IAS1162 – Human Personality & Team Building

Trait Approach

Scenario You’ve just been assigned a new roommate whom

you don’t know Both of you introduce one another What are the questions you might ask?

How do you describe your personality? Do you:

Present yourself by describing the type of person you are? Quiet type, Independent type, Outgoing type …

Present yourself by describing your characteristics? Studious? Shy? Friendly?

In essence, you would be using the trait approach to personality in answering the questions.

The Type (Typology) Approach People has tried to describe personality for

ages Gordon Allport is one of the original trait

theorists counted more than 4,000 adjectives in the English language used for this purpose

First attempt to identify and describe these characteristics were typology systems.

The ancient Greeks divided people into four types: Sanguine (Happy) Melancholic (Unhappy) Choleric (temperamental) Phlegmatic (apathetic) – indifferent, unconcerned,

lazy, bored

… cont’d Another effort identified three basic

personality types based on general physique: Endomorphic (obese) Mesomorphic (muscular) Ectomorphic (fragile)

However, this approach is strict and assumptions made are not easily justified

In this approach, a person is ‘judged’ to be strictly the type, meaning, if you are Type A, you cannot be half A, half B, you are all the while A.

Type approach has been replaced with the Trait Approach

Trait Approach A trait is a dimension of personality used to

categorize people according to the degree to which they manifest a particular characteristic

Built on 2 assumptions Assume that personality characteristics are

relatively stable over time Personality characteristics are stable across

situations

Gordon Allport Born in Montezuma, Indiana, USA (1897) Went to Harvard, together with his older brother Floyd Took up psychology and mostly interested in finding

the best way to understand human behavior Accepted that behavior is influenced by a variety of

environmental factors and recognized that traits alone cannot predict what a single individual will do

Believed that traits have physical components in the nervous systems

Identified two general strategies to use when investigating personality Nomothetic approach Idiographic approach

… cont’d Nomothetic:

Assume that all people can be describe along a single dimension according to level of assertiveness or anxiety

Same traits among many people = common traits Idiographic:

Identify the unique combination of traits that best accounts for the personality of a single individual

Proving a point Choose 2 people in your team

Have each of them take a few minutes to list 10 traits to describe their behavior

DO IT NOW! Quietly… Compare the traits between the two Question:

Are the traits the same? Allport referred to these 5 to 10 traits that best describe an

individual’s personality as central traits Occasionally, a single trait dominates a personality –

cardinal trait There have been historical figures whose behavior was

so dominated by a single trait until it became synonymous with the individual hence the coined words: Machiavellian, Homeric or even Don Juans.

The Big Five Many researches have been done to describe

the basic dimensions of personality Different teams of investigators used many

different kinds of data In any case, mostly they found evidence for

five basic dimensions of personality, The Big Five

Different researchers sometimes used different names, but the commonly used: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness,

Agreeableness and Conscientiousness (or if you are clever, it can be OCEAN)

The Big Five Personality Factors Neuroticism - Worried vs calm

Insecure vs secureSelf-pitying vs self-satisfied

Extraversion - Sociable vs retiringFun-loving vs soberAffectionate vs reserved

Openness - Imaginative vs down-to-earthPreference for variety vs preference for routineIndependent vs conforming

Agreeableness - Softhearted vs ruthlessTrusting vs suspiciousHelpful vs uncooperative

Conscientiousness - Well-organized vs disorganizedCareful vs carelessSelf-disciplined vs weak willed

Neuroticism Places people along a continuum (range)

according to their emotional stability and personal adjustment

People with frequent emotional distress and wide emotional swings scores high on this measure

Tend to become more upset over daily stressors

Many types of negative emotions – sadness, anger, anxiety, guilt

People who score low tend to be calm, well adjusted, not prone to extreme emotional reactions

Extraversion Extreme at one end – extrovert or extreme at the

other end – introvert Extroverts are very sociable people who also tend

to be energetic, optimistic, friendly and assertive Not to say introverts do not typically express

these characteristic, but incorrect to say they are asocial or without energy

Introverts are just reserved, rather than unfriendly, independent rather than followers, paced rather than sluggish

However, extroverts usually have more friends and spend more time in social situations

Openness Openness to experience rather than openness

in an interpersonal sense They have active imagination, willing to

consider new ideas, divergent thinking and intellectual curiosity

Unconventional and independent thinkers Low in openness tend to prefer the familiar

rather than seeking out something new Some researchers refer to openness as intellect and not the same as intelligence

Agreeableness Helpful, trusting, sympathetic Low on agreeableness – antagonistic and

skeptical, like to fight for their interests and beliefs

Prefer cooperation over competition, have more pleasant social interactions and fewer quarrelsome exchanges

Conscientiousness Controlled and self-disciplined Organized, plan oriented and determined Low end – apt to be careless, easily distracted

from tasks, and undependable. Might have more automobile accidents

Big Five in a Workplace Team work

Imagine each team is a company, and the team leader is the Head of HR. The other team members are a committee to hire a new employee. The company is in dire need of an extra help, there are five applicants shortlisted for the job. Who will be the BEST EMPLOYEE to hire? Nordin – scored low in Neuroticism Obe-wan-Kenobi – scored high in Openness Chai – scored high in Conscientiousness Elsa – scored high in Extraversion Alf – scored high in Agreeableness

Discuss which among the 5 you are going to hire The Team Leader will present the choice in front by

telling why the team chooses the candidate

The verdict So, which of the five applicants is likely to make

the best employee? A great deal of research indicates that of the Big

Five factors, CONSCIENTIOUSNESS may be the best predictor of job performance

Why? The characteristics – careful, thorough, dependable They don’t rush through the job – take time to do it

correctly and completely Highly conscientious people tend to be organized and

to lay out plans before starting a big project Hardworking, persistent and achievement-oriented Set higher goals for themselves

What about the other 4? Agreeableness

Trusting, cooperative and helpful Pleasant to have around the office and especially

well in jobs calling for teamwork Extraverts

Have an edge in the business world Openness

Beneficial in some job settings Low in Neuroticism

Calm and collected, not easily panicked

Conclusion Trait approach assumes we can identify individual

differences in behaviors that are relatively stable across situations and over time

Gordon Allport was the first acknowledged trait theorist. Among his contributions were the notion of central and secondary traits, nomothetic versus idiographic research

The recent development of the five-factor model has renewed interest in the relationship between personality and job performance. Although several of the Big Five dimensions are related to performance in the business world, many studies indicate that Conscientiousness may be the best predictor of performance

THE END

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