Industrial

Psychology

Topic
of
Personality

Assignment:

Submitted to:
Submitted by:
1

Dr.Anu Jhamb
Phutela

Osheen
B.E MBA-9th

Sem
UM11107

Acknowledgement
I have taken efforts in this assignment. However,
it would not have been possible without the kind
support and help of many individuals. I would like
to extend my sincere thanks to them.
I am highly indebted to Dr. Anu Jhamb for her
guidance and constant supervision as well as
providing necessary information regarding the
assignment & also her support.
I would like to express my gratitude to almighty
and my parents for their blessings, help and
encouragement that shall carry me a long way in
the journey of life on which I am about to embark
and my friends who constantly supported to
accomplish my work on time.
I hope that the work will be found worthy of
sincere efforts.
2

Osheen Phutela

Contents
1)Introduction
2)Idiographic Approach
06
3)Nomothetic Approach
4)Psychoanalytical Perspective
10
5)Structure of Personality
13
6)Defence Mechanism
15
7)Projective Tests
18
a) Rorschach Test
b)TAT
8)Role Playing or Visualization
21
a) Stereotyping
b)Brand Personality
9)Bibliography

04

07

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INTRODUCTION

In our routine life, we evaluate people we meet in everyday life. We

make subjective assessments of their behaviour, we note their
personal appearance and their mannerisms and listen to what they
have to say and watch what they do to make subjective judgement of
the personality of the person concerned.
Personality falls under the heading of things that most people believe
they understand. In fact, there is probably no domain within any field
of knowledge in which more people think they have achieved some
expertise. Simply, most people believe they can know or understand
other people. We all try to predict behaviour, interpret conversations,
and make inferences about others actions. If someone offends us, acts
strangely, or seems excessively kind, we will quickly try to
understand their motives. In addition, we often draw inferences about
what kind of people they are; that is, what personality traits they may
possess. Most of us regard ourselves as competent judges of
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personality. We make use of our skills in personality assessment on a

daily basis; however, most of us would have a difficult time
explaining exactly how we draw our conclusions about others.
Personality consists of physical, mental, moral and social qualities of
the individual. These qualities are dynamic and integrated: they can
be observed by other people in everyday life.
Personality comprises the individuals natural and acquired impulses,
habits, interests, sentiments, ideals, opinions, and beliefs as they are
projected to outside world. It consists of those relatively stable and
enduring aspects of individual which distinguish him from other
people and at the same time form the basis of our predictions
concerning his future behaviour.

There are six main schools of thought regarding personality:

Psychodynamic: focuses on unconscious motives and structures to
explain personality
Humanistic: focuses on the fundamental goodness of people and
their attempts to strive for higher levels of functioning.
Constitution (or
type): proposes a relationship between body
type and personality.
Characteristics:
Trait: examines stable characteristics of the person that help explain
behaviour
Social-cognitive (or sociocultural): focuses on environmental
contingencies and accompanying mental processes to explain
personality.

 Behavioural: focuses on the fundamentals of learning to explain

behaviour
In industries nowadays, it is essential to justify personality because of
its increasing role in testing the capabilities of employee during his
selection and development. The study of personality comprises:
Research approaches to study of personality
Psychoanalytical perspective
Visualization( role playing)., etc
Research Approaches
There are two fundamental approaches to the study of personality:
Idiographic Approach,
Nomothetic Approach.

IDIOGRAPHIC APPROACH
Idiographic comes from Greek word, idios which roughly translates
into what is uniquely yours. And thats what the idiographic
approach does: it looks at what is unique in each person when it
comes to personality
This approach operates on the belief that individual is not just a
collection of separate traits, but is a well-integrated organism. The
individual reacts as a system to various situations, with the past
experience and future intentions contributing to present behaviour.
Psychologists adopting idiographic perspective are concerned with
understanding the uniqueness of individuals and the development of
the self-concept. In this approach measurement of traits is seen as
inappropriate because one persons responses may not be comparable
to anothers. That is, psychologists advocating idiographic approach
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believe that the individual is not just a collection of separate traits, but
is well integrated organism. They hold that individual reacts as a
system to various situations with past experiences and future
intentions contributing to present behaviour.
Psychologists advocating idiographic approach believe that individual
shape his personality through learning. In academic literature learning
is defined as process of acquiring knowledge through experience
which leads to an enduring change in behaviour. We use knowledge of
the results of past behaviour to change, modify and improve our
behaviour in future. You learn to write better assignments and get
higher examination grades by finding out how well or how badly you
did last time and why.

Hence idiographic approach to study of personality is associated with

social learning that that propose explanation as how personality and
human behaviour forms.

NOMOTHETIC APPROACH:
The nomothetic approach to personality looks at what people have in
common with each other. It comes from the Greek word nomos,
which means 'law and the nomothetic approach is interested in finding
patterns or laws of human personality.
Extroversion is one of several traits identified by nomothetic
psychologists when trying to figure out general patterns in personality.
Essentially, these psychologists look at traits like extroversion or
conscientiousness and say, 'This person is extroverted and organized,'
or 'That person is introverted and disorganized.'
In the nomothetic approach, then, a person's unique personality is a
result of the combination of general traits that they display.

Nomothetic psychologists measure personality via psychometrics, or

measuring traits using tests or experiments. To them, a person can
take a personality test and their score on different traits will give an
outline of who they are. For example, one might score pretty low as
far as being high-strung is concerned, whereas other might score
pretty high. Either way, they are getting a score for that or other traits
or it is their composite that will tell them who they are.
The main objective of the nomothetic approach is the isolation of one
or more of the variables of personality. This is done by measuring the
variables sufficiently under controlled conditions, using a sufficiently
large test sample. It is hoped that the relationship between the traits
and the behaviour is generalizable and repeatable in other samples of
people at other times. This approach is fundamentally opposed to the
idiographic approach.

The final comment on the weakness of the idiographic approach and

nomothetic approach to personality will be reserved for somebody
who has made a close study of personality.
Lazarus makes point that the idiographic approach is too global and
does not possess valued scientific features, such as controlled
observation, precision of measurement or repeatability. Even the
nomothetic approach is not considered correct one, because
distortions arise in any analysis when components parts are studied in
isolation and when there is a failure to examine the full range of
reactions to the variety of lifes circumstances.

Idiographic Approach

Nomothetic Approach

Definition

The approach of
investigating individuals in
personal, in-depth detail to
achieve a unique
understanding of them.

The approach of investigating

large groups of people in order
to find general laws of
behaviour that apply
to everyone

Assumptions

Idios= private or personal

in ancient Greek; this
approach assumes that
humans are unique.

Methodology

Qualitative methods are best;

case study method will
provide a more complete and
global understanding of the
individual who should be
studied using flexible, long

Nomos= laws in ancient Greek;

this approach assumes that an
individual is a complex
combination of many universal
laws; it is best to study people
On a large scale.
Quantitative Experimental
methods are best to identify the
universal laws governing
behaviour. The individual will
be classified with others and
measured as a score upon a
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Examples
from
psychology

Advantages

terms and detailed

procedures in order to put
them in a class of their
own.
-Freud (1909) the clinical
case study method (patients
interviewed over a long
period of time, notes of his
interpretations, unstructured
techniques (free association),
and he wrote up his notes at
the end of the day to allow a
more free and natural
expression of the patients
thoughts and feelings.
-Piaget (1953) longitudinal
studies of cognitive
development of his children,
keeping frequent notes and
using the flexible clinical
interview method and
informal experiments to gain
detailed and ecologically
valid understanding.
-Gardner and Gardner
(1969) spent long-time
interacting with and
observing the chimpanzee
Washoe as they tried to teach
him sign language.
More complete and global
understanding of an
individual; sometimes the
most efficient; often lead to
results that spark off
experimental investigation of
behaviour.

dimension, or be a statistic
supporting a general principle
(averaging).
The nomothetic approach is the
main approach within
scientifically oriented
psychology.
Behaviourism: experiments
with animals (rats, cats and
pigeons)_establish laws of
learning (B.F. Skinner e.g.).
Social psychology: Milgram
e.g. used the nomothetic
approach and made general
conclusions on the basis of his
research.
Psychological theories that
propose generalised principles
of behaviour have nomothetic
assumptions (e.g. intelligence
theory of IQ)
Classification manuals like
the
DSM-IV classify people
according to particular types of
disorders.

In line with the deterministic,

law abiding nature of science,
useful in predicting and
controlling behaviour;
nomothetic findings on
prejudice and discrimination
perhaps helpful (_reduce
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Disadvantage
s

Difficult to generalise
findings; Freud and Piaget
created universal theories on
the basis of a limited and
unrepresentative
sample; Idiographic research
tends to be more
unreliable and unscientific
(subjective, long term &
unstandardized procedures)

discrimination)
Superficial understanding of
any one person; even if two
persons have same IQ they
may have answered different
Questions in the test; a person
may have 1% chance of
developing depression (but is
he among the 1%?);
classification manuals are not
accurate and does not help
people.

PSYCHOANALYTICAL PERSPECTIVE

Since the dawn of time human beings have been attempting to

develop means of explanation for the actions of others as well as the
internal mechanisms that direct and control the way we all think.
However, it wasnt until fairly recently on Earths timeline that
individuals began to construct psychological theories through the
exploration of events that occurred throughout an individuals
childhood.
The psychoanalytic perspective, most frequently associated with the
renowned psychologist, Sigmund Freud, is a psychological theory that
revolves around the unconscious mind and how an individuals
childhood experiences have shaped it. Freud constructed the theory as
an explanation for mysterious phenomena such as the meaning behind
dreams, slips of the tongue, and behavioural reflex reactions to
stressful situations. The unconscious is a primary focus in
psychoanalytic theory due to its typical development in youth and the
ways in which it influences nearly every aspect of an individuals life.
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The unconscious mind also holds repressed memories and

unexpressed urges that make their way into the conscious mind
through a variety of different means.
Freuds greatest contribution to understanding of human behaviour
was probably his recognition of the power the unconscious has in
directing that behaviour. This could be discussed with the reference
of:
Levels of Awareness
Structure of personality
Defence mechanism
Levels of Awareness
Freud classified awareness into three levels*Conscious
*Preconscious
*unconscious
Conscious: includes everything that we are aware of. This
is the aspect of our mental processing that we can think
and talk about rationally. A part of this includes our
memory, which is not always part of consciousness but can
be retrieved easily at any time and brought into our
awareness. Freud called this the preconscious.
Preconscious: Is the part of the mind that represents
ordinary memory. While we are not consciously aware of
this information at any given time, we can retrieve it and
pull it into consciousness when needed.
Unconscious: Is a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges,
and memories that outside of our conscious awareness.
Most of the contents of the unconscious are unacceptable
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or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict.

According to Freud, the unconscious continues to
influence our behaviour and experience, even though we
are unaware of these underlying influences.
Unconscious could be further divided into two:
o Unconscious concern: It is the third level of awareness-the
unconscious mind-concerns that of which we are totally
unaware, and therefore cannot normally be brought into
awareness. The material in the unconscious mind comprises
drives, desires, urges, some memories, and deep rooted moral
standards.
o Unconscious motivation: It follows that the individual can be
motivated by forces in unconscious mind of which he or she is
unaware, called unconscious motivation. E.g, one may here
reference to an individuals behaviour as being entirely out of
character and difficult to explain, or recognise a persons
behaviour as being due to strange impulse. These are examples
of a lack of insight into forces that are motivating the individual.
Psychotherapy or hypnosis could be used to gain a clearer
understanding of the unconscious factors that motivate
behaviour.

Structure of Personality

According to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality,

personality is composed of three elements each with different
functions: The Id, the Ego, and the superego that work together to
create complex human behaviours.
Id:
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The Id is the biological basis of personality. It consists of the inherited

characteristics of the individual and can be viewed as a collection of
instinctive desires, urges, or needs, all demanding immediate
gratification. It is concerned with trying to maintain balance between
the forces within the person that produce conflict and tension. The Id
finds these conflicts difficult to accept and is therefore keen to reduce
them.
The Id tends to be irrational and impulsive; it adheres to the pleasure
principle. That is, it invites and accepts pleasure and tries to avoid
displeasure. It has no values, no sense of right or wrong, no moral
standards, and no consideration for other people. The Id is cut off
from the external world because it is completely in frequently kept in
check by the ego, it is forces to fantasise in order to relieve tension.
The main force energising the Id is libido. The libido, which is sexual
in nature, is also concerned with self-preservation. Freud also
concluded that aggression might be an important instinct, and if put
into action could in extreme cases, result in masochism, self-injury,
and suicide.
Ego:
The new born child has no ego. Exposed to grim realities-cold, thirst,
hunger, noise etc- which can produce anxiety, and powerless to be rid
of these disturbing situation, help is only forthcoming from those
close to the child. It is the confluence of forces in the environment
acting on the surface of the Id that contributes to the formation of
separate mental process called the Ego. The internal part of Id will
remain latent as its external part is transformed into the preconscious
ego.
The infantile ego is dimly aware of the external world and tends to be
narcissistic- as its needs are met, so it is happy. Objects responsible
for the gratification of its needs come from outside. As a child grows
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up he or she become less narcissistic and begins to recognise the

omnipotence of the outer world that satisfies his or her needs. The
Ego gradually becomes able to protect the growing child from the
internal threats from the Id, as well as external threats; in fact, it is the
main mental force controlling behaviour in the well-adjusted adult.
The Ego pursues pleasure but it seeks to unpleasant situation.
Unlike Id, which is intent on the immediate gratification of instinctual
urges, the Ego is capable of logical reasoning and learning by
experience. It clings to the task of self-preservation and postpones or
suppresses demands made by instinct when it feels that meeting these
demands would be disadvantage of the organism.
There are times when the ego is caught off balance, and impulses
from the Id reach the level of conciseness in disguised forms. The
psychotherapist is then offered scope such as slips of the tongue,
jokes, and so on. IN sleep the Ego serves contact with the external
world and permits the Id to express itself. Anxiety is said to develop
when the ego is experiencing difficulty facing the demands of the Id.
Super-ego:
The super-ego is new mental process that develops a result of the
weakness of the infantile ego. Eventually it represents the standards
and ethical values acquired from parents and society in general.
Initially, however it represents the voice of the parents and their moral
standards, as perceived by the child. It may be childish and irrational,
imposing rigid restriction that persists into adulthood without much
consideration for the changed circumstances. The super-ego is mostly
unconscious- this if the ego does not live up to its expectations, then
conflict develops. When there is conflict, the aggressive fores stored
in the super-ego turns against the ego with accusation, creating
feelings of depression and guilt.

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Depression is said to be self-directed aggression. The manic

depressive oscillates between the joy and happiness resulting from the
approving super-ego, and the tortures resulting from the feeling of
guilt, and depression when super-ego becomes sadistic. At a less
severe level, the superego is evident when the individual claims to
feel bad about something he or she has or has not done and is troubled
by his conscience. When somebody feels proud of something they
have done, self-congratulation comes into play, no doubt with the
approval of the super ego.
As the individual gets older, the super-ego gradually draws away from
the infantile images of the parent; it becomes more impersonal and
more related to the objective and ethical standards to which the
individual subscribers. In the course of its development, an
individuals super-ego takes over from the parent substitutes such as
teachers, admired figures in public life, or high social ideals.

Defence Mechanism:
The interaction of the three aspects of personality structure produces
constant strife. Id , the psychic powerhouse, a lawless mob of
instinctual urges demands release; super-ego the harsh unbending
moralist, demands total inhibition of these urges; ego, the rational
decision maker, has to try to keep the peace between these two forces
and to take into account the demand of external reality. It is argued
that the ego needs reinforcements to function adequately. These are
called Ego defence mechanisms and they shed light on our
understanding of the behaviour of people.
It consists of 6 major strategies, to protect ego from the excessive
demands of the id and super-ego and to cope with external reality.
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1) Repression: the process by which Ego protects itself from

damage or discomfort by denying the existence of a potential
threat from within.
2) Suppression: As a contrast to repression, suppression amounts to
the conscious control of desires, fantasies, wishes, or memories.
It appears to be healthier form of defence, for in suppressing a
desire a conscious decision is made that, for the time being at
least; it will not find expression in its present form.
3) Projection: By this mechanism whereby feelings that create
acute discomfort are projected onto the object or another person.
In this case, the disturbing emotions can be blamed on the other
person. The manager who continually interprets other
employees behaviour as conspirational or politically inspired
might have such tendencies.
4) Fixation: by this mechanism Ego is protected by not proceeding
from a particular stage of personality development.as far as this
aspect is concerned, it tends to become fixated at an immature
level.
5) Regression: by this mechanism Ego reverts to an earlier form of
behaviour when confronted by a threat.
6) Reaction Formation: This is a mechanism whereby ego copes
with undesirable impulses or desires by developing a pattern of
behaviour that is direct opposite of those impulses or desires.
Defence mechanisms are entirely unconscious and the person is
aware of using them. When used successfully, they become a
normal feature of coping behaviour whereby the individual can
resolve personal conflicts. They also play a crucial part in the
development of characteristics of personality. If used
unsuccessfully, the ego cannot cope and neurosis or psychosis may
result.
Applications

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Application of the psychoanalytical perspective has focused on the

behaviour of managers in work organizations. Vries and Miller
(psychoanalysts) identified five neurotic styles among managers:
Paranoid: tend to be suspicious of others, and are exceptionally
vigilant for hidden threats.
Compulsive. They tend to be perfectionist in what they do and
are concerned with the right way of doing things.
Dramatic: they frequently draw attention to themselves, and
show a desire for activity and excitement.
Depressive: they display feelings of guilt, inadequacy, and
hopelessness.
Schizoid: they show symptoms of withdrawal, lack of
involvement, lack of excitement or enthusiasm.

Psychoanalytical theories of personality, such as Freuds, are often

criticised by other psychologists for the lack of scientific rigour,
and for the lack of a satisfactory definition of their key concept, for
their scientific rigour, and for the fact that either the theories do not
generate testable predictions about human behaviour or, when
predictions are made, they do not work out in practice.

PROJECTIVE TESTS:
An appropriate way to asses personality based on unconscious
process is to use assessment methods that include face to face
analysis and projective techniques.

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Projective techniques require a person to respond to ambiguous or

unstructured situations as means of exploring unconscious
impulses and motives. Subject is unaware of the purpose of the
test; consequently the egos defences are off guard, and
unconscious forces emerge in disguised form. It is the job of the
assessor to interpret these responses. Two well-known projective
tests are:

Rorschach Test
Thematic Test

RORSCHACH TEST:
The Rorschach test consists of a series of 10 inkblots or formless
shapes in which half is the mirror image of other.
The subject is asked to say what the blot resembles. The abnormal
personality is likely to perceive gruesome or horrific images in the
blot, and this may be indicative of serious conflicts which are still
unresolved. The normal personality sees more tranquil images.

THEMATIC APPRECIATION TEST (TAT)

The Thematic appreciation test (TAT) consists of 20 pictures of

varying degree of clarity. An example of a straightforward scene
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would be a boy reading on the desk. The subject examines each

picture and then tells a story about the scenes portrayed, including
what led up to the scene, the current situation, and what is likely to
happen in the future. The respondent are analysed and recurrent
themes mentioned in the stories are particularly noted. A subject who
harbours intense hostility in one or another form, such as severe
conflict or death, into the stories.

Whereas some psychologists find projective tests useful in providing

initial clinical insights, others are sceptical of their values in assessing
unconscious processes and believe that subjects can quite easily fake
the tests.

ROLE PLAYING or VISUALIZATION

Role playing and visualization techniques have been used to create
personality description of consumers.
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These can be classified as Stereotyping and Brand Personality.

STEREOTYPING
Stereotyping is the process of labelling people on the basis of a
single attribute. Certain form of stereotyping can be useful and
efficient.
Example, supposing that a manager believes that communication
skills are important for a particular job and that speech
communication major tends to have exceptionally good
communication skills. As a result, whenever he interviews
candidate for jobs he pays especially close attention to speech
communication majors. To the extent that communication skills
truly predict job performance and that majoring in speech
communication does indeed provide those skills, this form could be
beneficial attribute.

BRAND PERSONALITY
In recent years the emphasis has switched to brand personality. Apart
from a brands physical and functional attributes, the image and
symbolism portrayed by the product is considered very important. But
the images and symbolism must have meaning and significance in the
minds of consumers. E.g the poison brand of fragrance could evoke
a perception of danger, and obsession brand may be perceived as
erotic by some consumers but not by others
The qualitative researchers thereby emphasise brand personality and
product symbolism. Some might be consider their techniques-for
example, role playing, psychodrama, and clay modelling-to is
controversial, but they certainly generate challenging hypothesis.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Harris O.Jeff, Hartman Sandra J., Organizational Behaviour,
west publishing company, 1992.
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 Griffin Ricky, Moorhead Gregory, Organizational Behaviour,

Managing people and Organization, Cengage learning, 2008.
McKenna Eugene F., Business psychology and Organization
Behaviour, Psychology press limited 2008.
https://blog.udemy.com/psychoanalytic-perspective/
http://study.com/academy/lesson/researching-personality-traitsnomothetic-and-idiographic-analysis.html
http://www.toddkshackelford.com/downloads/Personality
%202ed%20lecture%20chapters%201-20.pdf

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