Lecture 5 - Self Concept & Personality

I was unable to attend this week's lecture as our team (SmartyPants) were fortunate enough to get through to the next stage of the Apprentice Challenge. However I have read up on the lecture notes and have understood them so hopefully this will make sense, here it goes...

This lecture is about people's personalities and their self concept. As well as discovering how advertisers and marketers use it to the best of their abilities to make consumers buy into their products or brands. To understand why this industry need to use these terms, both need to be defined.

SELF CONCEPT

Self Concept refers to "the attitude a person holds to him-or-herself" (Solomon, 2006). Whilst a persons overall self concept may be positive, different aspects of themselves may be evaluated more positively then others. For example Jade may feel more positive about her appearance in comparison to her middle age identity. This has also to do with a persons self esteem. Self Concept can be split down into 3 parts:

• Self Image - is the mental picture, it is the person we believe we are.
• Our Ideal Self - the kind of person we would like to be.
• Self Esteem - this is whether you like the way you currently are, it is a feeling of pride within yourself.

PERSONALITY
The Oxford Dictionary defines personality as "the characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s character". However I believe their must be other aspect to personality, not just what you see from the outside. Research from Hollander suggests that there are 4 other aspects to personality. These are:

• The External Aspect - how a person interacts with other people.
• The Internal Aspect - a combination of their values & attitudes.
• The Dynamic Aspect - faced with a new situation how do they behave e.g. social adjustments.
• The Consistent Aspect - their characteristic style.

Cattell’s Trait Theory of Personality
-> This theory believes that any person is born with 16 personality traits. Shown below is a list of them. However; you can only be one or the other.


Reserved-----------------Outgoing

Less Intelligent-----------More Intelligent

Affected by feelings-------Emotionally Stable

Humble---------------------Assertive

Serious-----------------Happy-go-lucky

Expedient--------------------Conscientious

Restrained-------------Venturesome

Tough-minded------------Tender-minded

Trusting-----------------Suspicious

Practical--------------------Imaginative

Forthright-------------------Shrewd

Self-assured------------------Apprehensive

Conservative----------------Experimenting

Group-dependent------------Self-sufficient

Uncontrolled-------------Controlled

Relaxed----------------------Tense


Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
-> This theory focuses on measuring our dominant preferences for taking in information and making decisions. Unlike Cattell's trait theory, with this one you can be a little bit of both on the scale (See below).



Extroversion (E) - Introversion (I)

Sensing (S) - Intuition (N)

Thinking (T) - Feeling (F)

Judging (J) - Perceiving (P)




Briggs's theory helps explain our working style, but does not measure our abilities - it only acts as a tool so any answers can be debatable. My results from this test show that I am a ENTJ. This means that I tend to enjoy intellectual conversation - welcoming such opportunities such as learning. However I tend to be fairly direct and confrontational. This is completely agree with :)

The Big Five scale of personality type - McCrae & Costa (1999)
->The big five scale of personality measures five dimensions of personality traits.

• Extraversion (sometimes called Surgency). The broad dimension of Extraversion encompasses such more specific traits as talkative, energetic, and assertive.
• Agreeableness. Includes traits like sympathetic, kind, and affectionate.
• Conscientiousness. Includes traits like organized, thorough, and planful.
• Neuroticism (sometimes reversed and called Emotional Stability). Includes traits like tense, moody, and anxious.
• Openness to Experience (sometimes called Intellect or Intellect/Imagination). Includes traits like having wide interests, and being imaginative and insightful.

Self Concept v Personality

From a marketing point of view self-concept is easier to manipulate than personality. Someone's self-concept can be changed simply by making them think or feel as if they NEED a particular product to be the person they see themselves to be and in most cases WANT to be. An ad by Bianco Footwear plays with both the 'I want' and 'I need' factors. It is making a visual playful metaphor which likens the stiletto effect of the model's legs to the stiletto heel of her shoes.
This ad also sends out another message to their female audience that thin is the new fashionable. Thus; having an impact on females self esteem. This message is commonly used nowadays (but much more subtly) and can be shown in a various amount of advertisement.



PERCEPTION

Perception also has an impact on a persons personality. Wilkie 1994 defines perception as "the process of sensing, selecting, and interpreting consumer stimuli in the external world". This is then addressed further by Schiffman and Kunuk (2003) who defined perception as:

"The process by which an individual selects, organises, and interprets stimuli into a meaningful and coherent picture of the world"

Put in more simple terms it is "how we see the world around us". From each of these definitions it can be seen that not only is it our stimuli that can be accessible but our individual appearances and personality traits too. Wilkie's definition gives an insight why marketers need to know this information, as it helps them understand how their consumers perceive their products and brands.