PSY1APP Week 9 - Personality and Its Applications to the Workplace PDF

PSY1APP Week 9 The Self Pt 2 – Personality and Its Applications to the Workplace K AT JA P ETROV IC What do these have in common?  What makes people similar to/different from each other? P E R S O N A L I T Y I S C O M M O N LY D E F I N E D A S : “INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN C H A...

PSY1APP Week 9 The Self Pt 2 – Personality and Its Applications to the Workplace K AT JA P ETROV IC What do these have in common?  What makes people similar to/different from each other? P E R S O N A L I T Y I S C O M M O N LY D E F I N E D A S : “INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN C H A R AC T E R I S T I C PAT T E R N S O F T H I N K I N G, F E E L I N G A N D B E H AV I N G.” ( A M E R I C A N P S YC H O L O G I C A L A S S O C I AT I O N , 2 0 2 2 )  Some major perspectives on personality Psychodynamic Theories: Humanistic Theories: Focus on the inner workings Focus on private, Self-image Self-esteem of the self, especially subjective experience unconscious internal conflicts and personal growth Ideal self (covered in week 8) Behavioural Theories: This week: Focus on external Personality Trait environment and on Theories: Empirical effects of conditioning attempts to learn and and learning describe what traits make (covered in week 1) up personality and how they relate to behaviour Hans Eysenck Arranged human personality along two dimensions: Stable – Later he added Extraversion – Unstable(aka a third Introversion Neuroticism) dimension: Psychoticism  Introversion-Extraversion Extraverts: Introverts: Prefer stimulation, crowds, loud parties Prefer solitary and big gatherings. Tend to have large activities and small friendship groups. Get energy from gatherings, tend to socialising have a small group of friends. Energy is depleted when socialising Neuroticism Aka emotional instability. Neurotic people are prone to anxiety and/or depression and tend to have poor coping strategies. They are self- conscious, vulnerable, insecure and may overreact to perceived threats Eysenck’s Personality Inventory  More systematic approaches (Allport & Cattell) Allport (1937) reviewed Cattell (1949) reduced the the dictionary to find list to 171 by eliminating Other researchers later 18,000 descriptive terms of similar traits, and used reduced the list of 16 to 5 which he identified 4,500 factor analysis to reduce basic traits personality traits this to 16 basic source traits (which became the 16PF) 4,500 16 5  The NEO Personality Inventory(NEO-PI) Developed by Costa & McCrae in 1978 Easy acronym to remember: OCEAN The NEO Personality Inventory measures five factors Each factor falls along a continuum Each factor has 6 facets NEO-PI-R (NEO-PI-Revised) is gender and age normed FYI a short online version can be completed here: https://www.personalityassessor.com/ipip-120/ Openness to Experience High scorers are open- minded, like having new experiences, may be imaginative or creative, unconventional, curious, and have a wide range of interests Low scorers are more conventional or traditional, down-to-earth, may have rigid habits or routines, and a narrower range of interests Agreeableness High scorers are trusting, forgiving, warm, generous, tolerant, sympathetic, and cooperative Low scorers are cynical, sceptical, antagonistic, stubborn, and competitive  Conscientiousness High scorers are efficient, thorough, organised, methodical, and detail- oriented Low scorers are disorderly, leisurely, impulsive, disorganised, and careless How changeable is personality? Walter Mischel Trait theory - personality is stable across time and situations Research studies - personality varies: Over time Across situations (Mischel: found a small to moderate correlation between the traits that people displayed across situations)  Applications to Love ↓ Neuroticism is a substantial predictor of greater marital quality and stability, and less likelihood of divorce However, there is less consistency in the other traits. Why might this be? Perhaps compatibility plays an important role…  Applications to Love Compatibility ≠ similarity! In some studies, greater overall personality similarity predicts less marital satisfaction (and specifically in the domains of Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Agreeableness). Shiota, M. N., & Levenson, R. W. (2007). Birds of a feather don't always fly farthest: similarity in Big Five personality predicts more negative marital satisfaction trajectories in long-term marriages. Psychology and Aging, 22(4), 666.  Applications to Mental Health Many mental illnesses/disorders – ↑ Neuroticism “Lack of self-control” cluster: ↑ Neuroticism ↓ Agreeableness ↓ Conscientiousness This cluster is associated with various types of psychopathology, including addiction problems  Applications to Work The combination of: ↓ Neuroticism ↑ Conscientiousness ↑ Agreeableness predicts successful job performance across a variety of occupations …but is this the whole story?  Organisational Psychology Applies psychological principles to understanding people’s behaviour and performance in the workplace. e.g., personnel selection, training and professional development, performance, employees’ health and wellbeing, motivation and job satisfaction, work-life balance Factors of interest Performance Well-being Satisfaction reduce burnout and turnover Commitment Engagement (involvement and enthusiasm) Identification (alignment with employee’s goals and values, and those of the organisation / sense of purpose) “Person-organisation fit” (congruence between employee’s interests, personality and skills, and their job)  Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI; John Holland) Measure of personality (Self- Directed Search) applied to career-related interests Types are expressed as your top three interests, in order (e.g., SAI) Categories next to each other tend to go together 720 possible combinations  Realistic – “Doers” Prefer to work with things rather than ideas or people May enjoy working outdoors in nature or with animals Enjoy hands-on activities such as building, mechanics, machinery operation and sports May not be great with people Examples: electrician, engineer, mechanic, pilot, farmer, builder, military, conservation scientist Investigative – “Thinkers” Analytical, intellectual, curious Like to work with ideas and complex or abstract problems Enjoy research, mathematical or scientific activities Often work alone and aren’t interested in leadership Examples: biologist, chemist, anthropologist, physicist, optometrist, dentist  Artistic – “Creators” Expressive, imaginative, creative, non- conforming Prefer flexibility and non-structured settings Get very bored with repetitive or conventional work Examples: musician, stage director, writer, actor, interior designer, graphical designer  Social – “Helpers” Humanistic, friendly, generous, warm, concerned with the welfare of others Enjoy working with people rather than things Good interpersonal skills, like to solve problems through discussion and cooperation Avoid activities that are isolated or involve technical skills Examples: teacher, counsellor, nurse, clinical psychologist, speech therapist, disability support worker  Enterprising – “Persuaders” Adventurous, ambitious, attention seeking, popular, impulsive, self- confident Great public speakers; enjoy activities that require them to persuade or motivate others Do well in leadership roles May be seen as domineering Examples: entrepreneur, salesperson, manager, TV presenter, sports promoter, motivational speaker, lawyer Conventional – “Organisers” Detail-oriented, efficient, orderly, practical, reliable, systematic Enjoy maintaining and manipulating data, organising schedules and operating equipment Prefer well-defined activities and are good at working with a chain of command May lack artistic ability Examples: accountant, stock broker, budget analyst, admin worker, banker, auditor What three-letter Holland code would this person have?  2. Activities 3. Competencies 4. Occupations The Self- What sort of things interest you? Are you currently good at this Would this sort of job be of interest Directed Search activity? to you? 1. Occupational Daydreams What did you want to be when you “grew up”? Write down all the jobs you can remember 1. _______________________ 2. _______________________ 3. _______________________ 4. _______________________ 5. _______________________  The Self- Directed Search Scores are tallied and a three- letter code is derived The code is then matched with the Career Finder – a list of job suggestions for each three-letter code https://www.onetonline.org/explore/interests/ How useful is the VPI? Congruence between employee type and job type using the VPI predicts: Satisfaction Well-being However, the correlations are small to moderate (.20-.30) and research is mixed. It’s likely that there are many other factors that matter more, e.g., pay, working relationships, workplace conditions, stress, commute Furnham, A. (2001). Vocational preference and P–O fit: Reflections on Holland’s theory of vocational choice. Applied Psychology, 50(1), 5-29. Next Week Working with vulnerable people in the community Image from edweek.org