Personality

Dr. Anshul Singh Thapa

Topic to be covered under this presentation

• Concept, Meaning, Definition of personality.
• Characteristics of personality
• Dimensions of personality
• Traits of personality its classification
• Factors affecting the development of personality.
• Athletic / Sports performance and personality.

Concept, Meaning and Definition of Personality

• In common dialect, personality is “what makes one individual different from another”. Personality is not something people possess in large or small quantities, nor it is concrete thing that is easily observable such as white skin or black hair. Rather it is what one is – a sum total of all his traits and attributes which go to make him a unique individual.
• The word personality is derived from persona which originally meant “theatrical mask” worn by actor in a play to denote various characters in ancient Greece. Later Carl Jung considered that ‘persona was at the outer edge of the self, the mask worn by a person in response to the demands of social civilization.
• If we wish to study personality, we must be ready to shift our attention rapidly from concrete person to abstract person.

• The concrete person might refer to observable dimension of personality such as physique, activities etc. the abstract person underlines intellectual, mental, spiritual and social qualities generally acquired and developed.
• When psychologist define personality, they tend refer to qualities within a person, characteristics of a person’s behavior, or both.
• Gordon Allport mentioned both inner qualities and behavior, but he emphasized the inner qualities: “Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment”.
• In more recent definition psychologist Walter Mischel mentioned both inner processes and behavior but emphasized behavior. Personality, he wrote, consist of “the distinctive patterns of behavior (including thoughts and emotions) that characterize each individual’s adaptation to the situation of his or her life”.

Concept of Personality

• One of the best way to understand personality is through its structure. Personality is divided into three separate but related levels: a psychological core, typical response and role related behavior (Hollander 1967, marten 1975)

Role related behavior

• How we act based on what we perceive our social situation to be is called role related behavior. This behavior is the most changeable aspect of personality: our behavior changes as our perception of the environment changes. Different situations require playing different roles.

Typical response

• Typical response are the ways we each learn to adjust to the environment or how we usually respond to the world around us.
• Often our typical responses are good indicator of our psychological core. That is, if we consistently respond to social situation by being quiet and shy, we are likely to be introverted.

Psychological core

• The most basic level of our personality is called the psychological core. The deepest component it includes, our attitude and values, interests and motives, and beliefs about ourselves and our self worth.
• In essence, the psychological core represents the centerpiece of our personality “the real we” not what we want others to think of us.

internal

external

dynamic

constant

Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

• Some important assumptions that differentiate this theory with other theories of Personality:
• Our Behaviour and feelings are powerfully affected by unconscious motives
• Our behaviour and feelings as adult are rooted in our childhood experiences.
• All behaviour has a cause (usually unconscious), even slip of tongue.
• Personality consist of three parts id, ego and superego
• Behaviour is motivated by two instinctual drives: Eros (the life instinct) and Thanatos (the death instincts). Both these comes from id.
• Part of the unconscious mind (id and superego) are in constant conflict with conscious mind (ego).
• Personality is shaped as these drives are modified by different conflicts at different times at childhood

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Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

• Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory is described in the following three main headings:
• Structure of Personality
• Topographical Model
• Structural Model
• Dynamics of Personality
• Defence Mechanisms
• Development of Personality
• Oral stage
• Anal stage
• Phallic stage
• Latency stage

Topographical Model

• Freud believed that the majority of what we experience in our lives, the underlying emotions, beliefs, feelings, and impulses are not available to us at a conscious level.  He believed that most of what drives us is buried in our unconscious.  If you remember the Oedipus and Electra Complex (Westermarck Effect), they were both pushed down into the unconscious, out of our awareness due to the extreme anxiety they caused.  While buried there, however, they continue to impact us dramatically according to Freud.
• The role of the unconscious is only one part of the model.  Freud also believed that everything we are aware of is stored in our conscious.  Our conscious makes up a very small part of who we are.  In other words, at any given time, we are only aware of a very small part of what makes up our personality; most of what we are is buried and inaccessible.
• The final part is the preconscious or subconscious.  This is the part of us that we can access if prompted, but is not in our active conscious.  Its right below the surface, but still buried somewhat unless we search for it.  Information such as our telephone number, some childhood memories, or the name of your best childhood friend is stored in the preconscious.

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• Because the unconscious is so large, and because we are only aware of the very small conscious at any given time, this theory has been likened to an iceberg, where the vast majority is buried beneath the water's surface.  The water, by the way, would represent everything that we are not aware of, have not experienced, and that has not been integrated into our personalities, referred to as the nonconscious.

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Psycho - analysis

• Psycho – analysis presented by Sigmund Freud is considered an important mile stone in the history of personality. Freud formulated a concept of the unconscious mind which ultimately became central to his personality theory.
• He linked mind to an ice berg, with most of it is hidden beneath the surface in the vast reservoir of the unconscious. According to Freud, memories, desires and feelings are repressed or suppressed into the unconscious mind because they are too painful or anxiety producing to be tolerated in conscious thought.
• To Freud the conscious was not the true reality. To understand a person’s personality, therefore, we must tap his/her unconscious.
• Freud believed that personality is composed of three primary interactive and often conflicting components – id, ego and superego.

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The Id

• According to Freud, id is the biological component of personality which is obscure, primitive and inaccessible. It can be reached only through analysis of dream. Much of its structure is of negative character and can be describe as being all that the ego is not.
• The id operates according to the pleasure principle, seeking immediate gratification of all instinctive derives regardless reason, impact that the behavior it motivates shall have. Values, morality and ethics are unknown to it.

The ego

• According to Freud, discovering of reality prompts the development of the ego as an product of the id. The ego develop gradually as the child interact and learn to cope with the external reality. It functions as an mediator between the instinctual demands of the id and the reality of the world.
• In fact the ego serve as the executive of the personality, making decisions regarding the pleasures which may be pursued at the urging of the id, and the morel dictates of the superego that will be followed.
• The ego operates by the reality principle or the tendency to satisfy the id’s demands realistically, sometimes delaying the gratification of desire springing from id, and sometimes relaxing the rules and regulations by the superego.

The superego

• While the id and the ego are considered as biological and psychological aspect of personality respectively, the superego is its social component – the internal representative of the ideas of society, the moral judge of conduct. It emerges as the infant become a child, it is a composite of the moral values and standards of parents and society that we incorporate into our personalities as we develop. The major concern of the superego is to decide whether an act is right or wrong. It operates by the morality principles.
• According to Freud, the superego is composed of two parts or sub-systems, the conscience and the ego-ideal. The conscience consist of moral inhibition (should nots) of behavior which stem from punishment. The ego-ideal comprises (shoulds) of behavior for which we receive approval/rewards, and to which we aspire.

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Characteristic of Personality

• Physical characteristics (Physique, Way of talking, walking, speaking etc.)
• Intellectual/ mental (perceptual process, interpretation of the information, understanding level etc.)
• Sociological (how popular and social an individual is like outgoing, easy to mingle etc.)
• Emotional (how strong one is under difficult situations)

Traits

Gordan Allport counted about 18,000 traitlike terms in the English language – terms that designated ‘distinctive and personal forms of behavior’. These terms, mostly adjectives, describes how people act, think, perceive and feel. Not all of these terms reflect personality traits, but many of them do. Allport (1961) believed that this rich collection of traitlike terms provided a way of capturing the uniqueness of each individual. He believed that this uniqueness could be described well in terms of individual’s traits, or ‘personal disposition’ at three level of generality.

The level of generality are:

Cardinal Traits

Central Traits

Secondary Traits

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Classifications of Traits

• Cardinal Traits: he defined cardinal traits as those which are so dominant that nearly all of the individual’s actions can be traced back to them. These broad highly influential traits are often called by names drawn from key figures. Each term describe a trait so broad and so deep in its impact that it overshadows the influence of other trait in the same individual. Allport believed that most people have no true cardinal traits but that when someone dose not have a cardinal trait it shows itself in virtually all of that person’s behavior.
• Central traits: for all those who are without a cardinal trait, central trait becomes crucial. Central traits he described as characterizing an individual behavior to some extent but not in such a complete way as cardinal trait. Allport describe central traits as those that might be the outstanding characteristics of an individual. An individual have more than 10 to 12 such central traits.

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• Finally, the least generalized characteristics of the person he labeled secondary traits. These are the trait that are influential but only within a narrow range of situations. Normally it is an individual’s likes and preferences

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Dimension of Personality (Mc Crae & Costa, 1996)

• The "Big Five" factors of personality are five broad domains or dimensions of personality which are used to describe human personality. The Big Five factors and their constituent traits can be summarized as follows:
• Neuroticism characterizes the tendency to experience negative emotions. Typical adjectives describing neuroticism are moody, nervous, and touchy.
• Extraversion characterizes sensation seeking and the quantity and the intensity of interpersonal relationships. Typical adjectives describing extraversion are sociable, assertive, and energetic.
• Openness to experience characterizes autonomous thinking, a willingness to examine unfamiliar ideas, and an inclination to try new things. Typical adjectives describing openness are inquisitive, philosophical, and innovative.
• Agreeableness characterizes the quality of interpersonal interactions along a continuum from social antagonism to compassion. Typical adjectives describing agreeableness are kind, considerate, and generous.
• Lastly, conscientiousness characterizes a sense of duty, persistence, and self-disciplined goal-directed behavior. Typical adjectives describing conscientiousness are organized, responsible, and efficient.

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Factors affecting development of personality

I. Heredity

It provides the child with certain endowments. Hereditary factors may be summed as constitutional and biological factors:

• Constitutional Factors

The constitution of an individual is an effective factor in determining the type of his Personality. There can be 3 bodily types of personality- (1) short and stout, (2) tall and thin, (3) muscular and well Proportioned. We are always impressed by an individual who has a muscular and a well proportioned body. Height, Weight, physical defects, health and strength affect Personality.

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• Biological Factors

The working of the nervous system, glands and blood chemistry determines our characteristics and habitual modes of behaviour. These factors form the biological basis of our personality. Adrenal gland, thyroid gland, pituitary gland and endocrine gland affect personality. Adler points out that personality defects lead to the development of inferiority complex and the mental mechanism of compensation. This aspect also includes the mental ability of the child.

II. INTELLIGENCE

Intelligence is mainly hereditary. Persons who are very intelligent can make better adjustment in home, school and society than those who are less intelligent.

III. SEX DIFFERENCES

Sex differences play a vital role in the development of personality of individual. Boys are generally more assertive and vigorous. They prefer adventures. Girls are quieter and more injured by personal, emotional and social problems.

IV. NERVOUS SYSTEM

Development of personality is influenced by the nature of nervous system.

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V. ENVIRONMENT

The sociologists emphasize that the personality of the individual develops in a social environment. It is in the social environment, that he comes to have moral ideas, social attitudes and interests. This enables him to develop a social ‘self which is another term for personality. The important aspects of the environment are as follows:

A. Physical Environment

It includes the influence of climatic conditions of a particular area or country on man and his living.

B. Social Environment

The child has his birth in the society. He learns and lives there. Hence, the social environment has an important say in the personality development of the child.

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C. Family Environment

Family is the cradle of all social virtues. The first environment, the child moves in, is his home. Here the child comes in contact with his parents and other family member his likes, dislikes, stereotypes about people, expectancies of security and emotional responses all are shaped in early childhood. The type of training and early childhood experiences received from the family play an important role in the development of personality. Besides this, economic factors i.e., economic condition of the family and the type of relations between the parents also influence the personality of the child.

D. Cultural Environment

The cultural environment refers to certain cultural traditions, ideals, and values etc., which are accepted in a particular society. All these factors leave a permanent impression on the child’s personality.

E. School Environment

Schools play an important role in molding the personality of the children because a significant part of a child’s life is spent in school between the ages of 6 and 20 years. In the school, the teacher substitutes the parents. The school poses new problems to be solved, new taboos to be accepted into the superego and new models for imitation and identification, all of which contribute their share in molding personality

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Athletic / Sports performance and personality

The 1930s to 1960s have been described as a rather stagnated period for sport and exercise psychology research (Weinberg & Gould, 2011) but one area that continued to prosper and dominated the field throughout this period was personality research. This included:

• descriptive reports of personality profiles of successful athletes (Thune, 1949),
• developmental changes in personality and achievement in physical education (Sperling, 1942)
• personality differences between athletes and non-athletes (Carter & Shannon, 1940),
• descriptive personality reports of female athletes (Fleming, 1934),
• personality differences between athletes competing in different sports (Booth, 1958) or different physical activity groups (Flanagan, 1951),
• personality predictors of sport and exercise participation (Fauqier, 1940), and
• personality determinants of performance outcomes (La Place, 1954) and performance quality (Merriman, 1960).

Level of performance

• The relationship between personality and sport performance has been investigated using a variety of research designs. One particular approach has been to compare personality test scores of athletes competing at a lower performance level with those competing at a higher performance level.
• Findings from small sample studies have generally shown few personality differences between elite and recreational level athletes (Davis & Mogk, 1994; Frazier, 1987; Gat & McWhirter, 1998). However, large sample studies have demonstrated important differences that point towards elite athletes being more extraverted and emotionally stable than recreational level athletes (Egloff & Gruhn, 1996; Kircaldy, 1982a; Williams & Parkin, 1980).

Regular starters and non-regular starters

• Other research has explored performance differences by comparing personality profiles of starting athletes with non-starting athletes and by correlating personality test scores with competition performance.
• Generally, regular starters and non-regular starters have not shown any meaningful differences in personality characteristics (Evans & Quarterman, 1983; Garland & Barry, 1990) and personality measures have not been particularly successful in predicting single-match success (Morgan, 1968; Rogulj, Nazor, Srhoj, & Božin, 2006).

Long-term Success & Short-term Success

• Two further approaches include studies correlating personality test scores with season-long performance indicators and small but significant effects have been observed between personality and season-long performance indicators (Piedmont, Hill, & Blanco, 1999; Sindik, 2010)
• Studies comparing athletes who progress to professional level with those that do not progress to professional level. Large effects have been observed between personality and progression to an elite level of competition (Aidman, 2007; Gee, Marshall, & King, 2010; Martin, Malone, & Hilyer, 2011; Morgan & Johnson, 1978).
• For example, the study by Aidman (2007) found that personality test scores of elite junior football players could predict whether they had progressed to professional level seven years later. Although more critical tests are required, these findings suggest that long-term success in sport is partly a function of personality whereas short-term success is unrelated to personality.

Personality and Success in Sports

• Researchers have begun to explore how personality dimensions relate to behaviours associated with success in sport. For instance, a recent study of British gymnasts demonstrated that conscientiousness was positively associated with athletes’ quality of preparation in the lead up to competition and emotional stability was positively associated with effective coping during competition (Woodman, Zourbanos, Hardy, Beattie, & McQuillan, 2010).
• Other studies show that athletes with low levels of agreeableness, extraversion, and/or emotional stability are more prone to aggressive behaviours, athletes with low levels of openness and/or emotional stability are more prone to using avoidance coping strategies, and athletes with high levels of conscientiousness, extraversion, and/or emotional stability are more prone to using problem-focused coping strategies.

Moderating effects of Personality on Sport Performance

• In addition to the direct effects observed between personality and outcomes, important moderating effects have also been identified in athletic samples. Indeed, the degree to which sport performance is influenced by the presence of an audience (Graydon & Murphy, 1995) and the degree to which emotions have positive or negative effects on sport performance (Woodman et al., 2009) have been shown to be moderated by extraversion. Specifically, extraverted athletes appear to outperform introverted athletes when an audience is present but not when there is no audience present and anger appears to have a positive effect on sport performance but only for athletes with high levels of extraversion.

• These emerging findings provide an alternative approach to researching and understanding personality effects in sport and further research into the moderating role of personality would be particularly valuable to practicing sport psychologists designing interventions that target the psychological constructs under investigation. Collectively, the available data show that personality has an important role in sport performance but further research is required to provide more detailed information about effect sizes (for each of the five dimensions) and how personality relates to other important factors associated with success in sport (e.g. burnout, leadership). Because personality has the potential to moderate important relationships in sport it is important to understand how personality differs across discrete athletic populations so that practitioners can tailor their interventions towards the particular client or context in which they are operating.

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References

• Kum. Paramma. B. Kuravatti and Dr. Rajkumar. P. Malipatil (2017) Factors Affecting Of Personality Development, Proc. of Int. Conf. on Current Trends in Eng., Science and Technology, ICCTEST
• Allen, Mark & Greenlees, Iain & Jones, Marc. (2013). Personality in sport: A comprehensive review. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology. 6. 184-208. 10.1080/1750984X.2013.769614.
• Allsopp, J., Eysenck ,H.J., & Eysenck ,S.B.G.(1991. Machiavellianism as a component in psychoticism and extraversion. Personality and Individual Differences, 12, 29-41.
• Cox, RH 2000, personality and the athletes, Sports Psychology; Concept and application, fifth ed. NY, Tata Mcgraw Hill.
• Eysenck, H. J., Nias, D.K.B ., & Cox D.N. (1982). Sport and personality, Advances in Behaviour Research & Theraphy, 4, 1-56.
• Jack, S.J., & Ronan, K .R. (1998) Sensation seeking among high -and low - risk sports participants. Personality and Individual differences, 25, 1063-1083.

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