INTRODUCTION TO SELF

UNDERSTANDING
 THIS IS ME!
Introduce yourself through
different emotions and gestures.
Your audience will guess what
kind of person you are. Let’s Go!
PERSONALITY
The etymological derivative of personality comes from the word “persona”, the theatrical
masks worn by Romans in Greek and Latin drama. Personality also comes from the two Latin
words “per” and “sonare”, which literally means “to sound through”.
Personality have no single definition since different personality theories have different views
on how to define it. However, the commonly accepted definition of personality is that it is a
relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and
individuality to a person’s behavior (Roberts & Mroczek, 2008).
Personality plays a key role in affecting how people shape their lives. It involves the complex
relationship of people with their environment, how they cope and adjust through life, and how
they respond to demands of physical and social challenges.
Personality is the overall pattern or integration of a person’s structure, modes of behavior,
attitudes, aptitudes, interests, intellectual abilities, and many other distinguishable personality
traits. Personality is the conglomeration of the following components: physical self, intelligence,
character traits, attitudes, habits, interest, personal discipline, moral values, principles and
philosophies of life.
DETERMINANTS OF PERSONALITY
Environmental Factors of Personality
Biological Factors of Personality
❖hereditary factors or genetic
❖physical features
❖brain.
Situational Factors of Personality
Cultural Factors
PERSONALITY TRAITS
Personality traits reflect people’s characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors. Personality traits imply consistency and stability—someone who scores high
on a specific trait like Extraversion is expected to be sociable in different situations
and over time. Thus, trait psychology rests on the idea that people differ from one
another in terms of where they stand on a set of basic trait dimensions that persist
over time and across situations.
The most widely used system of traits is called the Five-Factor Model. This system
includes five broad traits that can be remembered with the acronym OCEAN:
Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Each of
the major traits from the Big Five can be divided into facets to give a more fine-
grained analysis of someone's personality. In addition, some trait theorists argue that
there are other traits that cannot be completely captured by the Five-Factor Model.
Critics of the trait concept argue that people do not act consistently from one
situation to the next and that people are very influenced by situational forces. Thus,
one major debate in the field concerns the relative power of people’s traits versus the
situations in which they find themselves as predictors of their behavior.
THE FIVE-FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY
Research that used the lexical approach showed that many of the personality
descriptors found in the dictionary do indeed overlap. In other words, many of the
words that we use to describe people are synonyms. Thus, if we want to know what a
person is like, we do not necessarily need to ask how sociable they are, how friendly
they are, and how gregarious they are. Instead, because sociable people tend to be
friendly and gregarious, we can summarize this personality dimension with a single
term. Someone who is sociable, friendly, and gregarious would typically be
described as an “Extravert.” Once we know she is an extravert, we can assume that
she is sociable, friendly, and gregarious.
The most widely accepted system to emerge from this approach was “The Big Five” or
“Five-Factor Model” (Goldberg, 1990; McCrae & John, 1992; McCrae & Costa,
1987). The Big Five comprises five major traits shown in the Figure 2 below. A way to
remember these five is with the acronym OCEAN (O is for Openness; C is for
Conscientiousness; E is for Extraversion; A is for Agreeableness; N is for Neuroticism).
Table 1. Descriptions of Personality Traits
Big 5 Trait Definition

Openness The tendency to appreciate new art, ideas, values, feelings, and
behaviors.

Conscientiousness The tendency to be careful, on-time for appointments, to follow

rules, and to be hard working.

Extraversion The tendency to be talkative, sociable, and to enjoy others; the

tendency to have a dominant style.

Agreeableness The tendency to agree and go along with others rather than to
assert one owns opinions and choices.

Neurotism The tendency to be frequently experience negative emotions such

as anger, worry, and sadness, as well as being interpersonally
sensitive.
Table 2. Example behaviors for those scoring low and high for the big 5 traits

Big 5 Trait Example Behavior for LOW Scorers Example Behavior for HIGH Scorers

Openness Prefers not to be exposed to alternative Enjoys seeing people with new types of
moral systems; narrow interest; inartistic; haircuts and body piercing; curious;
not analytical; down-to-earth imaginative; untraditional

Conscientiousness Prefers spur-of-the-moment action to Never late for a date; organized;

planning; unreliable; hedonistic; careless; hardworking; neat, persevering; punctual;
lax self-disciplined

Extraversion Preferring a quiet evening reading to a Being the life of the party’ active; optimistic;
loud party; sober; aloof; unenthusiastic fun-loving; affectionate

Agreeableness Quickly and confidently asserts own Agrees with other about political opinions;
rights; irritable; manipulative; good-natured; forgiving; gullible; helpful;
uncooperative; rude forgiving

Neurotism Not getting irritated by all annoyances; Constantly worrying about little things;
calm, unemotional; hardy; secure; self- insecure; hypochondrical; feeling inadequate
satisfied
WHO AM I?
Understanding of who you are as a person is called self-concept and understanding
what your motives are when you act is called self-understanding.
In definition, self-concept is generally thought of as our individual perceptions of our
behavior, abilities, and unique characteristics—a mental picture of who you are as a
person. For example, beliefs such as "I am a good friend" or "I am a kind person" are
part of an overall self-concept.
Self-concept tends to be more malleable when people are younger and still going
through the process of self-discovery and identity formation. As people age, self-
perceptions become much more detailed and organized as people form a better
idea of who they are and what is important to them.
ACCORDING TO THE BOOK ESSENTIAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BY RICHARD
CRISP AND RHIANNON TURNER:
▪The individual self consists of attributes and personality traits that
differentiate us from other individuals. Examples include
introversion or extroversion.
▪The relational self is defined by our relationships with significant
others. Examples include siblings, friends, and spouses.
▪The collective self reflects our membership in social groups.
Examples include British, Republican, African-American, or gay.
At its most basic, self-concept is a collection of beliefs one holds
about oneself and the responses of others. It embodies the answer
to the question "Who am I?".
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING