Comparison and Contrast of Personality Theories and Their Implications for Organizations

This report compares and contrasts different personality theories including Psychoanalytic and Social Learning Theory and discusses their implications for organizations. The report also discusses the impact of personality differences on job preferences and satisfaction among employees.

Running head: ADVANCED ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Advanced Organizational Behavior
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The term personality can be generally defined as the characteristic pattern of feelings,
thoughts and behaviors that makes every individual unique and different from others. According
to researchers, while several external factors have the potential to influence how certain traits are
expressed, the personality of an individual majorly originates within him or her (Lewin, 2013).
The personality of a person generally remains consistent with minor changes that take place due
to age and experience. The four major perspective of personality includes Psychoanalytic that is
unconscious motivations, Trait which is specific dimensions of personality, Humanistic inner
capacity for growth and social cognitive perspectives that includes influence of environment.
From immemorial period of time various theories have been developed by the researchers about
personality. In this report, different theoretical arguments of personalities will be compared and
contrasted. Not only that, the impact of personality differences in organization will also be
discussed in this report.
Comparison and Contrast between the different theoretical arguments of personalities
Majority of the personality theories, irrespective of their different perspectives share the
basic concept that personality is a specific pattern of thinking and demonstrating behavior that
prevails across time as well as situations and is unique in every individuals. The chief argument
that exists between various theories of personality includes whether personality is inherited or
developed through the interaction of an individual to the environment. In the following
paragraphs, compare and contras of two of the chief theories including the Psychoanalytical
theory by Freud and Social Learning Theory by Bandura will be conducted Anderson, 2014).

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The Psychoanalytical theory of personality as being demonstrated by Freud, states that
the thoughts, feelings and behavior of human beings are determined by the interplay of
unconscious physiological processes. As being argued by Freud, the personality of a human
being is comprised of three major systems that include id, ego and superego. The id is defined to
be the biological part of personality and is supposed to be present in an human being by birth
and is comprises of physiological energies and inherited instincts. The pleasure principle
operates the id for avoiding pain and obtaining pleasure. The ego, on the other hand, which is
considered to be the executive part of personality, is the conscious part of one’s mind. Ego
satisfies the desires of id keeping accordance with the demand of the superego and the reality.
The superego is defined by Freud to be the moral or the judicial part of the personality.
Superego determines the permissible behaviors and punishes wrong doings of an individual with
the felling of guilt. Not only that its also responsible for the ego rewards that includes high self
esteem and feelings of pride for good behaviors. Freud believed that in order to demonstrate an
healthy personality, an individual must keep all the three systems in balance.
In the Victorian era, the personality theory of Freud had created controversies As beinfg
proposed by Freud, the thoughts as well as behavior of an adult is rooted to his childhood
memories and unconscious forces of the mind. However this theory has been severely disagreed
by a good number of neo-Freudians. Carl Jung, one of the Neo-Freudians, argued several forces
other than id, superego and ego, like collective unconscious forms a core part of the personality
of the human beings (Cervone & Pervin, 2015). He argued that personality is a conscious state of
mind and is comprises of ideas, emotions, perceptions and memories that a human being is
totally aware of. According to Alfred Alder, Freud has overemphasized the role of sexuality in
the personality development (Cervone & Pervin, 2015). Alder through his personality theory

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argued that the complex of inferiority within an individual can be considered to be playing the
key role during the development of personality. Karen Horney, had demonstrated his
disagreement with Freud by arguing that sex and aggression are not the primary themes of
personality (Horney, 2013). However, she agreed with the concept of Freud that stated that
Anxiety is the basic issue of unhealthy personality. Horney believed that personality of an
individual is highly dependent on the environmental variables she stated that instead of only
considering the phycodyanamic forces within the mind, it is crucial to consider the
environmental factors with respect to which the forces are reacting. Eric Erikson disagrees with
Freud about the timing of personality development. As being stated by Freud, the majority of
one’s personality gets developed during early childhood. However, Erickson argued that an
individual’s personality develops with age and experience and changes throughout the lifetime.
He added that a person’s personality can be defined as a series of crisis that he or she encounters
in their social relationship with the people. Since these crisis continues throughout the life, the
personality development within a person does not top when he or she become an adult.
While the Psychoanalytical theory state that personality depends on the unconscious
mind, the theory of Social learning argues that personality is comprised of learned behaviors’.
According to the social learning theory, the consequences of behavior along with the beliefs of n
individual about the consequences are the two chief determinants of personality (Rogers, 2013).
Unlike the theory of pschycoanalysis, the social learning theory is the mixture of a good number
of psychological approaches. According to the theory of social learning, one of the chief features
of human personality is expectancy which can be defined as the belief of individual that a
specific action will be followed by specific consequences (Guntrip, 2018). Along with
expectancies, the social learning theory has also put emphasis on observational learning.

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Observation learning is defined as the form of learning where expectancy of reinforcement is
formed by observing the behavior of others and the consequences produced by it. Unlike several
others personality researchers, Albert bandura, did not believe that that personality of a human
being is dependent on environmental factor or personal characteristics alone. Rather, according
to him, the personality of a human being is a resultant of the interaction of environmental
variables as well as personal variables like expectations, cognitions and perceptions (Kline,
2013). Bandura stated that the self efficiency is highly crucial since enables an individual change
his environment. This concept of bandura is also supported by Walter Mischel. In addition,
Mischel had proposed five variables of social earning that impose ample impact on the
personality of the individual (Mischel, 2013).
According to researchers, the extent to which one perceives oneself to be in control of a
specific situation highly determines that individual’s personality (Horney, 2013). The Locus of
control is defined that whether an individual believes that the happenings are taking place due to
external variables or taking place due to his own acts. Individuals who perceive that they an
control their own Fte is said to have internal control where as individuals with the thought that
their life is being controlled by external forces are said to have external locus of control.
Implications of personality differences for organizations
The personality differences among the employees have the potential to impose several impacts
on the organizations. Personality of an employee imposes several impact on his or her job
preferences and satisfaction. The personality of the employees in an organization can be defined
with the help of the big five traits that includes openness, neuroticism, conscientiousness,
extraversion and agreeableness. According to researchers, employees who are high in openness

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are not only constructive and imaginative but also poses a down to earth attitude (Freud, 2018).
Open minded individuals are found to be fond of emotions adventures, unusual ideas and art.
They are good performers be it training session or acquiring new kills and flexibility. When it
comes to consciencetiousness, people with this personality types are much organized,
achievement driven, dependable, systematic and punctual. While employees having extraversion
personality are more outgoing, talkative and sociable, employees who posses agreeableness in
their personality possess more compassionate and corporate individuals. However
suspisciousness and antagonism are two negative aspect of this traits
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be concluded that while according a group of
researchers, personal traits within a human being are responsible for their personality
development, according another group of researchers, environmental factors are responsible for
gradual development of personality (Dweck, 2013). The theory of psychoanalysis justifies the
behavior of an individual from the biological point of view. However, the mentioned theory has
totally ignored the roe of socializations totally. On the other and the theory of social learning
have must more emphasis on the influence of environment on the personality of an individual
and thus have totally ignored the impact of internal concepts like motivation or traits on an
individual’s personality. According to the Social Learning theorists perception, cognition as well
as expectations play an integral role when it comes to determining the personality of a n
individual (Schultz & Schultz, 2016). When it comes to impact of personality difference on
organizations, it has been found that the personality of the employees depends on five
personality traits that include openness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, extraversion and
agreeableness.

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Reference list
Anderson, N. H. (2014). A functional theory of cognition. Psychology Press.
Cervone, D., & Pervin, L. A. (2015). Personality, binder ready version: theory and research.
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Dweck, C. S. (2013). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development.
Psychology press.
Freud, A. (2018). Ego and id. In The Harvard Lectures (pp. 21-35). Routledge.
Guntrip, H. (2018). Psychoanalytic theory, therapy and the self. Routledge.
Horney, K. (2013). Our inner conflicts: A constructive theory of neurosis. Routledge.
Kline, P. (2013). Fact and Fantasy in Freudian Theory (RLE: Freud). Routledge.
Lewin, K. (2013). A dynamic theory of personality-selected papers. Read Books Ltd.
Mischel, W. (2013). Personality and assessment. Psychology Press.
Rogers, C. R. (2013). A Theory of Therapy and Personality Change: As Developed in the Client-
Centered Framework”. Perspectives in Abnormal Behavior: Pergamon General
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Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2016). Theories of personality. Cengage Learning.