Unit THE SELF IN THE SUCCESS AND

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HAPPINESS

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Personality
Personality can be descried as the collective qualities, characteristics, disposition and values
of a person which distinguish him/her from others, and which will affect the manners he/she reacts
toward or interacts with other people and his/her environment. The word personality comes from the
Latin word persona. In the ancient world, a persona was a mask worn by an actor. While we tend to
think of a mask as being worn to conceal one’s identity, the theatrical mask was originally used to
either represent or project a specific personality trait of a character (Figure 1).

Personality Domains
1. Cognition (Think/ Brain) – knowledge and belief
It is the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought,
experience, and the senses.

2. Emotion (Feel/ Heart) – Social-emotional aspects and attitude

This includes the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to recognize and control
emotions and behaviors; establish and maintain positive relationships; makes responsible
decisions and solve challenging situations; and set and achieve positive goals.

3. Behavior (Behave/ Hands and Feet) – Behavioral efficacy

It is the actions and mannerisms made by individuals, organisms, systems or artificial entities
in conjunction with themselves or their environment, which includes the other systems or
organisms around as well as the physical environment.

Personality Types
According to American Psychological Association, personality types are any of the specific categories
into which human beings may be classified on the basis of personality traits, attitudes, behavior
patterns, physique or other outstanding characteristics.

The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator is a self-report inventory designed to identify a

person's personality type, strengths, and preferences. The questionnaire was developed by Isabel
Myers and her mother Katherine Briggs based on their work with Carl Jung's theory of personality
types. Today, the MBTI inventory is one of the most widely used psychological instruments in the
world.
4 Different Scales of Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator:

1. Extraversion (E) – Introversion (I)

Extraverts are "outward-turning" and tend to be action-oriented, enjoy more frequent social
interaction, and feel energized after spending time with other people. Introverts are "inward-turning"
and tend to be thought-oriented, enjoy deep and meaningful social interactions, and feel recharged
after spending time alone.

2. Sensing (S) – Intuition (N)

It involves looking at how people gather information from the world around them. People who prefer
sensing tend to pay a great deal of attention to reality, particularly to what they can learn from their
own senses. They tend to focus on facts and details and enjoy getting hands-on experience. Those
who prefer intuition pay more attention to things like patterns and impressions. They enjoy thinking
about possibilities, imagining the future, and abstract theories.

3. Thinking (T) – Feeling (F)

This scale focuses on how people make decisions based on the information that they gathered from
their sensing or intuition functions. People who prefer thinking place a greater emphasis on facts and
objective data.

They tend to be consistent, logical, and impersonal when weighing a decision. Those who prefer
feeling are more likely to consider people and emotions when arriving at a conclusion.

4. Judging (J) – Perceiving (P)

The final scale involves how people tend to deal with the outside world. Those who lean toward
judging prefer structure and firm decisions. People who lean toward perceiving are more open,
flexible, and adaptable. These two tendencies interact with the other scales.

Remember, all people at least spend some time extroverting. The judging-perceiving scale helps
describe whether you extravert when you are taking in new information (sensing and intuiting) or
when you are making decisions (thinking and feeling).

Determinants of Personality

 Biological Factors

1. Brain – The brain is one of the most important factors of personality determinant. It is
generally believed that child inherit 40-60% of their mother’s intellects or brain stimulation.
And the rest are the result of the environment in which the child has been grown up.

2. Physical Factors – Another factor is physical characteristics of an individual. It is believed

that this factor plays a vital role in determining one’s behavior in any organization.
Example: height of a person (short or tall), color (white or black), his health status (fat or
skinny) and his beauty (handsome or ugly). Physical factors are involved when interacting
with any other person and thus contribute in the personality development in many ways.

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 3. Hereditary Factors – Lastly, the heredity factors play a very important role as a major
determinants and factors of personality. It is the one that determined at the time of
conception. These factors do not only affect the physical features of a person, but also
the intelligence level, attentiveness, gender, temperament, various inherited diseases as
well as the energy level.

 Social Influences

Social Influences also plays a vital role in determining one’s personality. The things that
surround us on a regular basis determine of who we are. The society that we live in, cultural
environment that we face daily, the community we get interacted to, are all included in this
factor. Relationships with family, friends, colleagues, neighbors and societies, all contribute in
a way or another in personality determinants.

 Cultural and Religious Factors

The culture in which one lives in, that may involve traditional practices, norms, customs,
procedures, rules and regulations, precedents and values, all are important determinants of
personality. Moreover, the creed, religion and believes are also very important factors of
personality determinants.

 Situational Factors

Although these factors do not literally create and shape-up an individual’s personality,
situational factors do alter a person’s behavior and response from time to time. Situational
factors can be commonly observed when a person behaves contrastingly and exhibits
different traits and characteristics. For example, a person’s behavior is totally different when
he is in front of his boss, compared when hanging-out with his friends.

In this way, situational factors impact a personality in a significant way. They often bring-out
the traits of person that is not commonly seen.

The Big Five Personality Factors

In psychological trait theory, the Big Five Personality Traits, also known as the Five-Factor
Model (FFM) or OCEAN, is a widely-accepted framework that categorizes individual personalities into
five broad dimensions.

Openness to experience
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism

Openness to Experience
 Refers to one’s willingness to try new things as well as engage in imaginative and intellectual
activities. It includes the ability to “think outside the box”.
 If you’re curious of how and why things work, and are keen to uncover explanations, then
you’re four times more likely to succeed than your closed-off classmates.
 In business settings, openness is a strong predictor of who will become and succeed as a
leader.

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  Openness vs Closedness to Experience. People who score low on openness to experience
prefer routine. They are uncomfortable with change and trying new things so they prefer the
familiar over the unknown. As they are practical people, they often find it difficult to think
creatively or abstractly.

Conscientiousness
 Tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement against measures or
outside expectations; conscientious people are excellent at planning ahead.
 The conscientious person is going to have a plan. Even if there is a failure, they’re going to
have a plan to deal with that failure.
 Conscientiousness vs Lack of Direction. Those who score low on conscientiousness may
struggle with impulse control, leading to difficulty in completing tasks and fulfilling goals. They
tend to be more disorganized and may dislike too much structure. They may also engage in
more impulsive and careless behavior.

Extraversion
 Extraverts enjoy interacting with people, and are often perceived as full of energy.
 Those high on extraversion are generally assertive, sociable, fun-loving, and outgoing. They
thrive in social situations and feel comfortable voicing their opinions. They tend to gain energy
and become excited from being around others.
 Extraversion vs Introversion. Those who score low in extraversion are often referred to as
introverts. These people tend to be more reserved and quieter. They prefer listening to others
rather than needing to be heard.

Agreeableness
 Agreeable people can be described as soft-hearted, trusting, and well-liked. They are
sensitive to the needs of others and are helpful and cooperative. People regard them as
trustworthy and altruistic.
 Agreeable people tend to be happier, possibly because they have a very optimistic view of
human nature.
 Agreeableness vs Antagonism. Those low in agreeableness may be perceived as suspicious,
manipulative, and uncooperative. They may be antagonistic when interacting with others,
making them less likely to be well-liked and trusted.

Neuroticism
 Neurotic people tend to experience negative emotions such as anger, anxiety, or depression.
They may experience difficulty in maintaining satisfying relationships.
 Neurotic people often feel anxious, insecure, and self-pitying. They are often perceived as
moody and irritable. They are prone to excessive sadness and low self-esteem.
 Neuroticism vs Emotional Stability. Those who score low on neuroticism are more likely to be
calm, secure, self-satisfied, and have high self-esteem.

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