Individual Differences: Personality and Values

Definition: Personality is a relatively enduring pattern of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize a person, along with psychological processes.
Personality Traits: These are categories of behavior tendencies that are evident across various situations.
Nature vs. Nurture of Personality:
- Nature: Heredity explains about 50\% of behavioral tendencies.
- Nurture: Socialization and learning also significantly influence personality.
- Stabilization: Personality tends to stabilize in young adulthood, with self-concept becoming clearer and more stable with age, and executive function regulating behavior. However, some personality factors can change throughout life.

This model describes personality across five broad traits:

Conscientiousness: Organized, dependable, goal-focused, thorough, disciplined, methodical, industrious.
Agreeableness: Trusting, helpful, good-natured, considerate, tolerant, selfless, generous, flexible.
Neuroticism: Anxious, insecure, self-conscious, depressed, temperamental (also referred to as Emotional Stability in its inverse).
Openness to Experience: Imaginative, creative, unconventional, curious, nonconforming, autonomous, aesthetically perceptive.
Extraversion: Outgoing, talkative, energetic, sociable, assertive.

Proficient Task Performance: Strongly predicted by Conscientiousness and Extraversion.
Adaptive Task Performance: Associated with Emotional stability, Extraversion (specifically assertiveness), and Openness to experience.
Proactive Task Performance: Linked to Extraversion (assertiveness) and Openness to experience.
Organizational Citizenship: Positively correlated with Conscientiousness and Agreeableness.
Counterproductive Work Behaviors: Negatively correlated with Conscientiousness and Agreeableness.
Further Information on Specific Traits:
- Effective leaders and salespeople are somewhat more extraverted.
- Openness to experience may predict creative work performance.
- Conscientiousness is a weak predictor of adaptive and proactive performance.
- Agreeableness predicts team member and customer service performance, but is a weak predictor of proficient and proactive performance.

Higher Big Five scores are not always better for every situation or role.
Specific traits within a broader factor may predict behavior better than the overall Big Five factor.
Personality is not entirely static; it can change over time.
The Five-Factor Model does not cover all aspects or concepts of personality.

This refers to a cluster of three socially undesirable personality traits:

Machiavellianism:
- Characterized by a strong motivation to achieve one's desires at the expense of others.
- Individuals believe deceit is natural and acceptable.
- They take pleasure in misleading, outwitting, and controlling others.
- Seldom empathize with or trust coworkers.
Narcissism:
- An obsessive belief in one's own superiority and entitlement.
- Manifests as an excessive need for attention.
- These individuals are often intensely envious.
Psychopathy:
- Individuals ruthlessly manipulate others without remorse, acting as