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Course: Educational Psychology (840)

Semester: Spring, 2020
Level: M.A/M. Ed
ASSIGNMENT No.1

Q. 1 Discuss the term educational psychology?

Answer:
Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of
human learning. The study of learning processes, from both cognitive and behavioral
perspectives, allows researchers to understand individual differences in intelligence,
cognitive development, affect, motivation, self-regulation, and self-concept, as well as their
role in learning. The field of educational psychology relies heavily on quantitative methods,
including testing and measurement, to enhance educational activities related to
instructional design, classroom management, and assessment, which serve to facilitate
learning processes in various educational settings across the lifespan.
Educational psychology can in part be understood through its relationship with other
disciplines. It is informed primarily by psychology, bearing a relationship to that discipline
analogous to the relationship between medicine and biology. It is also informed by
neuroscience. Educational psychology in turn informs a wide range of specialities within
educational studies, including instructional design, educational technology, curriculum
development, organizational learning, special education, classroom management, and
student motivation. Educational psychology both draws from and contributes to cognitive
science and the learning sciences. In universities, departments of educational psychology
are usually housed within faculties of education, possibly accounting for the lack of
representation of educational psychology content in introductory psychology textbooks.
The field of educational psychology involves the study of memory, conceptual processes,
and individual differences (via cognitive psychology) in conceptualizing new strategies for
learning processes in humans. Educational psychology has been built upon theories of
operant conditioning, functionalism, structuralism, constructivism, humanistic psychology,
Gestalt psychology, and information processing.
Educational psychology has seen rapid growth and development as a profession in the last
twenty years. School psychology began with the concept of intelligence testing leading to
provisions for special education students, who could not follow the regular classroom
curriculum in the early part of the 20th century. However, "school psychology" itself has
built a fairly new profession based upon the practices and theories of several psychologists
among many different fields. Educational psychologists are working side by side with
psychiatrists, social workers, teachers, speech and language therapists, and counselors in
attempt to understand the questions being raised when combining behavioral, cognitive,
and social psychology in the classroom setting.
Major Perspectives
As with other areas of psychology, researchers within educational psychology tend to take
on different perspectives when considering a problem.
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 The behavioral perspective suggests that all behaviors are learned through
conditioning. Psychologists who take this perspective rely firmly on the principles
of operant conditioning to explain how learning happens. For example, teachers
might give out tokens that can be exchanged for desirable items such as candy and
toys to reward good behavior. While such methods can be useful in some cases, the
behavioral approach has been criticized for failing to account for such things
as attitudes, cognitions, and intrinsic motivations for learning.
 The developmental perspective focuses on how children acquire new skills and
knowledge as they develop. Jean Piaget's famous stages of cognitive
development are one example of an important developmental theory looking at how
children grow intellectually. By understanding how children think at different stages
of development, educational psychologists can better understand what children are
capable of at each point of their growth. This can help educators create instructional
methods and materials best aimed at certain age groups.
 The cognitive perspective has become much more widespread in recent decades,
mainly because it accounts for how things such as memories, beliefs, emotions, and
motivations contribute to the learning process. Cognitive psychology focuses on
understanding how people think, learn, remember, and process information.
Educational psychologists who take a cognitive perspective are interested in
understanding how kids become motivated to learn, how they remember the things
that they learn, and how they solve problems, among other things.
 The constructivist approach is one of the most recent learning theories that focus
on how children actively construct their knowledge of the world. Constructivism
tends to account more for the social and cultural influences that impact how children
learn. This perspective is heavily influenced by the work of psychologist Lev Vygotsky,
who proposed ideas such as the zone of proximal development and instructional
scaffolding.
While educational psychology may be a relatively young discipline, it will continue to grow
as people become more interested in understanding how people learn. APA Division 15,
devoted to the subject of educational psychology, currently lists more than 2,000 members.
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Q. 2 Explain the concept, scope and potential role of educational psychology in
education?
Answer:
Scope of the subject implies its field of study. Speaking in specific terms, it means the areas
of study that are included in a particular subject. The scope of Educational Psychology is
securing greater and greater importance in the field of education. Educational psychology is
the combination of two i.e. Educational and Psychology. So educational psychology is the
study of behavior of the teacher, taught and persons connected to educational
environment.
Educational psychology is, therefore, that branch of educational content, which deals with
human behavior and its modification.
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The following are included in the scope of Educational Psychology.

(1) Human Behavior:
It studies human behavior in educational situations. Psychology is the study of behavior and
education deals with the modification of behavior and hence, educational psychology
pervades in whole field of education.
(2) Growth and Development:
It studies growth and development of the child. How a child passes through various stages
of growth and what are the characteristics of each stage are included in the study of
Educational Psychology.
(3) Learning Process:
It studies the law of learning: learning is a major phenomenon in education. It studies how
learning can take place most effectively and economically.
(4) Heredity and Environment:
To what extent heredity and environment contribute towards the growth of the individual
and how this knowledge can be used for bringing about the optimum development of the
child, form a salient feature of the scope of Educational Psychology.
(5) Personality:
Educational Psychology deals with the nature and development of the personality of an
individual. In fact, education has been defined as an all-round development of the
personality of an individual; personality development also implies a well-adjusted
personality.
(6) Individual Difference:
Every individual differs from another and it is one of the fundamental facts of human nature,
which has been brought to light by Educational Psychology. This one fact has revolutionized
the concept and process of education.
(7) Intelligence and its Measurement:
The scope of Educational Psychology includes the study of the nature of intelligence as well
as its measurement. This is of great importance for a teacher or an educator.
(8) Guidance and Counseling:
This is one of the most important fields or areas of study included in the field of Educational
Psychology. Education is nothing but providing guidance to the growing child. Thus,
guidance forms an important aspect of Educational Psychology.
The following five areas were named by American Psychological Associations:
(1) Human growth and development, including the effect of heredity and environment on
various aspects of individual,
(2) Learning: The nature of learning process, factors influencing the learning process etc.,
(3) Personality and adjustment: It include many sub-topics, such as, mental health of the
students and teachers character,
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(4) Measurement and evaluation, statistics,

(5) Techniques and methods of Educational Psychology.
Thus, Educational Psychology describes and explains the learning experience of an
individual from birth to old age. Its subject matter is concerned with the conditions that
affect learning.
Scope of Educational Psychology:
Educational psychology embraced over the years various fields of education e.g. intelligence
testing, mental abilities, achievement testing, child psychology, developmental psychology,
school performance, mental deficiency, curriculum, personality, character, educational
measurement and so on and so forth.
In 1910, the Journal of Educational Psychology was first published, to reveal experimental
researches on various psychological issues regarding education and their interpretations.
In the recent past the field of educational psychology has become more complex as the
vision of what it encompasses has broadened. Originally concerned with learning and
measurement its scope has been extended with each succeeding generation to the point
where now the newest extension is in social-educational field and a new branch emerged in
educational psychology known as educational social psychology.
In conclusion, we may note that the aim of educational psychology is to apply psychological
concepts and principles in order to improve educational practice. Educational psychology
that has evolved as a new discipline tends to represent all the areas within psychology in
general.
These include some distinct areas dealing with human development, individual difference in
ability, aptitude and temperament, perception, motivation, learning, thinking, problem-
solving, psychopathology, the dynamics of personality and group interactional processes.
The educational scientists have employed two strategies for applying psychology in
education. Consequently, two kinds of researches had been advanced in the field of
educational psychology; the first is the direct experimental investigation of learning in
laboratory and school settings.
The second has been an attempt to distil from basic psychological research the educational
proceedings to be employed in teaching-learning situation, implication of learning in its
broader perspective (formal and informal learning), and also human nature and its
interactions.
In this process educational psychology deals not only with the individual’s own psychology
and its functioning, but also an awareness of his interacting counterpart, the changing
environment—both physical and social.
Any educational endeavour is actually a learning situation; the task of educational
psychology is to study the learner in that situation. The first learning situation outside the
family a child (or a learner) encounters is the school, which is again teaching-learning
condition oriented. The teacher’s duty in this setting is to apply the general propositions
received from psychology and apply them in the classroom.
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But not one single strategy employed so far had yielded any fruitful result. A more practical
oriented strategy is required in order to synthesize the learner, the teacher the instructional
techniques and the educational managers on the one hand and producing qualified
students to meet the demand of the day, on the other.
The world we live in today is shaped to a considerable degree by the decisions people
make—individually and collectively. Any decision-making needs possessing some
knowledge and use them in solving problems. In other words, the kind of perceiving,
thinking and evaluating that goes into the problem solving has to be considered.
Historically, possession of knowledge and its utilization are learned during the
developmental years of the children through interacting with parents, employers, religious
and political leaders as well as teachers in the classroom.
The interaction with the teachers is no less important in the process of our lifelong learning
even if the exposure to school be brief and transitory (this is stated considering the number
of dropouts at the school level in our country). It has an impact in their lives, nevertheless.
Specially in the developing countries like India and South Asia the involvement of young
people with teachers and schools is certainly increasing as revealed by survey reports at
Governmental level for the last two decades. Teachers do play an active role in the
teaching-learning system.
It will not be unreasonable to say that the kind of future we and our children will experience
is influenced more by teachers than by any other professional groups.
The world of tomorrow will be shaped not only by what today’s children are learning from
their teachers, but also by the ‘way’ they are learning it, for it is the way knowledge is
presented that determines how children will learn to solve problems. Thus according to
Lindgren (1980), the ‘how’ of teaching includes not only teaching methods, but also
teachers’ attitudes and values, and full range of teachers’ classroom behaviours.
They serve as ‘models’ whose way of thinking, behaving, attitudes, advice and manner, the
process of acquiring and imparting knowledge are imitated in more ways than they can
imagine. Hence they are influential far beyond their immediate awareness. Therefore, it is
necessary that the teachers know consciously their personal psychology in order to
understand the psychology of their students.
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Q. 3 What do you understand by growth and development?

Answer:
In the context of the physical development of children, growth refers to the increase in the
size of a child, and development refers to the process by which the child develops his or her
psychomotor skills.
Growth
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The period of human growth from birth to adolescence is commonly divided into the
following stages:
 Infancy: From birth to weaning.
 Childhood: From weaning to the end of brain growth.
 Juvenile: From the end of childhood to adolescence.
 Adolescence: From the start of growth spurt at puberty until sexual maturity.
Growth curves are used to measure growth. The distance curve is a measure of size over
time; it records height as a function of age and gets higher with age. The velocity curve
measures the rate of growth at a given time for a particular body feature (such as height or
weight). The height velocity curve is highest in infancy, up to two years of age, with more
consistent annual growth afterwards and increases again at puberty. The height of the
average infant increases by 30% by the age of five months and by 50% by the age of one
year. The height of a five-year-old usually doubles relative to that at birth. The limbs and
arms grow faster than the trunk, so that body proportions undergo marked variation as an
infant grows into an adolescent. Different body systems grow and develop at different rates.
For example, if infants grew in height as quickly as they do in weight, the average one-year-
old would be approximately 5 ft (1.5m) tall. Thus, weight increases faster than height—an
average infant doubles his birth weight by the age of five months and triples it by the age
of one year. At two years of age, the weight is usually four times the weight at birth.
Physical development
During the growth period, all major body systems also mature. The major changes occur in
the following systems:
 Skeletal system. At birth, there is very little bone mass in the infant body, the bones
are softer (cartilagenous) and much more flexible than in the adult. The adult
skeleton consists of 206 bones joined to ligaments and tendons. It provides support
for the attached muscles and the soft tissues of the body. Babies are born with 270
soft bones that eventually fuse together by the age of 20 into the 206 hard, adult
bones.
 Lymphatic system . The lymphatic system has several functions. It acts as the
body's defense mechanism by producing white blood cells and specialized cells
(antibodies) that destroy foreign organisms that cause disease. It grows at a constant
and rapid rate throughout childhood, reaching maturity just before puberty. The
amount of lymphatic tissue then decreases so that an adult has approximately 50%
less than a child.
 Central nervous system (CNS). The CNS consists of the brain, the cranial nerves, and
the spinal cord . It develops mostly during the first years of life. Although brain cell
formation is almost complete before birth, brain maturation continues after birth.
The brain of the newborn is not yet fully developed. It contains about 100 billion
brain cells that have yet to be connected into functioning networks. But brain
development up to age one is more rapid and extensive than was previously realized.
At birth, the brain of the infant is 25% of the adult size. At the age of one year, the
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brain has grown to 75% of its adult size and to 80% by age three, reaching 90% by
age seven. The influence of the early environment on brain development is crucial.
Infants exposed to good nutrition , toys, and playmates have better brain function at
age 12 than those raised in a less stimulating environment.
Psychomotor development
During the first year of life, a baby goes through a series of crucial stages to develop
physical coordination. This development usually proceeds cephalocaudally, that is from
head to toe. For example, the visual system reaches maturity earlier than do the legs. First,
the infant develops control of the head, then of the trunk (sitting up), then of the body
(standing), and, finally, of the legs (walking). Development also proceeds proximodistally,
that is from the center of the body outward. For example, the head and trunk of the body
develop before the arms and legs, and infants learn to control their neck muscles before
they learn to direct their limbs. This development of physical coordination is also referred to
as motor development and it occurs together with cognitive development, meaning the
development of processes such as knowing, learning, thinking, and judging.
The stages of motor development in children are as follows:
 First year. The baby develops good head balance and can see objects directly in his
line of vision. He learns how to reach for objects and how to transfer them from one
hand to the other. Sitting occurs at six months of age. Between nine and 10 months,
the infant is able to pull himself to standing and takes his first steps. By the age of
eight to 24 months, the baby can perform a variety of tasks such as opening a small
box, making marks with a pencil, and correctly inserting squares and circles in a
formboard. He is able to seat himself in small chair, he can point at objects of
interest, and can feed himself with a spoon.
 Second year. At 24-36 months, the child can turn the pages of a book, scribble with a
pencil, build towers with blocks up to a height of about seven layers, and complete a
formboard with pieces that are more complex than circles or squares. He can kick a
ball, and walks and runs fairly well, with a good sense of balance. Toilet training can
be started.
 Third year. The child can now draw circles, squares, and crosses. He can build 10-
block towers and imitate the building of trains and bridges. He is also achieving toilet
independence. Hand movements are well coordinated and he can stand on one foot.
 Four years. At that age, a child can stand heel to toe for a good 15 seconds with his
eyes closed. He can perform the finger-to-nose test very well, also with eyes closed.
He can jump in place on both feet.
 Five years. The child can balances on tiptoe for a 10-second period, he can hops on
one foot, and can part his lips and clench his teeth.
 Six years. The child can balance on one foot for a 10-second period, he can hit a
target with a ball from 5 ft (1.5 m), and jumps over a rope 8 in (20 cm) high.
 Seven years. He can now balance on tiptoes for a 10-second period, bend at the hips
sideways, and walk a straight line, heel-to-toe for a distance of 6 ft (1.8 m).
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 Eight years. The child can maintain a crouched position on tiptoes for a 10-second
period, with arms extended and eyes closed. He is able to touch the fingertips of one
hand with his thumb, starting with the little finger and repeating in reverse order.
The development of motor skills in the child goes hand in hand with the development of
cognitive skills, a process called cognitive development. Cognitive development can be
divided into four stages:
 Sensorimotor stage. At this stage, infants discover their environment using a
combination of sensory impressions (sight, smell , hearing , taste , and touch) and
motor activities.
 Preoperational stage. At this stage, children are not able to use information in
rational and logical ways, rather they use images and symbols. They learn how to
associate cause and effect and to represent something with something else. Speech
development begins.
 Concrete operational stage. At this stage, children understand elementary logical
principles that apply to concrete external objects. They learn to sort things into
categories, reverse the direction of their thinking, and think about two concepts
(such as length and width) simultaneously.
 Formal operational stage. This stage is reached at adolescence. The individual can
think in the abstract and speculate about probabilities and possibilities as well as
reflect on their own thinking activities.
The simultaneous development of motor skills and cognitive skills is commonly referred to
as psychomotor development and it occurs with the maturation of the central nervous
system (CNS).
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Q. 4 Discuss the characteristics of social development?
Answer:
Every child born, not only has talent and creative potential, but also has social tendency.
Talent and creative and social potential are important capital to determine child future.
Talent and creativity can develop optimally when they are coached intensely and
professionally. Well-developed talent will be very helpful for children future. Every parent
wants to have creative and sociable child but, not all parents understand how to develop
their children’s creative and social potential. Therefore special strategy to develop creative
and social potential for early childhood, i.e.: playing, storytelling, singing, creating product,
imagination, exploration, experiment, grouping, imitating, cooperative playing and sharing.
The characteristics of social development are often associated by the skill of cooperation,
rotation, initiative/leadership, sharing, discipline and participation.
CHARACTER OF EARLY CHILDHOOD
Early childhood characteristics can be divided into two, namely; characteristics related to the
development and characteristics of learning.
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1. Characteristics of Early Childhood Development Many studies on child development

phases conducted psychological figure, using different viewpoints vary. Among them was
Sigmund Freud, Gesell, Amatruda, JJ Rousseau, Osmald Kroh and John Amos Comenius.
Phase of early childhood development (0-8 years) is said to be the golden age (golden age)
because it is on a very precious age compared to the age-old also widely discussed further
these figures. The age characteristics, among others:
a. Children age 0-1 years; physical development during this period experienced tremendous
speed, faster than most later age. Various skills and basic skills children learn at this age.
Osmald Kroh (1992: 67) referred to it as a vital future. Some characteristics of infants aged
children can be explained as follows:
1) Learn motor skills ranging from rolling over, crawling, sitting, standing and walking
(Vashti Sumanto, 1990: 63).
2) Learning skills using the five senses, such as seeing or observing, feeling, hearing, smell
and taste with his mouth to insert any object (Osmald Kroh, 1992: 69).
3) Studied social communication, where the mouth of a major activity. Newborns was ready
to implement the social contract with its environment. Responsive communication from
adults will encourage and expand verbal and non-verbal responses baby.
b. Children age 2-3 years are past toddler (toddler); during this time the child has some
characteristics in common with the previous period. Physically, children are still experiencing
rapid growth. Some special characteristics through which children aged 2-3 years are:
1) Children are very active exploring the objects around him. He has the power of keen
observation and grasp an impression (Wasty Sumanto, 1990: 69-70). Exploration carried the
child against any objects encountered as a very effective learning activities.
2) Children begin to develop language skills by chattering, then one or two words and
sentences unclear meaning. Children continue to learn and communicate, understand the
speech of others and learn to speak up and mind.
3) Children begin to learn to develop emotions and memories. Emotional development of
children based on how he treats the environment. Because emotion is not found by default
but more on the environment.
c. Children age 4-6 years; during this time the child has characteristics such as:
1) Related to physical development, children are very active in a variety of activities and
observation and sensing (Wasty Sumanto, 1990: 70).
2) Language development is also getting better. Children are able to understand the speech
of others and is able to speak his mind in certain limits.
3) Cognitive development (the intellect) and the imagination is very rapid, indicated by a
child's curiosity about the extraordinary environment. This is evident from the frequent child
asks everything seen.
4) Form of the game is still an individual child, not a social game. Although the child's play
activities done together.
5) Sensitive, egocentric, imitate, exploration and groups (Diana Mutiah, 2010: 7)
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Q. 5 Personality is the sum total of all biological innate dispositions, impulses,
tendencies appetites and instincts of the individual and tendencies acquired by
experience. Discuss
Answer:
One of the problems with the field of personality is that there is no consensus about just
what the term personality means. For some help in defining the domain of the field, it may
be useful to turn to the dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary offers two principal
definitions of the word:
1. The quality, character, or fact of being a person as distinct from a thing.
2. That quality or assemblage of qualities which make a person what he is, as distinct
from other people; a distinctive personal or individual character, especially of a
marked or noticeable kind.
These two definitions encompass all that is personality psychology today. In part,
personality deals with the nature of human existence, and with those qualities that separate
humans from the rest of the physical universe. And in part, personality deals with the nature
of human individuality -- those ways in which each of us, while members of the same
biological species, differ from each other.
Personality includes character, which involves the evaluation of a person according to his or
her society's ethical code, and with temperament, which has to do with a person's typical
levels of activity and emotionality. But personality goes beyond character and temperament.
In order to understand more about this field of scientific inquiry, let us examine the origins
of the word "personality" itself.
Origins of the Term Personality
In his classic treatise on personality, Gordon Allport (1937) performed an etymological study
of the word personality, examining the origins of the term and the various meanings
associated with it over the years. The obvious root of all of them is the Latin
word persona (per, through;sonare, to sound), which referred to the mask worn by the actors
in the theatre of ancient Greece and Rome to represent their dramatic roles (in speaking
their parts, the actors sound through their masks). The Roman poet Cicero, writing in the 1st
century B.C.E., gave four different meanings of the word, in addition to its technical meaning
in the theatre:
1. As one appears to other people, which may be different from what one actually is;
2. The social role played in one's life;
3. One's distinctive personal qualities, regardless of appearances;
4. The specific qualities of distinction or dignity displayed by a person.
In later usage, Allport discovered approximately 50 distinct meanings of the term, all of
them adumbrated to some degree by the first four of Cicero (the use of the word "man" to
refer to people in general reflects the accepted convention of Allport's day). Even a cursory
glance over this list indicates that the range of meanings is very wide indeed.
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Meanings of the Word "Personality"

Allport (1937, pp. 27-48) listed some 50 different definitions of the word personality.
Cicero's Definitions
1. External appearance (not the true self).
2. The character or role which the player assumes in the drama.
3. An individual possessed of distinctive personal qualities
4. Prestige and dignity.
Biophysical Definitions
The sum-total of all the biological innate dispositions, impulses, tendencies, appetites, and
instincts of the individual, and the dispositions and tendencies acquired by experience.
The entire organization of a human being at any stage of his development.
An integration of patterns which give a peculiar individual trend to the behavior of the
organism.
Levels or layers of dispositions, usually with a unifying or integrative principle at the top.
The integration of those systems of habits that represent an individual's characteristic
adjustments to his environment.
The organized system of habits, dispositions, and sentiments that mark off any one member
of a group as being different from any other member of the same group.
Personality refers not to any particular sort of activity, but to the way in which an individual
performs those activities.
What a man really is.
Allport's Definition
Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical
systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment.
Persons and Personality
In fact, the list reflects a certain amount of confusion between the words "person" and
"personality". Certain of the meanings appear in the context of philosophical and juristic
debates concerning how human beings are to be distinguished from flowers, dogs, rocks,
and other objects present in the physical universe. Thus, in order to be a person, one must
possess qualities such as intelligence, consciousness, memory, ideals, rights, motives,
purposes, goals, duties, and free will. These are qualities of personhood that are essential
components of human nature. All men and women have them in common.
Lists such as these were important features of debates in the 18th and 19th century
concerning the morality of slavery. For example, slavery was frequently justified on the
ground that enslaved peoples lacked certain characteristically human qualities, and so
forfeited basic human rights. Some entries in the list contain antecedents of the modern
legal notion that corporations and communities have legal rights and obligations similar to
those accorded human beings. In the 20th century, this argument is reflected in the
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contemporary debate over abortion and euthanasia. At what point does a fetus become
human, and achieve a human right to life that should be protected by the state? It even
crops up in debates over the rights of animal subjects in medical and psychological research
(Linden, 1986). If monkeys and dolphins possess language and other qualities commonly
associated with personhood, do we have the right to treat them as different from ourselves?
With the rise of the social sciences in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Allport (1937)
noted a number of new definitions of personality. These have more to do
with personality in the strict sense -- those qualities that make one person somehow
distinct from another. Within this class of definitions, he further distinguished
between biosocial definitions, which emphasized outward appearances,
and biophysical definitions, which focused on the "essence" of the individual. This division
was anticipated in Cicero's own distinction between a person's external appearance and his
or her unique personal qualities. The distinction between biosocial and biophysical views of
personality is seen, to some extent, in the Christian Doctrine of the Trinity. In some
versions of Christian theology, God is characterized as three "persons" -- Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit -- varied in outward appearance but inwardly of the same single essence. In fact,
some Christian sects consider it heresy to speak of the three persons of the Holy Trinity as
differing in essence as well as appearance. (Some Christian denominations, such as the
Unitarians, do not accept the doctrine of the Trinity at all).
In sociology, the person is thought of as a reflection of his or her social context. Therefore,
personality is construed in terms of the people's role and status in society, and the
effectiveness with which they carry out the duties that correspond to that role and status.
Accordingly, sociologists typically define personality biosocially, in terms of one's outward
appearance, or the way one is perceived and evaluated by other people.
This view was strenuously opposed by Allport, who argued that personality was concerned
with what a person is, rather than with what a person appears to be. He noted that our
judgments of other people could be in error. But when our evaluations of people changed,
it would be curious to say that their personalities changed as well. Allport considered it
essential, from a psychological (as opposed to a sociological) point of view, to get beyond
the masks and roles imposed by society, and discover the essence of the individual -- what
that person really is, regardless of how he or she is perceived, or how he or she tries to
present him- or herself. Allport distinguished among five types of biophysical definitions of
personality:
1. Omnibus definitions, which describe a person's personality by listing all of his or her
various characteristics;
2. Integrative and configurational definitions, which attempt to organize these
characteristics into some coherent pattern;
3. Hierarchical definitions, which attempt to sort the characteristics into superordinate
and subordinate categories;
4. Adjustment definitions, which relate the characteristics of personality to survival
functions;
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5. Distinctiveness definitions, which focus on those characteristics that make one

person different from all other people.
Allport rejected omnibus definitions as useless grocery lists of characteristics. The job of the
psychologist, in his view, is to separate the important characteristics from the trivial ones,
and to show how the central features of an individual's personality relate to each other and
shape the way in which he or she lives his or her life. Thus, Allport defined personality as:
the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that
determine his unique adjustments to his environment (1937, p. 48).
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