Chapter 2

Self and Personality

Self and Personality

1. It can be referred as the characteristics in which we define our existence.
2. These characteristics are usually acquired from our experiences and they show up in
our behaviour.
3. These characteristics make people different from each other. Hence they behave
differently in similar situations. Also same people behave almost similarly in different
situations.
4. Hence it is safe to say that Different people have different personalities in different
situations.

Self
1. The self is an individual person as the object of its own reflective consciousness
2. Self is the totality of an individual’s conscious experiences, ideas, thoughts and
feelings with regard to her/himself developed since the beginning (childhood days).
3. These experiences and ideas define the existence of an individual both at
personal and social level. Parents, friends, teachers and other significant people
around ourselves.
4. Self can be defined under two type of identities:
a. Personal Identity–
i. It includes those attributes which makes you different from others.
ii. It describes us in our Personal aspects: eg by Name, personal qualities
(honest, hardworking), potential, capabilities (singer, dancer), beliefs
(believer in God), values etc.
b. Social Identity-
i. These are those aspects that link a person with society or a cultural
group and their practices. Eg- religion (Hindu, Sikh), North Indian or a
South Indian.
5. Self as Subject and Self as Object
a. Self is described as subject (who does something) as well as object (which
gets affected).
b. As subject (actor) the self actively engages in the process of knowing itself.
c. As an object (consequence) the self gets observed and comes to be known.
6. Kinds of Self
a. Personal Self:
i. The personal self leads to an orientation in which one feels primarily
concerned with oneself.
ii. It emphasis on those aspects of life that relate only to the concerned
person, such as personal freedom, personal responsibility, personal
achievement or personal comforts.
iii. It develops according to your needs like hunger leads to development
of awareness that I am hungry which is biological self.
b. Social Self:
i. It emerges in relation with others and emphasises such aspects of life
as a cooperation, unity, affiliation, sacrifices, support or sharing.

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 ii. This self-values family and social relationship.
iii. It is also known as familial or relational self.

Cognitive and Behavioural aspects of Self

1. Cognitive means mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding

through thought, experience and sense.
2. Self-Concept: It is the way in which a person perceives about himself and the ideas
he holds about his competencies and attributes is also called Self-Concept. It
mentions about persons positive or negative views. For e.g., a person may think he is
positive in sports bravery but negative in academics.
3. Self- Esteem- The personal value and worth judgement by a person about her/himself
is termed as Self-esteem.
a. High Self-esteem- Those who think highly of themselves, more accepted by
others. These persons are generally happier, more confident, usually perform
better at school/work.
b. Low Self-esteem- Those who feel less accepted and valued by others. Are
generally anxious, depressed and may develop antisocial behaviour.
c. Studies show children develop self-esteem by the age of 6-7 years in four
areas: Academic competence, Social competence, Physical/Athletic
competence and Physical appearance.
4. Self-efficacy- The concept of Self-efficacy is based on Bandura’s social learning
theory (children and adults learns behaviour by observing and imitating others). It is
the extent to which people believe that they can control their life and the outcomes
themselves. Their conviction in themselves.
a. High Self-efficacy – A strong sense of self-efficacy allows people to select,
influence and even construct the circumstances of their own life. A strong
sense of self-efficacy makes people less fearful.

5. Self-regulation-
a. It is the ability to organize and monitor our own behaviour.
b. High self-regulation: these people are able to change their behaviour
according to the demands of the external environment.
c. Will power– Resistance to situational pressures and control over ourselves.
d. Self-control– Learning to delay or defer the gratification of needs (desire/
pleasure) is called self-control. It plays important role in achievement of long-
term goals.
e. Psychological techniques of self-control:
i. Observation of own behaviour
ii. Self- instructions- to instruct ourselves to do something and behave
the way we want.
iii. Self- Reinforcement- Rewarding behaviours that have pleasant
outcome.

Culture and Self:

1. Several aspects of Self are linked to the characteristics and features of the culture in
which an individual life.

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 2. e.g Distinction between Indian and Western cultures.

Western culture:

1. In this culture, the Individual ( self) and the cultural group are two different
identities
2. The boundaries between self and group are clearly defined.
3. Individual members of the group maintain their individuality.
4. Western culture is Individualistic.

Indian Culture:

1. Self is not separated from one’s own group

2. They both (self & group) remain in state of harmonious co-existence.
3. Lot of dependency and no clear boundaries.
4. Indian culture is Collectivistic.

Concept of Personality

1. Literary definition- This word is derived from Latin word-Persona, which

means mask used by actors in Roman theatre to perform their roles.
2. Layperson’s definition– Personality represents external or physical
appearance. They often mistake the superficial features for a person s overall
personality. Eg. We often assume that Good looking person also has a charming
personality which may not correct.
3. Psychology definition:
a. Personality refers to our characteristic ways of responding to individuals and
situations.
b. Personality refers to unique and relatively stable qualities that characterise an
individual’s behaviour across different situations over a period of time.
c. People can easily describe the way in which they respond to various situations.
Eg- Shy, sensitive, quiet, warm, nervous.)
4. Overall:
a. Personality is characterised by following features:
i. It consists of both physical to psychological components
ii. Expression of personality in form of behaviour is unique for each
individual.

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 iii. It’s main characteristics/behaviour do not easily change with time.
iv. Though some features may change due to internal or external
situational demands, making personality also adaptive to situations.
5. Some similar meaning words/terms to Personality which are often used as synonyms
but differ in meaning:
a. Temperament: Biologically based characteristic way of reacting
b. Traits: Stable, persistent and specific way of behaving, in most situations.
c. Disposition: Tendency of a person to react to a specific situation
d. Character: The description based on overall pattern of regularly
occurring behaviour
e. Habits: Over learned modes of behaving, become involuntary
reactions/actions.
f. Values: Goals and ideals that are considered important and worthwhile to
achieve.

Different Approaches to study Personalities and behaviours:

1. Type approach
2. Trait Approach
3. Interactional Approach
4. Psychodynamic approach
5. Behaviour approach
6. Cultural Approach
7. Humanistic approach

Type Approach:
1. This approach attempts to comprehend and segregate people into groups by
examining and based on their broad patterns in observed behaviours.
2. So each pattern type refers to a group of people who have similarity of their
behavioural characteristics that match with the pattern that set denotes.
3. Greek physician Hippocrates had proposed a typology of personality based on
fluid/humour: Sanguine, Phlegmatic, melancholic, choleric.
4. Charak Samhita famous treatise on Ayurveda classifies as- Vata,
pitta and kapha based on 3 humoral elements- Tridosha, each refers to the prakriti
(basic nature).
5. Typology of personality based on trigunas:
▪ Sattva- Cleanliness, Truthfulness, dutifulness, detachment and discipline.
▪ Rajas- Intensive activity, desire for sense gratification, dissatisfaction, envy
and a materialistic mentality.
▪ Tamas– Anger, arrogance, depression, laziness, feeling of helplessness.
6. Sheldon theory: gives typology of personality based on body type and
temperament.
▪ Endomorphic- Fat, soft and round, Relaxed and sociable.
▪ Mesomorphic- Strong muscular, rectangular body and energetic and
courageous by temperament
▪ Ectomorphic- Thin, long, fragile by body type and creative, brainy and
introvert by temperament.

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 7. Jung theory- He propose two types of personality introverts and extroverts.
▪ Introverts are people who preferred to be alone tend to avoid others withdraw
themselves in the face of emotional conflict, and are shy.
▪ Extroverts are sociable, outgoing, drawn to occupations that allow dealing
directly with people, and react to stress by trying to lose themselves among
people and social activity.
8. Friedman & Rosenman- classified individuals into Type A & Type B personality
▪ Type A- Possess high motivation, lack patience, fall short of time, in a great
hurry, always feel burdened with work, can’t slow down. People with type A
personality are more susceptible to problem like hypertension and coronary
heat diseases (CHD)
▪ Type B- Absence of category of Type A
9. Morris added Type C and Type D personality
▪ Type C- Unassertive, cooperative, patient
▪ Type D- Proneness of depression.

Trait Approach:
1. A trait is considered as a relatively enduring attribute or quality on which one
individual differs from another.
2. This type of people has specific set of traits.
3. For e.g., Shyness, sociable is a trait, so people can be rated in terms of degree of
presence or absence of that trait in individuals as Less, More, Not shy at all against
that. Friendliness can be another trait and many others.
4. This theory or approach try to discover the “building blocks” of personality.
5. To summarise:
a. Traits are relatively stable over time
b. They are generally consistent across situations
c. Their strengths and combinations vary across individuals leading to individual
differences in personality.
6. There are many psychologists who have used trait to formulate theories of
personality:
a. Gordon Allport’s Trait theory:
i. As per Allport, Traits are the intervening variables between situations
which stimulate and person’s response to them.
ii. He categorised the traits in to three: Cardinal, Central and
Secondary
iii. Cardinal traits: They are highly pervasive and generalized and
indicate the goals around which an individual’s life revolves. g.
Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violence – Gandhian trait and Hitler’s Nazism
– Hitlerian trait
iv. Central traits: These are less pervasive, still much generalized
dispositions. E.g. warm, sincere , diligent. We often use these traits for
writing a job recommendation or in our resume.
v. Secondary traits: These are least generalized, commonly found in
various people, cannot be made the basis for differentiating
personalities of people. E.g. the person who likes mangoes, prefer
ethnic clothes, likes black dresses.
b. Cattell theory:
i. Raymond Cattell believed that there is common structure on which
people differ from each other.

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 ii. He applied a statistical technique called factor analysis and developed
a test called sixteen personality factor questionnaires (16 PF).
iii. According to him, each person contains all of these 16 traits to a
certain degree, but they might be high in some traits and low in others
1. Source traits: Stable and are considered as building block of
personality.
2. Surface traits: They result out of the interaction of source
traits.
c. Eysenck’s Theory: Based on biological and genetically governed, Personality
could be reduced into two broad dimensions– (However, in his later work
Eysenck introduced 3rd dimension also).
i. Neuroticism Vs Emotional stability: If refers to the degree of control
people have on their feelings. People who score high on the
neuroticism are anxious, moody, touchy (get upset easily, over
sensitive), restless, distressed, irritable, emotional unstable. The
opposite having low scores are calm, emotionally stable.
ii. Extraversion Vs Introversion: Extraversion refers to people who are
socially outgoing, active, gregarious, impulsive, thrill seeking and
introversion refers to people passive, quiet, cautious and reserved.
iii. Psychoticism Vs sociability: Person scoring high on psychoticism
tends to be hostile, egocentric, anti-social. The opposite are friendly
and sociable.
d. Five Factor Model of Personality:
i. Paul Costa and Robert McCrae have examined all possible personality
traits.
ii. They indicated set of Big five factors, which are useful and consistent
in analysing personality traits across cultures, languages, hence most
promising empirical approach to study personality.
1. Openness to experience:
a. Those who score high on this are imaginative, curious,
and open to new ideas and Interested in cultural
pursuits.
b. Opposites (those who score low) are cold and rigid.
2. Extraversion:
a. Socially active, assertive, outgoing, talkative and fun
loving.
b. Opposites are shy.
3. Agreeableness:
a. Helpful, cooperative, caring and nurturing.
b. Opposite are hostile and self-centred.
4. Neuroticism:
a. People scoring high on this are highly emotionally
unstable, anxious, irritable, hypertensive.
b. Opposites are well adjusted, calm.
5. Conscientiousness:
a. Achievement oriented, dependable, responsible,
prudent, hardworking and self-controlled.
b. Opposites are impulsive.

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The Interactional Approach:
1. This theory claims that situational characteristics play an important role in
determining our behaviour.
2. People may behave as dependent or independent not because of their internal trait,
but because of external rewards or threats.
3. The compelling situations can used to observe people’s behaviour in places like a
market, a courtroom, or a place of worship.

Psychodynamic approach:
1. Highly popular approach to study personality, by Sigmund Freud (a physician) during
the clinical practice.
2. He used hypnosis to treat people with physical and emotional problems
(Hypnosis: Hypnosis is a mental state of highly focused concentration, diminished
peripheral awareness, and heightened suggestibility. Or a state that resembles sleep
but that is induced by suggestions.)
3. He used ‘Free Association’ the technique (a method in which a person is asked to
openly share his thoughts, feelings and ideas that comes to his/her mind)
4. Dream and Error analysis to understand the functioning of mind and help analyse
thoughts by expression.
5. Based on the theory of Levels of consciousness, Freud visualizes the human minds in
terms of 3 levels of consciousness:
a. Conscious: Thoughts, feelings, actions people are aware of.
b. Preconscious: The mental activity people are aware of only if they pay
attention to it closely.
c. Unconscious: This includes mental activity people are unaware of. These
are instinctive, animalistic drives concealed and repressed away from
conscious mind because they may lead to psychological conflicts.
6. Freud used therapy of Psychoanalysis (psychoanalytic therapy) to bring the repressed,
unconscious materials to consciousness, Which Leads people to live more self-aware
and integrated life.
7. According to this theory there are 3 structural elements of Personality- Id, Ego and
Superego.
a. Id –
i. It is source of a person’s instinctual energy and works on pleasure
principle.
ii. Deals with immediate gratification of primitive needs- sexual
desires, aggressive impulses does not care for moral values, society or
any individuals.
iii. Id is energised by two instinctive forces- life instinct & death instinct.
iv. The life force that energises the Id is called libido, which seeks
immediate gratification.
b. Ego-
i. It grows out of Id only but seeks to satisfy an individual’s instinctual
needs in accordance with reality.
ii. Works by reality principle.
iii. Ego often directs the Id towards more appropriates ways of behaving,
which are socially acceptable.
iv. Eg: A boy sees some one having an ice-cream. His Id may want him to
snatch it and eat it. But Ego guides him to ask permission and then take
it, which is socially more acceptable behaviour.

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 c. Super Ego-
i. Super Ego can be characterised as the moral branch of mental
functioning.
ii. Super Ego tells the Id and Ego whether gratification is ethical or not.
iii. e.g. Extending the same example, If the child who wants ice cream, if
asks his mother for it which is socially and morally correct.
8. Ego Defence Mechanism :
a. Defence mechanisms are behaviours people use to separate themselves from
unpleasant events, actions, or thoughts.
b. Defence mechanisms are unconscious strategies whereby people protect
themselves from anxious thoughts or feelings.
c. Human behaviours reflect an attempt to deal with or escape from anxiety.
d. People avoid anxiety by distorting reality.
e. Freud described defence mechanism of 5 types:
i. Repression:
1. Anxiety provoking behaviours or thoughts are totally dismissed
by the unconscious mind.
2. When people repress any desire at times, they totally become
unaware of that desire.
3. E,g When someone does something which expresses that desire
in a situation, they say, ‘ I do not know why I did this.’
ii. Projection:
1. In projection, people attribute their own traits to others.
2. E.g People who have aggressive tendencies may see other
people also acting aggressive towards them. i.e projecting their
own behaviour.
iii. Denial:
1. Person in this trait totally refuses to accept reality.
2. e.g. A person with AIDS refuses to accept or deny his illness.
iv. Reaction formation:
1. This person to defend against anxiety adopts a behaviour totally
opposite to the instinctive feeling.
2. E.g. Many people acquire religious practices to channelize their
strong sexual urges.
v. Rationalization:
1. Trying to rationalize their unreasonable feelings and behaviours
making them seem reasonable and acceptable.
2. e.g., When a student after doing poorly in exams buys new pens
to rationalize reason of bad performance and tells himself that
he will do well with these new pens.
9. Stages of Personality Development:
a. Freud Approach: Freud claims that core aspects of personality are formed at
an early stage and remain stable throughout life.
b. He has proposed a 5 stage theory.
i. Oral stage:
1. New born’s instincts are focused on the mouth.
2. The baby seeks pleasure in food that reduces his hunger, thumb
sucking, biting, and babbling through his mouth.
ii. Anal stage:

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 1. It is found that around ages of 2 or 3 child learns to control the
bodily functions of urination and defecation.
2. If left to themselves, most children at this age experience
pleasure by focusing on their anal area and in moving their
bowls.
iii. Phallic stage:
1. This stage focuses on genitals.
2. At age of 4 to 5, children begin to realise the difference
between males and females.
3. During this stage male children may feel Oedipus complex,
which involves love for mother and hostility towards father.
And female child experiences Electra complex wherein they
are more attached to father and see mothers as their rivals.
iv. Latency Stage:
1. From age of 7 to puberty, child continues to grow physically.
2. Sexual urges are relatively inactive.
3. Much of their energy is channelled in social or achievement
activities.
v. Genital Stage:
1. During this stage, individual develops maturity in psychosexual
development.
2. People learn to deal with opposite gender in a socially mature
way.
3. However, if the journey is marked thorough excessive stress or
over-indulgence, it may cause fixation to that stage or
regression to an earlier stage of development.

c. Post Freudian Approaches:

i. A number of theorists developed their ideas following Freud.
ii. These theories are less characteristics of sexual and aggressive
tendencies of the Id and the expansion of the concept of Ego.

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 iii. The human qualities of creativity, competence and problem solving
abilities are emphasised.
iv. Carl Jung :
1. Aims and aspirations: Jung worked with Freud in his early
stage of career. Later he broke away as he believed that human
beings are also driven by their aims and ambitions besides
sex and aggression.
2. He claimed that there was a collective unconscious consisting
archetypes or primordial images. These are not individually
acquired but are inherited.
3. The God or the Mother Earth is a good example of archetypes.
They are found in myths, dreams and arts of all mankind.
4. According to him, for achieving unity and wholeness, a person
must become increasingly aware of the wisdom available and
must learn to live in harmony with it.
v. Karen Horney:
1. She was another disciple of Freud also derived her theory
further from Freudian principles.
2. She adopted a more optimistic of human life.
3. As per her human beings are also driven by growth and self-
actualization.
4. She also contributed by challenging Freud’s treatment of
women as inferior.
5. As per her each gender has attributes to be admired by the
other, neither being superior or inferior. Women are more
affected by social and cultural factors.
6. Psychological disorders like anxiety are caused by disturbed
interpersonal relationship during childhood. Indifferent,
discouraging, excessively dominating.
vi. Alfred Adler: Lifestyle and Social Interest
1. Adler’s theory is also known as individual psychology.
2. His basic assumption is that human behaviour is purposeful
and goal directed each one chooses and creates. Personal goals
are the source of motivation.
3. In Adler’s view every individual suffers from feeling of
inadequacy and guilt (sense of regret) i.e., Inferiority complex.
4. Overcoming these complexes is essential for optimal
personality development.
5. He believed human beings are social beings and psychological
qualities such as growth and realization resulted from desire of
freedom and striving for justice/truth.
vii. Erik Erikson: Search for identity
1. The theory given by him is known as Psychodynamic Theory.
2. This theory lays stress on rational, conscious, ego processes
in personality development.
3. Identity is granted a central place in the process. His concept of
identity crisis of adolescent age has drawn considerable
attention.
4. Reasons for criticism of Psychodynamics theories:

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 a. They are largely based on case studies and not backed
by scientific
b. Small and archetypical individuals were taken as
sample groups for studies for advancing generalizations.
c. Concepts are not properly defined. And they cannot be
subjected to scientific testing.
d. Freud theory has used males as prototype of all human
personality development. He overlooked female
experiences and perspectives.

Behavioural Approach:
1. This approach does not give importance to the internal dynamics of behaviour.
2. The behaviourists believe in data, which they feel are definable, observable and
measurable.
3. The theory focuses on study of stimulus – response and reinforcements.
4. Personality can be best understood as a response of an individual to the environment.
5. They see the development as a change in response characteristics .i.e person learns
new behaviours in response to new environments and stimuli.
6. As per most behaviourists, response is the structural unit of the personality.
7. Each response to satisfy the specific needs is behavioural personality.
8. The theories related to these approaches are Classical Conditioning by Pavlov,
instrumental conditioning by Skinner and Observational Learning by Bandura etc.

Cultural Approach:
1. This approach attempts to understand personality in relation to the features of
ecological and cultural environment.
2. Rituals, ceremonies, religious practices, arts, recreational activities, games and
plays are the means through which people’s personalities get projected in a culture.
3. People develop various personality qualities in an attempt to adapt to a culture or
ecological features of groups in life.
4. Thus cultural approach considers personality as an adaptation of individuals or groups
to the demands of ecology or culture.
5. For example Birhor tribes of Jharkhand lives as nomadic life where children gets
more exposure and freedom related to others as for example they take more risks in
life due to practices like hunting and gatherings.
6. Because of different economic pursuits and cultural demands, children in hunting,
gathering and agricultural societies develop and display different personality patterns.

Humanistic Approach:
1. This approach is mainly built on the theories of Freud, Carl Roger and Abraham
Maslow.
2. Roger proposed the idea of a
a. Fully functioning person: Lives in harmony with his/her deepest feelings
and impulses,
b. Self-Image: Total subjective perception of your body and personality.
c. Conditions of Worth: behaviors and attitudes for which other people, starting
with our parents, will give us positive regard.
d. Unconditional Positive Regard: Unshakable love and approval

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 e. Positive Self-Regard: Thinking of oneself as a good, lovable, worthwhile
person
f. Fulfillment is the motivational force for personality development.
g. People try to express their capabilities, talents and potentials to the fullest
extent.
h. He observed that each person has a concept of True self and an Ideal self
about him.
i. Correspondence between the two leads to a happier and contented person in
congruence with himself.
j. When there is discrepancy and these two spheres don’t overlap each other at
all it leads to unhappiness and dissatisfaction.
k. As per Roger’s principle people have a tendency to maximize self-concept
through self-actualization. And personality development is a journey towards
that.
l. The self grows, expands and becomes more social
m. People with high self-concept and self-esteem are generally flexible and open
to new experiences, so that they can continue to grow and self-actualise
3. As per Abraham Maslow theory of hierarchical needs people has the optimistic and
positive view of potentialities for love, joy and to do creative.

Who is a Healthy Person? As per humanistic approach.

1. The Humanistic theory suggests that no one can be a healthy person by mere adjusting
to the society.
2. It involves following characteristics:
a. Awareness of self, one’s feelings and their limits and accept themselves.
b. Experience Here and Now; are not trapped.
c. Don’t so much live in the past and dwell in the future through anxious
expectations and distorted defences.

Personality Assessment:
1. A formal effort aimed at understanding personality of an individual with minimum
error and maximum accuracy is termed as personality assessment.

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 2. Uses of Personality Assessment:
a. Helps understand how an individual is likely to behave in a given situation.
b. Accurate assessment is also useful for diagnosis, training, placement,
counselling.
3. Techniques:
a. Psychometric Tests (see first chapter)
b. Self- Report Measures
c. Projective Techniques
d. Behavioural Analysis
4. Self Report: It is the Method to assess a person by asking him/her about
himself/herself. These are structured measures in which subjects are made to
objectively report verbal responses using a rating scale.

1. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)- developed for

psychiatric diagnosis but later applied to variety of psychopathology- in
different scales. True/false questions
a. Scale 1—Hypochondriasis
This scale was designed to assess a neurotic concern over bodily
functioning. The items on this scale concern physical symptoms and
well-being a tendency to believe that one has an undiagnosed medical
condition.
b. Scale 2—Depression
This scale was originally designed to identify depression, characterized
by poor morale, lack of hope in the future, and general dissatisfaction
with one's own life situation.
c. Scale 3—Hysteria
The third scale was originally designed to identify those who display
hysteria or physical complaints in stressful situations. Those who are
well-educated and of a high social class tend to score higher on this
scale. Women also tend to score higher than men on this scale.
d. Scale 4—Psychopathic Deviate
Originally developed to identify psychopathic individuals, this scale
measures social deviation, lack of acceptance of authority, and
amorality (a disregard for morality). This scale can be thought of as a
measure of disobedience and antisocial behaviour. High scorers tend to
be more rebellious, while low scorers are more accepting of authority.
e. Scale 5—Masculinity-Femininity
This scale was designed by the original authors to identify what they
referred to as homosexual tendencies, for which it was largely
ineffective.
f. Scale 6—Paranoia
This scale was originally developed to identify individuals with
paranoid symptoms such as suspiciousness, feelings of persecution,
grandiose self-concepts, excessive sensitivity, and rigid attitudes.
Those who score high on this scale tend to have paranoid or psychotic
symptoms.
g. Scale 7—Psychasthenia
This diagnostic label is no longer used today and the symptoms
described on this scale are more reflective of anxiety, depression, and
obsessive-compulsive disorder. This scale was originally used to

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 measure excessive doubts, compulsions, obsessions, and unreasonable
fears.
h. Scale 8—Schizophrenia
This Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder in which people
interpret reality abnormally. Schizophrenia may result in some
combination of hallucinations, delusions, and extremely disordered
thinking and behaviour that impairs daily functioning, and can be
disabling
i. Scale 9—Hypomania
This scale was developed to identify characteristics of hypomania such
as elevated mood, hallucinations, delusions of grandeur, accelerated
speech and motor activity, irritability, flight of ideas, and brief periods
of depression.
j. Scale 10—Social Introversion
This scale was developed later than the other nine scales. It's designed
to assess a person’s shyness and tendency to withdraw from social
contacts and responsibilities.

2. Eyesenck Personality Questionnaire – (EPQ)

i. Tests in 2 dimensions of personality- Introverted / Extroverted and
Emotionally stable/unstable.
ii. These dimensions has 32 personality traits.
iii. Later Eyesenck added 3rd dimension to this theory psychoticism (lack
of feelings for other).
a) Such people have a tough manner of interaction, tendency to
defy social conventions.
b) A person scoring high on this dimension tends to be hostile,
egocentric, and antisocial.
3. Cattell- Sixteen personality factor questionnaire – (16PF).
i. The tests provides with declarative statements and the subjects respond
to the specific situation by choosing from a set of given alternatives.

4. Uses of Self-report test:

a. Career guidance, vocational exploration and occupational testing for
students/adults.
b. To assess specific dimensions of personality type ( e.g. authoritarianism, locus
of control, optimism)
5. Limitations of Self-report tests:
a. Social desirability: this is a tendency on part of a student to endorse/select
responses basis socially desirable behaviour.
b. Acquiescence: It is a tendency of the subject of saying Yes to items
irrespective of the content, which makes it less reliable for an effective
outcome.
c. Hesitant to open: This being a direct method where assessment is based on the
information directly obtained from the subject, hence he knows that he is been
assessed for personality and gets self-conscious and hesitates to share his
private feelings.
d. Hence these tests should be performed under careful supervision of an expert
or a trained person.

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 6. Projective Technique:
a. This technique is an indirect method, used to uncover and assess the large
part of the behaviour which is governed by unconscious motives, as direct (
self-report) methods cannot assess this.
b. In direct method, people generally become self-conscious and hesitate to
share their private feelings, thoughts, and motivations.
c. Methods include: Reporting association with stimuli- words, inkblots, story
writing around pictures, some require sentence completion, expression through
drawings.
d. Features of this technique:
i. The stimuli are relatively or fully unstructured and poorly defined.
ii. The subject is not told about the purpose of assessment and method of
scoring and interpretation.
iii. The person is informed that there is no correct or incorrect answer.
iv. Each response is considered to reveal a significant aspect of
personality.
v. Scoring and interpretation are lengthy and sometime subjective.

e. Examples of Projective tests:

i. Rorschach Inkblot Test:
1. This test was developed by Swiss psychologist Harmann
Rorschach in 1921.
2. The tests consists of 10 inkblots ( 5 black and white, 2 red and
remaining of pastel colours) printed in the centre of a cardboard
of 7” ×10”
3. The blots were made by dropping ink on a piece of paper and
then folding the paper in half hence called inkblot test.
4. 1st Phase- Performance proper: Subjects are shown the cards
and are asked to tell what they see in each.
5. 2nd Phase- Inquiry: A detailed report of responses is prepared
by asking the subject to tell on where, how and on what basis
was a particular response made.
6. Use of the test requires extensive training to make fine
judgement and interpretation.
ii. The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT):
1. It was developed by Christiana Morgan and Henry Murray
in 1930s.
2. It is Little more structured that the Inkblot test.
3. It consists of 30 black and white picture cards and 1 blank card.
4. Each card depicts one or more people in a variety of situations.
5. 20 cards to 5 cards are used for performing assessment.
6. Method: One card is presented at a time, asking the subject to
tell a story describing the situation presented in the picture:
a. What led up to the situation?
b. What is happening at the moment?
c. What will happen in future?
d. What are the characters thinking and feeling?
7. A standard procedure is followed for scoring the TAT
responses.
8. Indian adaptation done by: Uma Chaudhary.

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 Rozensweig’s Picture-Frustration study ( P-F Study):
iii.
1. It was developed by Rozenweig.
2. It was developed to assess how people express aggression in a
frustrating situation.
3. The test consists cartoon like pictures depicting situations
where one person is frustrating other.
4. The subject is asked to describe:
a. What the frustrated person will say or do?
5. Analysis is based on:
a. the Type and Direction of aggression (towards onself or
environment or evading the situation).
b. It is examined whether the focus is on frustrating object
or protecting the frustrated person, or on constructive
solution.
iv. Sentence Completion Test:
1. This test makes use of number of incomplete sentences. The
starting of the sentence is presented and the subject has to
provide an ending of the sentence. The type of ending helps
assess the unconscious attitude, motivation and conflicts. e.g.
a. My father………………….
b. My greatest fear is…………
c. The best thing about my mother is…………
d. I am proud of………………
v. Draw-a-Person test:
1. In this test subject is provided with a pencil, eraser and sheet
and asked to draw a picture of a person.
2. After the completion of the drawing, subject is asked to draw a
picture of a person of opposite gender.
3. Subject is asked to make a story about the person as if he/she
was a character of a movie/novel.
4. Some examples of the interpretation as follows:
a. Omission of facial features suggests that the person tries
to evade a highly conflict-ridden interpersonal
relationship.
b. Graphic emphasis on the neck suggests lack of control
over impulses.
c. Disproportionately large size of the head suggests
organic brain disease or preoccupation with headaches.
7. Behavioural Analysis:
a. This analysis can provide us with a meaningful information about his/her
personality.
b. An observer’s report contains data obtained from:
i. Interview
ii. Observation
iii. Ratings
iv. Nomination
v. Situational tests
c. Interview:

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 i. Structured interview follows a set of very specific questions and set
procedure. This is often done to make objective comparison of persons
being interviewed. Use of rating scales add to the objectivity.
ii. Unstructured Interview involves asking a number of questions (not
specific) to develop an impression about a person. The way a subject
answers and presents himself and answers the questions carries enough
potential to reveal about his/her personality.
d. Observation:
i. Use of Observation for a personality assessment is a sophisticated
procedure that cannot be carried out by untrained people.
ii. It requires careful training of the observer and fairly detailed guideline
to carry out analysis to use observations to assess personality.
iii. In spite of the widespread use of this method, it has following
limitations:
1. Professional training required for collection of useful data and
is quite demanding and time consuming.
2. Maturity of the observer is a precondition. Else personal biases
can alter the assessment.
3. Mere presence of the observer may contaminate the results.
e. Behavioural Ratings
i. Behavioural ratings are frequently used for personality assessment of
individuals in an educational or industrial settings.
ii. Behavioural ratings are generally taken from the people who know the
assessee intimately and have interacted over a period of time.
iii. In order to use ratings, the traits should be clearly defined in terms of
carefully stated behavioural anchors.
iv. Limitations of Behavioural Rating method:
1. Raters generally display biases that colour their judgements of
different traits. For example, most of them are greatly
influenced by a single favourable/unfavourable trait which
colours the overall judgment on all the traits. This is called
‘Halo effect.’
2. Raters have a tendency to place individuals in the middle of the
scale (middle category bias) or in the extreme
positions (called extreme response bias).
f. Nominations:
i. In this method people in a group who know each other for a long
period are asked to nominate another person from the group with
whom they would like to work/play/do some activity.
ii. Then they are asked to state the reason why they would have
nominated that person.
g. Situational tests:
i. A variety of situational tests have been devised for the assessment of
personality. Most commonly used test is –Situational Stress test.
ii. It provides us information on how a person behaves under stressful
conditions. In performing this test the person is given a task under
stressful environment, where others are instructed not to provide any
support and act non-cooperative. This is kind of role playing. The
subject is observed and a report is prepared. Situations can be
videotaped and observed for assessment later.

By AMIT KUMAR amitranjanfn09@outlook.com 9435028022

By AMIT KUMAR amitranjanfn09@outlook.com 9435028022