Chapter 4: Social Aspect of Personality
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Social Aspect of Personality
a.Importance of Social Aspect in Personality
b.Social Norms and Values.
c. Karen Horney Neurotic Needs and Tendencies
Communication and Body Language
a.Importance of Communication, Listening and Bady Language Skills
b.Barriers and Hindrances in Communication
c. Albert Bandura: Social Learning Theory
Social Aspect of Personality
A person’s social life consists of the various bonds they form with others, such as
family, friends, members of their community, and strangers. It can be measured by
the duration and quality of the social interactions they have on a regular basis, both in
person and online.
Social characteristics are elements of an individual's personality that relate to social
processes. This includes traits that are purely social such as introversion and
extroversion.
Importance of Social Aspect in Personality
Human beings are social animals, and the tenor of someone's social life is one of the
most important influences on their mental and physical health. Without positive,
durable relationships, both minds and bodies can fall apart.
Individuals begin life dependent for survival on the quality of their relationship with
their primary caregiver, usually their mother. Humanity's survival as a species similarly
hinges on the capacity for social living. Most of human history was spent in small
groups in which each individual was dependent on others for survival; evidence
suggests this is the condition to which humans are best adapted.
Technology has changed the ways people interact with others in their daily lives, but it
hasn’t affected the basic need to form supportive bonds with other people.
Social Norms and Values
Values are the basic beliefs that guide the actions of individuals, while norms are the
expectations that society has for people’s behavior. In other words, values tell
individuals what is right or wrong, while norms tell individuals what is acceptable or
not.
Values are more abstract and universal than norms, meaning they exist independently
of any specific culture or society. Norms, on the other hand, are specific to a particular
culture or society, and are essentially action-guiding rules, specifying concretely the
things that must be done or omitted.
Additionally, values tend to be passed down from generation to generation, while
norms can change relatively quickly.
In short, the values we hold are general behavioral guidelines. They tell us what we
believe is right or wrong, for example, but that does not tell us how we should behave
appropriately in any given social situation. This is the part played by norms in the
overall structure of our social behavior.
However, there is often a lot of overlap between norms and values. For example, one
of most of society’s norms is that one should not kill other people.
This norm is also a value, it is something that societies believe is morally wrong.
What Are Norms: Social norms are specific rules dictating how people should act in a
particular situation, values are general ideas that support the norm”.
There are four types of norms we can distinguish:
1. Folkways
Folkways are norms related to everyday social behavior that are followed out of
custom, tradition, or routine. They are less strictly enforced than mores or laws,
and violations are typically met with mild social disapproval rather than serious
punishment.
They contribute to the social order by facilitating smooth, predictable social
interactions. Folkways are fairly weak kinds of norm.
For example, when you meet someone, you know on the street, you probably say”
hello” and expect them to respond in a kind way. If they ignore you, they have
broken a friendship norm, which might lead you to reassess your relationship with
them; Examples of folkways include etiquette and manners, such as holding a
door open for someone, saying “please” and “thank you,” or not talking loudly in a
library.
2. Mores
Mores are much stronger norms, and a failure to conform to them will result in a
much stronger social response from the person or people who resent your failure
to behave appropriately.
Mores refer to the norms that are widely observed and have great moral
significance in a society. These norms are often seen as critical for the proper
functioning of a group or society, and violations are typically met with serious
societal disapproval or sanctions.
Mores often dictate ethical and moral standards in social behavior, such as
honesty, respect for human life, and laws against theft or murder.
3. Taboos
Taboos refer to those behaviors, practices, or topics considered profoundly
offensive, repugnant, and unacceptable by a society or cultural group. Societal
sanctions, penalties, or ostracism often back these prohibitions.
The origin of taboos can be traced to religious beliefs, societal customs, or moral
codes, and they usually touch on areas such as sex, death, dietary habits, and
social relations.
The violation of these taboos can lead to severe consequences, which might
include social exclusion, legal repercussions, or even physical harm in extreme
cases.
4. Laws (legal norms)
A law is an expression of a very strong moral norm that exists to control people’s
behavior explicitly. Punishment for the infraction of legal norms will depend on the
norm that has been broken and the culture in which the legal norm develops.
What Are Values: Values are beliefs that we have about what is important, both to us
and to society as a whole. A value, therefore, is a belief (right or wrong) about the way
something should be.
Values are essential in validating norms; normative rules without reference to
underlying values lack motivation and justification. Meanwhile, without corresponding
norms, values lack concrete direction and execution.
Durkheim notes that value consensus continues to exist in modern societies but in a
weaker form because industrialization has resulted in people having greater access to
a greater variety of knowledge and ideas, e.g., through the mass media and science.
Karen Horney Neurotic Needs and Tendencies
Horney viewed these neuroses as a sort of coping mechanism that is a large part of
normal life. She identified ten neuroses, including the need for power, the need for
affection, the need for social prestige, and the need for independence.
According to Horney, basic anxiety (and therefore neurosis) could result from a variety
of situations. She suggested that as children, people often have experiences that
contribute to neuroticism, including:
• Excessive admiration • Lack of warmth
• Injustice and discrimination • Over-protection
• Isolation from other children • Parental arguments or hostility in
• Lack of respect for needs the home
• Lack of guidance • Too much or too little responsibility
• Unkept promises
Horney's neurotic needs can be classified into three broad categories:
1. Needs that move people toward others: These neurotic needs cause
individuals to seek affirmation and acceptance from others. People with these needs
are often described as needy or clingy as they seek out approval and love.
2. Needs that move people away from others: These neurotic needs create
hostility and antisocial behavior. These individuals are often described as cold,
indifferent, and aloof.
3. Needs that move people against others: These neurotic needs result in hostility
and a need to control other people. These individuals are often described as difficult,
domineering, and unkind.
Horney's 10 Neurotic Needs: Well-adjusted individuals use all three coping
strategies (toward, away, and against others), shifting focus depending on internal and
external factors. According to Horney, it is the overuse of one or more of these
interpersonal styles.
1. The Need for Affection and Approval
Horney labeled the first need as the neurotic need for affection and approval. This
need includes the desire to be liked, to please other people, and meet the
expectations of others. People with this type of need are extremely sensitive to
rejection and criticism and fear the anger or hostility of others.
2. The Need for a Partner
The second need is known as the neurotic need for a partner who will take over one's
life. This involves the need to be centered on a partner. People with this need have an
extreme fear of being abandoned by their partner. Oftentimes, these individuals place
an exaggerated importance on love and believe that having a partner will resolve all of
life’s troubles.
3. The Need to Restrict One’s Life
The third need centers on the neurotic need to restrict one's life within narrow borders.
Individuals with this need prefer to remain inconspicuous and unnoticed. They are
undemanding and content with little. They avoid wishing for material things, often
making their own needs secondary and undervaluing their own talents and abilities.
4. The Need for Power
The fourth need Horney described is known as a neurotic need for power. Individuals
with this need seek power for its own sake. They usually praise strength, despise
weakness, and will exploit or dominate other people. These people fear personal
limitations, helplessness, and uncontrollable situations.
5. The Need to Exploit Others
People with a neurotic need to exploit others view others in terms of what can be
gained through association with them. People with this need generally pride
themselves on their ability to exploit other people and are often focused on
manipulating others to obtain desired objectives, including such things as ideas,
power, money, or sex.
6. The Need for Prestige
Individuals with a need for prestige value themselves in terms of public recognition
and acclaim. Material possessions, personality characteristics, professional
accomplishments, and loved ones are evaluated based on prestige value. These
individuals often fear public embarrassment and loss of social status.
7. The Need for Personal Admiration
Individuals with a neurotic need for personal admiration are narcissistic and have an
exaggerated selfperception. They want to be admired based on this imagined self-
view, not upon how they really are.
8. The Need for Personal Achievement
According to Horney, people push themselves to achieve greater and greater things as
a result of basic insecurity. These individuals fear failure and feel a constant need to
accomplish more than other people and to top even their own earlier successes.
9. The Need for Independence
This need is described as a neurotic need for self-sufficiency and independence.
These individuals exhibit a “loner” mentality, distancing themselves from others in
order to avoid being tied down or dependent on other people.
10. The Need for Perfection
People with a neurotic need for perfection and unassailability strive for complete
infallibility. A common feature of this neurotic need is searching for personal flaws in
order to quickly change or cover up these perceived imperfections.
Communication and Body Language
Body language can be a significant part of communication, whether consciously or
subconsciously. Nonverbal behavior, including body language, can offer silent cues and
signals that may impact how you speak, react, and feel. Understanding body language in
yourself and others may help you more successfully and confidently navigate social
settings.
a. Importance of Communication, Listening and Body Language Skills
Communication is the process of sharing information, ideas, and feelings between
people. It is a way of getting in touch with others and exchanging information.
Good communication can help to build relationships, resolve conflict, and promote
collaboration. In the workplace, effective communication will improve productivity and
foster a positive work environment.
Good communication skills are also essential for personal relationships. This is because
the ability to communicate effectively can help to build trust, understanding, and intimacy.
Active listening is an intentional communication technique that requires the listener to be
keenly sensitive to the speaker's needs and underlying messages, and then provide
feedback, without passing judgement or merely listening to interject and propose one's
own agenda. As simple as it seems, this is a vital skill that is one of the most difficult to
master, even for those who are highly experienced and skilled communicators.
Active listening helps us better understand other positions, provides a path to finding
common ground; builds trust, rapport, and connections in our communication with others;
and increases our chance of being heard ourselves.
Body language often plays a significant role in communication and can be as important
as the words we say. It can involve eye contact, head movement, posture, gestures, and
facial expressions, all of which can add meaning to our verbal communication.
These can be universal to all humans, and people may perform them consciously or
subconsciously to convey their thoughts and feelings. Experts say body language
usually constitutes about half of what we are trying to communicate.
In today's digital age, many people rely on social media and text messaging to
communicate with each other. Although virtual interaction may allow people to talk at
their leisure and can minimize social pressure and anxiety for some, certain things can
be lost in translation, so to speak.
By being unable to see or hear the other person as you speak with them, you might miss
critical nonverbal cues, as well as verbal ones, like vocal inflection. Online
communication is generally becoming the primary modality for millions of people, and
body language may continue to evolve to accommodate this shift.
b. Barriers and Hindrances in Communication
Communication barriers are internal and external factors which impede the quality of
communication. They act as hindrances in the listening or speaking aspect of
communication; thus distorting its real nature and
leading to misinterpretations and result in awkward and offensive
misunderstandings. situations.
1. Physical Barriers 4. Language Barriers
Physical barriers are any kind of physical or Due to varying factors such as literacy
environmental factors that hinder rate, age, ethnic background etc., the
communication from taking place effectively. proficiency of language might differ from
These are obstacles present in the one person to another, and this can act
environment which makes communication a as a linguistic barrier to the smooth flow
difficult task to pursue. of communication. Language is
considered the ultimate resource for
2. Psychological Barriers communication.
When the effectiveness of the
communication gets hampered due to the 5. Technological Barriers Although
psychological states of the sender or the technology has made communication
recipient, it can be termed as much easier, there are also newly
psychological barriers of communication. emerging issues that must be addressed
such as outdated technology systems,
As humans experience various complex lack of proper network connection,
feelings and emotions like anger, issues with the devices etc. and other
depression and stress, mental states and secondary issues such as computer
disorders, drowsiness, fatigue, frustration, viruses, a packed inbox, emails being
excitement, boredom, disinterest, saved in outboxes rather than getting
nervousness etc. are some of the aspects of sent. These issues may come to
psychological states that can act as pawns interrupt the way of having effective
or portray as interference in making communication.
communication efficient.
6. Personal Barrier
3. Cultural Barriers Personal barriers to communication are
When the effectiveness of communication personal characteristics that deter
gets affected between people due to communication from
differences in the cultural background, this taking place effectively. Personal
can lead to the cultural barrier. Some characteristics
cultures are very formal in their interactions
with people whereas other cultures are
much more informal. Such differences can
c. Albert Bandura: Social Learning View of human nature
Theory involve personality, social style, level of
confidence, clothing, emotions, lack of
2. Albert Bandura (Social Learning knowledge etc. some personality types
Theory) are more likely to be expressive about
their thoughts and opinions in
comparison to other types of personality.
Self-regulation and goal setting. Goal setting is a powerful source of self-motivation.
For goals to be effective motivators, they must be specific and set an appropriate level.
When goals are long-term, as they often are, then sub-goals must be set. Proximal sub-
goals provide immediate incentives and guides for performance, whereas distal goals
are too remote to effectively mobilize effort or to direct what one does here and now.
Self-efficiency. Bandura argued that fear is largely a product of perceived inefficiency.
We are afraid in situations we feel incapable of handling. As efficiency increases, fear
diminishes.
Personality Development
Observational learning is the process where a person’s behavior changes as a result of
being exposed to the behavior of another person, the model. Specific components of a
model’s behavior are called modeling cues. Such cues are present almost continually in
real life. These can be live or symbolic.
Live modeling refers to observing models “in the flesh” ie. Models that are
physically present. Symbolic modeling involves being exposed to models
indirectly, eg. through movies, books, or oral descriptions of a person’s behavior.
Three stages of observational learning
1.Exposure-observation of action
2.Acquisition- learning an activity
3.Acceptance- whether the observer uses the modeling cues as a guide for his/her
behavior
Direct reinforcement of the performance
Bandura believed children develop social behavior patterns by observing successful
models. A child has difficulty in social and personality development was likely exposed to
inconsistent reinforcement models.
Three effects of observation and imitation
1.Modeling effect- An observer attends to and imitates a new model, but the behavior
must be those they can do.
2.Disinhibitory effect. Modeling can release a whole class of behavior that is unusually
inhibited.
3.Eliciting effect. The observer can match the model’s behavior with response already
in their repertoire or learned behavior.
Observations of models can lead to the acquisition of new responses and change the
frequency of behavior already learned. This is illustrated in aggression, moral
adjustments, and delay of gratification.
a. Aggression. Children exposed to aggressive models tend to respond with
frustration with considerable aggression. Meanwhile, equally frustrated children who
have observed models displaying inhibited behavior are relatively less aggressive and
tend to match the behavior of this other model. Direct training through reward, aversive
stimulation, and other disciplinary procedures plays a vital role in shaping and
maintaining patterns of social behavior.
b. Moral judgment. Reinforcement patterns play a vital role in the development of
self-control. Positive reinforcement increases the frequency of aggressive responses.
c. Delay of gratification. The ability to delay gratification is determined by the
expected outcome as seen in direct personal experiences of models such as parents,
peers, and self-reactions.
