Week 3, Monday Lecture Outline

Personality and Individual
Behavior in Organizations

Week 3, Monday

Psychology 360

Outline

• I. Key aspects of personality
• II. Variables of personality
• III. Relating personality to behavior
• IV. Ethics of personality evaluation

Key Aspects of Personality

• Uniqueness:
  • dispositions make you special
• Consistency:
  • your dispositions are enduring

Variables of personality

• Traits:
  • stable patterns of behavior over time
• Motives:
  • stable patterns of goals and needs over time
• Cognitions:
  • stable ways of thinking

Relating Personality to
Behavior

• Claim:
  • your dispositions determine your behaviors
• Organizational goal:
  • to know which dispositions produce desirable behaviors
• Debate:
  • what determines behavior? Personality dispositions or organizational characteristics?

Example: Characters from "Seinfeld"
Individuals with unique pattern of traits

• Jerry:
  • low on neuroticism, high on extraversion
• George:
  • high on neuroticism, low on agreeableness, low on conscientiousness
• Kramer:
  • high on neuroticism, low on conscientiousness, high on openness to experience
• Elaine:
  • high on extraversion

Ethics of Personality
Evaluation

• Tests:
  • objective (NEO-PI)
  • projective (TAT)
• Two issues:
  • reliability
  • validity

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Revised - January 25, 1997