Personality

Personality
What is personality:
Characteristic patterns of behaviour and
modes of thinking that determine a persons
unique way of interacting with the
environment

Type A Personality is...

Hard-driving
Must finish tasks
Never late for
appointments
Highly Competitive
Tends to interrupt
others

Always in a hurry
Uneasy when
waiting
Eats, walks fast
Sets own deadlines;
self motivated
Goal-oriented

Characteristics of Type A
Personality

Insecurity of Status
Hyperaggressiveness
Sense of Time Urgency
The Drive to Self-Destruction
Free-Floating Hostility

Insecurity of Status

Lack of self-esteem - need to prove self

(William James said: Self-esteem depends
on the balance between what we expect to
achieve and what we do in actuality
achieve.)

Hyperaggressiveness

Excessive aggression marked by ruthless,

driving desire to prevail and to dominate.

Sense of Time Urgency

Comes from the desire to accomplish too

much in too short a time; they cope by
speeding up all activities and try to do more
than one thing at a time (polyphasic).

The Drive to Self-Destruction

Joyless Striving
Yearn for the approval of others but secretly
castigate and criticize themselves; always
magnify even minor errors and demand
more of themselves.

Free-Floating Hostility

Hostility is the most toxic trait with coronary risk

consequences.
Is a permanent, deep-seated anger that hovers quietly
until some trivial incident causes it to rupture to the
surface in a burst of hostility.
Hostility: cynical mistrust of others, frequent feelings
of anger, and aggressive expression of hostility toward
others without regard for their feelings.

Type A Personality
Adverse Effects of Type A Personality:
Hypertension
Heart Disease
Job Stress
Social Isolation

Type B Personality is...

Easy-going
Can leave tasks
Late for
appointments
Cooperative
Listens well

Not hurried
Content to wait
Does things slowly
Tends to not set
deadlines
Methodical

Type A versus Type B Personality

Type A individuals have an intense desire to

achieve, are extremely competitive, have a
sense of urgency, are impatient, and can be
hostile
Type B individuals are more relaxed and easy
going

Type A/B Personality Research

Article

The Association between Type A Behaviour and

Change in Coronary Risk Factors among Young
Adults (Garritty et al, 1990)

Individuals with a Type A personality had

significant increases in:
- systolic/diastolic blood pressure
- cigarette smoking

Type B personality experienced no change.

Personality Tests

Personality tests are used for:

selection training workers
for team work
career development

Measures of Personality

Interviews

Unstructured: Tell me about yourself

Structured: Set list of questions

Observation
Objective tests
Projective tests

Sample Questionnaire

Assessing the Unconscious -Rorschach

Rorschach Inkblot Test

the most widely used

projective test
a set of 10 inkblots designed
by Hermann Rorschach
Rorschach

Assessing the Unconscious-Rorschach

used to
identify
peoples
inner
feelings
by
analyzing
their
interpret
ations of
the blots

Assessing the
Unconscious--TAT
Thematic
Apperception
Test (TAT)
people express
their inner
motives through
the stories they
make up about
ambiguous
scenes

Thank you