CHAPTER 2
PERSONALITY
AND
PERCEPTION
Personality
• The relatively enduring individual traits
and dispositions that form a pattern
distinguishing one person from all others
• Represents stylistic differences in
behavior of people
The Determinants of
Personality
• Heredity
– Personality is determined at conception by
individual’s genes
• Situations
– Situations that a person is exposed to can
shape/alter personality traits
The Determinants of
Personality (cont.)
• Environmental Influences
– Birth order
– Results of experience shape and alter
personality
• Integrated View
– Heredity may predispose a person to certain
patterns of behavior
The Determinants of
Personality (cont.)
– Environmental forces may precipitate more
specific patterns of action
Assessing Personality Traits
•
•
•
•
Personality Ratings
Situational Tests
Inventories
Projective Techniques
Personality Ratings
• Typically involve the use of five or sevenpoint scales containing a list of adjectives
acting as anchors for the scales
– Approach is open to various interpretations
of users
– Improvement is seen when scales are tied to
specific behavioral dimensions e.g.
competitiveness
Personality Ratings (cont.)
– Observations of rater can distort
results
– Rater must be unbiased and frank
Situational Tests
• Involve the direct observation of an
individual’s behavior in a setting
designed to provide information about
personality
• Very expensive
• Less subjective than rating scales
• Assessment in natural settings
Situational Tests (cont.)
• Certain traits don’t lend to this
• Less subjective than rating scale
• Very expensive to create and administer
Personality Inventories
• The most widely used method of
assessing personality characteristics
• Ease of administration
• Approval motive is a potential problem,
where people answer in a socially
desirable fashion and not according to
their actual feelings
Projective Techniques
• Designed to probe subtle aspects of
personality
• Based on belief of individualistic
interpretation
• Types of Projective Techniques
– Story Telling Devices
– Sentence Completion
Story Telling
• Good in standardized interpretation,
reliability, and usefulness
• Most widely used is TAT, Thematic
Apperception Test
• 20 Pictures, each portraying a social
setting of ambiguous meaning
Sentence Completions
• Asks respondents to supply endings for a
series of partial sentences
• Best used when respondents have little to
gain by faking answers
• Team building exercises may
appropriately use this technique
Dimensions of Personality
•
•
•
•
•
Locus of Control
The Work Ethic
Cognitive Style
Moral Maturity
The Big Five Model of Personality
Locus of Control
• Extent to which individuals believe that
control over their lives lies either
internally or externally
Internal Locus of Control
• Belief by people that they do have control
over their own destinies
• These individuals have higher incomes,
hold higher status jobs, and advance
more rapidly in their careers
External Locus of Control
• Belief by people that their fate is determined by
external forces
• Americans are becoming more externally
oriented
• Prefer extrinsic rewards e.g. pay
• Managers should understand their
subordinates’ loci of control to better tailor
their reward systems to individual needs
Work Ethic
• Belief in dignity of all work, contempt for
idleness and self-indulgence
• Belief that if you work hard, you will be
rewarded
• Stable predisposition
• Those who believe in strong work ethic
tend to be more accepting of
authoritarian leadership
Work Ethic (cont.)
• These individuals will perform dull tasks
without incentives
• Work ethic in U.S. may be waning
Cognitive Style
• Carl Jung’s proposal: modes of problem
solving
• Four Dimensions
– Introvert vs. Extrovert
(inner v. outer world)
– Thinking vs. Feeling
(logic v. subjective view)
Cognitive Style (cont.)
– Sensing vs. Intuiting
(detail v. broad focus)
– Judging vs. Perceiving
(resolution v. flexibility)
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
– Measurement of four dimensions giving the
16 cognitive styles
– Aid for improving work team functioning
Moral Maturity
• Model of moral judgement by Kohlberg
• Emphasizes cognitive processes which
characterize individuals making ethical
decisions
• Three levels with six stages
– Preconvention level
– Conventional level
– Principled level
Moral Maturity (cont.)
• Moral maturity tests
The Big Five Model of
Personality
• Directed at the work place
• Five dimensions of personality
–
–
–
–
–
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Emotional Adjustment
Extroversion
Inquisitiveness
What is Perception?
• Perception: The process of recognizing
and understanding others
• By understanding perception, managers
can deal with others effectively
Accuracy in Perceiving Others
• Being able to observe another’s
particular emotion can help us watch the
effects of our words and actions.
• Ways to “read” others:
– Facial Expressions
– Other Nonverbal Cues
Facial Expressions
• Convey universal cues of internal
emotions; yet can be distorted
• Research has identified clues that can
help determine the sincerity of someone’s
facial expressions:
– Time between event and reaction is too
great; the reaction is probably dishonest
Facial Expressions (cont.)
– If all aspects of expressions don’t
agree; deceit may be involved
– Very brief expressions convey genuine
feelings
– Shifts in tone or pitch of voice often
denotes deception
Other Nonverbal Cues
• Important in situations where people are
formally evaluated
• Have a real affect on perceptions of job
interviewers
– Examples: posture shifts, scratching, licking
of lips denotes nervousness
Other Nonverbal Cues (cont.)
• Two important nonverbal cues
– Eye contact
– Appearance and physical attractiveness
Eye Contact
• Most important nonverbal cue
• Too much eye contact is perceived to be
rude
• Too little suggests that people may be
trying to hide something
Appearance and Physical
Attractiveness
• Contribute to perceptual judgments
• Different attributes associated
– Physically attractive people are perceived as
sociable, intelligent, socially skilled, mentally
healthy, and less lonely than unattractive
people
– Physical beauty is also beneficial in
generating higher initial salary offers
Appearance and Physical
Attractiveness (cont.)
• Practical implications
– One should be properly groomed and
dressed to maximize one’s attractiveness to
benefit from this perceiver tendency
The Perception of
Personality Traits
• Good judges of others, according to
research, typically possess high
intelligence, esthetic and dramatic
interests, emotional adjustment, and
specialization in physical sciences
• People interested in social sciences may
be overly sensitive to small differences
among people
Obstacles to Accurate
Perception
• Common obstacles to perception include:
–
–
–
–
–
Stereotyping
Halo Effect
Projection
Perceptual Distortion
Selective Perception
Stereotyping
• Judgments of others that are based on
group membership
• Can provide a shortcut for evaluation,
but may be dangerous due to potential
for error
• The “kernel of truth” notion of
stereotypes
– Hold true for groups, not individuals
Halo Effect
• Occurs when a perceiver uses a general
impression of favorableness or unfavorableness as basis for judgments
about more specific traits
• Perceiver’s evaluation is influenced by an
overall impression
Halo Effect (cont.)
• Implicit personality theory
– Type of halo
– Traits are linked
– Example:
– An aggressive person; energetic
Projection
• Occurs when a perceiver ascribes own
feelings and attributes to others
• Defense mechanism that protects people
from unpleasant realities
Perceptual Distortion
• Occurs when a perceiver simply denies
that something occurred or that s/he
witnessed something
Selective Perception
• Tendency to be influenced by our own
interests
• Interpret problem situation in light of our
own background and interest
Understanding Attributions
• Attribution Theory
– Focuses on the inference process used to
deduce another’s dispositions or traits from
observations of behavior
– People perceive behavior as being caused,
distinguishing between internal or external
causality
Understanding Attributions
(cont.)
– Outcomes are perceived as a result of
environmental and personal forces and
personal power and effort
Tendencies of Attribution
Research to Distort
Behavior
• Fundamental Attribution Error
– Attribute behaviors of others to internal
factors
– Leads people to blame the victims of
misfortune
Tendencies of Attribution
Research to Distort Behavior
(cont.)
• Self-Serving Bias
– Take credit for success and blame failure on
external factors
– Manifest when people compare themselves to
others on subjective and socially desirable
dimensions
Kelley’s Theory of Causal
Attribution
• Judgments influenced by three sources:
– Agreement
– Consistency
– Distinctiveness