Psych 338: Midterm 1, Chapter 2

Front 1

Personality

Back 1

the relatively stable set of psychological characteristics that influences the way an individual interacts with his/her environment
• although relatively stable, can be susceptible to change
• related to: deviance, work performance, company performance and turnover

• Personality can be indicative of: deviance, work behaviour, company performance, turnover

Front 2

Projective tests

Back 2

People will project their own thoughts and feelings onto ambiguous stimuli and thereby unconsciously reveal the type of person they are.
Examples: Rorschach Inkblot test and TAT (Thematic Apperception Test)

Front 3

Observational techniques

Back 3

Involves having someone describe another person. Observations are based on personal, first-hand experience
Examples: Job interview

Front 4

Twins Studies and Personality

Back 4

- monozygotic twins (identical) who didn't share environment shared personality

Front 5

Dispositional approach

Back 5

individuals posses stable traits or characteristics that influences their attitudes and behaviours
• predisposed to behave certain ways
• mixed and inconsistent findings

Front 6

Situational Approach

Back 6

characteristics of the organizational setting influence people’s attitudes and behaviours

example: job satisfaction and other work-related attitudes are largely determined by situational factors.

Front 7

Interactionist Approach

Back 7

individuals attitudes and behaviours are a function of both dispositions and the situation.
• most widely accepted perspective
• To predict organizational behaviour, we need to know about an individual’s personality and the work setting

example: individual job performance

Personality, Abilities, Skills x Motivation & Effort x Organizational Factors
(Can I do it?) x (Will I do it?) x (Will I receive the support I need?)

Front 8

Trait Activation Theory:

Back 8

traits lead to certain behaviours only when the situation makes the need for the trait salient
• key concept: fit
• early personality studies used inadequate measurement

Front 9

The Five Factor Model

Back 9

Openness to Experience: flexible, original v. dull, unimaginative. high score: creative.
Conscientiousness: responsible v. careless; high score: orderly, self-disciplined
Extraversion: outgoing v. shy; high score: social, outgoing.
Agreeableness: approachable v. rude; high score: warm, agreeable, co-operative
Neuroticism/Emotional Stability: stable v. anxious; high score: self-confident
(or CANOE)

Front 10

Research Evidence for the Five Factor Model

Back 10

1. related to job performance and OCB
2. related to other work behaviours
3. related to work motivation and job satisfaction
4. related to job search and career success

Front 11

Extraversion

Back 11

The quality of being comfortable with relationships; degree of sociability; Status striving
• Low: Reserved, quiet, solitary
• High: Gregarious, assertive, talkative, expressive
• Zero Acquaintance Situations
• Extraversion is related to Positive Affectivity (Job Satisfaction  Extraversion = .25)
• Positively related to performance when job requires social interaction
• managers r = .18; sales r = .15 (Barrick & Mount, 1991)
• Positively related to training proficiency

Front 12

Extraversion & Teamwork (Barry & Stewart, 1997)

Back 12

• 289 graduate students in 4 and 5 person problem solving teams
• Extraverts on a team led to more open communication
• Too many extraverts: Decline in focus on task completion, Increase in conflict over who should be the leader
• Curvilinear relationship existed between extraversion and performance

Front 13

Agreeableness

Back 13

The ability to get along with others; degree of courtesy, trust, cooperation, and tolerance that a person exhibits.
• Low: Focused on own needs, less need to be liked by others, irritable, suspicious, inflexible
• High: Forgiving, good natured, cooperative, warm, trusting
• Positively related to Performance…..sometimes:
• r = .10 for both police and managers (Barrick & Mount, 1991)
• antisocial behaviour and agreeableness and negatively correlated; Antisocial and Prosocial behaviour are positively correlated

Front 14

Agreeableness (Meier et. al (2006))

Back 14

Agreeableness => Thinking/Feeling => Behaviour/Attitudes
Hostile Cue => Hostile Thoughts => Hostile Behaviour
versus:
Hostile Cue => Hostile Behaviour <= Neutral Cue

• when there is a sound blast, people with low agreeableness react to the hostile cue more than then neutral cue, but people with high agreeableness reacted less to the hostile cue

Front 15

Neuroticism (Emotional Stability)

Back 15

Ability to handle stress; an indicator of psychological adjustment vs. neuroticism
• Low: Anxious, insecure, sensitive, angry, depressed
• High: Calm, self-confident, secure, content about themselves and their place in the world
• Emotional Stability and Negative Affectivity. Emotional stability  Job satisfaction = .29.
• Stress: differential exposure and differential reactivity
• Second Best Predictor of Job Performance! Positively related to performance
• For police, r = .10 (Barrick & Mount, 1991)

Front 16

Conscientiousness

Back 16

The degree of organization, dependability, thoroughness, and achievement oriented activities that a person exhibits; a measure of reliability.
• Berkeley Intergenerational Study
• Low: Unreliable, unorganized, unpredictable
• High: Perseverance, responsible, organized, diligent, dependable
• Predicts job performance the best at r = .23 (Barrick & Mount, 1991).
• Why?

conscientiousness => motivational => work performance

Front 17

Conscientiousness and Teamwork

Back 17

• 51 work teams
• Higher levels of conscientiousness received higher supervisory ratings of performance
• Also:
o Higher levels of extroversion and emotional stability received higher ratings of team viability
o Higher ratings of agreeableness and emotional stability showed higher levels of performance.
• Including a single team member who was low on either emotional stability or agreeableness had a negative impact on performance, cohesion, and communication and a positive effect on conflict.

Front 18

Openness to Experience

Back 18

The capacity to entertain new ideas and to change as a result of new information; creative, original, open-minded
• Low: Cautious, narrow-minded
• High: Curious, imaginative, playful, artistic
• Job Performance?
• Creativity?
• Positively related to training proficiency
• R = .25 (Barrick & Mount, 1991)

Front 19

How stable is the Five Factor Model over a lifetime?

Back 19

• conscientiousness tends to increase
• agreeableness tends to increases – plateaus at 22 – 50 and 60 – 70
• neuroticism tends to decrease
• openness to experience tends to increase until 22, plateaus until 60, then decreases slighty
• extraversion is pretty stable throughout life

Front 20

Person-Situation Debate in OB - What determines behaviour at work?

Back 20

Person: Individuals are predisposed to behave in certain ways
Situation: Characteristics of the organizational setting such as rewards influence people’s attitudes and behaviour.

Front 21

Strong v. Weak Situations

Back 21

GO: Strong, situationally determined
STOP: Strong, situationally determined
?: Weak, personality determined

Front 22

Locus of Control

Back 22

a set of beliefs about whether one’s behaviour is controlled mainly by internal or external forces.

Front 23

High v. Low Locus of Control

Back 23

High Locus of Control - Behaviour is determined by:
• Fate
• Luck
• Powerful people

Low Locus of Control - Behaviour is determined by:
• self-initiative
• personal actions
• free-will

Front 24

Self-Monitoring

Back 24

the extent to which people observe and regulate how they appear and behave in social settings and relationships

• people that “wear their heart on their sleeve” are low self-monitors and they don’t want to blend in
• high self-monitors are like actors
• high self-monitors are more involved in job, perform at a higher level, emerge as leaders
• more role stress, and shoe less commitment to an organization
• not necessarily a organizational advantage

Front 25

Self-esteem

Back 25

the degree to which a person has a positive self-evaluation

Front 26

Behaviour plasticity theory

Back 26

people with low self-esteem tend to be more susceptible to external and social influences than those who have high self-esteem.

Front 27

Positive and Negative Affectivity

Back 27

Positive Affectivity (PA): propensity to view the world, including oneself and other people in a positive light
• tend to be cheerful, enthusiastic, lively, social, energetic

Negative Affectivity (NA): propensity to view the world, including oneself and other people in a negative light
• negative view on themselves, the world, distressed, depressed

Front 28

Proactive Personality

Back 28

Proactive personality: a stable personnel disposition that reflects a tendency to take personnel initiative across a range of activities and situations and to effect positive change in one’s environment
• people who don’t have a proactive personality tend to be shaped by the environment, instead of trying to change it

Front 29

Proactive behaviour

Back 29

taking initiative to improve current circumstances or creating new ones

Front 30

General Self-Efficacy:

Back 30

a general trait that refers to an individual’s belief in his/her ability to perform successfully in a variety of challenging situations.
• motivational trait
• someone who has many successes probably has a high GSE

Front 31

Core Self-Evaluations

Back 31

a broad personality concept that consists of more specific traits that reflect the evaluations people hold about themselves and their self-worth
• 4 traits that make up a person’s core self-evaluation: self-esteem, general self-efficacy, locus of control, and neuroticism

Front 32

Learning:

Back 32

a relatively permanent change in behaviour potential that occurs due to practice or experience.
• words practice and experience rule out drug intake or biological maturation as learning

Front 33

What do employees learn at work?

Back 33

• practical skills
• intrapersonal skills
• interpersonal skills
• cultural awareness

Front 34

Operant Learning

Back 34

learning by which the subject learns to operate on the environment to achieve certain consequences
• can be used to increase the probability of the desired behaviours

Front 35

Reinforcement

Back 35

the process by which stimuli strengthens behaviours

Front 36

Positive reinforcement

Back 36

the application of addition of a stimulus that increases or maintains the probability of some behaviour

Front 37

Negative reinforcement:

Back 37

the removal of a stimulus that in turn increases or maintains the probability of some behaviour
• negative reinforcement increases the probability of behaviour
example: nagging is negative reinforcement – do your work and the nagging will stop

Front 38

Organizational Errors Involving Reinforcement

Back 38

• confusing rewards with reinforcers, neglecting diversity in preferences for reinforcers, neglecting important sources of reinforcement

Front 39

Confusing Rewards with Reinforcements

Back 39

rewards can fail to serve as reinforcers because they are contingent on specific behaviours

Front 40

Neglecting Diversity in Preferences for Reinforcers

Back 40

questionable to reward workaholic with time off work

Front 41

Performance Feedback

Back 41

providing quantitative or qualitative information on past performance for the purpose of changing or maintaining performance in specific ways

Front 42

When is performance feedback most effective

Back 42

a. conveyed in a positive manner
b. delivered immediately after performance is observed
c. represented visually, such as graph or chart
d. specific to the behaviour that is being targeted

Front 43

Social recognition

Back 43

informal acknowledgement, attention, praise, approval, or genuine appreciation for work well done from one individual or group to another

Front 44

Reinforcement Strategies

Back 44

• fast acquisition – continuous and immediate reinforcement
• correcting behaviour, training in emergency situations, unsafe work behaviour

Front 45

Extinction

Back 45

the gradual dissipation of behaviour following the termination of reinforcement.

Front 46

Punishment:

Back 46

the application of an aversive stimulus following some behaviour designed to decrease the probability of that behaviour

Front 47

punishment v. negative reinforcement:

Back 47

NR a stimulus is removed following a behaviour (increasing probability of a behaviour); punishment: a nasty stimulus is applied after a behaviour (decreasing the probability of that behaviour)

Front 48

Using Punishment Effectively – problems

Back 48

1. provides signals as to which behaviours are inappropriate, not how they should be replaced
2. evokes strong emotional reaction on part of the punished individuals

Front 49

How to Punish Effectively

Back 49

• provide an acceptable alternative for punished response
• make sure punishment is truly aversive
• punish immediately
• do not reward unwanted behaviours before or after punishment unwanted behaviours before or after punishment
• do not inadvertently punish desirable behaviour

Front 50

Social Cognitive Theory

Back 50

emphasizes the role of cognitive processes in learning and in the regulation of people’s behaviour
• people learn by observing others behaviour
• human behaviour can be best explained by a system of triadic reciprocal causation, personal factors and environmental factors that work together and interact to influence people’s behaviour

Front 51

SCT involves three key components:

Back 51

1. observational learning
2. self-efficacy beliefs
3. self-regulation

Front 52

Observational learning:

Back 52

the process of observing and imitating the behaviour of others.
• self-reinforcement occurs in this

Front 53

Self-Efficacy beliefs:

Back 53

beliefs people have about their ability to successfully perform a specific task
• not a generalized personality trait – task specific

Front 54

Self-regulation:

Back 54

the use of learning principles to regulate one’s own behaviour
• self-observation, self-evaluation, self-reinforcement

Front 55

Self-regulation techniques:

Back 55

• collect self-observation data
• observe models
• set goals
• rehearse
• reinforce oneself

Front 56

Organizational behaviour modification:

Back 56

the systematic use of learning principles to influence organizational behaviour
• research supports this

Front 57

Employee recognition programs:

Back 57

formal organizational programs that publicly recognize and reward employees for specific behaviours.
• to be effective, must specify:
a. how a person will be recognized
b. the type of behaviour being encouraged
c. the manner of the public acknowledgement
d. a token or icon of the event of the recipient

Front 58

Peer recognition programs:

Back 58

formal programs in which employees can publically acknowledge, recognize, and reward their co-workers for exceptional work and performance

Front 59

Training and development:

Back 59

training is planned organizational activities that are designed to facilitate knowledge and skill acquisition to change behaviour and improve performance on one’s current job, development focuses on the future job responsibilities.
• positive reinforcement, feedback, observational learning, strengthening employee’s self efficacy, beliefs, self-regulation

Front 60

Behaviour Modelling Training (BMT)

Back 60

one of the most widely used and effective training methods, involving five steps based on observational learning component of social cognitive theory.

Front 61

What does BMT involve?

Back 61

1. describe to trainees a et of well-defined behaviours (skills) to be learned
2. provide a model(s) displaying the effective use of those behaviours
3. provide opportunities for trainees to practice using those behaviours
4. provide feedback and social reinforcement to trainnes following practice
5. take steps to maximize the transfer of those behaviours to the job

Front 62

Career Development

Back 62

an ongoing process in which individual’s progress through a series of stages that consist of a unique set of issues, themes and tasks.