...What are Personality Theories? Michael J Falls PSY/405 June 23, 2014 Bernard Wakley There are several different personality theories that attempt to explain how people act and who they are. Theories categorize people on characteristics or traits, and then try to describe the effect that this has on a person’s behavior in certain situations. Personality theories are supposed to focus on how people differ from one another; theories select behaviors or characteristics to determine their taxonomies or categories. Biological theories of personalities focus on genetics as well as biological relationships in physiological arousal and the neurochemistry in our brains. The biological approach to studying a person’s personality would be the differences in brain chemistry in extrovert and introverts. Theorist use biological processes to fill in the gap between personality and genetics by theorizing biological effects with behaviors. This anatomical approach examines the functions of brain structures. One of the biggest pioneers in the field was Eysenck; he attempted to relate personality to biology. Eysenck theory is complex, but it has grown over the years, one basic assumption is the brain has excitatory and inhibitory neural mechanisms. The balance between these two produces levels of psychological arousal at any given time. The dispositional theory is the classic or traditional way of psychological study of personalities. Since the early Greeks, maybe even longer it has been recognized...
Words: 1191 - Pages: 5
...Personality Analysis: Dispositional and Learning Theories Your Name Here PSY/405 Date Here Instructors Name Here Personality Analysis: Dispositional and Learning Theories Historically, behavioral scientists longed for a method by which they could gain a better understanding of the progression of human behavioral development. A group of such scientists believed that neglecting the study of the individual and focusing only on groups and behavioral generalities did a disservice to the individuality of every person (Feist & Feist, 2009). Gordon Allport was at the forefront of these scientists and emphasized the uniqueness of the individual (Feist & Feist, 2009). Allport and his dispositional theory, believed that people may display like characteristics, stubbornness, for example, but that two individuals displaying stubbornness are displaying differences of the same trait since, in the end, no two people are alike (Feist & Feist, 2009), and believed that using a person’s personal writings – letters, journals, or diaries – could provide a unique view of such individual uniqueness (Barenbaum, 1997). Individuality means just that – that each person is unique, distinctive, and unlike any other. Personalities are distinctive, belief systems are individual, and thought process unique. Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory observed we are each singular moral agents, capable of influencing our lives within the constructs of social mechanisms (Bandura, 2001)...
Words: 1662 - Pages: 7
...and define. The perception of personality continues to fill psychological literature and study with widespread research and theory. Personality is the continuous presentation of attributes and distinctions that contribute to variety in human thought and behavior (Feist & Feist, 2009). To enable more precise understandings of such differences and distinctions, psychological theorists develop explanations and parameters from various contexts. Psychoanalytic, humanistic and/or existential, dispositional, and learning theories help psychologists account for why and how people develop such individual and specific characteristics. They study these characteristics and the significant affects that the characteristics have on human development, as well as, the whole of human nature. Personality Defined According to Feist,& Feist (2009) personality is a global concept referring to a relatively permanent pattern of traits, dispositions, or characteristics that give some degree of consistency to a person’s behavior. Feist & Feist (2009) also wrote "Although no single definition is acceptable to all personality theorists, we can say that personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person's behavior."(Feist and Feist, 2009) There are many different theories of personality which can be grouped into one of four classes: traits, psychoanalytic, social learning, and humanistic personality...
Words: 1571 - Pages: 7
...meaning behind behaviour (Michael A. Hogg, 2014). For example, someone may attribute being given a compliment to dispositional factors such as them looking good or to external factors such at the other person being friendly. Attribution theories are not necessarily the actual cause of behaviour, but scientific theories behind what humans perceive to be the cause of behaviour (Försterling, 2013). Throughout our life we will construct our own, naive reasons for other peoples’ behaviour in order to gain a stable and predictive view of the world around us. While they are prone to...
Words: 1446 - Pages: 6
...University of Toronto Faculty of Arts and Science and Rotman School of Management RSM 260H1S – Organizational Behaviour Duration: 110 minutes Aids allowed: one aid sheet (front side only of an 8.5”x11” piece of paper) Paper foreign language dictionary for international students Please answer all questions in this exam. Answers to the multiple choice questions need to be filled in on the scantron sheets (remember to use pencil to fill in the circles) and also circled on the exam itself. Answers to the short answer questions should go in the exam booklet provided. All three components (scantron sheets, exam booklets, paper copy of exam) should be turned in at the conclusion of the exam. This exam consists of 25 multiple choice questions, 10 true/false questions and 2 short answer essay questions – you must answer ALL questions. The exam consist of 9 pages (including cover sheet) Name: ___________________________________________________________ Student #: ___________________________________ Question | Grade | 25 multiple choice questions(2 points each) | /50 | 10 true/false questions(1 point each) | /10 | Essay question #1 | /20 | Essay question #2 | /20 | Total: | /100 | Note that all page numbers refer to the 8th edition of John and Saks SECTION 1: Multiple choice questions (25 questions x 2 points each = 50 points total) Answer all multiple-choice questions. Circle the ONE best answer to the question, and fill it in on your...
Words: 2318 - Pages: 10
...ATTRIBUTION THEORY (Attribution - to explain by indicating a cause) ATTRIBUTION THEORY - motivational theory looking at how the average person constructs the meaning of an event based on his /her motives to find a cause and his/her knowledge of the environment. Att. Theory basically looks at how people make sense of their world; what cause and effect inferences they make about the behaviors of others and of themselves. Heider states that there is a strong need in individuals to understand transient events by attributing them to the actor's disposition or to stable characteristics of the environment. The purpose behind making attributions is to achieve COGNITIVE CONTROL over one's environment by explaining and understanding the causes behind behaviors and environmental occurrences. Making attributions gives order and predictability to our lives; helps us to cope. Imagine what it would be like if you felt that you had no control over the world. (talk about later) When you make attributions you analyze the situation by making inferences (going beyond the information given) about the dispositions of others and yourself as well as inferences about the environment and how it may be causing a person to behave. Two basic kinds of attributions made: INTERNAL and EXTERNAL INTERNAL - dispositional EXTERNAL - situational Consequences of making inferences: 1) gives order and predictability; 2) inferences lead to behavior - you will...
Words: 2096 - Pages: 9
...Lacey Gibson Psyc221 8/30/14 Mid Term Paper Assignment I: Theory Description The theory I have chosen to write about is the trait theory also known as the dispositional theory. This theory approaches personality as a combination of aspects rather than one definitive source. These traits are characteristics that cause an individual to behave in a certain way and refer to emotions and thoughts. According to the trait theory personality traits are stable over time and only differ from person to person. The number of possible traits that can affect a personality is for the most part never ending. There are; however groupings of traits that appear together more often than not in either extreme. Psychologist Gordon Allport categorized some...
Words: 924 - Pages: 4
...according to the article by Lise M. Saari titled “Employee Attitudes and Job Satisfaction” are the causes of employee’s attitudes, the results of positive or negative job satisfaction, and how to measure and influence employee attitudes. This paper will also explain how and to which extent research on job satisfaction resolves each of the three gaps, and I will use at least two examples to show where do the gaps still exist and how future research on job satisfaction can help to close these gaps? GAP ONE: ATTITUDES The dispositional influence correlates to Maslow’s theory of an individual needs. Other than the principles needs of a human, food, water, shelter, and spiritual needs, a person needs to fulfill other outside need and advocates of job enrichment have argued that most work tasks fail to challenge individuals adequately or fulfill their desires for growth and stimulation resulting in work dissatisfaction and unproductive behavior. The dispositional approach uses measures from as early as adolescence to predict one’s...
Words: 1718 - Pages: 7
...Explanations of how and why crime occurs can be divided into theories that either put emphasis on the process within the person either being biological, physiological or psychological (Including cognitive and personality) or those that relate to a person’s interactions and environment. Essential to understand and acknowledge different theories and explanations for the cause of crime within a much broader framework. This essay will aim to compare and contrast both psychological and sociological factors of the causes of criminality Psychology is a study of individual characteristics or qualities such as personality, perception, intelligence, reasoning, thought and imagination which it uses to explain human functioning and behavior (Williams,...
Words: 1384 - Pages: 6
...analyze the factors that may influence the person’s personality development. When a person comes from a huge family, this also helps us defines us as whom we are as individuals as well as us creating our own personality in us to help us be who we are. Define Personality “Physical, mental, emotional, as well as social characteristics of an individual” is defined as personality. So what this basically means is that no two people are the same, not even twins or triplets. Because you can either have a good twin as well as a bad twin. The same theory goes along with someone who has triplets. As the baby is conceived each child begins to have a different personality. They take the personality that they developed and take it with them all the way through adulthood. There are three different types of theories. The Psychodynamic theory is based on a person’s wants and desires (McLeod, 2007). The second type of theory is Humanistic/existential theory which is the...
Words: 1245 - Pages: 5
...More Dishonest Francesca Gino Harvard University Dan Ariely Duke University Creativity is a common aspiration for individuals, organizations, and societies. Here, however, we test whether creativity increases dishonesty. We propose that a creative personality and a creative mindset promote individuals’ ability to justify their behavior, which, in turn, leads to unethical behavior. In 5 studies, we show that participants with creative personalities tended to cheat more than less creative individuals and that dispositional creativity is a better predictor of unethical behavior than intelligence (Experiment 1). In addition, we find that participants who were primed to think creatively were more likely to behave dishonestly than those in a control condition (Experiment 2) and that greater ability to justify their dishonest behavior explained the link between creativity and increased dishonesty (Experiments 3 and 4). Finally, we demonstrate that dispositional creativity moderates the influence of temporarily priming creativity on dishonest behavior (Experiment 5). The results provide evidence for an association between creativity and dishonesty, thus highlighting a dark side of creativity. Keywords: creativity, ethics, morality, moral flexibility, unethical behavior Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other. —Denis Diderot (1713–1784) The ability to generate novel ideas and think creatively about problems has long been considered an important skill...
Words: 12835 - Pages: 52
...The field of HRD or Human Resource Development encompasses several aspects of enabling and empowering human resources in organization. Whereas earlier HRD was denoted as managing people in organizations with emphasis on payroll, training and other functions that were designed to keep employees happy, the current line of management thought focuses on empowering and enabling them to become employees capable of fulfilling their aspirations and actualizing their potential. This shift in the way human resources are treated has come about due to the prevailing notion that human resources are sources of competitive advantage and not merely employees fulfilling their job responsibilities. The point here is that the current paradigm in HRD treats employees as value creators and assets based on the RBV or the Resource Based View of the firm that has emerged in the SHRM (Strategic Human Resource Management) field.The field of HRD spans several functions across the organization starting with employee recruitment and training, appraisals and payroll and extending to the recreational and motivational aspects of employee development. | Indeed, one reason for the emergence of the RBV or the SHRM paradigm is that with the advent of the service sector and the greater proportion of companies in the service sector, employees are not merely a factor of production like land, labor and capital but in fact, they are sources of competitive advantage. This is characterized by many CEO’s calling employees...
Words: 1407 - Pages: 6
...Organizational Behaviour Book Notes Chapter 1 Learning Objectives: 1. Define organizations and describe their basic characteristics. Organization – social inventions for accomplishing common goals through group effort. * Social inventions – coordinated presence of people or a group of people * Goal accomplishment * Group effort – organizations depend on interaction and coordination among people to accomplish their goals. * Organizations are social inventions for accomplishing common goals through group efforts. 2. Explain the concept of organizational behaviour and describe the goals of the field. Organizational Behaviour – the attitudes and behaviours of individuals and groups in organizations. * The field of organizational behaviour is about understanding people and managing them to work effectively. * The field of organizational behaviour is concerned with how organizations can survive and adapt to change. i. Certain behaviours are necessary for survival and adaptation: 1. they have to be motivated to join and remain in the organization; 2. carry out their basic work reliably, in terms of productivity, quality, and service; 3. be flexible to continuously learn and upgrade their knowledge and skills; and 4. be flexible and innovative. * The field of organizational behaviour is concerned with how to get people to practice...
Words: 8763 - Pages: 36
...MOTIVATION AND JOB SATISFACTION Motivation and Job Satisfaction Introduction This paper is going to look at motivation in corporations, and its necessity to company managers within organizations. To begin with, it is essential to note that employee motivation is one of the most essential aspects that every manager within an organization should address and look at. Staff motivation, as it will be seen in this paper from a detailed perspective, is of great necessity to company managers because it is one of the strongest agents that the corporation banks on to achieve its goals and objectives. At the same time, motivation is necessary in order to develop the employees’ capabilities, skill, expertise, experience and intellectual capital at large (Deci, 1971). This is only achievable if the employees are highly motivated by the corporation managers and the concerned parties such as the human resource department. This is one of the areas that this paper will critically address. Employees’ satisfaction is one of the most essential elements and propellers of motivation at work. This paper will look at job satisfaction and its relation to employee motivation from a critical perspective (Rugman, 2002). In order to achieve this, several models will be analyzed and looked at, considering that they are some of the factors that will assist in understanding employees’ motivation and job satisfaction. The aim of this paper, therefore...
Words: 6735 - Pages: 27
...Consciousness and its Place in Nature David J. Chalmers 1 Introduction1 Consciousness fits uneasily into our conception of the natural world. On the most common conception of nature, the natural world is the physical world. But on the most common conception of consciousness, it is not easy to see how it could be part of the physical world. So it seems that to find a place for consciousness within the natural order, we must either revise our conception of consciousness, or revise our conception of nature. In twentieth-century philosophy, this dilemma is posed most acutely in C. D. Broad’s The Mind and its Place in Nature (Broad 1925). The phenomena of mind, for Broad, are the phenomena of consciousness. The central problem is that of locating mind with respect to the physical world. Broad’s exhaustive discussion of the problem culminates in a taxonomy of seventeen different views of the mental-physical relation.2 On Broad’s taxonomy, a view might see the mental as nonexistent (“delusive”), as reducible, as emergent, or as a basic property of a substance (a “differentiating” attribute). The physical might be seen in one of the same four ways. So a fourby-four matrix of views results. (The seventeenth entry arises from Broad’s division of the substance/substance view according to whether one substance or two is involved.) At the end, three views are left standing: those on which mentality is an emergent characteristic of either a physical substance or a neutral substance,...
Words: 20912 - Pages: 84
