THEORITICAL BACKGROUND

Almost every day we describe and assess the personalities of the people around u
s. Whether we realize it or not, these daily musings on how and why people behav
e as they do are similar to what personality psychologists do. While our informa
l assessments of personality tend to focus more on individuals, personality psyc
hologists instead use conceptions of personality that can apply to everyone. Per
sonality research has led to the development of a number of theories that help e
xplain how and why certain personality traits develop. Personality can be define
d as ‘the intrinsic organization of an individual’s mental world that is stable over
time and consistent over situations’ (Piedmont 1998).
Components of Personality
Before understanding many different theories of personality, the first step is t
o understand exactly what is meant by the term personality. A brief definition w
ould be that personality is made up of the characteristic patterns of thoughts,
feelings and behaviors that make a person unique. In addition to this, personali
ty arises from within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout li
fe.
Two schools of thought explain Personality as
• Personality psychology, the theory and study of types, traits, and individual di
fferences
• Personality trait theory, attributes by which people may vary in relative terms
Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that studies personality and in
dividual differences. Its areas of focus on constructing a coherent picture of a
person and his or her major psychological processes, investigating individual d
ifferences, that is, how people can differ from one another, investigating human
nature, that is, how similar is behavior of all people.
Personality can be defined as a dynamic and organized set of characteristics pos
sessed by a person that uniquely influences his or her cognitions, motivations,
and behaviors in various situations. The word "personality" originates from the
Latin persona, which means mask. Significantly, in the theatre of the ancient La
tin-speaking world, the mask was not used as a plot device to disguise the ident
ity of a character, but rather was a convention employed to represent or typify
that character.
The pioneering American psychologist, Gordon Allport (1937) described two major
ways to study personality, the nomothetic and the idiographic. Nomothetic psycho
logy seeks general laws that can be applied to many different people, such as th
e principle of self-actualization, or the trait of extraversion. Idiographic psy
chology is an attempt to understand the unique aspects of a particular individua
l.
The study of personality has a broad and varied history in psychology, with an a
bundance of theoretical traditions. The major theories include dispositional (tr
ait) perspective, psychodynamic, humanistic, biological, behaviorist and social
learning perspective. There is no consensus on the definition of "personality" i
n psychology. Most researchers and psychologists do not explicitly identify them
selves with a certain perspective and often take an eclectic approach. Some rese
arch is empirically driven such as the "Big 5" personality model whereas other r
esearch emphasizes theory development such as psychodynamics.
Some of the fundamental characteristics of personality include:
• Consistency - There is generally a recognizable order and regularity to behavior
s. Essentially, people act in the same ways or similar ways in a variety of situ
ations.
• Psychological and physiological - Personality is a psychological construct, but
research suggests that it is also influenced by biological processes and needs.
• Impact behaviors and actions - Personality does not just influence how we move a
nd respond in our environment; it also causes us to act in certain ways.
• Multiple expressions - Personality is displayed in more than just behavior. It c
an also be seen in our thoughts, feelings, close relationships and other social
interactions.
Theories of Personality
There are a number of different theories about how personality develops. Differe
nt schools of thought in psychology influence many of these theories. Some of th
ese major perspectives on personality include:
• Type theories are the early perspectives on personality. These theories suggeste
d that there are a limited number of "personality types" which are related to bi
ological influences.
• Trait theories viewed personality as the result of internal characteristics that
are genetically based.
• Psychodynamic theories of personality are heavily influenced by the work of Sigm
und Freud, and emphasize the influence of the unconscious on personality. Psycho
dynamic theories include Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual stage theory and Erik Erikso
n’s stages of psychosocial development.
• Behavioral theories suggest that personality is a result of interaction between
the individual and the environment. Behavioral theorists study observable and me
asurable behaviors, rejecting theories that take internal thoughts and feelings
into account. Behavioral theorists include B. F. Skinner and John B. Watson.
• Humanist theories emphasize the importance of free will and individual experienc
e in the development of personality. Humanist theorists include Carl Rogers and
Abraham Maslow.
Trait theory
In psychology, Trait theory is a major approach to the study of human personalit
y. Trait theorists are primarily interested in the measurement of traits, which
can be defined as habitual patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion (Kassin 20
03). According to this perspective, traits are relatively stable over time, diff
er among individuals (e.g. some people are outgoing whereas others are shy), and
influence behavior.
Gordon Allport was an early pioneer in the study of traits, which he sometimes r
eferred to as dispositions. In his approach, Central traits are basic to an indi
vidual s personality, whereas secondary traits are more peripheral. Common trait
s are those recognized within a culture and may vary between cultures. Cardinal
traits are those by which an individual may be strongly recognized. Since Allpor
t s time, trait theorists have focused more on group statistics than on single i
ndividuals. Allport called these two emphases "nomothetic" and "idiographic," re
spectively.
There are nearly unlimited number of potential traits that could be used to desc
ribe personality. The history of psychology shows that researchers have attempte
d to develop a universal and systematic personality framework to explain individ
ual differences. The quest for a systematic approach began in 1884, when Galton
attempted to categorize personality-related words based on a Standard English di
ctionary. Galton’s work was then followed by Thurstone, who conducted a factor ana
lysis of 60 personality terms and came up with five common factors(Shrout and Fi
ske 1995 ). Although Cattell embraced Thurstone’s method, he derived a more comple
x set of personality variables, now known as the 16 Cattell Personality Factors
(Goldberg 1990). Other researchers, including Fiske and Digman (Fiske 1971), con
ducted follow-up studies by analyzing Cattell’s 16 Factors, and found that only fi
ve factors were proven to be replicable across different contexts. Subsequent re
search has confirmed the reliability and generalisability of these five factors
in different cultural and research settings. These findings were embryonic in te
rms of the evolution of The Big Five Model.
The statistical technique of factor analysis, however, has demonstrated that par
ticular clusters of traits reliably correlate together. Hans Eysenck has suggest
ed that personality is reducible to three major traits (Eysenck 1997, 2003). Oth
er researchers argue that more factors are needed to adequately describe human p
ersonality. Many psychologists currently believe that five factors are sufficien
t (McCrae & Costa 1987; Costa & McCrae 1992). Trait theories do not suggest that
other traits do not exist or are not important; rather they study a single trai
t for its relevance to a set of behaviors like consumption-related behaviors. So
me examples of single-trait theories that have been shown to be relevant to mark
eting are those that deal with neuroticism, consumer conformity, vanity, affect
intensity, trait anxiety, locus of control, sensation seeking, self monitoring,
and the need for cognitive closure (Hawkins et al 2009).
In contrast to a single trait theory, a multi-trait personality theory specifies
several traits that in combination capture a substantial portion of the persona
lity of the individual. The multi tarit theory used most commonly by marketers i
s the Five-Factor Model (The Big Five Model) of Personality. This theory identif
ies five basic traits that are formed by genetics and early learning. These core
traits interact and manifest themselves in behaviors triggered by situations (H
awkins et al 2009).
Core Trait Manifestation
Extroversion Prefer to be in large group rather than alone, Talkative with ot
hers, Bold
Instability Moody, Temperamental, Touchy
Agreeableness Sympathetic, Kind to others, Polite with others
Openness to experience Imaginative, Appreciative of art, Find Novel solutions
Conscientiousness Careful, Precise, Efficient
Virtually all trait models, and even ancient Greek philosophy, include extravers
ion vs. introversion as a central dimension of human personality. Another promin
ent trait that is found in nearly all models is Neuroticism, or emotional instab
ility.
Personality type
Personality type refers to the psychological classification of different types o
f individuals. Personality types are sometimes distinguished from personality tr
aits, with the latter embodying a smaller grouping of behavioral tendencies. Typ
es are sometimes said to involve qualitative differences between people, whereas
traits might be construed as quantitative differences. According to type theori
es, for example, introverts and extraverts are two fundamentally different categ
ories of people. According to trait theories, introversion and extraversion are
part of a continuous dimension, with many people in the middle.
MBTI
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the most widely used professional person
ality test, (Tucker and Gillespie 1992) is a measure of personality traits. The
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment is a psychometric questionnaire de
signed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and
make decisions (Myers 1985). These preferences were extrapolated from the typol
ogical theories proposed by Carl Gustav Jung and first published in his 1921 boo
k Psychological Types (Jung 1971).
The original developers of the personality inventory were Katharine Cook Briggs
and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers. They began creating the indicator during
World War II, believing that knowledge of personality preferences would help wom
en who were entering the industrial workforce for the first time to identify the
sort of war-time jobs where they would be "most comfortable and effective". The
initial questionnaire grew into the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which was firs
t published in 1962. The MBTI focuses on normal populations and emphasizes the v
alue of naturally occurring differences (Pearman 1997).
It uses Carl Jung’s theory of psychological type to assess and define personality.
Jung developed psychological types based on four functions, namely, Feeling (F)
, Thinking (T), iNtuition (N), and Sensing (S), plus four attitudes, namely, Ext
raversion (E), Introversion (I), Judging (J), and Perceiving (P). People who are
Extravert are oriented primarily toward the outer world; thus, they tend to foc
us their energy on people and objects. Introverts are oriented toward the inner
world and tend to focus their energy on concepts, ideas, and internal experience
s. In the Judging attitude, one is concerned with making decisions, seeking clos
ure, planning operations, or organizing activities. Perceiving is being attuned
to incoming information. Sensing refers to perceptions observable by way of the
senses. It establishes what exists. INtuition, on the other hand, refers to perc
eption of possibilities, meanings, and relationships by way of insight. Thinking
is an attitude that tends to come to a decision by linking ideas together throu
gh logical connections. Feeling is the function by which one comes to decisions
by weighing relative values and merits of the issues, and relies on an understan
ding of personal and group values (Myers-Briggs et al 1998).
CPP Inc., the publisher of the MBTI instrument, calls it "the world’s most widely
used personality assessment", with as many as two million assessments administer
ed annually. Some academic psychologists have criticized the MBTI instrument, cl
aiming that it "lacks convincing validity data". Proponents of the test, however
, cite reports of individual behavior and have found that the indicator meets or
exceeds the reliability of other psychological instruments. Some studies have f
ound strong support for construct validity, internal consistency, and test-retes
t reliability, although variation was observed.
Piracy
Piracy is a war-like act committed by private parties (not affiliated with any g
overnment) that engage in acts of robbery and/or criminal violence at sea. The t
erm can include acts committed in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It
does not normally include crimes committed against persons travelling on the sam
e vessel as the perpetrator (e.g. one passenger stealing from others on the same
vessel). The term has been used to refer to raids across land borders by non-st
ate agents.
Software Piracy
The unauthorized copying of software is termed as Software Piracy. Most retail p
rograms are licensed for use at just one computer site or for use by only one us
er at any time. By buying the software, you become a licensed user rather than a
n owner. You are allowed to make copies of the program for backup purposes, but
it is against the law to give copies to friends and colleagues.
Software piracy is all but impossible to stop, although software companies are l
aunching more and more lawsuits against major infractors. Originally, software c
ompanies tried to stop software piracy by copy-protecting their software. This s
trategy failed, however, because it was inconvenient for users and was not 100 p
ercent foolproof. Most software now requires some sort of registration, which ma
y discourage would-be pirates, but doesn t really stop software piracy.
Some common types of software piracy include counterfeit software, OEM unbundlin
g, soft lifting, hard disk loading, corporate software piracy, and Internet soft
ware piracy.
An entirely different approach to software piracy, called shareware, acknowledge
s the futility of trying to stop people from copying software and instead relies
on people s honesty. Shareware publishers encourage users to give copies of pro
grams to friends and colleagues but ask everyone who uses a program regularly to
pay a registration fee to the program s author directly.
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