Psychology

Personality
B.Ed. 2015-16

M.Vijayalakshmi
Assistant Professor
 Unit – VII
Personality
Personality: Meaning –
Determinants of Personality: Types
Theory, Trait Theory and
Developmental Theory – Integrated
Personality – Assessment of
Personality: Projective, Non-
Projective techniques and Dream
Analysis.
 Meaning
• Latin word – persona
• -the mask worn by the actors while playing their role in
the drama
• PERSONALITY
• P – Perception capacity
• E – Emotional maturity
• R – responsiveness to the situation
• S – Sociability
• O – Originality
• N – Neutrality
• A – Appearance (external)
• L – Leadership feeling
• I – Integrated
• T – Tendency
• Y – Young (in thinking)
 Definition
• Personality is the dynamic
organization within the individual of
those psycho-physical systems that
determine his unique adjustment to
his environment
- Gordon W. Allport
 Characteristics of Personality
• Whole rather than its parts
• Unique
• Comprises of heredity and environment
• Made up of traits
• Dynamic
• Organized
 Development of Personality
Physique
• Pituitary Gland
• Thyroid Gland
Chemique • Adrenal Gland
• Sex Gland
• Home
Environment • School
• Society
• Cultural Difference

Learning
Factors influencing Personality Development

Personality
Factors

Biological Sociological Psychological

Factors Factors Factors

Intelligence
Physique Home
Motivation
Chemique School Emotion
Nervous System Language Attitude
Culture Interest
Sentiment
 Theories of Personality

Type Theory

Trait Theory

Type cum Trait Theory

 Type theory – Hippocrates’ Classification
Choleric Emotionally weak, bodily strong
and easily tempted

Melencholic Emotionally and bodily weak –

Pessimist
Phlegmatic Emotionally strong – able to
control his emotions - bodily
weak – lazy type – always happy
Senguine Bodily strong – Energetic –
control type – an optimist
 Kretschmer’s Classification
Body Type Body Characteristics Personality Characteristics

Pyknic Fat types, in whom Social and helping to

fat is more than others
muscle
Athletic Healthy, balance Energetic, optimist can
between muscles adjust to any situation
and bone
development
Asthenic Thin, and lean tall, Unsociable, shy,
no muscle, only pessimist and always
bone alone
 Sheldon’s Classification
Body Type Body Characteristics Personality
Characteristics

Endomorphy No muscle Takes everything easy,

development etc. sociable and
prominent stomach affectionate
Mesomorphy Balance between Likes to work,
development of interested in
stomach and bones adventurous activities
Ectomorphy Weak, tall, thin Pessimist, unsociable
and alone
Jung’s Classification

Introvert
Extrovert
Ambivert
 Trait Theory – R.B.Cattell

Surface Traits

Source Traits
Type-cum-Trait Theory –
Hans J. Eysenck

Introvert Extrovert

Neurotic Psychotic
 Psychoanalytic Theory
• Id – Pleasure Principle –
Unconscious mind
• Ego – Reality Principle –
Sub-conscious mind
• Superego – Conscience –
Conscious mind
Freud’s Psycho-sexual Development
Theory of Personality
Oral Stage
Anal Stage
Phallic Stage
Latency Stage
Genital Stage
Freud’s Psycho-sexual Development
Theory of Personality
 Integrated Personality

• Self-actualized personality
• Emotionally and socially mature
individual
• Well adjusted personality
 Harmony between five
Aspects of personality
• Harmony between one’s abilities and
capabilities
• Harmony among one’s interest
• Harmony between one’s abilities and interest
• Harmony between one’s self concept and
social constraints
• Harmony between one’s life goals and social
codes of conduct
 Allport
• Self extension
• Self Objectification
• Be yourself and accept yourself
 Personality
Assessment
Techniques

Non-projective Projective
Techniques Techniques

Subjective Methods

Objective Methods
 Assessment of Personality

Subjective Methods

Objective Methods

Projective Methods
 Subjective Methods
Case History
Autobiography
Self-rating
Eliciting verbal responses of the subject –
• Questionnaires
• Attitude Scales
• Inventories
• Interview
• Aptitude Tests
• Interest Inventories
 Objective Methods
Personality Inventories
Observation
Check list
Rating Scale
Sociogram
Performance and Situational
Tests
 Projective Methods
Perceptive Technique
(Rorschach Ink-blot Test)
Apperceptive Technique
Thematic Apperceptive Test (T.A.T)
Sentence Completion Test
Story telling and Story Completion Test
Free association and Dream Analysis Test
Productive Technique
 Self-rating
• Subject rates himself
• Susceptible to distortions due to self-interest
• Rating by others is more objective and valid
• Factors like
personal bias,
generosity error,
inaccuracies due to the ambiguity of the
rating scale
Hallo effect
- affect the reliability and validity of rating
 Questionnaires
• Device for securing answers to
questions by using an inquiry
form which the respondent fills
in himself. In it, various
important questions regarding
the topic under investigation or
personality traits will find a place
- Good & Hatt
 Types of Questionnaires
• Closed Form or Restricted
Questionnaire
Yes or No, Short response
• Open Form or Unrestricted
Questionnaire
Free-response or unstructured form
Characteristics of a
Good Questionnaire
 Attitude Scales or Opinionnaire
• Opinion and Attitude are allied but
not Synonymous terms
• Attitude - Inner feeling or belief of a
person towards a particular
phenomenon
• Opinion – what a person says about
his attitude towards some
phenomenon
 Types of Attitude Scales

• Thurstone Technique of
Scaled Values
• Likert Method of
Summated Ratings
Thurstone Technique of Scaled Values
• 20 or more statements – express – groups,
institution, idea or practice
• Submitted – panel of 50 or more judges
• 11 groups – assigning a position to an item
• Disagreement – discarded
• Median scale value – falls between 1 to 11
• Given to the subjects – check - agreement –
responses - quantified
 Likert Method of Summated Ratings
• Without the panel of judges
• Less time and efforts to construct
• Collecting a number of statements
• Express definite favourableness or unfavourableness
• Approximately equal statements
• Trial test – administrated to the subjects
• Eliminate – ambiguous
• SA, A, U, DA & SDA
• Favourable statements – 5, 4, 3, 2 & 1
• Unfavourable statements – 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5
• 50 * 5 = 250 – Most Favourable response
• 50 * 3 = 150 – Neutral attitude
• 50 * 1 = 50 – Most Unfavourable attitude
 Inventories
Personality Inventories
• Similar to Questionnaire
• Form of statements
• Respondent – mark one among three
positions
• Analysis – nature of the personality
Sl.No. Statements Always Sometimes Never

1 When speaking to
strangers, I feel a bit of
nervousness in me
 Minnesota Multiphasic Personality (MMPI)
• S.R. Hathaway and J.C. Mekinky
• 550 statements
• True, false and cannot say
• 16 years and older ones
• Nine clinical scales -
 Hypochondriasis (HS)
 Depression (D)
 Hysteria (HY)
 Psychopathetic deviant (Pd)
 Masculinity and feminity interest (Mf)
 Paronia (Pa)
 Psychosthenia (Pt)
 Wschizophrenia (Sc)
 Hypomania (Ma)
 Bell’s Adjustment Inventory
• Available in two forms – school
students & adults
• School students – 140 items
• Four domains – Family, health,
community and emotions
• 35 items for each domain
 Interview
• Oral questionnaire
• Interviewer & Interviewee
• Verbal information, face-to-face relationship
• Introductory, Fact finding, Diagnostic or
Prognostic
• Has a Beginning – establish Rapport
• Middle – elicit information regarding personality
traits
• End – terminate the interview on a cordial note
by thanking the interviewee
• Noted down or tape recorded - analysis
 Types of
Interview

Number of Format of
Functions
Participants Response

1.Diagnostic 1.Individual
2.Group 1.Structured
2.Clinical
3.Single 2.Non-structured
3.Research
Interviewer
4.Panel of
Interviewers
1.Non-directive
2.Focused
3.Depth
Requisites of a Good Interview

Proper Preparation

Skillful evaluation

Adequate recording and

interpretation
 Limitations
• An Art and skill – not present in all
• Subjectively involved – biggest
limitation
• Interviewer – dominate or humiliate
• Interviewer – thrust his ideas on the
interviewee
 Uses of Interview
• Best option to collect information – Children,
senior citizen, patients, illiterate persons and
VIP in the society
• Student admission, filling vacant posts,
student counselling, occupational guidance,
medical counselling and judicial enquiry
• Research – historical studies, clinical studies
and survey
 Aptitude Tests
• Science, literature as the latent potentialities
or skills
• Converted into special skills
• Potentiality of clerical
• Trained further to write exams in IAS and IPS
cadres
• Group I or II services
 Measurement of Aptitude
• Differential Aptitude Tests
1. Verbal reasoning
2. Numerical ability
3. Abstract reasoning
4. Space relations
5. Mechanical Reasoning
6. Clerical speed and accuracy
7. Language usage – Spelling and Grammar
First three (1, 2, 3) – measure the functions
related to general intelligence
4, 5, 6 & 7 measure specific aptitudes
 Interest Inventories
• The tools used for describing and measuring
interests of individuals – Interest Inventories
or Interest Blanks
• Self-report instruments – in which the
individuals note their own likes and dislikes
• Frequently used in educational and
vocational guidance and in case studies
• Defined as eagerness, attention, curiosity,
likes and dislikes
 Measurement of Interest

E.K.Strong’s Vocational Interest

Blank (SVIB)

G.F.Kuder Preference Record

(KPR)
E.K.Strong’s Vocational Interest Blank
(SVIB)
• Classified for men, women, students
and those who left the school long back
• Blank for men – 420 items with 8
divisions
• Subject will indicate – Like (L), Dislike
(D) and Indifference (I) - Symbols
• 40 to 55 minutes
• 17 years of age and above
G.F.Kuder Preference Record (KPR)
• High school and college198 items
• Comprises of three preferences
• Ten fields – outdoor, mechanical,
computational, scientific,
persuasive, artistic, literacy, musical,
social service and clerical
 Observation
• External behaviour of persons in appropriate
situations
• Controlled or uncontrolled
• Expert, purposive, systematic, carefully
focused and thoroughly recorded
• Should be accurate, valid and reliable
• Tools such as check list and score-card, tape-
recorder, thermometers, audiometer, stop-
watch, binoculars etc.
 Use of Observation
• In descriptive research
• Significant aspects of personality which
express themselves in behaviour
• Physical aspects of school buildings or
students and teachers – through physical
examination, measurement, assessment and
comparison with fixed standards
• In classroom – learning behaviour
• Cumulative record – anecdotal evidence –
research studies
Types of Observation

Participant

Non-Participant
Requisites of a Good Observation

Proper Planning

Skilful Execution

Recording and
Interpreting
Observation
 Check List
• Consisting of prepared list of items
• Used to record the presence or absence of
the item
• By checking ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or by inserting the
appropriate word or number
• Matter of fact and not judgement or opinion
• In educational studies
• Educational appraisal studies of school
buildings, text books, facilities available
• Recreation, laboratory, library etc.
 Rating Scale
• Personality of a individual is not assessed by
himself but by other persons who know the
individual well
• Student – teacher
• Teacher rating, personality rating, testing the
validity of many objective instruments like
paper-pencil inventories of personality &
School appraisal
• Limited number of items to which values on a
scale have to be assigned
• The value be represented in the form of a
number or one among a series of worded
descriptions
• Usual to have 5 to 7 points on the scale for
every item to be rated
Highly Occasionally Socially Very rarely Not at all
emotional emotional average emotional emotional
 Limitations
• Hallo – Effect
• Rater frequently carry over one generalised
impression of the person from one rating to
another
• Generosity Error
• Rater develops a tendency to over estimate the
desirable qualities of the rate whom he likes
• Constant Error
• There is a tendency on the part of the rater to
see others as opposite to himself on a trait
• Average Category
• Rater have a tendency to play it safe and may
mark all items in the centre
 Means of reducing errors
• Hallo – Effect
• Various ratings of different persons made
independently - without being aware – rating
the same person again
• Generosity Error
• By using relatively neutral descriptive terms for
the scale positions rather than evaluative ones
• Constant Error
• To train the raters carefully and make them
aware of the possibility of such bias in rating
• Average Category
• By splitting the middle point into two – above
average and below average
 Sociogram
• Graphic way of representing the data
• Stars
• Chosen most often – located near the centre of
the diagram and the ones chosen less often are
placed progressively outward
• Isolates
• Not chosen by others – outside
• Y-shape
• Chain
• Circular
 Performance or Productive

• Performance of the subject -

oWhat he draws
oWhat object he makes of plastic
clay
oHow he plays a role
 Situational Tests

Psychodrama Sociodrama
 Psychodrama
• Play a role spontaneously in a situation
• Behaviour is observed by trained observers
• Used to assess the personality of maladjusted
persons
• Director or therapist – organising situations –
subject may express his bottled up emotions
• Central principle – spontaneity of the
individual
 Sociodrama
• Portrays problem with which the audience is
concerned
• Deals with the problems of the group, its
structure and thinking
• E.g. modern pictures written and directed by
creative thinkers
• They reflect on the screen – corruptions,
nepotism, favouritism and redtapism of the
administrative set up
• Projective Techniques
• To evaluate unconscious behaviour of the
individuals
• Total personality of an individual
• By projection
• Relatively indefinite and unstructured stimuli
– provided to the subject – asked to structure
them – way he likes
• Unconsciously projects his own desires,
hopes, fears, repressed wishes, etc
 Ink-Blot Test
• Hermann Rorschach (1882 – 1922)
• Swiss Psychiatrist - Developed – 1921
• Died – 1922
Test Material
Administration
Scoring
Interpretation
 Test Material
• 10 cards – Ink-blots Patterns
• Stiff cardboard of 8”*10”
• 5 blots – Black and Grey
(Card No. 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7)
• Two – Black and Red
(Card No. 2 and 3)
• Three – multi coloured
(Card No. 8, 9 and 10)
• Ink-blots – highly unstructured
• Do not have any specific meaning
 Administration
• Presented at a time in a particular order
• Individual – asked – specify what he/she in it
• Own time and permitted to give any number
of responses he likes
• Experiments take note of the responses given
by the subject
• And the time taken for each card
 Scoring
• Responses are entered in specific
symbols
• In four columns
Location
Content
Originality
Determinants
 Location
• Part of the blot with which the subject
associates his response is identified
• Given by symbols
W- whole Blot
D- Large details
d- Small details
s- white spaces
 Content
• Content of the response realised by the
subject
• Symbols are given
H- Human forms
Hd- Human details
Ad- Animal details
N- Natural objects like rivers, mountains etc
O- Inanimate objects like lamp, shade etc
 Originality

• Response id original – symbol – O

• If it is popularly recognised by
many individuals – symbol - P
 Determinants
• Emphasises the manner of
perception
• Symbol
Form – F
Colour – C
Movement – M
Shading - K
 Scores are entered in a tabular form

Location Content Originality Determinants

Symbols W D d s H A Hd Ad N P O F C K M

Frequency
 Interpretation
• If the number of W is greater the d – Subject
is considered as mature and intelligent
• If colour is more than movement – subject is
considered as extrovert
• Poor colour naming responses – considered
to indicate lack of emotional control
• If the individual sees human beings, he/she is
regarded as stable
• If animal - Unstable
 Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
• Henry Murray in 1943
• Later – fully developed – C.D.Morgan
• 30 pictures
• Expose human beings - a variety of life situations and
a blank white card
• Total – 31 cards
• Pictures – vague and indefinite
• Four sets of cards suited to different age and sex
groups
• Conducted in two sessions
• Atleast a gap of one day in between
• Using 10 pictures in each session
• Set – I – 20 pictures – girls below the age
of 14 years
• Set – II – 20 pictures – boys below the
age of 14 years
• Set – III – 20 pictures – females above
the age of 14 years
• Set – IV – 20 pictures – males above the
age of 14 years
 Administration
• Pictures are presented at a single time
• Vague and indefinite
• Subject – asked – develop a story to each picture
in a allotted time
• The story of the subject should be centered
round the following question -
o What is happening in the picture?
o What has led to the scene?
o What is being thought of?
o What will happen?
 Scoring
• Hero of the story
• Theme of the story
• Style of the story
• Content of the story
• Test situation as a whole
• Particular emphasis or omissions
• Subject’s attitude towards authority and sex
• Outcome
 Sentence Completion Test
• Introduced by Pyane
• Subject – given sentences which he is
encouraged to complete in any way he likes
• Sentences are –
 The future ….
 I fear ….
 I am very ….
 I feel hurt ….
 I dislike …..
 I like ….
 No one …..
• Subject gives a clue to certain repressed
desires
• Subject feels to write unco9nsciously reveals
the conscious part of his mind
• Making an interpretation – 3 categories
Positive of healthy responses
Negative or unhealthy responses
Neutral responses
• Useful in applying projective technique to a
group of individuals
Story Telling and Story Completion Test
• Children – informed about the beginning of the
story
• Narrating - Father, mother, their son and
daughter – going to a picnic on the banks of a
river
• While parents are preparing food – two children
playing – suddenly, some one screams….
• Person who is being studied asked to complete
it
• Reveal something about his feeling and desires
• Psychologist – traits of personality of the child –
way he finishes the story
 Free Association Test
• Developed – Jung
• Further elaborated by Kent and Rosanoff
• Involves uttering of a Stimulus word by the
tester
• Subject responds immediately by another word
• Time taken – long – indicate blocks – need some
more probing
• Response – desires personality
 Dream Analysis
• Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung
• Find out – repressed unconscious desires,
emotions and feelings of individual men and
women
• First – psycho-analyst wins the confidence of the
subject
• Subject – asked – take a comfortable position
and recline on a sofa
• Encouraged to talk about his trouble, freely
• Certain point – stops free conversation and
resists in expressing ideas freely
• Many sittings – came to know – significant
factors of personality
 Analysis of Dream – 5 steps
• Ask the dreamer to describe his dream and
write it out
• Ask the dreamer to list all the components of
the dream, be the people, place, events or
circumstances
• Next – make the dreamer write down all his
associations to each of the dream elements
• Investigator tries to amplify the dream
• Dreamer is asked to think and describe about
yesterday’s events vividly