & Magley, 2003; Dutton et al., 2002; Edmondson, 2002).
Fear of communicating has been attributed to intimidating boss behavior (Ashford et al.,
1998), hostile organizational climate (Morrison et al., 2000), and insecurity about job
stability (Dutton et al., 1997). Destructive leadership is one reason which could
prevent people from speaking-up.
Additionally, fearful situations involving authority figures may contribute to the formation
of beliefs about speaking-up that become internalized by people while they are at work
and outside of work (Detert & Edmondson, 2011).
46. Anger is associated with an “approach” motivation
Anger is also a discrete emotion that has similarly deep evolutionary roots to those
discussed about fear above (DeCatanzaro,1998). Anger results in different outcomes
than fear. Specifically, fear creates a withdrawal response, but anger is more closely
associated with an “approach” motivation (Carver & Harmon-Jones, 2009; Frijda, 1986).
Anger is theorized to exist for the purpose of confronting problematic or dangerous
situations – not motivating an escape from them out of fear (Plutchik, 2003).
An angry person also feels more certain about the cause of a negative event than a
fearful person (Lerner & Tiedens, 2006). As stated above, angry people will have more
of an optimistic risk assessment of their situation, likely contributing to the “approach”
tendency that could result in some kind of confrontation with whomever (or whatever)
triggered the anger (Power & Dalgleish, 2008). People are more willing to communicate
when angry than they are when they are afraid or not experiencing any emotion.
Understanding how personality and emotions impact
communication is important
Communication at work is influenced by numerous factors such as organizational
culture, personality, and more. From the evidence presented above, we know that
there are clear distinctions between people who communicate due to their innate
personality differences and also due to emotions that they are experiencing.
Understanding these personality and emotional differences provides a better
understanding for why people do what they do.
The take-away from this CQ Dossier should not be that people should change an
aspect of their personality or try to suppress an emotion because it might interfere with
their ability to communicate. Rather, the intent is to present underlying reasons that we
see the patterns of communications in the workplace that we do. Communication is
important for all relationships, professional and personal. Therefore, understanding its
underlying components is an important part of maintaining and improving those
relationships.
Key take-aways
Conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, whereas neuroticism / negativity decreases
communication
Assertive individuals are more likely to communicate and to communicate upward
47. People with a proactive personality are more likely to communicate and mention problems to
superior
People with high self-esteem are more likely to communicate than those with lower self-
esteem
Low self-monitors tend to express themselves openly, whereas high self-monitors adjust
carefully to every novel situation
People who are afraid or fearful tend to remain silent whereas people who are angry tend to
speak out
References and further readingAnchors
Tags: Personality, Five Factor Model (FFM), Workplace communication
The main difference between personality and attitude is that the personality refers to the
combination of one’s qualities, character traits, principles, cognition, etc. whereas the
attitude refers to the standpoint or the opinion one has towards something.
The personality of someone is moulded with different experiences and interactions that person
encounter in his life. Thus, attitudes are the main part of one’s personality. A person’s attitudes
might change according to one’s past experiences, the people he associates, etc. As a result, a
person may have varied attitudes towards persons, things or subject matters.
Key Areas Covered
1. What Does Personality Mean
– Definition, Traits, Significance
2. What Does Attitude Mean
– Definition, Traits, Significance
3. What is the Relationship BetweenPersonality and Attitude
– Outline of Association
4. What is the Difference Between Personality and Attitude
– Comparison of Key Differences
Key Terms
Attitude, Opinions, Character traits, Personality, Words
48. What Does Personality Mean
Personality can be defined as “the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an
individual’s distinctive character.” Thus, the personality of someone is the amalgamation of all
that person’s qualities, opinions, attitudes, and principles; all which make up his character traits.
According to The Cambridge handbook of personality psychology (2009), personality is defined
as “the characteristic set of behaviours, cognitions, and emotional patterns that evolve from
biological and environmental factors.”
49. Moreover, the Encyclopedia of Psychology defines personality as “individual differences in
characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. “ Therefore, one’s personality typically
includes that person’s patterns of thoughts, opinions, principles, and behaviours, etc., and these
make each person a unique individual.
Personality can be determined through a variety of tests such as Big Five
Inventory (BFI), Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2), Rorschach Inkblot
test, Neurotic Personality Questionnaire KON-2006,[3]
Enneagram test, or Eysenck’s Personality
Questionnaire (EPQ-R).
50. Myers Briggs Personality Types
There are varied personality types in people, and, introvert personality, extrovert personality,
emotional personality, jovial personality, rational personality, etc. are some of them.
Nevertheless, it is hard to define someone exactly as having one particular personality since
these character traits exist in varying levels in varied people. However, the main qualities and
other characteristic elements of a person stand as priorities when forming that person’s
personality.
What Does Attitude Mean
Attitude is a psychological construct, a mental and emotional entity that inheres in or
characterizes a person. In brief, an attitude refers to an opinion or standpoint one has towards
someone or something. So people have varied attitudes on things. This variety of attitudes on the
same thing also defines that particular person’s vision, ideologies or a certain trait of his
personality. Thus, it makes each person a different and a unique individual.
According to the ABC model of attitudes in Psychology, the structure of attitudes can be
described in terms of three components such as:
Affective component: shows a person’s feelings/emotions about the attitude object. For example: “I
am scared of snakes”.
Behavioral (or conative) component shows how the attitude we have influenced the manner of one’s
actions or behaviour. For example: “I will not go to places of snakes and will scream if I see one.”
Cognitive component: shows a person’s belief/knowledge about an attitude object. For example: “I
believe snakes are dangerous”.
For example consider different attitudes people have on varied social issues such as abortion,
homosexuality, the death penalty. Often, people with the same attitudes on the specific topic get
together and form communities or friendships. Like the famous idiom ‘ Birds of a feather flock
together”.
51. Moreover, the surrounding or the people one associates have a direct impact on one’s attitudes in
addition to that person’s past experiences, social interactions, etc. For example, someone who
had bad experiences with love will eventually have a very critical and cynical attitude about
relationships afterward. In this manner, attitude is a psychological construct.
Similarly, one’s attitudes can change with experiences and time too. For example, one will start
having a positive attitude towards someone they didn’t like at first, but after associating that
person and discovering their good qualities, the initial attitude they had on that person will turn
into a positive attitude. Thus, attitude can be formed from a person’s past and present. Hence,
attitude matters a lot in almost every situation in life.
Relationship Between Personality and Attitude
Attitude(s) is the main part of one’s personality.
Difference Between Personality and Attitude
Definition
Personality is the combination of characteristics or qualities such as a set
of behaviours, cognitions, and emotional patterns that form an individual’s distinctive character.
On the other hand, attitude is the opinion or standpoint one has towards something or someone.
This explains the basic difference between personality and attitude.
52. Significance
To explain it further, the personality, on the whole, can define the kind of a person (makes each
person a unique individual) while attitude only defines the standpoint of someone regarding a
particular thing or a person.
Traits
Psychological traits play a major part in constructing one’s personality while experiences play a
major role in defining someone’s attitudes. This is a main difference between personality and
attitudes.
Change
Another important difference between personality and attitude is that changing one’s personality
is difficult and takes time since it is a construction of many psychological attributes such as
traits, attitudes, qualities etc. However, attitudes are prone to change since they are directly
related to one’s experiences and opinions.
Conclusion
Personality and attitude are often used terms among people in the society. They are two different
attributes in a person. Since personality is a collection of one’s qualities, characteristics, feeling
and attitudes one can easily discern the type of person someone is. But by knowing their attitudes
toward various things one cannot easily learn one’s personality. Therefore, the main difference
between personality and attitude is that personality is the combination of one’s qualities,
character traits, principles, cognition etc. whereas attitude is the standpoint or the opinion one
has towards something
Reference:
1. “Personality.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Sept. 2018, Available here.
2. “Personality.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, 22
Apr. 2018, Available here.
3. “Attitude (Psychology).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Aug. 2018, Available here.
4. McLeod, Saul. “Saul McLeod.” Simply Psychology, Simply Psychology, 1 Jan.
1970, Available here.
Image Courtesy:
1. “personality building” via (CC BY 2.0) Flickr
2. “MyersBriggsTypes” By Jake Beech – Own work (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia
3. “2979107” (CC0) via Pixabay
53. Attitude Vs. Personality
desley308 Week 2 January 20, 2018 2 Minutes
“My personality is who i am and my attitude depends on who you are” is a
quote i happen to come across on various social media platforms quite often.
Personality according to the cambridge dictionary is the type of person you are,
shown by the way you behave, feel, and think where as Attitude in the
cambridge dictionary is defined as a feeling or opinion about something or
someone, or a way of behaving that is caused by this.
In my opinion, personality is most often than not displayed or presented during
the first moments of meeting someone and also it’s quite easy to groom. For
example, we are able to tell if a person we met not too long ago is outgoing or
shy. “Personality is easy to read, and we’re all experts at it. We judge people
funny, extroverted, energetic, optimistic, confident—as well as overly serious,
lazy, negative, and shy—if not upon first meeting them, then shortly thereafter.
And though we may need more than one interaction to confirm the presence of
these sorts of traits, by the time we decide they are, in fact, present we’ve
usually amassed enough data to justify our conclusions.” (1).
An attitude though influenced by personality. takes a while to surface as
compared to personality. A person’s attitude towards something is based on an
experience with that particular thing and it usually will take a great deal of work
for someone’s attitude to change. “Character, on the other hand, takes far longer
to puzzle out. It includes traits that reveal themselves only in specific—and
often uncommon—circumstances, traits like honesty, virtue, and kindliness.
Ironically, research has shown that personality traits are determined largely by
heredity and are mostly immutable. The arguably more important traits of
character, on the other hand, are more malleable—though, we should note, not
without great effort. Character traits, as opposed to personality traits, are based
on beliefs (e.g., that honesty and treating others well is important—or not), and
though beliefs can be changed, it’s far harder than most realize.” (1)
We often judge people based on their attitude which i think shouldn’t
necessarily be so. I believe everyone has experienced being told unpleasant stuff
about someone and then later getting to know the person and having a whole
other experience(positive) with them. This then goes to show us that people
54. have a different attitude towards everything and everyone based on their
experiences with that particular thing or person. In my research, i came across
an article that listed eight dynamics to consider in making constructive
judgment. However, the first dynamic which is empathy dynamic is what i’ll be
using to support my argument. With empathy dynamic, “when evaluating
someone else’s actions or personality, it is crucial that you understand where
they are coming from, their perspective, history, and the experiences that went
into the current situation.” (2).
To conclude, i’ll like to drop a couple of quotes i found while researching for
this post. “Personality can open doors but only character can keep them open.”
“Beauty gets the attention, Personality gets the heart.” (3)
Key Difference – Personality vs Attitude
There is a key difference between personality and attitude although these two words can often be
used interchangeably. The key difference between personality and attitude is, personality can be
defined as the qualities that form a person’s character. This highlights that a personality usually
captures a broad scope. It refers to who we are as an entity. On the other hand, Attitude refers to a
way of thinking. People can have different attitudes about people, places, social discourses,
particular events, etc. These attitudes are formed as a result of both internal and external factors.
Through this article let us gain a broader understanding of the difference.
What is Personality?
Personality can be defined as the qualities that form a person’s character. Simply, personality is
who we are. In life, we meet so many people with different personalities. While some people are full
of life, others are not. Then there are also people who are very carefree, responsible, strict, etc. As we
observe and work with people, we tend to assess the personalities of the people and interact with
them accordingly.
In psychology, human personality is being studied in depth. According to psychologists, personality
includes our thoughts, emotions, behavior and also individual characteristics. This is why our
personality is something unique to us. The traits that we have are rather permanent and consistent
with our behavior. This is why it is easy to predict how a particular person would respond to a
situation based on his or her personality. Psychologists further explain that although the personality is
a psychological construction, the influence of physiological factors cannot be discarded.
55. In psychology, there are various theories to explain the formation and varieties of personalities. For
example, personality type theory highlights that there are certain personality types to which people
belong. There are also other theories such as humanist theories, psychodynamic theories, trait
theories and behavioral theories of personality.
What is Attitude?
Now let us focus our attention on attitudes. An attitude refers to a way of thinking or a particular
belief or emotion that an individual has about a person, place, an object or even on a certain
topic. We all have our set of attitudes about various topics and people. For example, imagine a co-
worker that you have. You have an attitude about this person. Also, people can have their attitudes
about topics of interest in the society, such as abortion, commercial sex, religious movements, etc.
Attitudes are mostly a result of the experiences that we have and also the exposure that we
gain. Socialization process also has a major role in framing individual attitudes. For example, you
may have noticed in some situations the parents and children all have the same attitude on a
particular topic. However, attitudes can change as people begin to gain more experience. Also, our
attitudes influence our behavior as well. For instance, imagine you meet a person of whom you have
a negative attitude, naturally your behavior changes.
