Course: (G104) Psychology

Assignment on
Developing a Psychological profile of a
Fictional Character

Submitted to
Dr. Akib Ul Huque
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology
University of Dhaka

Submitted by
Rumaisa Younus Wahi, Roll: 12
Raiyan Razi Rahman, Roll: 26
Subha Ibnath, Roll: 60
Sajid Enam Siddiqui, Roll: 106

Institute of Business Administration, University of

Dhaka
Date of Submission: 29 May 2023
CURIOUS CASE OF SADMAN SHAHRIAR
In the midst of the hot and bustling traffic jam of Dhaka,
Sadman is waiting impatiently to reach his classes. He is a
regular student at IBA, Dhaka University, with messy locks
and drowsy eyes. He was raised in a world of luxury and opulence, but because both of his
parents are deeply committed healthcare professionals, he was unable to form an emotional
connection with them. Since childhood he has always strived to live up to his parents' high
expectations and up until now it has been effortless for him to win awards and accolades, owing
to his IQ of 148 and disciplined life. But the once-prolific student now finds it difficult to pass
semesters and often stays up at night worrying about his parents’ disappointment. With each
passing day, his dissatisfaction with his studies and his life grows. For the past few months, he
wakes up one day full of unbridled creativity and vitality, only to find himself slipping into
despair the next, trapped in the depths of his own mind. Simple activities like going to class, or
even getting out of bed become difficult challenges to overcome. He doesn't have many friends
and is afraid of developing emotional bonds with people, despite the fact that he craves safety
and company. He stays away from social events and prefers to spend much of his time alone in
his room. His unexpected emotional outbursts have a significant negative impact on his dealings
with others, making it difficult for him to establish long-term relationships. He is very direct in
his expression of his opinions and does not easily give them up. He does not hold back. When
someone doesn't follow his rules, he appears to grow aggressive or upset as well. He constantly
feels the urges to commit socially unacceptable things but he puts restrain to this sort of
impermissible thoughts by reminding himself of his ethical values and standardized norms of the
society. On the brighter note, he enjoys learning new things, is very good at playing violin,
boxing, and dancing, and participates heavily in ECAs. But he doesn’t stick with a hobbybattledo
long. Sadman has lately turned to drink for solace as he battles this raging mental storm. He
attempts to temporarily numb the pain with each glass. To make things worse, he has recently
been diagnosed with a psychological disorder when he had a consultation with a psychologist.

Psychological Profiling of Sadman

PERSONALITY: BIG 5 MODEL ANALYSIS

1. Extraversion- Sadman is low on extraversion. People who are low on extraversion are
sober and retiring. Sadman too avoids social gatherings and prefers to spend a lot of time
by himself in his room.
 2. Agreeableness- Sadman is very blunt in expressing his belief and doesn’t really change
his views in accordance with the situation. He doesn’t mince his words and gets hostile
when people don’t go by his rules. His unfriendly behavior indicates that he is very low
on agreeableness.
3. Openness to Experience- Being very enthusiastic in learning new things and exploring
new hobbies, Sadman has a high magnitude of openness to experience.
4. Neuroticism- Sadman is quite high on neuroticism. He frequently stays up late at night
worrying. He fears forming lasting partnerships. He frequently finds himself on guard
and surrounded by unwarranted worries and irrational fears. Sadman is tense, anxious and
insecure.
5. Conscientiousness- It can be inferred that Sadman is highly conscientiousness as he has
lived a disciplined life.

INTELLIGENCE
Emotional Intelligence: Emotional intelligence refers to the set of skills that underlie the
accurate assessment, evaluation, expression, and regulation of emotions. Sadman’s emotional
intelligence seems to be a bit low as he lacks social skills and empathy.

IQ- IQ (Intelligence quotient) is a score that considers an individual’s mental and chronological
ages. People with IQ scores over 130 are considered to be intellectually gifted and are able to do
things better than an average person. Sadman has an IQ of 148, which means he is intellectually
gifted.

Gardner’s multiple intelligences- Gardner argues that people have a minimum of eight
different forms of intelligence. Among those, Sadman seems to have Musical (playing violin)
and bodily kinesthetic (dancing and boxing) intelligence, but he lacks interpersonal intelligence,
which denotes to the skills in interacting with others, such as sensitivity to the moods,
temperaments of others.

ATTACHMENT ISSUES
Disorganized attachment- Sadman may have developed disorganized attachment as his
emotional needs were not rightly addressed during his early childhood days. As a result, he faces
trouble with emotional regulation and social functions, for instance, he often has emotional
outbursts. He still chases his parents’ approval and fears their disappointment.

STRESS AND COPING

Stress and Background Stressor: Sadman is facing stress and background stressors are causing
this. His dissatisfaction with his academics and life overall and his distant relationship with his
parents are background stressors that can cause long-term, chronic problems for him. His stress
has caused him to lose sleep and use alcohol.

Avoidant coping- Sadman combats stress by using direct coping techniques (avoidant coping).
To deal with stress, he uses direct escape routes like alcohol use.

PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER
Bipolar Disorder: Sadman has Bipolar disorder. He suffers from severe highs and lows of
mood. This alternation of mania and depression is the manifestation of his bipolar disorder.
When someone doesn’t follow his rules he becomes agitated and hostile, which indicates that he
has slightly inflated self-esteem and is a bit indifferent to others’ opinions. These often lead to
the alienation of people with bipolar disorder, which is happening to Sadman too.

FREUD’S PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH TO PERSONALITY

ID: According to Freud, Id is the instinctual and unorganized part of personality whose sole
purpose is to reduce tension created by primitive drives related to hunger, sex, aggression, and
irrational impulses. Id operates according to the pleasure principle in which the goal is the
immediate reduction of tension and maximization of satisfaction. The aspect of id is conspicuous
in the personality of Sadman as very often he finds himself resonating with wild thoughts.

EGO: Ego denotes the part of the personality that attempts to balance the desire of the id and
realties of the objective outside world. In contrast to the pleasure-seeking principle, ego operates
according to reality principle in which instinctual energy is restrained to maintain individuals’
safety and to help the person to integrate in the society. When Sadman balances the unacceptable
desires and the realities of the world his ego comes to the play.

SUPEREGO: Superego refers to the part of the personality that harshly judges the morality of
our behavior. It represents the right and the wrong of society as taught and modelled by
significant people around a person. Sadman’s referring to the standardized norm of society could
be considered as the part of the superego of his personality.