MSE 211 - Organizational Behaviour

Definition of Personality
- Recognized as stable and enduring traits that distinguish individuals.
- Affects how we observe and interpret others’ behaviors.
- Long-lasting qualities help predict future behaviors.
Basic Assumptions of Personality Theory
- People possess stable and distinctive traits influencing behavior.
- Knowledge of an individual’s personality can improve predictions of their actions in various situations.
- Application in organizations for personnel selection and team dynamics.
- Example roles:
- CEOs should display characteristics like conscientiousness and extraversion.

Define broad personality traits applicable to many individuals through standardized tests.
Use of measurable traits to assess and compare personalities.

Components of Psyche:
- Id: Instinctual drives and desires; pleasure-seeking.
- Superego: Internalized societal values and norms; conscience.
- Ego: Mediator balancing the conflicting demands of the id, superego, and reality.
Pathological behaviors occur when ego fails to mediate appropriately, leading to defense mechanisms (e.g., projection).
Issues with Freudian Theory
- Focuses primarily on abnormal behavior, neglecting 'normal' actions.
- Overemphasis on early developmental stages and sexual drives.
- Lack of empirical support for theories about unobservable constructs.

Focuses on unique constructs individuals apply to interpret their experiences.
Constructs are bi-polar (e.g., ‘good teacher’ vs. ‘bad teacher’) and evolve with experience.
Weaknesses include lack of specificity and abstractness making them difficult to apply in complex real-world situations.

Dominates current personality assessments.
Traits categorized into dimensions, such as:
- Type A vs. Type B personalities.
- Myers-Briggs dimensions (Introversion vs. Extroversion, Thinking vs. Feeling).
The Big Five Personality Traits:
- Extraversion: Extrovert vs. Introvert.
- Agreeableness: Agreeable vs. Disagreeable.
- Conscientiousness: Focused vs. Lazy.
- Emotional Stability: Neurotic vs. Emotionally stable.
- Openness: Open vs. Closed to experiences.

Big-5 Mini-Test:
- Participants rate adjectives that apply to themselves on a scale.
- Each dimension scores range from 8 to 72.
- Different score ranges categorize levels: low (8-29), average (30-50), and high (51-72).

Lack of overarching theory to define core personality dimensions.
Measurement challenges:
- Ambiguity of Traits: Words may have different interpretations (e.g., ‘bold’ vs. ‘aggressive’).
- Desire for Social Acceptance: Responses might be skewed towards favorable traits.
- Actual Self-Knowledge: Limited self-awareness complicates accurate assessment.
Validity Issues:
- Predictive validity: Low correlations with actual behavior (typically below r = 0.3 signifies weak predictive capacity).
- Construct validity: Conflicting outcomes might occur due to social desirability bias.

Situational contexts heavily influence individual behavior.
Examples:
- A person might act aggressively in different settings (e.g., dinner parties vs. sports fields).
- Fundamental Attribution Error: Misattributing behavior to personality rather than context due to limited situational information.

General Intelligence: Refers to learning abilities influenced by genetics and environmental factors.
Measurement and Impact:
- IQ Tests: Detect patterns in reasoning, social skills, and more; have limited correlation with job performance (r ~ 0.21-0.27).
- Aptitude: Specific potential in domains like math or writing. Tailored aptitude tests can assist in effective personnel selection.

Individuals display distinctive personalities and intelligence, but relying on simplistic trait categorizations may inadequately explain unique behaviors.
Strengthen insight by adapting constructs through experiences, while acknowledging limits of generalizations in personality frameworks.
Future discussions may utilize Lewin's Field Theory to understand behaviors in psychological contexts relatable to specific situations.