personality
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Death is to us change, not consummation." Heart of Midlothian. A change! no, surely, not a change, The change must be before we die; Death may confer a wider range, From pole to pole, from sea to sky, It cannot make me new or strange To mine own Personality! For what am I? -- this mortal flesh, These shrinking nerves, this feeble frame, For ever racked with ailments fresh And scarce from day to day the same -- A fly within the spider's mesh, A moth that plays around the flame! THIS is not I -- within such coil The immortal spirit rests awhile: When this shall lie beneath the soil, Which its mere mortal parts defile, THAT shall for ever live and foil Mortality, and pain, and guile. Whatever Time may make of me Eternity must see me still Clear from the dross of earth, and free From every stain of every ill; Yet still, where-e'er -- what-e'er I be, Time's work Eternity must fill. When all the worlds have ceased to roll, When the long light has ceased to quiver When we have reached our final goal And stand beside the Living River, This vital spark -- this loving soul, Must last for ever and for ever. To choose what I must be is mine, Mine in these few and fleeting days, I may be if I will, divine, Standing before God's throne in praise, -- Through all Eternity to shine In yonder Heaven's sapphire blaze. Father, the soul that counts it gain
PERSONALITY
Personality:-
Every individual is said to have a personality of his own which is
unique and distinct from every other personality. In a popular sense, by
personality we mean that an individual has some striking qualities to traits
in which he differs from other i.e., in appearance, in aggressiveness or
pleasant manners etc. But, these are not the only points that make up the
person. Every individual has a typical and distinctive style of behaving.
This unique quality of his behavior constitutes shape to his personality i.e.,
feelings, values, reactions, prejudices, attitudes, perceptions etc. are the
basis of one’s behavior. Thus, personality includes physique, habits,
temperament, sentiments, will and intelligence etc. Personality pervades
every aspect of human life and influences every behavior. It is on this
ground that Woodworth calls personality as the quality of one’s behavior.
The personality of the individual is much more complex and goes deeper.
Personality is meant the individuals characteristic and reaction to social
situations and his adaptation to his social features of his environment.
Hence, personality is not only what we do in relation to others, but
something more than that.
Psychologically, personality is all
that a person is. It is the totality of
his being and includes physical,
mental, emotional and
temperamental make-up. We often
hear an adolescent admiring the ‘good looking’ personality of a film star,
Amitabh Bachchan of the great personality, Smita Patil or the great
personality of a national leader like Indira Gandhi and Subhash Chandra
Bose.
Dashiell says it is a “system of reactions and possibilities in toto as
viewed by fellow members of the society. It is the sum total of behavior-
trends manifested in his social adjustments.” It does not exist as an entity
by itself. It is one’s “habitual modes of response.”
CONCEPT AND MEANING OF PERSONALITY
The word ‘personality’ has been derived from the Latin word
Personae which means ‘to sound through’. The term was used to described
the voice of an actor speaking through a mask. This term slowly began to
be applied to the actors themselves. About a century before Christ, this
term became common in connection with the actors participating in plays.
By personality it is now generally meant that it is the organization and
integration of a large number of human traits. The concepts of personality
differ widely among different people. Some people consider that
personality is that something with which an individual is born, which
remains unaffected by environmental influences and which permeates all
his actions. The other people regard an individual’s personality as a person
himself. They use the two terms, personality and person, interchangeably.
There are many other views which are expressed regarding personality and
it is because the concept of personality is so widely different among
different people that to give a concise definition of personality is extremely
difficult. However, here we will try our best to arrive at such definition of
personality that may be acceptable to most of the psychologists.
DEFINITION OF PERSONALITY
Many attempts have been made to define personality. Some of in
one there is beard, in another there is none. The picture with beard shows
an effective personality Lincoln was, however, not great because he had
beard but because he was a great thinker, reformer and an ideal politician.
Warren defines Personality “as the entire mental organization of a
human-being at any stage of his development.” This definition is erroneous
in the sense that the human-being is not made up of sets compartments or
organizations out of which some are mental and some are physical. On the
contrary, the human-being is a completely integrated functioning unit or a
complete whole. Thus, any definition which separates the physical from
the mental or leads to a dualistic interpretation of the facts of human
existence cannot be acceptable to us.
The definition given by Rexroad explains personality as the balance
between socially approved traits. It is not very correct. On analysis it will
be seen that it leads inevitably to the concept of a personality. This means
that as a man has a body, a head, a nose, similarly he has a personality.
According to this position, personality is considered as a static balance
between two well-known factors. If we reflect on this position, we will
have to recognize that these factors are not stable commodities and that
social approval and disapproval are not such attributes of an individual
who is being analyzed which are fixed and dependent upon the experiences
of the person who is analyzing the personality. Thus, this definition is not
acceptable to us because it presents a static view of personality and also
because it presents an oversimplified view of it which leads us towards
ambiguity.
The definition given by Dashiell seems to be more adequate.
According to this definition, an individual’s personality is defined as “his
system of reactions and reaction-possibilities in total as viewed by fellow
members of society. It is the sum total of behavior trends manifested in his
social adjustments.” Thus, the definition describes personality as a system
of reactions and behavior and takes into consideration not only the
individual but also those who surround him. Hence, we may take this
definition as describing personality correctly to quite an appreciable extent.
It can be said with confidence that human personality does not exist unless
there are other individuals to react to the individual and to whom he may
respond.
Another definition arrived at by Gordon Allport (1927) after an
examination of 50 definitions of personality is worth mentioning here.
Allport suggested that “Personality is the dynamic organization with the
individual of those psycho-physical system that determine his unique
adjustment to his environment.” This definition emphasizes the adjective
processes in the development of an individual personality. According to
this definition, an individual’s inherent needs, urges, or drives serve as
motivation of behavior towards satisfied goals. If the individual fails to
achieve one or more of these behavior goals, there may occur a
disorganization of his personality unless a changed made of action results
in the satisfaction of the need or drive or unless itself modified or replaced
in such a way that satisfaction is made possible. This is also quite an
adequate definition and explains the personality quite clearly and correctly.
The definitions which seems to be correct, consider personality as
dynamic and refer to integrated behavior. They represent as interaction
between inherited potentialities and environmental influences.
There are numerous definitions of personality. Each definition
suggests a different approach towards personality. In other words, we may
say that Psychologists too have added to the confusion by offering a large
number of divergent definitions. A few of them are given below –
“Personality is the integration of those systems of habits that
represent one individual’s characteristic adjustment to his environment.”
- Kemph
“The entire organization of a human being at any stage of
development is personality.”
- Warren & Carmichael
“Personality is that which permits a predication of what a person
will do in a given situation.”
-Cattel, R.B.
“The personality of an individual may be defined as his persistent
tendencies to make certain qualities and kinds of adjustment.”
-Shaffer & Shober
“Personality is sum total of all the biological innate disposition,
impulses, tendencies, appetites and instincts of the individual and the
acquired dispositions and tendencies.”
- Morton Prince
“It is an individual’s typical or consistent adjustment to his
environment.”
- Boring
“It is the sum total of innate and acquired dispositions.”
- Valentine
“We shall define personality as the pattern of responses which
characterizes the individual.”
-Stagner
“By personality we refer to a pattern of traits rather than to a mere
list or collection of characteristics.”
- Gates
“Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of
those psychological systems that determine his unique adjustment to his
environment.”
- Allport
Watson (1930), the father of behaviourism on the basis of his
behavioural studies, concluded.
Personality is the sum of activities that can be discovered by actural
observations over a long enough period of time to give reliable
information.
Personality is 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.
This definition of Morton Prince was criticized on the ground that it
does not present an integrated and organizational view of personality.
Personality cannot be described through merely summing up the various
elements involved in it and if this definition is accepted, it would be like
describing a house as a collection of bricks.
Personality is a dynamic organization within the individual of those
psycho-physical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his
environment.
Although Allport tried to give a comprehensive definition of the
term personality by recognizing its dynamic nature and organizational
aspects and by emphasizing the role it can play in an individual’s
adjustment to his environment, his definition suffered from some serious
defects. In emphasizing the dynamic organization within the individual he
seems to view personality as somewhat different from the individual,
residing within him, rather than as an integrated unity of mind and body.
Personality to him is something put into the individual like water is put
into a jug and it takes the shape of the jug.
Personality is that which permits a prediction of what a person will
not in a given situation.
Personality is the more or less stable and enduring organization of a
person’s character, temperament, intellect and physique, which determine
his unique adjustment to the environment.
In Eysenck’s definition character signified conative behavior or will;
physique meant bodily configuration and neuroendocrine endowments,
temperament stood for affective behavior based on emotions, and intellect
implied the cognitive behavior or intelligence.
The definition given by Eysenck has very strong point in its favour.
First, it tries to provide personality with a physiological base and given a
balanced consideration to role of heredity and environment in building the
personality. Secondly, it gives a complete picture of human behavior by
involving all of its aspect-conative, cognitive and affective. Thirdly, it
stresses the need of integration and organization of the behavioural
characteristics. Finally, it aims at making personality somewhat
measurable and assessable, thus giving it a scientific base. However, on the
other hand, it does have some weaknesses also in that human personality
cannot be supposed to necessarily possess a physiological base and it
cannot be considered to be as static and fixed as advocated by this
definition. It is true that personality should be evaluated on the basis of
generality of the behavior but at the same time, changes cannot be denied.
Distinguishing Features & Characteristics of Personality
The results of various experimental studies and observations have led to
the identification of the following characteristics of personality.
1. Personality is something unique and specific. Every one of us is a
unique person in oneself. Every one of us has specific characteristics
for making adjustments. However, the uniqueness of an individual’s
personality does not mean that he has nothing to share with others in
terms of traits and characteristics of personality. He may have
certain characteristics which he may share with others and at the
same time many others which are unique to him.
2. Personality exhibits self consciousness as one of its main
characteristics. Man is described as a person or as having a
personality when the idea of ‘self’ enters into his consciousness. In
this connection Bhatia (1968) writes:
We do not attribute personality to a dog and even a child cannot be
described as a personality because it has only a vague sense of personal
identity.
3. “Personality”, as stated by Allport (1948):
It is not only the assumed, the external and the non-essential but also
the vital, the internal and the essential.
It includes everything about a person. It is all what a person has
about him. Therefore, it includes all the behaviour patterns, i.e. conative,
cognitive and affective and covers not only the conscious activities but
goes deeper to the semi conscious and unconscious also.
4. Personality is not just a collection of so many traits or
characteristics. For instance, by only counting the bricks, how can
we describe the wall of a house? Actually, personality is more than
this: it is an organization of psychophysical systems or some
behaviour characteristics and functions as a unified whole. Just as an
elephant cannot be described as a pillar only by examining its legs,
an individual’s personality cannot be judged by only looking at his
physical appearance or his sociability. The personality of an
individual can be assessed only by going into all the aspects that
comprise his totality.
5. Although the personality of an individual remains stable to a large
extent, it cannot be said to be static, it is dynamic and continuously
in the process of change and modification. As we have said earlier,
personality is the ‘everything’ that a person has about him. It gives
him all that is needed for his unique adjustment to his environment.
The process of making adjustment is continuous. One has to struggle
with the environmental as well as the inner forces throughout one’s
life. As a result, one has to modify and change one’s personality
patterns and this makes the nature of personality dynamic.
6. Personality is sometimes subjected to disorganisation and
disintegration, leading to severe personality disorders on account of
factors and conditions like severe anxiety, stress, traumatic
experiences, prolonged illness, infections, and damage to the brain
and nervous system.
7. Every personality is the product of heredity and environment. Both
these contribute significantly towards the development of the child’s
personality. A child is not born with a personality but develops one
as a result of continuous interaction with his environment.
Therefore, not only heredity but also factors like constitutional
make-up, social and cultural influences as well as experience and
training etc. all affect one’s personality.
8. Learning and acquisition of experiences contribute towards growth
and development of personality. Every personality is the end-
product of this process of learning and acquisition.
9. The personality of an individual can be described as well as
measured.
10.Personality should not be taken as synonymous with one’s character.
Character is an ethical concept. It represents a moral estimate of the
individual, while personality as a psychological concept is a more
comprehensive term which includes character as one of its
constituents.
11.Personality may be further distinguished from temperament which
can be termed a system of emotional disposition. This system of
emotional disposition represents only the affective side of one’s
personality and so personality must be taken as being much beyond
one’s temperament.
12.Personality should also be viewed differently from the ego or the
individual self. The word ego is generally used for that unified part
of one’s personality which in ordinary language we call “I”.
However, as the psychoanalytic view of personality advocated by
Freud explains, it is only a small aspect of one’s total personality.
Personality, therefore, stands for more than what the ego carries.
13.Every person’s personality has one more distinguishing feature, that
is, aiming to an end or towards some specific goals.
NATURE OF PERSONALITY
Klausmeier says, “Though personality integration includes
internalization of ethical values, in practice a distinction is frequency made
between personality integration and character, with character used to
denote ethical attitudes, value and motives.” Thus, the character refers to
the conformity to the ethical values and the observance of the laws set up
by the society. A person is considered of good characters when he
conforms to the ethical standards set in his society and obeys the laws of
the land. It is however, not desirable to differentiate too much between the
character of a person and his personality.
The character-development and personality integration are almost
similar processes in the life of a normal human being. The ethical conduct
of an individual is as much part of his personality as it is a consequence of
his character. A person achieves personality integration when he develops
‘self-control’, has recognized ‘personal responsibility’, ‘social
responsibility’ and democratic ‘social interest’, beside inculcating an ideal-
value system. The person with above qualities will also be classified as a
person of good character.
A well-adjusted personality does not merely signify the satisfaction
on one’s needs, desires, wishes, etc. If satisfaction of selfish motives is
taken to be the sign of personality adjustment, the thief, the murderer, the
delinquent, etc. may often be considered as of well-adjusted personality.
But we know how false is this situation. In fact, in personality
development we cannot ignore the ethical values. When we talk of ethical
values, we also talk of character-development. It is to describe the
closeness of character and personality that Shoben used the term
‘integrative adjustment’.
According to Cronbach “Character is not really a cumulation of
separate habits and ideas. Character is embedded in the total structure of
personality.” To understand character, the structure of the personality just
be thoroughly examined.
DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY
A new-born infant comes to this world equipped with certain
seriated capacities for personality development. In the very beginning of
his life, he lacks a differentiated personality. The older persons who come
in his contact interpret his untutored responses in the light of heir own
personality reactions. Slowly, the infant begins to develop and
understanding of the effect of his behaviour upon himself and other people
and his personality begins to emerge out.
As personality is not fixed and permanent, it follows that heredity
days a small part in its development. It is rather the day-by-day
experiences of the individual, the kinds of environment in which he was
developed and the opportunities for all kinds of learning that are
responsible for his personality development. The infant develops his
personality with every movement that he makes during a day. There are
various influences which effects the development of personality of
individual. Here we will discuss those under four heads, viz., Physique,
chemique, Environmental Factors and Learning.
DETERMINANTS OF PERSONALITY
There are innumerable factors that affect the development of
personality. “Personalities, like oak trees, take shape slowly.” The
following are the most important determinates in which lies the origin of
personality.
1. Biological Determinants
2. Psychological Determinants
3. Social Determinants
4. Cultural Determinants
1. Biological Determinants
Heredity provides the individual with a fund of potentialities and
certain organismic conditions that determine, to a large degree, the
type of his personality. The fact is that we have no clear means of
knowing what children inherit individually. All that can be stressed is
that the teacher should be on the look out for indications of innate
abilities and tendencies of children. It is possible to know about the
intelligence of children but their emotional and social development is
so largely determined by environmental influences that it is not
possible to say how much an individual owes to heredity. Hereditary
factors may be summed as constitutional (physique) and chemical or
Glandular Bases (Endocrine Glands).
(i) Constitutional Factors (Physique)
The constitution of the body is said to be an effective
factor in determining the type of one’s personality. Earnest
Kretschmer, a German Psychiatrist distinguishes three ‘body
types’ of personality (a) the ‘Pyknic’ is short and shout (b) the
‘Leptosome’ or ‘Asthenic’ is tall and thin (c) the ‘Athletic’ is
muscular and well-proportioned.
Overt aspects of an individual’s personality like his
height, weight, body-built, colour and other physical
characteristics have some influence on personality
development. The physique of a child helps to determine his
self-concept. An individual with an imposition body-built and a
healthy appearance definitely influences those around him. He
gains recognition and status in his group. People take them as
their leader in times of crisis. It flatters his ego. Contrary to this
is the small, lean and thin person, even if he has some merits,
these are overlooked because of his physique. This leads him to
self-pity and gradual self-withdrawl. Tall and fair persons enjoy
an advantage over their short and ugly associates. A bodily
defect or deformity may, again alter the whole personality. A
blind man has to depend upon another person. A stulterer’s
speech is affected by his handicap. Fatty persons are often of an
entertaining and ease-loving nature. We thus have the examples
of an extrovert and in introvert personality because of physique.
It is said that introverts have vertical body growth and
extroverts horizontal growth.
A fatigued and hungry man loses his temper for nothing.
Persons whose blood-circulation is abnormal and whose
oxygen supply runs short, lack encouragement to work. Also,
application of drugs like alcohol, produces bodily changes and
alter personality. The excess or shortage of sugar in blood also
affects personality. Factors like fasting and disease may also
produce changes in it. Last but not the least, brain disorders
may cause remarkable changes in personality.
(ii) Chemical or Glandular Bases
The biological basis of behavior makes some aspects of
behavior consistent. The nervours system, the glands and the
blood chemistry largely determine the characteristic and
habitual modes of behavior. These factors from the biological
basis of personality.
Adrenal women have masculine traits, and excel as
administrators. Their secretion ‘adrenalin’ intensifies bodily
reactions. They exist near kidneys. Lack of their secretion
results in the lack of energy, irritability and indecisiveness.
They are aroused by an emergency.
Endocrine glands secret ‘hormones’ or the ‘exciters’
into the blood. Co-operation between these is very important.
Pituitary gland, existing between the brain and the roof of the
mouth, sees that they are working in harmony. It influences our
emotions.
Berman describes two pituitary personalities-pre-
pituitary and post-pituitary. The pre-pituitary type, caused by its
anterior lobe over-activity, is predominantly masculine. Post-
pituitary caused by the over-activity of the posterior lobe is
excessively feminine.
The thyroid gland in two parts exists in the base of the
neck in front of each side. Excitability and nervousness result
from the over-enthusiasm and over-activity of this gland.
Deficiency in thyroid gland leads to sluggishness in mental
activity, lack of initiative and concentration of attention.
Berman says sub-thyroids are under-developed physically,
listless, dull and susceptible to disease. Hyper-thyroids are
restless, energetic, keen and impulsive
The thymocentric personality dominated by the thymus
gland in the upper chest is physically fragile, uninhibited often
abnormal glandular conditions seriously affect personality.
2. Psychological Determinants
The role played + by love and affection in the development or
personality can’t be over – emphasized. Affection is the positive
emotion towards persons, pets objects etc. A child who gets plenty
of love and efficient has better opportunities of becoming a good
mixer and a socially efficient person. On the contrary, an
unfortunate child who is denied the blessings of love and affection
during infancy and childhood finds it rather difficult to adjust to
other children and adults around him. A child is a natural object of
love and affection within a family. Given a proper dose of parental
affection he feels quite secure and happy. A denial of this privilege
lead to a number of serious personality problems. He is not simply
to be patted and loved but is also to be taught to display the same
feelings towards others. He must learn how to be considerate,
affectionate and loving. Such a learning is indispensable for a
healthy development of his personality.
Friendship and social relations also influence a child’s
personality development. The bases of friendly relations, the social
interaction between friends, the quality and duration of friendly
contacts etc. contribute immensely towards the growth of a child’s
personality. During infancy the basis of friendship is nearness in
space. Children residing in the same home or street are usually
chums. Early friendships are usually short-lived.
In the field of friendship few children are liable to develop
certain undesirable tendencies e.g., over-attachments, selfishness,
jealousy, hostility, exploitative attitudes towards friends etc. Such
developments should be critically watched by the parents and
teachers.
The sense of personal achievement also plays a vital role in
child’s personality development. Human beings have a natural
fascination for the attainment of reputation, fame, prestige, honour,
distinction, recognition, success, skill etc.
As an infant, the child snatches and grabs everything he can
possibly lay hands on it. As he grows older he needs to be taught
gradually that thwarting another’s desires in order to fulfil one’s
own is an undesirable attitude. Organized sports, group recreations,
competitive activities and even occasional theoretical social
instruction at school and home enables the child to grasp the truth
that one can often harmonize the demands of personal achievement
with those of love and affection for others.
Parental attitudes to wards children also affect the course of
their personality development. If the general attitude of the parents
is affectionate and balanced, children feed secure and happy. They
develop into cheerful and adjusted personalities. On the contrary, if
parents adopt unhealthy and unwholesome attitudes towards
children their personality development is liable to be affected very
adversely. Two of such wrong parental attitudes which prove
personality spoilers are –
(I) Parental Negligence, and
(II) Parental Over-Protection
(I) Parental Negligence
It is the fundamental duty of every parent to provide affection
and security to a child at home and looking after his basic needs.
Some parents, however, neglect to perform their duties properly and
thus harm child’s personality.
(II) Parental Over-Protection
Parental over-protection, over-solicitude or over-indulgence is
as injurious for the personality growth as negligence and rejection.
Over-protection means excessive caring for, loving and shielding the
child by one or both the parents. Usually mothers are more guilty of
this excessive parental attitude towards children.
3. Social Determinants
An individual is born and nurtured in society. He acts in
response to environment stimuli. The school environment consists of
social code and social role of a person. He abides by the rules and
prohibitions of his society and finds in it a place of his own. Social
rules and prohibitions of his society and finds in it a place of his
own. Social rules and prohibitions or taboos regulate the
individual’s customs, manners and conduct. The child, for example,
has to court ridicule, punishment and even expulsion, if he violates
the social code. So, he deems it prudent to abide by it. Yet in spite of
being regulated by it each individual develops in his own way.
Personality is no mere social product, but also the product of the
individual’s nature.
The individual acquires social code in his childhood. Even the
child at play has to obey the rules of the game. On telling a lie he is
disbelieved.
4. Cultural Determinants
Culture gives a permanent mould to the personality of the
child. A child is born in a particular cultural group. Soon after birth
he is gradually conditioned to the demands and expectancies of that
culture. He finds that in order to become a successful participant in
the life of the group he must accept their ideas, habits, attitudes,
outlooks, etc. This process of accepting or identifying oneself with
the modes of thought and behavior in vogue in one’s group
determiners considerably the formation and development or
children’s personality.
The cultural group of the child also conditions him to socially
acceptable modes of expressing aggression and anger through
sports, debates, discussions, competitive activities etc.
If they feel that certain personal demands or other forces are
clashing with a cultural demand they are usually able to achieve
harmony by making some sort of a compromise, reconciliation
adjustment etc. certain children, however, fail to achieve a good
adjustment to the demands of their culture, which might seriously
clash with another equally strong inner or outer force. This
phenomenon is known as a ‘culture conflict’.
TYPES OR CLASSIFICATION OR PERSONALITY
A large number of studies advocated the theory of type of
personality by classifying human beings into more or less clear cut types
based on their temperament, ways of behviour, body build, mental make
up or the objectives they pursued or aimed at in life.
First Type:-
The earliest attempt to classify human beings into types based on
temperamental qualities caused by what were called “humours” or fluids in
the body and its build, was of Hippocrates, the medical man in ancient
Greece. He classified persons in four types as under –
(a) Sanguine - who had more blood in the body, were said to be light-
hearted, optimistic, happy, accommodating, hopeful, ardent and
confident.
(b) Phlegmatic - who had more colourless and thick phlegm as the
dominant humour, were said to be cold, calm, slow or sluggish,
indifferent, placid, not easily excited and rather dull.
(c) Choleric - who had more yellow bile in their system and were said to
be irritable, angry but were passionate and strong with active
imagination.
(d) Melancholic - who had more black bile as the dominant humour, were
surly or bad-tempered, pessimistic, dejected, sad, depressed, pensive,
deplorable, miserable and self-involved.
Second Type -
Another classification into
types based on bodily
structure was given by
Kretschmer who divided
human being into the four
types as under-
(a) Athletic - who were
strongly built with
muscular body, wide
chest and shoulders, large hands and feet.
(b) Ashletic - who were lean, frail, flat-chested, weak or sick, lacking in
strength with debility.
(c) Pyknic - who were short limbed with large head, chest and ahdoman.
They had plump body roundish and fatty, their face was soft and
broad with broad hands and feet but they had slender neck and crooked
nose, typical of a ‘devil’, as it were.
(d) Dysplastic - who were rather lanky with ill-balanced and under
developed body. They had underdeveloped secondary sex
characteristics and were incompatible in sex relations.
Third Type - A similar
classification based on bodily
variations was given by W.H.
Sheldon according to whom the types
of persons were-
(a) Endomorphic or Viscerotonic -
who had big viscera, were flabby with
weak bones and muscles but were
fatty. They liked ease, comfort and support from others.
(b) Mesomorphic or Somatotonic - who had strong muscles and bones but
were slim. These persons were active, assertive, competitive and
aggressing or struggling to achieve their goals.
(c) Ectomorphic or Cerebrotonic - who were weak, frail and skinny. The
were stiff, restrained, afraid, with lack of confidence. They had nervous
and retiring nature and they suppressed their emotions and were
sorrowful.
Fourth Type - Another
classification was made by Kraeplin
from the point of view of mental
structure as under -
(a) Cycloids – who were social,
good natured, sentimental,
emotional and rather restless.
They were helpful, co-operative
with feelings for others and friendly. They could develop mental
symptoms of manic depressives.
(b) Schezoids- who were self-centered, unsocial, hot-tempered,
unsympathetic and eccentric but often intelligent and imaginative. They
could develop symptoms of schzophrenia.
Fifth Type - A similar classification
based on mental structure or in terms of the
mental energy or libido flowing inwardly or
outwardly was given by C.G. Jung who
thought that there were four important
functions in the individual through which
libido expressed itself inwardly or outwardly,
These functions were sensations, feelings,
thinking and intuition and so there were really eight types of people -
(a) Introverted - in which category were introverted sensorial, introverted
feeling, introverted thinking and introverted intuitive types of persons.
Similarly, there were-
(b) Extroverted- sensorial, feeling, thinking, and intuitive types of
personality.
Sixth Type- Spranger made a classification of human beings on the
basis of values they held dear and whose objectives in life were the pursuit
of those values. This classification was according to the following six
values-
(a) Economic - Those who aimed at economic gains or wealth.
(b) Social - Those who wanted to have social prestige or position, status or
name and fame.
(c) Theoretical - Those who pursued studies and academic gains.
(d) Aesthetic- Who wanted to keep busy themselves in the pursuit of art
creation and art appreciation.
(e) Political- Those who struggled for political power like-political leaders,
statesman etc.
(f) Religious - Who pursued religious experience and devoted more time in
religious practices, study and meditation.
Seventh Type - Adler made a classification of children, on the basis
of the style of life they adopted by virtue of their ordinal position in the
family and which style of life became the style even in adulthood for the
sake of gaining power or position, as according to Adler, power seeking
was the chief aim in life of everybody. He named the following four types-
(a) Demanding Type - who dominate and demand from others and consider
it their privilege. The eldest child, according to Adler, adopts this style
of life.
(b) Escaping Type - are the only children who are pampered and who are
not taught how to struggle or face the difficulties. They escape the
solution of problems and make excuses.
(c) Getting Type - are the youngest children who being everybody’s pet are
given things easily. They are dependent, looking to others for help.
(d) Struggling type - are the other children in the family who know that
unless they try on their own, they were not getting any help or
advantage and so they struggle in later life also.
Eighth Type - Classification of human beings has been done by
many other people also. Francis Galton, for example, categorized people as
visuile, audile, olfactile, volatile and gustatile in accordance with their
capacity to recall experiences or imagery pertaining to vision, hearing and
Sensations of touch, smell and taste respectively. William James also
thought of tough-minded and soft-minded persons.
But the attempt for classification of human being into types seems
futile as there are no such clear cut types. All human beings are of mixed
types though it is quite understandable that in some people one or two
attributes or qualities are more predominant and there too it is more the
situation where those qualities or attributes emerge more easily and
persistently when in other situations they may remain hidden or in the
background.
ANCIENT INDIANS (AYURVEDIC) CLASSIFICATION
Even in India, the ancient system of medicine Ayurveda classifies
man based on the presence of combination of elements of Nature.
Ayurveda, advocates that the entire Universe (living and non-living) is
made of up five elements; air, fire, water, earth and ether (space),
collectively called “panchamahabhutas”. Human body contains these
elements as its constituents.
Ayurvedic’s Classification of Personality Types
Dominance
of the
elements of
the body
Personality
type
Physiological/
Somatic
characteristics
Personality
characteristics
Air & ether
(space)
Vata Slightly built, a little
pigeon chested with
dull dark hair and
eyes, have dry rough
and chapped skin,
suffer from stiff
joints, rheumatic
problems and
constipation
Restless with active
minds, indecisive and
emotionally insecure,
poor in memory,
tendency towards
insomnia depression
and night Marish
dream good artists
and enjoy travelling,
solitary and
rebellious.
Water &
Earth
Kapha Big boned, often over-
weight with a pale,
smooth complexion,
haris are lustrous and
wavy and eyes are
wide and attractive,
suffer from sinus
problems, lethargy
and nausea.
Need a lot of sleep,
rational speak and
move slowly, calm
and loyal,
emotionally secure,
experience romantic
and sentimental
dreams.
Fire &
water
Pitta Average build, have a
ruddy complexion or
red hair, with moles,
freckles or acne,
tendency to go grey
and bald early in life
and often have green
or very piercing eyes.
Intense,
argumentative and
precise with a critical
sharp intelligence,
make good leaders, at
their worst they can
be passionately
angry, enjoy sports,
hunting and polities
and have vivid dream.
Hippocrate’s classification. According to Hippocrates the human body
consists of four types of humours of fluids-blood, yellow bile, phlegm
(mucus) and black bile. The predominance of one of these four types of
fluids in one’s body gives him unique temperamental characteristics
leading to a particular type of personality as summarized in Table.
Dominance of
fluid type in the
body
Personality type Temperamental characters
Blood Sanguine Light-hearted, optimistic, happy,
hopeful and accommodating.
Yellow bile Choleric Irritable, angry but passionate,
and strong with active
imagination.
Phlegm (mucus) Phlegmatic Cold, calm, slow or sluggish and
indifferent.
Black bile Melancholic Bad tempered, dejected, sad,
depressed, pessimistic,
deplorable and self-involved.
Kretshmer’s classification. Kretschmer classified all human beings into
certain biological types according to their physical structure and has
allotted following definite personality characteristics associated with each
physical make-up Table.
Kretschmer’s Classification
Personality types Personality characteristics
Pyknic (hving fat bodies) Sociable, jolly, easy-going and good
natured.
Athletic (balanced body) Energetic, optimistic and adjustable.
Leptosomatic (Lean and thin) Unsociable, reserved, shy, sensitive and
pessimistic.
Sheldon’s classification. Sheldon too, like Kretschmer, classified human
beings into types according to their physical structures and attached certain
temperamental characteristics to them as shown in table.
Sheldon’s Classification
Personality
types
Somatic description Personality characteristics
Endomorphic Person having highly
developed viscera but
weak somatic structure,
(like Kretschmer’s
athletic type).
Easy-going, sociable and
affectionate.
Mesomorphic Balanced development
of viscera and somatic
structure, (like
Kretschmer’s athletic
type)
Craving for muscular
activity, self-assertive, loves
risk and adventure
Ectomorphic Weak somatic structure
as well as undeveloped
viscera, (like
Kretschmer’s
Leptosomatic)
Pessimistic, unsociable and
reserved.
THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
The search for understanding the meaning and nature of personality
would be incomplete if we do not discuss some important theories of
personality. These theories in one way or another, try to describe the basic
structure and underlying entities or constructs involved in personality
along with the processes by which these entities interact. The theories of
personality in general can be classified into the following broad categories:
Theories adopting the type approach. The viewpoint of Hippocrates,
Kretschrner, Sheldon and Jung belong to this category.
Theories adopting the trait approach. Theories like Allport’s theory and
Cattell’s theory of personality are based on the trait approach.
Theories adopting the type-cum-trait approach. Theories like Eysenck’s
theory of personality can be put under this category.
Theories adopting the psycho-analytical approach. Theories like psycho
analytic theory of Freud, theory of individual psychology by Adler,
analytical psychology of Jung, social relationship theory of Homey and
Erickson’s theory of psychosocial development may be included in this
category.
Theories adopting the humanistic approach. Theories like Carl Roger’s
self theory and Maslow’s self-actualization theory belong to this category.
Theories adopting the learning approach. Dollard and Miller’s learning
theory and Bandura and Walter’s theory of social learning can be put into
this category.
Let us now briefly discuss the viewpoints propounded in these
theories.
Type approach
Theories adopting the type approach advocate that human
personalities can be classified into a few clearly defined types and each
person, depending upon his behavioural characteristics, somatic structure,
blood types, fluids in the body, or personality traits can be described as
belonging to a certain type. Based on such an approach, the physician of
ancient India broadly categorized all human beings into three types. This
classification was based on the three basic elements of the body, namely
pitt (bile), vat (wind), and kuf (mucus).
TRAIT APPROACH
In the trait approach the personality is viewed in viewed in terms of
various traits. In our day-to-day conversation we ascribe traits to our
friends and near one’s as being honest, shy; aggressive, lazy, dull,
dependent etc. Traits may be defined as relativity permanent and relatively
consistent general behavior patterns that an individual exhibits in most
situations. If a person behaves honestly in several situations, his behavior
my be generalized and he may be labeled as honest and honestly is then
said to be a behavioural trait of his personality.
Allport’s theory and Cattell’s theory are said to be the best examples
of the trait approach.
Allport’s theory. Gordon W. Allport (1897-1967) was the first
theorist who by rejecting the notion of a relatively limited number of
personality types adopted the trait approach for the description of highly
individualized personalities.
Traits, according to Allport, are the basic units of personality. Each
of us develops a unique set of such organized tendencies termed as traits in
the course of our continuous and gradual development. Allport
distinguished three types of traits namely, cardinal traits, central traits and
secondary traits.
Cardinal traits are the primary traits so dominant is one’s personal
disposition that they colour virtually every aspect of one’s behviour and
attributes. These traits, if found in an individual, are limited in number to
just one or two. For example, if a person has humorousness as a cardinal
trait, he will bring a sense of humour into almost all situations irrespective
of its actual demands.
Secondary traits are not as dominant as the cardinal or central traits.
They appear in only a relatively small range of situations and are not
considered strong enough to be regarded as integral part of one’s
personality.
Cardinal traits are thus central to the description of one’s
personality. These traits combined with a few central traits from the core
of characteristic traits responsible for giving uniqueness to one’s
personality. The other remaining traits, not so generalized and consistent
may also be found in other people and may thus be categorized as common
traits.
In order to find out how many traits are responsible for defining
personality, Allport and one of his colleagues, Odbert (1936) analysed
about 18,000 terms taken from a dictionary that could be used by people to
describe each other and they finally came up with a total of 4541
psychological traits from describing human behavior.
In this way, Allport focused on these large number of behavioural
traits to describe personality instead of explaining it like other
developmental and psychoanalytical theorists. To him personality was the
dynamic organization of all the behavioural traits that an individual
possessed and it was that organization. Which could be considered
responsible for his behavior in a particular situation.
Allport (1961) showed that traits lead towards the consistency in
one’s behavior though this does not mean that trait of personality must be
regarded as fixed and stable operating mechanically to the same degree on
all occasions. Instances of inconsistency thus do not mean the non-
existence of a trait. It is very much there in the behavior of the person, but
for the time being allows itself to be dominated by the demands of the
situation. Allport’s theory of personality is known not only for its emphasis
on traits but also for its stress on concepts like functional autonomy,
individualized approach in the study of personality, and the discontinuous
nature of the development of personality etc.
The concept of functional autonomy suggests that functions or
means which once served a purpose may attain autonomy at a later stage.
Though motives are goal-oriented to begin with, they become functionally
autonomous when the goals are achieved. A behavior that once satisfied
some specific need later serves only itself. For example, what originally
began as an effort to reduce hunger, pain or anxiety may become a source
of pleasure and motivation in its won right. The drinks or intoxicating
substances originally taken to reduce pain or anxiety may thus attain
autonomy by becoming an end in themselves.
Allport also emphasized another important concept of the discrete
and discontinuous nature of the development of personality. In his book
“Pattern and Growth in Personality”, he mentioned three stage in the
growth and development or personality namely, the childhood,
adolescence and adulthood personalities.
Personality is not a continuation from childhood to adulthood rather
it is a discrete and discontinuous development. The past cannot decide the
functions of the present. What matters during childhood is certainly
different from the value during adolescence and adulthood and, therefore
according to Allport, the adolescent’s or adult’s functioning is not
constrained by his or her past.
Cattell’s theory. The most recent advanced theory of personality based on
the trait approach has been developed by Cattell (1973), a British-born
American researcher. He has defined a trait as a structure of the personality
inferred from behavior in different situations and described four types of
traits.
Common traits. The traits found widely distributed in general
population like honesty, aggression and cooperation.
Unique traits. Traits unique to a person such as temperamental
traits, emotional reactions.
Surface traits. These can be recognized by manifestations of
behavior like curiosity, dependability, tactfulness.
Source traits. These are the underlying structures or sources that
determine behavior such as dominance, submission emotionality,
etc.
The theory propagated by Cattell attributes certain specific
dimensions to personality so that human behavior related to a particular
situation, can be predicted. Cattell has adopted factors analysis as a
technique for this work. Let us see how this is done.
1. Cattell began by attempting to make a complete list of all possible
human behaviours. In 1946, he compiled a list of over 17,000 traits
and by eliminating similarities and synonyms reduced the list to 171
dictionary words related with personality and called these
treatments.
2. His next step was to ascertain how they are related. He found that
each trait element has high correlation with some traits and low with
others. In this ay, he identified some 35 specific groups and called
them surface traits.
3. Hefurther analyzed these surface traits in terms of their
interrelations and eliminated those which were overlapping. The
removal of such overlapping gave him the desired basic dimensions
which he called source traits, i.e. the real structural influence
underlying personality.
4. After obtaining the source traits (which are 16 in number) he tried
to use them to predict behavior employing what is called the
specification equation.
The response or behavior of an individual is thus predicted from the
degree to which he exhibits each source trait (T) modified by the
importance of the trait for that response (s).
Suppose, for example, that academic performance (AP) is
predictable from two source traits namely intelligence (I) and Reading
habits (R), then.
Now also suppose that intelligence (I) is more important for this
behavior than reading habits (R) in the ratio of 5:3; this may be expressed as:
The trait theory of Cattell, thus, tried to describe and predict the
behavior of individual on the basis of their personality traits (the
fundamental building blocks of human personality). Basically, Cattell’s
work as a whole, involves the identification of basic dimensions of
personality (by applying factor analysis techniques to the observable
behavior i.e. traits) and then developing instruments to measure these
dimensions.
TYPE-CUM-TRAIT APPROACH
This approach tries to dynthesize the type and trait approaches.
Starting with the trait approach, it yields definite personality types.
Eysenck’s theory of personality. While Cattell has tried to use the factor
analysis technique to give some basic dimensions to personality by
enumerating 16 basic traits, H.J. Eysenck, a German-born British
psychologist, went a step further in the adopting factor analysis technique
by extracting second order factors and grouping traits into definite
personality type.
How individual behavior is organized and acquires the shape of a
definite type is revealed by the following illustration Fig. 1.
According to Eysenck, there are four levels of behavior
organization.
1. At the lowest level are the specific responses. They grow out of
particular responses to any single act. Blushing, for example, is a
specific response.
2. Habitual responses form the second level and comprise similar
responses of an individual, to similar situations. For instance, (a) the
inability to easily strike friendships, or (b) hesitancy in talking to
strangers are habitual responses.
3. At the third level is the organization of habitual acts into traits.
Behavior acts which have similarities are said to belong to one
group and are called traits. In the above example the habitual
responses (a) and (b) etc., give birth to a group of traits called
‘shyness’.
4. The fourth level is the organization of these traits into a general
type. A type is defined as a group of correlated traits. Traits which
are similar in nature give birth to a definite type just as figure 1
traits like persistence, rigidity, shyness etc., have been grouped into
a type termed as Introversion.
Introversion
Persistence Rigidity Subjectivity Shyness Irritability
Habitual response level
Specific response level
Eysenck’s work has clearly demonstrated that human behavior and
personality can be very well-organized into a hierarchy with specific
response at the bottom and the definite personality type at the top.
The three basis dimensions (defined as clusters or groups of
correlated traits) derived by Eysenck through his work are:
1. Introversion-extroversion
2. Neuroticism (emotional instability-emotional stability)
3. Psychoticism
These three basic dimensions refer to definite personality types i.e.
introvert, extrovert, neurotic and psychotic.
The second major dimension suggested by Eysenck involves
emotional instability at the lower end and emotional stability at the upper
end describing people as neurotic and not neurotic. Thus, at its lower end
are the persons who are moody, touchy, anxious or restless and at the
upper end are persons who are stable, calm, carefree, even-tempered and
dependable.
The third dimension is psychoticism. The people high on this
dimension tend to be solitary, insensitive, egocentric impersonal,
impulsive and opposed to accepted social norms while those scoring low
are found to be more empathic and less adventurous and bold.
Eysenck has also tried to make use of Cattell’s basic dimensions for
the measurement of one’s personality by developing an appropriate set of
questions in the form of two well-known inventories the Maudsley
personality inventory and the Eysenck personality inventory.
The contribution of Eysenck’s theory to describing, explaining, and
predieting one’s behavior and personality are notable and worthy of praise.
Psychoanalytical Approach
The psychoanalytic approach to personality was first created and
advocated by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) by viewing people as being
engaged in a constant stuggle to tame their biological urges.
Frend’s psychoanalytic theory of personality. Freud’s theory of
personality is built on the premise that the mind is topographical and
dynamic, there are provinces or divistions which are always moving and
interrelated. The human mind has three main divisions namely, the
conscious, semiconscious and unconscious.
Freud also believes that the anatomy of our personality is built
around the three unified and inter-relating systems, namely, id, ego and
superego (Fig. )
Relative positions of id, ego and superego
Rela
tive
posi
tion
of ID
, Ego
, and
Sup
er E
go
Super ego
Ego
Id
The id is the raw, savage and immoral basic stuff of a man’s
personality that is hidden in the deep layers of his unconscious mind. It
consists of such ambitions, desires, tendencies and appetites as are guided
by the pleasure-seeking principle. It has no values, knows no laws, follows
no rules, does not recognize right or wrong and considers only the
satisfaction of its needs and appetites to be paramount.
The third system of personality is the superego. It is the ethical or
moral arm of the personality. It is idealistic and does not care for realities.
Perfection rather than pleasure is its goal. It is a decision-making entity
which decides what is good or bad to the social norms and therefore
acceptable or otherwise.
Freud put forward a dynamic concept of personality by
conceptualizing the continuous conflict among the id, ego and superego.
While the id operating on the pleasure principle, continuously presses for
the immediate discharge of bodily tension, the superego concerned with
morality prohibits such gratification.
The extent to which the ego is able to discharge its responsibilities
decides the personality make-up of the individual.
1. Individuals who have a strong or powerful ego are said to have a
strong or balanced personality because the ego is capable of
maintaining a balance between the superego and the id.
2. In case an individual possess a weak ego, he is bound to have a
maladjusted personality. Here two situations may arise. In one
situation, the superego may be more powerful than the ego and so
does not permit desirable fulfillment of the repressed wishes and
impulses which results in a neurotic personality. If, on the other
hand, the id is more powerful than the ego, the individual may
indulge in unlawful or immoral activities leading to the formation of
a delinquent personality.
The Humanistic Approach
This approach to personality came from a group of psychologists
subscribing to the humanistic school of psychology. Humanistic
psychology, the so-called third force in psychology (the other two being
behaviourism and psychoanalysis) reflects a humanistic trend in dealing
with and understanding human behavior. It believes in the goodness of
man and reposes optimistic confidence in man’s positive nature.
The self-actualization theory of Abraham Maslow. Abraham H. Maslow,
an American psychologist, has been the major theorist adopting the
humanistic approach for studying human behavior and personality.
According to his theory, human beings are basically good or neutral rather
than evil and there lies in every one an impulse craving towards growth or
the fulfillments of one’s potentials. The goal is to seek self-actualization
that usually comes from the pursuit of knowledge, the appreciation of
beauty, playfulness, self-sufficiency, insight into the truth or other
constructive and creative expression. The behavior or personality of a
human being thus depends upon his style of striving towards the ultimate
goal of self-realization.
Thus, the pattern of human behavior is always governed by the
satisfaction of our needs from the lower, base level to the upper top level.
We have to satisfy our biological needs for our survival and for our social
and psychological needs, we have to strive for the satisfaction in the socio-
psychological context.
These values or characteristics of a self-actualized person to which
one’s efforts are directed in terms of the development of his personality
have been enumerated by Maslow through sixteen basic characterizes.
This select group had included the well-known personalities past
and present, e.g., Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Roosevelt etc., and
also his own professors and persons who were known for self-actualization
in their respective fields. Maslow concluded that the self-actualized
peopled have the following common characteristics which distinguish
them the average person (Source: Maslow, 1962):
1. Ability to perceive reality accurately.
2. Willingness to accept reality readily.
3. Naturalness and spontaneity.
4. Ability to focus on problems rather than on themselves.
5. Need for privacy.
6. Self-sufficiency and independence.
7. Capacity for fresh, spontaneous, nonstereotyped appreciation of
objectives.
8. Ability to attain transcendence.
LEARNING THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
The learning theories of personality depiect a new development
approach quite different from psychoanalytic and phenomenological
theories of personality in the sense that they emphasize the importance of
learning and objectivity to understand personality. The notable
psychologists who are known to have developed personality theories are
Pavlov, Watson, Guthrie, Thorndike, Skinner, Dollard & Miller; Bandura
& Walters, etc.
Dollard and Miller’s Learning theory of personality. By combining the
psychology of learning with aspects of psychoanalytic theory, John
Dollard and Neil Miller (1950) in the institute of human relations at Yale
University put forward their theory of personality. In this theory they tried
to substitute Freud’s concept of a pleasure principle with the principle of
reinforcement, the concept of ego with the concept of learned drive and
learned skills, the concept of conflict with competing reinforces etc.
The theory of Dollard and Miller tries to describe the development
of personality from simple drives to a complex function from a learning
theory angle. It emphasizes that what we consider as personality is learned.
The child at birth is equipped with types of basic faculties: reflexes and
innate hierarchies of responses and a set of primary drives, which are
internal stimuli of great strength and are linked with known physiological
processes which impel him to action. Thus impelled by drives (both
conditioned and unconditioned) one acquires responses to the extent that
they reduce the drives.
Dollard and Miller’s theory stressed the development of a
personality on the basis of the responses and behaviour learnt through the
process of motivation and reward. Dollard and Miller’s theory of
personality did not really ascribe any static structure to personality, and
emphasized, instead, habit formation through learning as a key factor in
the development of personality.
Bandura & Walters’ Social learning theory. Albert Bandura and Richard
Walters (1963) came out with an innovative approach to personality in the
form of their social learning theory. They advanced the view that what an
individual presents to the world at large as his personality, is acquired
though a continuous process of structuring and restructuring of
experiences, gathered by means of social learning and later imitated in
corresponding.
ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES
Local or environmental factors also affect the personality of an
individual. We regard that particular definition and adequate one which
lakes into consideration the other persons around the individual. Thus we
see that personality cannot be defined properly unless the environmental
factors are taken into consideration. Personality development in keeping
with the conditions of the environment in which an individual is placed
and out of the experiences which grow in his relationship with other
individuals.
Social or environmental factors affect the personality even of your
infants. This has clearly been established by the studies of their behavior
investigations of the changing of, or the persistence of reactions, such as
crying, negativism, jealousy, irritability and quietness seem to indicates
that biological as well as environmental factors are responsible for a very
young child’s personality tendencies.
It is rightly said that the individual has the personality be possesses
mainly because of the kind of social environment and social experience
had during his development. The kind of family in which he grew the
teachers in the schools he attended, the people in his community playmates
and indeed all people with whom he comes in contact have their imprint on
him.
Family influences. There are some social contacts which are more
important for personality development than others. Among there are family
influences. The attitude of parents towards the child, towards one another
and toward other people, events and objects exercise a present influence
upon the child’s developing personality. Scott’s study of adolescents in
rural area of Nebraska indicates the effect of home life upon high school
pupils. Factors, such as, enjoyment of group family life, little if any, work
done away from home by mother, amount of punishment, emotional
control and good health of the parents etc. lead to good adjustment.
School Experiences. Similar to the home influences are the school
experiences which influence to a great extent the developing personality of
the child. If there are good teachers, well-furnished laboratories adequate
play-grounds, etc., there are more chances that the personality of the child
will develop properly. If the student has offered some objects which he
does not like, then also his personality will be affected adversely. The
teacher is to guard against this.
Assessment of Personality
Why ‘Assessment of Personality’ rather than measurement
personality has been chosen as the title of this section is a question that
needs to be answered. This has been done because the accurate
measurement of personality is itself problematical. The accuracy of any
process of measurement depends on the following:
1. The nature of the thing to be measured.
2. The instruments to be used.
3. The person who will do the measurement.
Let us now evaluate the measurement of personality in terms of
these criteria.
1. The nature of the ‘thing’. Personality is a complex characteristic
that it is hardly possibility to measure it. First, personality is not a
‘thing’; it is an idea, art abstraction, and in an attempt to measure it,
we would have to wrongly, try to give it a concrete shape. Secondly
since psychologists are not agreed upon the dimensions or content of
personality, what would be measured? Thirdly, personality is not
static. How can we accurately measure something which is
constantly in the process of change and modification? Its
measurement would vary from time to time and hence would not be
the same from one moment to the next.
2. The nature of the instruments. The process of measurement
requires appropriate tools and satisfactory units of measurement. In
personality measurement, we encounter difficulties in this direction
as well:
(a) There is no zero (starting point) for reference in case of personality.
No child is born with zero personality.
(b) Length is measured in units like inches, centimeters etc.,
temperature is measured in degrees but in psychological
measurement we do not have any such equal or regular units of
measurement.
(c) Accurate measurement requires exact scales or measuring
instrument. No such reliable instruments are available for
measurement of personality.
3. The nature of the person. The dependability, accuracy and validity
of any process of measurement largely depend on the competence
and detachment of the person doing the measurement. In the absence
of standard tools or units of measurement, the results of any
evaluation of personality are bound to be influenced by the
subjective views and the norms, likes and dislikes of the person
carrying out the measurement.
In this way the actual measurement (which defines itself in terms of
objectivity, reliability and validity) of personality is not possible. Also, it is
very difficult to go round in search for all the constituents or elements of
personality, most of which are unknown. Moreover, prediction of the
future status is the most essential aim of measurement. In case of a
dynamic phenomenon like personality, such prediction is not possible and
hence it is not justified to use the term measurement. We can only have the
estimate or assessment of personality.
Techniques and Methods of Assessment of Personality
The methods used for the assessment of personality may be termed
as ob or projective. As it is not possible, however, to clearly demarcate
subjectivity from objectivity and even effectively insulate projective
processes against the subjectivity and personal biases of the examiner, it is
necessary to look for other ways to classify the techniques of personality
assessment. The commonly employed assessment techniques may be
classified- as follows:
1. Where an individual’s behaviour in actual life situations can be
observed, namely observation techniques and situation tests.
2. Where the individual is required to speak about himself namely,
autobiography questionnaire and personality inventory and
interview.
3. Where other people’s opinions about the individual whose
personality is under assessment are ascertained. These are
biographies, case history, rating scales and socio-metric techniques.
4. Projective techniques involving fantasy which aim at assessing the
individual’s reaction to imaginary situations.
5. Indirect techniques in which some personality variables may be
determined in terms of physiological responses by the use of
machines or technical devices.
Let us discuss some of the important techniques in detail.
Observation
Observation is a popular method to study the behaviour pattern of an
individual in an actual life situation. The observer decides what personality
traits or characteristics he needs to know, and he then observes the relevant
activities of the subject in teal life situations. The observation can be done
in two ways. In one the observer does not hide from the subject or subjects
and even becomes more or less a part of the group under observation. In
the other, he takes a position where his presence is least disturbing to the
subject but from where he can clearly observe every detail of the behaviour
of the individual under observation. He may also use a tape-recorder,
photographic cameras, a telescope etc. To ensure reliability of the observed
results, the observer may repeat the observations in the same situation
several times, or the subject may be observed by a number of observers
and the results may be pooled together.
Situational Tests
Here situations are artificially created in which an individual is
expected to perform acts related to the personality traits under testing. For
example, to test the honesty of an individual, some situations can be
created and his reaction can be evaluated in terms of honesty or
dishonesty. Does he feel the temptation to resort to copying? Does he try to
pick up the ten-rupee note which is lying there? His behaviour would lead
to an assessment of how honest he is.
Questionnaire
The nature of a questionnaire is explained by the description given
by Goode and Hatt (1952):
In general the word questionnaire refers to a device for securing
answers to questions by using a form which the respondent fills in himself.
This definition makes it clear that in collecting information from the
subject himself about his personality characteristics, a form consisting of a
series of printed or written questions is used. The subject responds to these
questions in the spaces provided in columns of yes, no or cannot say etc.
These answers are then evaluated and used for personality assessment.
Items, like the following, are included in the questionnaires:
Yes, No, (Cannot say)
Do you enjoy being alone? ___ ___ __________
Do you enjoy seeing others succeed? ___ ___ __________
Do you laugh at a joke on yourself? ___ ___ __________
Do you get along well with your relatives? ___ ___ __________
This is the most popular method and is quite useful in collecting
both quantitative as well as qualitative information.
Personality Inventory
While this resembles the questionnaire in many respects such as
administration, scoring, interpretation etc., it is different in two ways. First,
while the questionnaire is a general device and can be used for collecting
all kinds of information not connected specifically with personality traits
or the behaviour of an individual, personality inventory is specifically
designed to seek answers about the person and his personality. Second, the
questions, set in the questionnaire are generally worded in the second
person. e.g.
Do you often feel lonely? Yes, No,
While in the personality inventory, they may be worded in the first person
such as, I often feel lonely.
The best known personality inventory is the Minnesota Multiphasic
personality Inventory (MMPI) developed by J.C. McKinley and S.R.
Hathaway of the Minnesota Medical School. The items included in this
inventory are such that their answers are known to indicate certain specific
personality traits. It consists of 550 items some of which are:
I sweat very easily even on cool days.
There is something wrong with my sex organs.
I have never been in love with any one.
I like to talk about sex.
Each hem is printed on a separate card. The subject reads the
questions and then, according to his response puts it down as yes, no or
doubtful in the space provided for the purpose. Evaluation of the important
personality traits can then be done in terms of these responses.
The California personality inventory, the Eysenck personality
inventory and the Sixteen personality factor inventory (16 P.F.) developed
by Cattell are some of the other well-known inventories.
The questionnaire and personality inventory technique suffer from
the following drawbacks:
1. It is difficult to get the responses to all questions.
2. The subject may give selective responses rather than genuine ones
(hide his weaknesses etc.)
3. He may be ignorant of his own traits or qualities which he may
possess.
Rating scale. The rating scale is used to assess where an individual stands
in terms of other people’s opinion of some of his personality traits. It
reflects the impression the subject has made upon the person who rates
him. There are three basic factors involved in this technique:
1. The specific trait or traits to be rated.
2. The scale on which the degree of possession or absence of the trait
has to he shown.
3. The appropriate persons or judges for rating.
First of all, the traits or characteristics, which have to be evaluated
by the judges are to be stated and defined clearly. Then a scale for the
rating has to be constructed. How it is done can he understood from the
example which follows:
Suppose we wish to rate the students of a class for the quality
leadership. We can rate the degrees of this quality as divisions such as very
good, average, poor, very poor etc. Now the arrangement of these divisions
along a line, on equal intervals, from high to low is termed as a rating scale
for assessment of the quality of leadership. Usually the divisions of the
scale are indicated by numbers, 1 to 3, 1 to 5 or 1 to 7, comprising a three-
point, five-point or seven-point scale. The seven-point scale is of the
following type:
7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Excellent Very good
Good Average Below average
Poor Very poor
Now the raters, who are in a position to properly rate the individuals may
be asked to give them scores, ranging from 1 to 7, according to the degree
of leadership they possess.
Rating techniques suffer from some obvious drawbacks like the
error of central tendency, subjective bias and halo effect etc. In the former,
the raters hesitate to give very high or very low ratings and tend to keep
their ratings in the middle. Subjective bias leads to their own likes and
dislikes, colouring their assessment of the individuals under rating, and
under the halo effect, they may rate an individual (on the basis of general
impression) to be more honest or the like, than he may actually be.
To bring some reliability into rating scale technique, it has been that
instead of having rating by only one judge, we an assign the rating more
judges - for example to different teachers, classmates, parents etc. – the
rating may be done by pooling the individual assessments.
Interview
Interview is a technique of eliciting information directly from the
subject about his personality in face-to-face contacts. It gives an
opportunity for mutual exchange of ideas and information between the
subject and the psychologists. For this purpose, the psychologist tries to
arrange a meeting with the person or persons under assessment. The face
to face interaction in the interview is of two types viz., structured or
unstructured.
An unstructured interview is an open interrogation. Here the
interviewer asks the interviewee any question on any subject relevant to
the situation. The interviewer here is not restricted to a particular set of
predetermined questions hut is free to drift along the paths opened up by
the interviewee to explore any issue that may arise, and to clarify any
bought that may emerge in the broad assessment of his personality. The
structured interview on the other hand, adopts a systematic and
predetermined approach instead of riding on the tides of the situation. Here
the interviewer is definite about the personality traits or behaviour he has
to assess and then plans accordingly. Usually, a list of questions, is
prepared for this purpose and after taking the subject into confidence, the
psychologist tries to seek answers to these pre-planned questions. He does
not attend to only the content of the responses but also to the tone,
behaviour and other similar factors, for the total evaluation in terms of the
designated personality pattern of the individual.
The limitations of this technique are that it calls for a well-trained
competent interviewer and is costly in terms of labour, time, and money. It
also suffers from the subjective bias of the interviewer. Here also, like
questionnaire and personality inventory, we cannot have any safeguard to
prevent the subject from hiding his feelings or from giving selective
responses. The points in favour of the technique are that answers are
obtained to every question which is put to the subject. In fact, responses
even to intimate questions, which subjects may hesitate to put in writing,
can also be obtained. In fact, interview is a relatively flexible tool. It
permits explanation, adjustment and variation according to the situation
and thus has proved to be one of the essential and more important tools of
personality assessment.
Techniques and methods of assessment of personality
Projective Techniques
The title is derived from projection, meaning reflection of one’s own
inner self upon the external objects. Freud was first to use this word. This
was, according to Freud, one of the defence mechanisms used by the
individual to solve his own mental conflicts. To his perception of the outer
world is determined largely by the feelings, desires, fears, thoughts and
ideas of the inner world which is unknown. This is based upon depth
psychology, the psychology of tile unconscious. According to it the quality
of personality is much affected by the unconscious motives and emotions.
We must measure this depth of personality below the forbidden crust of
consciousness. Conscious mind is only a segment, a part of our total
personality. The conscious mind derives its strength from the unconscious
mind. It was Freud who first made inquiry into hidden motives. A child,
for example, wishing-to hit his cruel father, may beat a male rubber doll,
kick it or break its neck or the neck of a toy elephant by calling it a devil.
Here the toys symbolized the cruel father and the child expressed his anger
against him.
To test the whole personality we must have some technique to
measure and elicit this unconscious and depth-character of personality.
Projective techniques makes this possible which according to Waiter is a
tendency, “to ascribe to the external world the repressed mental process.”
Through this technique is let out the hidden quality of the personality. This
tells us as what lies at the back of our conscious behaviour. Thus, certain
unconscious dispositions that determine behaviour and the quality of the
personality are disclosed and we have an idea of type of personality one
has.
Following are the devices used in Projective Techniques –
(i) The Rorschach Test
(ii) Thematic Apperception Test (T.A.T.)
(iii) Children’s Apperception Test (C.A.T.)
(iv) Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Test
(v) Role-playing and Psycho-drama
(vi) Free Association or Word-Association Test (WAT)
(vii) Picture Completion Test (PCT)
(viii) Sentence Completion Test (SCT)
(ix) Story Making
(x) Play-Therapy
(xi) Expressive Movement Test-Drawing, Painting, Hand writing and
Sculpture (EMT)
(xii) Poetry, Dramatics Or, Novels Writing, and
(xiii) Autobiography Or, Biography.
The above techniques will be dealt with here briefly.
(I) The Rorschact Test
This test is also known as ink-blot test. Rorschach was not the only
man who used ink-blots for
evolving his series as a
systematic diagnostic test
known by his name. Prior to
him J. Kener (1857), Galton
(1883), Binet and Simon,
Whipple, Dearborn and G.S.
Hall, Britin (1907), Bartlett
(1916), also made use of these ink-blots. But, above all, Rorschach was the
first to develop a workable method, what was called as a shorthand method
by Beck-later, for understanding the responses of an individual. Prof.
Herman Rorschach was
born in Zurich in Nov. 1
884. He was the son of
an art teacher. He
studied medicine till
1910. After this he
pursued the study of ink-blots for ten years starting in 1911 using hundreds
of- them and in 1921 he published his studies called Psychodiagnostic
before his premature and early death on April 2, 1922.
Rorschach Test consists of 30 pictures, ten for men, ten for women,
and ten for men and women both. Out of 700 pictures he selected only 30
which are standardized. Of the ten common cards or ink-blots, five are
black and grey, two black and red and the rest fully coloured. The cards are
shown to the subject one by one and is asked to look into each card
carefully and report what it looks like to him or what he sees in it or what
it makes him think of. He is also told that he can turn the cards upside,
down, on the left or on the right. The examiner records all the verbal
responses, the time taken for the first response, time spent on each card,
total time and the card turnings. After the responses have been tabulated
they are scored in accordance with the four categories of Location, Content
and the Determinants.
Location means the portion of the card seen that is, the whole of it,
major part of it, or small details in it. Contents mean whether the response
pertains to human beings or to parts of the human body, animals or some
part of the animal body and so on. Originality or popularity stands for the
response being popular or being very unusual or original. Determinants
mean whether it was human movement, animal movement or inanimate
movement, three dimensional vista or loose expanse like clouds or smoke
and so on as given in the chart. Every response is judged in terms of these
four categories and the symbols for them are given to each response. Then
all the responses are arranged to find out the percentage of each category
and the protocol is made about each person and interpretation is given. On
behalf of protocol a Clinician infers about personality traits. For example,
reaction upon whole block indicates abstract, theoretical knowledge while
the same upon a part suggests compulsion neurosis. Secondly, perception
of movement suggests introversion while that of animal shapes indicates
narrow thinking. Thirdly, excessive reaction upon colour expresses the
subject’s impulsiveness. Again, reaction upon colour and shape as well
indicates his spontaneity of emotional expression. However, all the scoring
is not quite so simple. Thus, in administering and interpreting Rorschach
Test only trained personnel is needed.
Test Details
This test was constructed by Herman Rorschach a Swiss
Psychologist in 1921. This test is considered the most successful test.
(i) Material of the Test – There ten cards in this test. These cards
bear unstructured figures like blots. Out of these ten cards, five
cards bear black figures two cards bear red and black figures and
rest of the cards bear the figures of mixed coloures. All the figures
on these ten cards bear no specific meaning.
(ii) Administration of the Test - These ten cards are given to the
individual whose personality is to be evaluated one by one. The
reactions regarding the printed figures on these cards are noted.
The individual is asked about what they see in the figures of those
cards. The time which an individual wants to see each card is
given to the individual. The individual can see these cards from
any angle. There is no restriction ‘to see the cards from the same
angle. The reactions of the individual after looking at the figures,
his style of holding the cards and face readings of that individual
are recorded.
(iii) Analysis of the Responses - After the test is over, the responses
received from the individual are analysed. For this analysis, the
responses are scored. For the scoring of responses, the following
four steps should be taken in view-
(a) Location - This is seen in the context that which part of the
figure printed on the card an individual includes in his
reaction. It is seen whether an individual is making his
reactions on the basis of whole of the figure or on looking at
the basis of its part only. If the individual has reacted on the
basis of whole of the figure, that reaction is designated as
‘W’, if he explains excessively it is denoted as ‘D’. The sharp
observations of the individual are marked as ‘d’. If an
individual reacts regarding blank places that reaction is
represented by the word’s’.
(b) Contents - in this all what an individual looks into the figures
printed on the cards are noted such as a figure or a person,
animal, figures of objects or of natural sceneries. The human
figures are denoted as H, animal figures as A, natural scenes
as N and other objects like pots, umbrella etc. as ‘O’.
(c) Determining Elements - Determining elements are those
factors which help the individuals in perceiving the figures
printed on the cards, e.g., if it is colour it is denoted by ‘C’
motion by ‘M’ and the variation in colours as ‘K’.
(d) Originality - The already declared or familiar responses are
denoted by ‘P’ and if original response are made, these are
marked as ‘o’.
(iv) Validity and Reliability - Its reliability has been calculated
ranging from .67 to .97 and its validity is .49.
(v) Utility - The utility of Rorschach’s test is as below –
(a) This test proved useful to know the reasons of complicated
unsocial activities.
(b)This test reveals the intelligence of the testee.
(c) This test familiarizes us regarding the emotional, mental and
social aspects of the individual.
(vi) Criticism -
(a) This method is not useful for small children.
(b) It needs more time and finance.
(c) To conduct this test, efficient and trained persons are needed.
All can not use this test.
(d)This test lacks objectivity.
(II) Thematic Apperecption Test (TAT)
Thematic Apperception Test is an another important test in the
family of projective techniques. First conceived by Morgan it was
developed by Murray in 1935.
The test consists of 30 pictures in the original, which are divided
into three sets, each set contains 10 pictures. One is exclusively meant for
men, the other exclusively for women, and the third is used with both of
them. One blank card is also there. The pictures depict common life
situations of tussels between children and parents, love affairs, parental
relations, frustrations in achieving or securing things of interest, jealousy,
rivalry, aggression and hostility as in Oedipus and Electra situations and so
on. These pictures are presented one by one to the subject who is asked to
narrate a story centred round the incident portrayed in the picture. He has
also to say how the, incident may have taken place and what might follow
as a result thereof. In short, he has to reveal a picture of his private world.
The fun is that the subject happens to identify himself with one or other
character depicted in the picture and his narration becomes a sort of
autobiography. Thus, an individual exposes all that which he would be
reluctant to express voluntarily.
The technique of interpretation of the stories is not one and rests on
understanding of personality dynamics which can be gained only from
intimate or first hand association with diagnostic and therapeutic work. It
differs from person to person. As a procedure, for each card, the
psychologist first tries to find the ‘Hero’ or the central character with
whom the subject has identified himself (Identification), and the way
various figures have been depicted (Figures). Besides these, he also tries to
find the needs and goals (Trends), the frustrating or facilitating situations
or persons (Press), the interrelationships of the hero with other figures, the
theme or the ‘plot’ of the story, the nature of the outcome (sad or happy,
real or unreal) and certain formal characteristics (vocabulary, imagination,
etc.). The stories are read and re-read carefully several times until
meaningful whole emerges. Thus, TAT seems to be more organized than
the Rorschach Test as here, one gives expressions to a wide variety of his
feelings and actions to the figures shown in the picture which are a part of
everybody’s life.
Test Details
This test was constructed by Morgan and Murray in 1925.
(i) Material of the Test - This test also possesses 30 pictures in these,
10 pictures are for males, ten are for females and rest 10 are for
both. Every person is shown 20 pictures. These cards are shown in
two turns.
Administration of the Test - In this test, the pictures are presented
one by one. These pictures are vague. There is no correct or
incorrect response in this test. Only the original imagination is seen
in this test. The individual is given a definite time. The testee is to
write a story after looking at that picture on the card in a definite
time. The story regarding a picture is to be written on the following
aspect -
(a) What is going on in the picture?
(b) What the causes of it can be?
(c) Its result etc. An individual can express his feelings,
expectations, etc. through these stories. Hence, the persons who
are unable to express themselves before others can be able to
express themselves through these stories.
Analysis and Interpretation - The stories are anaiysed on the of the
basis of the following facts -
(a) How the personality of the hero of the story was?
(b)Theme of the story.
(c) Style and language of the story.
(d)Contents of the story.
(e) Behaviour of the individual while writing the story.
(f) End of the story.
(iv) Criticism- In this method, some untrained testers may interpret
incorrectly the stories written after looking at the pictures. This may
affect the complete interpretation of the personality. Secondly, to
conduct this test, well trained persons are needed. This test is not fit
for children, and is useful for elders only.
(III) Children’s Apper-ception Test (CAT)
Children’s Apperception
Test (CAT) is the test on the
lines of TAT developed by
Leopold Bellak of the school of
Education, New York
University. It consists of 10
pictures, printed on cards depicting animals in various 4 different’
situations as of children from 3-10 (of both sexes) years for whom this test
is devised to elicit responses to problems presented by children such as
feeding fads, sibling rivalry, parental attitude, reactions towards parents,
edipus situation, primal scene, child’s fantasies around aggression,
acceptance by adult world, fear of being rejected and being lonely, toilet
behavior etc. Here animals are shown since children are more interested in
animals and the test was to be culture free to be used for children of all
except for those groups which might not be familiar with things like
bicycle, for instance. In
such cases some items,
animals and situations are
changed. For example, in
an Indian adaptation (by
Uma Chaudhary) fox is
substituted for Kangaroo, European type of toilet seat in bath room is
changed into Indian style. The chicken are shown eating without spoons.
The 10 pictures are (a) Mother hen at the breakfast table watching chicken
(as children) eating from plates, (b) Mother fox going shopping with the
little young one of the fox following her on a cycle, (c) Bears pulling at a
tug-of-war and the little cub siding with one parent, (d) Two monkeys
sitting on a bench are seen conspiring, as it were, (e) Dog mother is beating
the pup for going to the pot, (f) Two bears as mother and father sleeping in
a double bed and two younger ones are seen talking, (g) A little rabbit is
shut in a room alone, (h) A lion sitting with a pipe in mouth and a stick by
his side, I Two bears are shown together and a cub sitting in the corner.
To study the reproductions or stories of children after seeing these
pictures one by one and to interpret them, 10 variable are kept in view viz,
(I) The main theme (ii) The main Hero (ii) Attitudes towards parental
figures (iv) Family member’s role (v) The figure or objects (vi) Nature of
anxieties (vii) Significant conflicts (viii) Nature of punishment (ix)
Outcome of the story (x) The objects or figures omitted.
The application of this test and the interpretation of it cannot be
done as in the case of ordinary tests it requires special experience, study of
human nature and insight as in the case of TAT. In the hands of an
experienced and trained personnel, the test is found to be very useful
revealing about the problems which children present and this diagnostic
information is found very handy to deal with those problem children or the
problem presented by some children.
(iv) Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Test
Picture-Frustration Test of Saul Rosenzweig is devised for assessing
the degree of frustration, guilt
feelings and punishment for
something going wrong by
presenting to children certain
frustrating situations through
pictures like a child trying to find something nice in a cupboard by getting
on a stool and not finding anything, missing the bus just on reaching,
breaking something etc. The material consists of an eight page booklet of
24 cartoonlike drawings, each depicting a situation which might occur in
any ordinary day. Each picture represents two persons who are involved in
a mildly frustrating situation of common occurrence. Frustration may be of
any type. This test can be administered individually as well as in a group
and is designed to assess reactions to stress-situations. In each picture, the
subject examines the situations and writes in the blank space the first reply
that enters his mind as likely to be given by the anonymous figure. An
enquiry is conducted at the end of the test.
(v) Role-Playing and Psycho-drama
Role-playing as in Psycho-drama, popularised by J.L. Moreno
provide an opportunity to live through an experience which the patient
wishes to live through. He may play the role of a tyrant, wielding his
sword and hitting a dummy with full force, as if he were cutting the throat
of the winner in a race or competition where the patient lost some years
ago and the patient may have harboured the grudge and may have felt
agitated looking for a chance to wreak his revenge.
To illustrate this technique one true example is here. Once in the
clinic of Moreno there was a couple where some other persons were also
sitting round a stage in the centre of big room. Moreno’s wife and the
couple were asked to come up on the stage and Moreno’s friends was also
asked to play the role of the father of the girl. The case in this psycho-
drama was that the father of the girl was objecting seriously to the proposal
of the girl to marry the young man. Here the chance was given in the role
the girl was playing to express herself freely and she expressed her anger,
hostility and aggression against the father by giving him hard hits of verbal
blows in the abusive language as “you son of nun, bastered,” and so on.
And the father’s role was just to allow her to speak up as long as, she
through necessary, because the therapeutic technique consisted in making
her to abuse her father as much as she could as she through that it was he
who stood in her way to marry the young man. After she had finished and
exhausted with tears in her eyes, sobbing and crying, she was consoled by
the father, telling her not to feel so bad but to think of the whole situation,
how she was brought up by him when she was hardly tow months old
when her mother died. She was his only consolation and hope, and for her
sake he did not remarry and found everything possible for her best
comforts and for nourishment, food and clothing and gave her the best
education.
(VI) Free Association or Word Association Test (WAT)
Iinterest in the association of ideas began with the associationistic
school before the advent of experimental psychology, as the speculations
of John Locke, Galton (1879), Wundt (1980), Cattell, Jastrow,
Munsterberg etc. Galton began his more systematic study in 1885.
Freud used free association when the patient was required to freely
associate his ideas and go on speaking about himself freely by lying in a
couch in a relaxed mood. This was Freud’s technique both for diagnosis
and treatment of mental patients.
Bleuler writes, “In the activity of association there is mirrored the
whole psychical essence of the past and of the present with all their
experiences and desires. It thus becomes and index of all the psychical
process which we have but to decipher in order to understand the complete
man.” Jung utilized this technique to investigate the unconscious. He
assumed that the deviant behavior occurred because the stimulus word had
touched off a deep conflict or complex.
The test material consists of a standardized list of words, usually
numbering between 50 and 100 items. While drawing the list, a numbe3r
of significant words are chosen and mixed up with a number of neutral
words. The subject is seated comfortably on a chair with his eyes closed
and mind relaxed. The room in which he is seated, is kept free from all
noise. A stop watch is used to record the reaction time of each response
word. He is then told to respond, as quickly as possible, with the first word
that comes to his mind, after hearing the stimulus word given by the
examiner. The reaction words may be any words except that they should
not be sentences, multi-words, definitions or their opposites. Responses
with reaction times are noted in each case.
Some testers repeat the procedure immediately after the first
administration, requesting the examinee to reply as far as possible with the
responses given originally. The subject is, also sometimes, asked to
explain any obscure connections between stimulus and response words.
Sometimes the continuous method of free association is also used at
doubtful words revealing complexes. An examiner may, also sometimes,
draw up a special list to meet the requirements of a particular case or
selected words may be interpolated in one of the standard lists. Each
standardized list has got its own norms with which an individual response
are compared.
(VII) Picture completion Test (PCT)
Picture
completion is another
method to study the
unconscious mental
contents. If certain
bare outlines or
incomplete pictures
are given and the subject is asked to fill in the gaps or complete the picture,
he will imagine the lines to mean something and this imagination will be
his own phantasy and he will project himself on those outlines of
incomplete picture to complete it. This procedure was long time ago
studied by Bartlett for serial reproduction of certain outlines of vague
pictures by presenting the reproduction of one person to the next and his to
another and so on through many hands. He showed that every individual
added something of his own and did not reproduce only what he saw. The
bare and vague outline of something like a fish, for example, when passed
through serial reproductions of a number of children became a clear
picture of a bird eating from a cup. This process also explained how
rumours spread. But, as a projective method the reproductive attempt to
complete the picture give some data about one’s mental make up.
(VIII) Sentence Completion Test (SCT)
A semi-projective technique used for assessment of personality is
the Incomplete Sentence Blank (JSB) or the Sentence Completion Test
(SCT). The method requires giving a series of stems or the first part of the
sentence and on the basis of these stems subject is asked to complete the
sentence in any way he sees fit. The completed sentence indicate the
hidden desires, interests, feelings or the attitudes of the subject toward
himself and others. They reveal emotional disturbances. For example,
incomplete sentences like these –
I failed .........................................................................................................
I wish I .........................................................................................................
The future ...................................................................................................
When I am alone I .....................................................................................
My mother wants to ..................................................................................
When somebody weeps I ..........................................................................
And the material used to complete them can make an individual to
reveal himself in many ways. A well known Incomplete Sentence Blank
has been prepared by J.B. Rotler. In this blank the scoring method is based
on a classification of responses in three categories-conflict or unhealthy
responses, neutral responses, and positive or healthy responses. It is
observed that sentence completion method can be used with children from
about a years of age and upward.
(IX) Story Making
Story making or story writing by seeing pictures is used as a
projective device, as was used by Symonds to have a peep into the mental
working of the individual. This method is elaborately made use of in TAT
as discussed previously. The central idea is the same, that is, the subject
projects itself on the pictures or persons shown therein by identifying
himself with anyone of them and so interpreting the scene in the picture in
terms of his own hidden desires, repressed feelings or unconscious
motives, hostility, jealousy or anxiety.
(X) Play-Therapy
Through play, as in a child guidance clinic, the play therapist not
only finds the clue for the mental problems of the child but helps him to
have some catharsis for his pent up feelings, guilt, hostility or anxiety. Play
is for diagnosis and for therapy for children as psycho-analysis is for
adults. Doll playing is also a form of play where instead of having a free
choice of toys, the child plays with dolls and gives free vent to his
phantasies which reveal his unconscious mind. The dolls many represent
the father or mother or elders with whom he is living and also siblings,
friends, classmates, ghosts, devils or other frightening objects. The various
emotional cross-currents of an inhibited, repressed and unconscious nature
flowing in the child’s mind pertaining to people in his social environment
find easy outlet. In a similar manner clay-modelling like-playing with mud
-in the child guidance play room enables the child to have a free
expression to his phantasies, hidden desires and other troubling thoughts.
(XI) Expressive Movement Tests (EMT)
Expressive Movement Tests include drawings, paintings, sculpture
and such art media, when freely used by the artist are used to point his own
mental contents, as a poet uses his pen to express himself and a painter
uses his brush. The frustrated desires burst open in songs or in strokes on
the canvas. An artist, frustrated in love, paints the picture of his beloved
and feels as if he is in union with her while painting her arms, breasts or
cheeks. Art creation in many cases is the story of the artist’s ‘own
personality make up, as no one can jump out of himself what he makes in
his own, it has his own personal stamp. Great masters wept out their own
heart through brush, colours and chisel, and thus projected themselves
through these media. Drawings of children have been extensively used in
guidance clinics both for diagnostic and therapeutics purposes.
(XII) Poetry, Dramatics and Novel Writing
Poetry, dramatics, story and
novel writing reveal the
personality both through the
language used as well as the
theme or contents of the
writing. An individual’s choice
of language for self-expression
reveals one aspect of his
personality. According to Piaget
the manner in which the child
uses the language forms, as in
egocentric expressions, reflect the inner or emotional level of the speaker.
Language is said to be the vehicle of thought. What the writer of poems or
novels or stories writes, expresses the inner life of the writer. Many novels
of Sarat Chander like ‘SHRIKANT’ are, in a way, the autobiographic:
portions of his complex life. In the psycho-analytical sense Meera’s Poems
and Bhajans are the expressions of her frustrated love. Similarly, the
movies like, ‘Kinara’, ‘Kora Kagaj’, ‘Aap Ki Kasam’, ‘Abhimaan’,
‘Samay Ki Dhara’, ‘Aandhi’, ‘Dard Ka Rista’, ‘Khoshboo’, ‘Thori Si
Bewafai’ etc., are all based on egocentric theme. After all every writer
writes what he is and he cannot be other than himself, he cannot jump out
of himself to be something entirely different. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is, in
some respect, Shakespeare himself minus the Prince of Denmark. The
literary critics analyse the personality of the writer from his creations.
(XIII) Autobiography or Biography
Autobiography or Biography provide sample material which give
insight into the working of the mind of the biographer, as in the heat of the
moment while writing on certain events, episodes or experiences, the
writer forgets himself and digs up unconscious and pours out his heart
about his failures, frustration and ambitions. The biographer of an
‘Unknown Indian” e.g., writes all about himself and like as a patient in free
association sessions in the room of the psycho-analyst the writer as a
patient is revealing his unconscious. While writing, the biographer projects
himself on paper with pen and ink.
A unique device introduced by Skinner and adopted by Shakow and
Grings is the so called Tautophone or Verbal summator. This instrument
produces low level sounds which resemble speech. Subjects hear it and are
asked to tell what the voice is saying and they thus project their own pre-
occupations and meanings into an auditory medium.
Merits of Projective Techniques
1. The projective methods have wide field. With these methods,
various aspects of one’s personality can be evaluated.
2. With this method, both conscious and unconscious behaviours can
be studied.
3. In these tests, an individual performs an activity which is un
structured.
4. The nature of these methods is much secret. One cannot know which
aspect of personality is being looked into.
De-merits of Projective Techniques
1. These methods and the material used in these tests are much costlier.
2. It takes much time in scoring.
3. These tests lack objectivity.
4. For the administration of these tests trained persons are needed and
scarcity of such persons often exits.
“Intelligence is the ability to make profitable use of past
experience.”
- Thorndike
CONCLUDING
My Friend says, “A journey through these various personality tests
may seem more like a visit to the fairground’s hail of distorting mirrors,
but without a standard mirror to validate one’s genuine self.” On behalf of
this statement and from the diversity of techniques it can be said that some
psychologists have given penetrating accounts of the dynamics of
personality on their basis. But, even they are not suitable for use by
teachers. There is no doubt that the scope of projective testing is unlimited,
and they can reveal hidden wishes, ideas and feelings which underlie
behaviour. Also, they probe into the region of the unconscious and present
a broader and fuller picture of personality, but the only disadvantage is that
these tools can be handled only by trained psychologists, psychiatrists and
clinicians. At the same time reliability and validity of these tests is
woefully lacking.
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