Psychology Chapter 2 Self And Personality

Self is an organized cognitive structure. It can be understood in terms of subject and object or I and Me. It refers to the totality of one's conscious thoughts, and feelings which pertain to one's own self.

Indian Concept of Self

• Self is characterized by the shifting nature of the boundaries.

• The Indian view does not make rigid dichotomies.

• It is based on collectivistic Indian society.

Western Concept of Self

• The boundaries between self and the group are rigid.

• It holds clear dichotomies between self and group.

• It is based on individualistic society of the West.

(i) Learning to delay or defer from gratification of needs is called self-control. It emerges from self-regulation.

(ii) Self-regulation is behavioural component of self.

(iii) It refers to an ability to organize and monitor ones own behaviour. People who can change their behaviour according to the demands of the external environment are high on self-monitoring.

(iv) Self-regulation leads to self-control.

(v) It plays a key role in fulfilment of long-term goals.

(vi) Indian culture provides us effective mechanisms like fasting (vrata or roza) and non-attachment with worldly things to develop self-control.

(vii) It is ones ability to say 'No'.

Psychological techniques to develop self-control are:

(a) Observation of Own Behaviour it provides us with necessary information that may be used to change, modify, or strengthen certain concepts of self.

(b) Self-instruction: We often instruct ourselves to do something and behave the way we want.

(c) Self-reinforcement: It involves rewarding behaviours that have pleasant outcomes (like going to see a movie with friends if we do well in exams).

— Self-control is important for the development of mature personality. This is the reason that all cultures emphasise the self-control. It helps in the fulfilment of long-term goals. Indian cultural tradition provide us with certain effective mechanisms, e.g., fasting in varta or roja and know attachment with worldly things for developing self-control.

— Self-control is also important for effective functioning of social network.

The word 'personality' is derived from the Latin word 'persona', which means a mask or false face which Greek actors used to wear when acting on stage. According to Gordon Allport 'Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychological systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment.'

One of the major approaches to understanding personality was to develop theories on what it was. There are many broad personality theories, which can be grouped into four categories:

(i) Dynamic approaches, which emphasize on-going interaction among motives, impulses and psychological processes.

(ii) Type and train approaches, which focus on people's characteristics, stubbornness, shyness and so forth and how these characteristics are organized into systems.

(iii) Humanistic approaches, which emphasize the self and the importance of the individual's subjective view of the world.

(iv) Learning and behavioural approaches, which emphasize the way habits are acquired through basic learning process.

Trait approach psychologists explain personality on the basis of specific psychological characteristics.

Type approach psychologists believe that personality can be classified into broad categories.

Traits are relatively stable, persistent and characteristic patterns of behaviour which makes the individual different from others.

(i) These are overlapping, i.e., inclusive in nature.

(ii) Traits are specific psychological characteristics, e.g., shy or timid.

Types are cluster of similar traits.

(i) These are broad categories.

(ii) These do not overlap, i.e., exclusive in nature, e.g., extrovert or introvert.

The ID:

(i) The Id is the original source of personality, present in the newborn infant, from which the ego and super ego later develop.

(ii) It consists of everything that is inherited, including the instinctual drives—sex and aggression.

(iii) It is closely linked to the biological processes and provides the energy source—the libido for the operation of all three systems.

(iv) It is totally unconscious and works on pleasure principles regardless of any external potential costs of seeking the gratification of impulses.

The Ego:

(i) The ego develops out of Id because of the necessity for dealing with the real world. The ego's task is to hold the Id in check until conditions allows for satisfaction of its impulses.

(ii) It operates on reality principles. For example, a hungry man would want to have food at any cost due to id impulses, but it is the ego which delays this hunger impulse until the appropriate conditions are found.

(iii) The ego is essentially the executive of the personality. It keeps a person working for a living, getting along with people and generally adjusting to the realities of life.

(iv) Ego mediates between the demands of id, the realities of the world and the demands of the super ego.

The Super Ego:

(i) It is related to the values and morals of the society as taught to us by our parents and others. It works according to social norms.

(ii) It is concerned with morality—whether various ways that could satisfy id impulses are right or wrong.

The main functions of the super ego are:

(i) To inhibit the unacceptable impulses of Id such as sex and aggression.

(ii) Freud assumed that Id is energised by two instinctual forces, called life instinct and death instinct. Life instinct is individuals, tendency to construct whereas death instinct is for the distruction. According to Freud, life instinct is more dominant among human beings.

According to Freud, the instinctual life force that energises the Id is called Libido.

It works on the pleasure principle, and seeks immediate gratification. It is source of energy.

While Karen Horney focuses more on interpersonal relationships during childhood, Alfred gives greater importance to personal goals of an individual.

There are, in my opinion, Horney would attribute the cause of depression to parental relations with children which are characterized by excessive interference or indifference. Deep anxiety would result from the behaviour rewards the child which, if is erratic, indifferent and discouraging feelings of isolation and helplessness will also emerge. Alfred Adler would, on the other hand, attribute depression to the feeling of inadequacy and guilt arising within the individual, due to the inability to achieve his/ her personal goals. These goals provide an individual with security and are important in overcoming feelings of inadequacy. If individual is not able to attain the goals and could not overcome inferiority appropriately then it leads to depression.

Humanistic theories emphasise personal responsibility and innovate tendencies toward personal growth. They focus on the importance of people's subjective attitudes, feelings and beliefs especially with regard to the self.

• According to humanistic approach, we human beings are most creative, growing, fully functioning and self-actualizing people.

• Fully functioning persons, according to Rogers theory, psychologically healthy persons who live life to the fullest.

• They live in the here and now and trust their own feelings. They are sensitive to the needs of others but they do not allow society's standards to shape their feelings or actions to an excessive degree.

• Rogers suggests that each individual has a concept of ideal self. If there is discrepancy between real self and ideal self then individual develops maladjustment.

• Rogers proposed two basic assumptions:

(a) Human behaviour is goal-directed and worthwhile.

(b) People always choose adaptive and self-actualizing behaviour.

• Rogers believed that many individuals fail to become fully functioning persons because they grow up in an atmosphere of conditional positive regard and develop distorted self-concepts which interferes with personal growth. Such people fail to self-actualise.

• All human beings desire unconditional positive regard, freedom of choice and feeling of fulfilment for attainment of self-actualization.

• Humanistic theories don't deny the importance of past experience but they generally focus on the present.

Maslow's Contribution to Humanistic Approach

Maslow's Self-Actualization

• It is a state which people have reached their own fullest potential.

• He had an optimistic view of man who has potentialities for love, joy and creative work.

• According to him, human beings are free to shape their lives and to self-actualise.

• Observational method is a very powerful tool of psychological enquiry. It is an effective method of describing behaviour.

• A scientific observation differs from day-to-day observation in many respects.

(i) Selection: Psychologists do not observe all the behaviour that they encounter. Rather, they select a particular behaviour for observation.

(ii) Recording: While observing, a researcher records the selected behaviour using different means, such as marking tallies for the already identified behaviour whenever they occur, taking notes describing each activity in greater detail using short hand or symbols, photographs, video recording, etc.

(iii) After the observations have been made, psychologists analyse whatever they have recorded with a view to derive some meaning out of it.

(iv) Observation is a skill. A good observation is a skill. A good observer knows what he/she is looking for, whom he/she wants to observe, when and where the observation needs to be made.

• Observation can be of the following types :

(a) Non-Participant vs. Participant Observation:

1. Non-participant observation

(i) To observe the person or event from a distance.

(ii) The observer may become part of the group being observed.

(iii) In the first case, the person being observed may not be aware that he/ she is being observed. For example, you want to observe the pattern of interaction between teachers and students in a particular class.

(iv) Install a video camera to record the classroom activities, which you can see later and analyse. Alternatively, you may decide to sit in a comer of the class without interfering or participating in their everyday activities. This type of observation is called non-participant observation.

2. Participations observation

(i) In participant observation, the observer becomes a part of the school or the group of people being observed.

(ii) the observer takes some time to establish a rapport with the group so that they start accepting him/her as one of the group members.

(iii) the degree of involvement of the observer with the group being observed would vary depending upon the focus of the study.

The advantage of the observation method is that it enables the researcher to study people and their behaviour in a naturalistic situation, as it occurs. However, the observation method is labour-intensive, time-consuming, and is susceptible to the observer's bias. Our observation is influenced by our values and beliefs about the person or the event.

Structured personality tests are self-report measures that have the following features:

• Questions are direct and structured.

• They are called self-report because the examinee has to respond objectively to the items of the measure and his/her response are accepted as they are.

• They are objective in nature and they deal with the present state of mind.

— Self-report measures use inventories and questionnaires to assess conscious part of personality.

— Goal of the test may be revealed.

— These tests assess only conscious part of personality

• Their results depend on motivation and emotional state of the examinee; they are non—projective and direct inferences are made.

Some of the self-report measures are:

1. Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ): This test was developed by Eysenck to assess two basic dimensions of personality namely introverted—extroversion and emotionally stable—emotionally unstable (Neuroticism).

2. MMPI: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. This test was developed by Hathaway and Mckinely.

• It has been found very effective in detecting psycho-pathology like hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria etc.

• The test is divided into 10 sub scales. This test helps in clinical diagnosis of various mental disorders like hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, etc.

• It has two sets MMPI-I and MMPI-II. Now-a-days, MMPI-II is being used.

• It has 567 items in the form of affirmative statements. The subject judges each item 'statements' as true or false.

• MMPI is one of the very good tests for clinical purposes (diagnosis).

• Indian version of MMPI is also available named as Jodhpur Multiphasic Personality Inventory (JMPI) by Malik and Joshi.

16-PF Questionnaire

• It is developed by Cattell.

• It identifies large set of personality descriptions—subjected to factor analysis to identify basic personality structure.

• Subject responds to situation by choosing from alternatives.

• This test is being used with high school level students in India for career guidance and counselling.

Problems Faced by self-report Measures

• Social Desirability: It is a tendency on part of the respondent to endorse items in a socially desirable manner.

• Acquiescence: It is a tendency of the subject to agree with items/questions irrespective of contents.

• Testing and understanding personality require great skill and training.

• People become self-aware and conscious, hesitate to share thoughts and feelings and motivation. If they do it, it is done in a socially desirable manner. So, the real personality characteristics are not manifested.

• Projective tests of personality are widely used by psychologists.

• Projective techniques are most indirect method to assess personality.

• Psycho analytic theory proposed that behaviour is also determined by unconscious forces.

• The projective techniques were developed to assess unconscious motives and feelings.

— The stimulus material is relatively or fully unstructured and poorly defined.

— The person being assessed is usually not told the purpose and the method of scoring and interpretation before the administration of test.

— The person is informed that there are no right or wrong responses.

— Each response is considered to reveal a true and significant aspect of personality.

— The scoring and interpretation in projective assessment are lengthy and subjective.

Projective Techniques

— Developed to assess unconscious motives, feelings and conflicts.

— A less structured or unstructured stimulus or situation will allow the individual to project his/her feelings, desires and needs on to that situation.

— Projections are interpreted by experts.

— Cannot be scored objectively, require qualitative analysis for which a rigorous training is needed.

1. The Rorschach Inkblot Test (Hermann Rorschach)

• Consists of 10 inkblots—5 black and white, 2 with red ink, 3 in pastel colours.

• Blots are symmetrical in design with a specific shape or form, made by dropping ink on a piece of paper and then folding the paper in half (hence called inkblot test).

• The cards are administered individually in two phases

— Performance proper: The subjects are shown the cards and are asked to tell what they see in each of them.

— Inquiry: A detailed report of the response is prepared by asking the subject to tell where, how, and on what basis was a particular response made.

• Fine judgment is necessary to place the subject's responses in a meaningful context. Use and interpretation of this test requires extensive training

2. The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) Morgan and Murray

• This test consists of 30 black and white picture cards and one blank card — each picture card depicts one or more people in a variety of situations.

• Some cards are used specifically with adult males or females, boys or girls— have been modified for the children and the aged.

• The cards are presented one at a time and the subject is asked to tell a story describing the situation presented in the picture—what led up to the situation, what is happening at the moment, what will happen in the future, what the characters are feeling and thinking?

• Uma Chaudhury's Indian adaptation of TAT is also available.

3. Rosenzweig's Picture-Frustration Study (P-F Study)

• This study assesses how people express aggression in the face of a frustrating situation.

• Presents with the help of cartoon-like pictures a series of situations in which one person frustrates another, or calls attention to a frustrating condition.

• The subject is asked to tell what the other (frustrated) person will say or do.

• The analysis of responses is based on the type and direction of aggression— examine whether the focus is on the frustrating object (environment), or on protection of the frustrated person (oneself), or on constructive solution of the problem.

• Pareek has adapted this test for the Indian population

4. Sentence Completion Test

• This test makes use of a number of incomplete sentences—the starting part of the sentence is first presented and the subject has to provide an ending to the sentence.

• The type of endings used by the subjects reflect their attitudes, motivation and conflicts.

• The test provides subjects with several opportunities to reveal their underlying unconscious motivations.

5. Draw-a-Person Test

• In this test, the subject is asked to draw a person on a sheet of paper and then a figure of an opposite sex person.

• Finally, the subject is asked to make a story about the person as if he/she was a character in a novel or play.

• Some example of interpretations are as follow:

— Omission of facial features suggests that the person tries to evade a highly conflict-ridden interpersonal relationships.

— Graphic emphasis on the neck suggests lack of control over impulses.

— Disproportionately large head suggests organic brain disease and preoccupation with headaches.

Limitations

• Interpretation of the responses requires sophisticated skills and specialized training.

• There are problems associated with the reliability of scoring and validity of interpretations.

Arihant wants to become a singer even though he belongs to a family of doctors. His family 'claims' to love him, but disapproves of his choice of career.

This fact warrants my attention towards an important terminology given by Carl Rogers, i.e., unconditional positive regard.

As the desire of Arihant to become a singer is contradicted by his family, it results in a situation of negative social conditions which will reduce his level of self-concept and self-esteem.

His inability to fulfil his goal will prevent him from becoming a 'fully functioning person'.

Moreover, his conception of an 'ideal self' involves him being a singer, while his 'real self' is not one due to familial pressure. This discrepancy between the real and ideal self results in dissatisfaction and unhappiness.

The provision of unconditional positive regard which includes empathy, love and warmth irrespective of other factors is necessary for Arihant.

According to Rogers, a person attains self-actualization only when people have reached their own fullest potential.

His inability to pursue singing will not allow self-actualization to occur which will prevent his psychological health and well-being.

Personal Identity: It refers to those attributes of a person that make him different from others, e.g., name, qualities, characteristics, beliefs, etc.

Social Identity: It refers to those aspects of a person that link him to a social or cultured group or are derived from it. e.g., when someone says that he is a Hindu or a Muslim he is trying to indicate his social identity.

Social self values family and social relationships. Hence, it is referred as familial or relational self.

Personality assessement is formal way of understanding human behaviour.

The goal of personality assessment is to understand, modify and predict human behaviour with minimum error and maximum accuracy.

Libido refers to instinctual life force that energises the Id. It works on the pleasure principal and seeks immediate gratification. The concept of Libido was given by Dr. Sigmund Freud. According to him, Libido is the source of energy.

Traits are:

(a) Traits are relatively stable over time.

(b) They are generally consistent across situations.

(c) Their strength and combination vary across individuals leading to individuals differences and personality.

Personal Self:

• Personal self leads to an orientation in which one feels primarily concerned with oneself.

• After fulfilling biological needs other components like personal freedom, personal responsibility, personal achievement or personal comfort, emerges as a part of personal self.

• It is different from personal identity, e.g., 'I am A.K. Bhatnagar.' This is my personal identity. 'I desire to teach in university.' This is my personal self.

Social Self:

• Social self emerges in relation with others.

• It emphasizes on aspects of life as co-operation, unity, affiliation, sharing and sacrifice etc. It focuses on family and relationship, therefore it is also called relational or familial self.

• Social self is different from social identity, e.g., 'I am a psychology teacher in a school' is my social identity. 'I am an understanding and empathetic teacher' is my social self.

• Self-esteem is cognitive component of self.

• The value judgment of a person about herself/himself is called self-esteem.

• It can be high or low. To assess it, we present a variety of statements to a person and ask him to indicate the extent to which they are true for him. e.g., we may ask a child to what extent the statement 'I am good at homework' or 'I am highly liked by my peers' is true. If he responds as them to be true, he will have a high self-esteem than someone who says 'no'.

• Studies show that children seem to have formed self-esteem in atleast four areas by the age of 6-7, i.e., academic competence, social competence, physical/athletic competence, and physical appearance.

Learning by observing others is referred as social learning.

• The concept was developed by Bandura.

• It is based on observation without any direct reward or reinforcement administrated to the learner.

• This kind of learning is also called modelling or observational learning.

• The social learning approach does not propose traits or dispositions.

• It uses the present conditions of learning and the case in the situation for determining the pattern of behaviour.

• The emphasis is on the current situation rather than other's desire or conflicts in personality.

Ego Defence Mechanisms

• A defence mechanism is a way of reducing anxiety by distorting reality unconsciously which are regulated by the ego.

• It defends the ego against the awareness of the instinctual needs.

• It is normal and adaptive; people who use defence mechanisms are often unaware of doing so.

1. Repression: Anxiety provoking behaviours or thoughts are totally dismissed by the unconscious. It is unconscious forgetting.

2. Projection: People attribute their own traits to others.

3. Denial: A person totally refuses to accept reality.

4. Reaction Formation: A person defends against anxiety by adopting behaviours opposite to his/her true feelings.

5. Rationalization: A person tries to make unreasonable feelings or behaviour seem reasonable and acceptable.

• According to Freud, approach personality is biologically oriented whereas Erich Fromm's theory of personality has a social orientation.

• He viewed human beings basically as social beings.

• For him, personality traits develop due to social interaction whereas, according to Freud, roots of personality development lies in innate tendencies and unconscious desires.

Dreams are considered as the royal road to unconscious. Mainly they serve following purposes:

— They work as safeguards of sleep.

— They work as wish fulfilment device. We can give expression to impulses and desires we find unacceptable during our waking hours.

- Dreams release unconscious tension arising out of conflicts between Id and Ego.

In the phallic stage, Freud speculated that at this time the child fraternizes sexual relation with parents of the opposite sex which Freud termed as the Oedipus complex for boys and Electra complex for girls.

A male child experiencing Oedipus complex tends to get sexually attracted toward his mother and has a hostility toward his father. They come to know this is unlikely, boys give up their sexual feelings for their mother and start to see their fathers as role models.

A female child experiencing Electra complex tries to act as his mother in order to get that love from his father. They have a feeling of hostility toward their mother.

Later on girls when realise that this is highly unlikely then they give up their sexual desire and start seeing their mother as a role model.

Behavioural rating refers to degree of agreement or disagreement of the rater on a particular issue on three or five point scale.

• Ratings are used in education and industrial setting.

• These are taken from people who know each other intimately and have interacted with them.

• It attempts to put individuals into categories in terms of their behavioural qualities.

Limitations of Behavioural Rating:

(i) Raters display bias that influence their judgments of different traits.

Example: The single favourable or unfavourable trait forms the basis of a rater's over all judgment of a person. This process is called the Halo Effect.

(ii) Raters have a tendency to put individuals in the middle of the scale, i.e., Middle Category Bias or in the extreme position, i.e., Extreme category bias.

The limitations can be overcome by either

• Appropriate training of the rater, or

• Developing scales with minimum biases.

• Observation refers to systematic, organised and objective gathering and recording relevant information by a trained observer from natural setting.

• It is careful perception.

• It is a sophisticated method and cannot be carried out by untrained people. It requires careful training of the observer.

Limitations of Observational Method:

1. Professional training is required for collection of useful data though these methods are quite demanding and time consuming.

2. Maturity of the psychologist is a precondition for obtaining valid data through these techniques.

3. Mere presence of the observer may contaminate the results.

Interview refers to purposeful conversation between two or more than two people in a face-to-face situation.

Interviews involve interacting with the person being assessed and asking questions. It is of two types. Unstructured and Structured.

Limitations of Interviews

Its limitations are as follows:

(a) Time consuming and demanding.

(b) Maturity of psychologist is a precondition for getting valid data.

DAPT—Draw- A-Person-Test. It is a simple test based on the psycho-dynamic approach, where the subject is asked to draw a person on a sheet of paper. After that he/she is asked to draw a person of the opposite sex. Finally the subject is asked to make a story about the person assuming that he/she is one of them..

Some examples of interpretation are as follows:

• Missing of facial features suggests that person tries to evade a highly conflict ridden interpersonal relationship.

• If there is a graphic emphasis on the neck that suggests lack of control over impulses.

• Disproportionally large head suggests organic brain disease and a pre-occupation with headaches.

According to humanistic theorists, healthy people share the following characterstics:

• Healthy people enjoy self-awareness and self-acceptance.

• They believe that their life outcomes are their own responsibility.

• They live in present.

• They do not live in the past and dwell in anxious future.

• Self is awareness of our being, i.e., our existence. It is the awareness of one's individuality and uniqueness.

• Self is the core whereas personality is its manifestation.

• Personality is the expression of this notion of self, i.e., how do I behave across the situation based on my awareness of my being in the world.

Let's take an example—when I say 'I am one who easily gets hurt'. This description of my 'self' leads to me being a very emotional, sensitive and touchy person. All my interactions and relations with the world and vice-versa are related to traits-described above what is called my 'personality'.

• Raymond Cattell applied a statistical technique called factor analysis.

• He emphasized that each individual has a common structure of personality, which is unique to each individual.

• He found 16 primary/source traits.

Source Traits:

• Source traits are the more basic traits with opposing tendencies.

• They are the building blocks of personality and are largely stable because they develop step by step.

Example – Aggression – source trait.

Surface Traits: Surface traits are caused by the interaction of source traits. These traits are somewhat unstable and observable. Raymond B. Cattell described them in terms of opposing tendencies, such as cool verses warm, dominant verses passive, etc.

According to Cattell, ways of expressing aggression differ among different individuals and its root lies in source trait of aggression.

All port distinguished between cardinal, central and secondary traits – all these traits form a hierarchy.

Cardinal Traits: These are the traits which are so dominant that nearly all of the individual's actions can be traced back to them.

• These are highly generalized dispositions. If a person's whole life seems to be organized around the goal of achievement, it becomes a cardinal trait of his or her personality. Mahatma Gandhi's non-violence, Mother Teressa's humanitarianism are examples of cardinal traits.

Central Traits: All port described them as characterizing an individual's behaviour to some extent but not in a complete way as cardinal traits.

• These are less generalized disposition in comparison to cardinal traits.

• He described central traits as those that might be mentioned in a letter of recommendations or certification.

For Example: Honest, calm, talkative, touchy, etc.

Secondary Traits: These are the traits that exert relatively weak and limited effects on the behaviour. These are least generalized characteristics of the person like iikes chocolates' or 'prefer foreign cars'. These traits can be changed over time.

All port proposed that the way a person reacts in situations depends on his traits. However, people sharing the same trait may express it in different ways.

• H.J. Eysenck proposed that personality could be reduced to two dimensions.

• These dimensions are presumed to be biologically and genetically based.

• They are opposed to each other. These dimensions include numerous specific traits. These dimensions are as follows:

— Neuroticism vs. Emotional Stability:

• It refers to the degree to which people have control over their feelings.

• At one extreme of this dimension are highly neurotic people.

• They are anxious, moody, touchy, restless and quickly loose control.

• People, who are calm, even-tempered, reliable and remain under control, occupy the other extreme.

— Extroversion vs. Introversion:

• It refers to the extent to which people are socially outgoing or socially withdrawn.

• At one extreme are those who are active, gregarious, impulsive and thrill-seeking.

• At other extremes are the people who are passive, quiet, cautious and reserved.

— Psychotism vs. Sociability: A third dimension was developed by Eysenck later. This dimension results due to interaction with the above-mentioned two dimensions. A person who scores high on psychotism dimension tends to be hostile, ego-centric and anti-social.

Sociability refers to tendency of individual to follow sodal norms.

Paul Costa and Robert MacCrae have done extensive research on all the possible personality traits. They found that all the findings indicate a set of five-factors. They are often called 'Big Five'. These factors are described below:

1. Openness to Experience: Those who store high on this factor are imaginative, curious, open to new ideas and interested in cultural pursuits. In contrast, low scoring persons are rigid.

2. Extroversion: It characterizes people who are socially active, assertive, outgoing, talkative, and fun a loving. It is the opposite of shy, timid and socially withdrawn.

3. Agreeableness: This factor represents the traits of people who are helpful, cooperative, friendly, caring and nurturing. It is the opposite of hostile and being self-centered.

4. Neuroticism: People scouring high on this factor are emotionally unstable, anxious, worried, fearful, distressed, irritable and hypertensive. Its opposite is well adjusted.

5. Conscientiousness: Those who display a high degree of this factor are achievement-oriented, dependable, responsible, prudent, hardworking, self-con trolled. Its opposite is impulsivity.

Maslow proposed the concept of self-actualization. He proposed that human needs exist in a hierarchy, ascending from the basic biological and safety needs to the more complex psychological motivations to the final highest need at the top self-actualization. By self-actualization he meant:

(i) The development of full individuality, with all parts of the personality in harmony.

(ii) It is a state in which individuals have attained their fullest true potential.

(iii) It is the basic motivating force.

(iv) It is a tendency towards fulfilment, towards actualization, towards the maintenance and enhancement of the organism. As the organism grows it seeks to fulfil its potential within the limits of its heredity.

Freud proposed three levels of consciousness or awareness:

Conscious: This includes our current thoughts whatever we are thinking about or experiencing at a given moment.

Preconscious: Beneath the conscious is the much larger preconscious. This contains memories that are not the part of current thoughts but can be easily accessible with a moment's reflection. For example, what we had for breakfast or our parents, first names.

Unconscious: Beneath the preconscious and forming the bulk of human mind is the unconscious.

(i) It includes thoughts, desires and impulses of which we remain largely unaware. (it) Freud believed that much of it was once conscious but has been actively repressed—driven from consciousness because it was too anxiety-provoking. For example, Freud contended that shameful experiences or unacceptable sexual or aggressive urges are often driven deep within the unconscious.

(iii) The process of repression is itself unconscious and automatic. We do not choose to repress an idea or impulses, it just happens.

(iv) The fact that we are not aware of them, however in no way prevents them from affecting our behaviour. They continue to operate underground, often converting the repressed conflict into anxiety or even psychological disorders.

(v) It is storehouse of repressed libidinal energy.

• According to Dr. Sigmund Freud defense mechanisms are ways in which the ego unconsciously tries to cope with unacceptable libidinal desires and resolves conflicts.

• In simple words, Ego defense mechanism are ways of resolving the conflict by distorting the reality unconsciously.

• It distorts reality to resolve conflicts and therefore provides temporary relief.

• Its optimum use is healthy but excessive usage lead to maladjustment.

• Defense mechanisms are regulated by the ego. It is different from lying because lying is intentional but use of defense mechanism is unconscious.

Some important defense mechanisms are as follows:

1. Repression: In this type of defence mechanism, anxiety-provoking behaviours or thoughts are totally dismissed by the unconscious.

• People become totally unaware of that wish or desire when they have repressed it. When a person says, 'I do not know why I did that.'

• Repression may be referred as unconscious forgetting. It is the basic defence mechanism.

• It is unconscious forgetting.

2. Regression: It occurs when a person's resolutions of problems at any stage of development is less than adequate.

• It is going back to good old golden days of childhood.

3. Displacement: Redirective an impulse towards a less threatening or safer target.

4. Projection: People attribute their own traits, attitudes or subjective processes to others. A person who has strong aggressive tendencies may see other people as acting in an excessively aggressive way towards him.

• It is blaming others for ones own conflicts, anxieties and guilt.

5. Denial: A person totally refuses to accept the reality. Someone suffering from HTV/AIDS may altogether deny his/her illness.

6. Reaction Formation: Person denies a disapproved motive through giving strong expression to its opposite, e.g., a person with strong sexual urges, who channels his/her energy into religious activities, presents a classical example of reaction formation.

7. Rationalization: A person tries to make unreasonable feelings or behaviour seem reasonable and acceptable. When a student buys a set of new pens after doing poorly in an examination, he/she may try to rationalize his/her behaviour by asserting, 'I will do much better with these pens.'

• It is giving good excuses and basically using 'sour grape phenomena'.

Cultural Approach of Personality:

• This approach explains personality in terms of individual ecology and cultural environment.

• Individual personality is determined by Group Economic Maintenance System.

• Personality is very much influenced by climatic conditions, availability of food, availability of employment and nature of terrain etc.

• The Economic Maintenance System determines people's economic activities, settlement patterns, social structures, division of labour and other features like child-rearing practices.

• Individual psycho-physical system, skills, behavioural styles and value priorities are determined by the rituals, ceremonies, religious practices, art, games, etc.

• People develop various personality qualities in an attempt to adapt to the ecological and cultural features of a group's life.

There may be two groups belonging to two different types of cultures:

1. Birhor Society: Children of this society are allowed from an early age to move into the forest and learn hunting and gathering skills independently. Thus children from this society get freedom, autonomy and achievement oriented from childhood.

• One of the most comprehensive approaches to personality and its development was formulated by Sigmund Freud.

• According to him behaviour is determined by the interplay of events and conflicts within the inner life of the individual is central to his approach.

Following are the postulates of psycho-analytic theory:

(i) Levels of Consciousness: Freud compared the human mind to an iceberg.

— The small part that shows above the surface of the water is conscious. It is individuals awareness. Beneath this conscious realm is the much larger Preconscious which contains information that is not currently on our mind but we could bring into consciousness if called upon to do so.

— Finally beneath the preconscious and forming the bulk of the iceberg below the water is the Unconscious which is a storehouse of desires, impulses and inaccessible memories which affect our thoughts and behaviour.

(ii) Structure of Personality: Freud divided personality into three major systems - Id, Ego and Super ego—that interact to govern human behaviour.

ID: Id is the most primitive part of the personality, it is the storehouse of all basic primitive needs. Id works on pleasure principle and seeks immediate gratification of the impulses.

Ego: Ego is the reality based aspect of self. It develops out of Id. It is governed by the reality principle - the gratification of impulses must be delayed until the situation is appropriate.

SUPER EGO: It is the inner voice of thoughts and should nots. It is the values and morals of society and comprises the individual's conscience.

(iii) Ego-defense Mechanism: When conflicts among Id, ego and the super ego is not resolved then the ego experiences anxiety, intense feeling of nervousness, tension and worry. According to Freud the ego uses defence mechanism for the maintenance of the self.

• Many psycho-analytical concepts are vague and not operationally defined and the hypotheses derived from them can not be tested. Thus, much of the theory is difficult to evaluate scientifically.

• Several of Freud's postulates are not consistent with the findings of modem research—for instance his ideas about the meaning of dreams.

• The theory is based on a small number of clinical case studies especially of upper class women, which cannot be considered as representative of human beings generally.

• This theory is criticized for having male-centered perspective and it views women as more sensitive and dependent on men.

• The theory has been criticized for over-emphasis on sexual desires of Id because social and cultural factors also influence personality development.

However some aspects of Freud's theory continue to gain acceptance as they are modified and improved through empirical scrutiny, e.g., role of childhood experience in personality development is being recognized.

The projective techniques were developed to assess personality based on the psychoanalytic theory of personality. Some of the projective techniques are:

1. The Rorschach Inkblot Test:

• A German psychiatrist, Herman Rorschach developed this technique.

• This test consists of 10 symmetrical unstructured Inkblots. Five of them are black and white and five are coloured.

• The cards are individually administered.

• The test is divided into two phases:

(a) Performance proper: In this phase, the person is asked what can he make out of the card and in the second phase.

(b) Inquiry: In this phase the person is asked to explain his responses. The interpretation requires training.

2. The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT):

• The test was developed by Morgan and Murray in 1935.

• It consists of a series of 30 unstructured picture cards and one blank card. Some cards are for males (M), some for females (F), and some for boys (B) and girls or combination.

• The cards are presented one at a time.

• The person is asked to write a story involving whatever is shown on the

cards including why this is occurred, who are these people, what are they doing end will be the and of this story.

3. Rosenzweig Picture Frustration Study (The P-F Study):

• This test was developed by Rosenzweig.

• This test uses frustration and aggression as the main focus.

• It presents a series of cartoons in which one cartoon frustrates another.

• The analysis of response is based on type and direction of aggression. They are obstacle dominance (emphasis on the frustrating object), ego defence (emphasis on protection of the frustrated person) and need persistence (emphasis on the constructive solution of the problem).

• Its Indian adaptation developed by Pareek is also available.

• Sentence Completion Test: In this test a number of stems consisting of a few words are presented. The task is to complete the sentence, e.g. my father.... It is expected that the type of ending used reflects the motivation, conflicts and attitudes of the person.

• Draw-A-Person Test: The examinee in this test is asked to draw a person, and then he/she is asked to draw the figure of another person of opposite sex.

• Finally the examinee is required to make up a story about the person as if he/ she were a character in a novel or a play.

'Machover' has used it for personality assessment using psycho-dynamic approach to analyse the drawings.

A.

Interpersonal intelligence

Self-esteem

Carl Jung claimed that there was a collective unconscious consisting of archetypes or primordial images. These are not individually acquired but are inherited. According to him, for achieving unity and wholeness, a person must become increasingly aware of the wisdom available in one's personal and collective unconscious and must learn to live in harmony with it.

Cultural Approach to Personality:

• This approach explains personality in terms of individual ecology and cultural environment.

• Individual personality is determined by Group Economic Maintenance System.

• Personality is very much influenced by climatic conditions, availability of food, availability of employment and nature of terrain etc.

• The Economic Maintenance System determines people's economic activities, settlement patterns, social structures, a division of labour and other features like child-rearing practices.

• Individual psycho-physical system, skills, behavioural styles and value priorities are determined by the rituals, ceremonies, religious practices, art, games, etc.

• People develop various personality qualities in an attempt to adapt to the ecological and cultural features of a group's life.

There may be two groups belonging to two different types of cultures:

1. Birhor Society: Children of this society are allowed from an early age to move into the forest and learn hunting and gathering skills independently. Thus children from this society get freedom, autonomy and achievement-oriented from childhood.

• Observational method is a very powerful tool of psychological enquiry. It is an effective method of describing behaviour.

• A scientific observation differs from day-to-day observation in many respects.

(i) Selection: Psychologists do not observe all the behaviour that they encounter. Rather, they select a particular behaviour for observation.

(ii) Recording: While observing, a researcher records the selected behaviour using different means, such as marking tallies for the already identified behaviour whenever they occur, taking notes describing each activity in greater detail using shorthand or symbols, photographs, video recording, etc.

(iii) After the observations have been made, psychologists analyse whatever they have recorded with a view to derive some meaning out of it.

(iv) Observation is a skill. A good observation is a skill. A good observer knows what he/she is looking for, whom he/she wants to observe, when and where the observation needs to be made.

• Observation can be of the following types :

(a) Non-Participant vs. Participant Observation:

1. Non-participant observation

(i) To observe the person or event from a distance.

(ii) The observer may become part of the group being observed.

(iii) In the first case, the person being observed may not be aware that he/ she is being observed. For example, you want to observe the pattern of interaction between teachers and students in a particular class.

(iv) Install a video camera to record the classroom activities, which you can see later and analyse. Alternatively, you may decide to sit in a comer of the class without interfering or participating in their everyday activities. This type of observation is called non-participant observation.

2. Participation observation

(i) In participant observation, the observer becomes a part of the school or the group of people being observed.

(ii) the observer takes some time to establish a rapport with the group so that they start accepting him/her as one of the group members.

(iii) the degree of involvement of the observer with the group being observed would vary depending upon the focus of the study.

The advantage of the observation method is that it enables the researcher to study people and their behaviour in a naturalistic situation, as it occurs. However, the observation method is labour-intensive, time-consuming, and is susceptible to the observer's bias. Our observation is influenced by our values and beliefs about the person or the event.

Freidman & Rosenman classified individuals on the basis of psychosocial risk factors.
1. Type A personality individuals seem to possess high motivation, tlack patience, feel short of time, be in a great hurry and feel like being always burdened with work. Such people find it difficult to slow down and relax.
2. People are more susceptible to problems like hypertension and coronary heart diseases.
3. The risk of developing CHD with Type A personality is sometimes even greater than the risk caused by high blood pressure, smoking or high cholesterol levels.

D

The behavioural approach to study personality:

1. The behavioural approach does not give importance to the internal dynamics. It is totally based on data.
2. Behaviourists believe in data, which is considered to be tangible, definable and palpable. Thus, they focus on learning of stimulus-response connections and their reinforcement.
3. Personality can be best understood as the response of an individual to the environment. A person learns new behaviours in response to new enironments and stimuli.
4. The behaviourists hold response as the basic unit of personality. Each response is directed to specify a particular need.For example, children do not like eating many of the vegetables (e.g., spinach, pumpkin, gourds,etc.), but gradually they learn to eat them. According to behavioural approach, slowly and steadily children learn the importance of vegetables.
5. The behaviourists believe that decrease in social and biological needs drive behaviour and form the central tendency to organise behaviour. The decrease in needs is achieved through responses that are reinforced.

Defence mechanisms are a way to deal with anxiety by distorting the reality of which the individual is not aware, regulated by ego.

Some defense against anxiety is normal and adaptive but people who use these mechanisms to such an extent that reality is truly distorted, develop various forms of maladjustments.

The most important is repression, in which anxiety-provoking behaviours or thoughts are totally dismissed by the unconscious.When people repress a feeling or desire, they become totally unaware of that wish or desire. Thus, when a person says, “I do not know why I did that”, some repressed feeling or desire is expressing itself.

Erik Erikson gave the concept of identity crisis of adolescent age has drawn considerable attention.

Erikson argues that young people must generate for themselves a central perspective and a direction that can give them a meaningful sense of unity and purpose.This concept of identity crises of Erikson lays stress on rational, concious, ego processes in personality development Erikson believed development to be an ever evolving life long provess and ego identity is considered the central theme of such a life-long process.

Thus, identity crisis is an approach to understand personality is a continual process that arrse at a central perspective which is logical and directed meaningful.

Alfred Adler's theory is known as individual psychology.

1. Adler basic assumption is that human behaviour is purposeful and goal-directed.
2. Every one of us has the capacity to choose and create.
3. Our personal goals are the sources of our motivation.
4. The goals that provide us with security and help us in overcoming the feelings of inadequacy are important in our personality development.
5. Alfred Adler‟s view – every individual suffers from „feeling of inferiority‟ that are experienced during infancy and childhood. During childhood, child is helpless and depends on others for help and support.

Karen Horney – Optimism

1. Karen Horney advocated for a more optimistic view of human life with emphasis on Human Growth and Self-actualisation. She emphasised on the importance of social relationships in personality development.
2. Psychological disorders were caused by disturbed interpersonal relationship during childhood.
3. Basic anxiety – refers to the feeling of a child being isolated and helpless in a potentially hostile world.

Interview: Interview is a commonly used method for assessing personality. This involves talking to the person being assessed and asking specific questions.Interviews may be
structured or unstructured depending on the purpose or goals of assessment.

In unstructured interviews, the interviewer seeks to develop an impression about a person by asking a number of questions.

The structured interviews address very specific questions and follow a set procedure.

Observation: It is the specialised procedure and requires appropriate training. For example, a psychologist may want to observe a client's interaction with his/her family members.

Situational tests: These provide information on how a person behaves under stressful situations. The tests involve role plays for which the selling could be realistic or created through a video play.

Behavioural ratings: These are used for assessment of personality in educational and industrial settings. These ratings are taken from people who have known the subject for a period of time. This involves the use of descriptive adjectives.

Self-report

self-control. Self-control plays a key role in the fulfilment of long-term goals.

1. Observation of own behaviour: This provides us with necessary information that may be used to change, modify, or strengthen certain aspects of self.
2. Self-instruction: We often instruct ourselves to do something and behave the way we want
   to. Such instructions are quite effective in self-regulation.
3. Self-reinforcement is the third technique: This involves rewarding behaviours that have pleasant outcomes.For example, you may go to see a movie with friends, if you have done well in an examination.

A defence mechanism is an act or technique of coping mechanisms that reduce anxiety generated by threats from unacceptable or negative impulses.

Sigmund Freud was one of the first proponents of this construct. Defence mechanisms may result in healthy or unhealthy consequences depending on the circumstances and frequency with which the mechanism is used.

Healthy persons normally use different defence throughout life.  An ego defence mechanism becomes pathological only when its persistent use leads to maladaptive behaviour such that the physical or mental health of the individual is adversely affected. The purpose of ego defence mechanisms is to protect the mind/self/ego from anxiety and or social sanctions and/or to provide a refuge from a situation with which once cannot currently cope.

Behavioural rating refers to the degree of agreement or disagreement of the rater on a particular issue on three or five point scale.

• Ratings are used in education and industrial setting.
• These are taken from people who know each other intimately and have interacted with them.
• It attempts to put individuals into categories in terms of their behavioural qualities.

Limitations of Behavioural Rating:

(i) Raters display a bias that influences their judgments of different traits.

Example: The single favourable or unfavourable trait forms the basis of a rater's overall judgment of a person. This process is called the Halo Effect.

(ii) Raters have a tendency to put individuals in the middle of the scale, i.e., Middle Category Bias or in the extreme position, i.e., Extreme category bias.

The limitations can be overcome by either

• Appropriate training of the rater, or
• Developing scales with minimum biases.

Assessment is the measurement of psychological attributes of individuals and their evaluation using different standardised methods.

The following are the key features of methods used for psychological assessment:

1. Psychological Test: It is an objective and standardised measure of the mental age and or behavioural tendencies of a person. These tests have been developed to study different aspects of psychology such as intelligence, aptitude etc. Psychological tests are used for clinical diagnosis, guidance, selection, placement and training. Besides objective test, some projective test has also been developed such as the draw a person test.
2.  Case study: It is an intensive study of an individual vis-a-vis her/his psychological attributes and psychosocial and physical environment. Case Studies of eminent personalities provide an opportunity for learning to everyone. These are generated by methods such as interview, observation, questionnaire and psychological tests.

response

The interactional approaches hold that situational characteristic which plays an important role in determining our behaviour. People may behave as dependent or independent not because of their internal personality trait, but because of external rewards threats available is a particular situation. The cross-situational consistency of traits is found to be quite low. The compelling influence of situations can be noted by observing people's behaviour in places like a market, a courtroom, or a place of worship.

Personality refers to characteristic ways of responding to individuals and situations.

Personality is characterised by the following features:

1. It has both physical and psychological components.
2. Its expression in terms of behaviour is fairly unique in a given individual.
3. Its main features do not easily change with time.
4. It is dynamic in the sense that some of its features may change due to internal or external situational demands. Thus, personality is adaptive to situations.

Behavioural Approach:

This approach does not give importance to the internal dynamics of behaviour. The behaviourists believe in data, which they feel are definable, observable, and measurable. Thus, they focus on learning
of stimulus-response connections and their reinforcement.

The structural unit of personality is the response.Each response is a behaviour, which is emitted to satisfy a specific need.

Cultural Approach:

It proposes that a group’s ‘economic maintenance system’ plays a vital role in the origin of cultural and behavioural variations.

The climatic conditions, the nature of terrain of the habitat and the availability of food (flora and fauna) in it determine not only people’s economic activities, but also their settlement patterns, social structures, division of labour, and other features such as child- rearing practices.

Rationalisation

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory: The test was developed by Mathway and Mckinley. Its revised version the MMPI -2 is also available. The test comprises 567 statement and the subject has to judge each statement as true or false. The test is divided into 10 subscales and seeks to identify hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, mania, schizophrenia among others. In India, a scale has been developed along the lines of MMPI called the Jodhpur Multiphasic Personality Inventory (JMPI).

Eysenck Personality Questionnaire: This test assesses two dimensions of personality, introverted-extroverted and emotionally-stable-emotionally unstable. These dimensions include 32 personality traits. Later on, a third dimension called psychoticism was added by Eysenck. It is connected to psychopathology that describes a lack of feelings for others, a stern way of dealing with people and a tendency to defy social norms.  A person high on this test tends to be hostile, egocentric and antisocial. This test has been applied widely.

Humanistic approach to personality proposed by Rogers.

Humanistic theories emphasise personal responsibility and innovate tendencies toward personal growth. They focus on the importance of people's subjective attitudes, feelings and beliefs especially with regard to the self.

According to humanistic approach, we human beings are most creative, growing, fully functioning and self-actualizing people.

Human lives in the here and now and trust their own feelings. They are sensitive to the needs of others but they do not allow society's standards to shape their feelings or actions to an excessive degree.

Rogers suggests that each individual has a concept of ideal self. If there is a discrepancy between real self and ideal self then individual develops maladjustment.

Rogers proposed two basic assumptions:

(a) Human behaviour is goal-directed and worthwhile.

(b) People always choose adaptive and self-actualizing behaviour.

Rogers believed that many individuals fail to become fully functioning persons because they grow up in an atmosphere of conditional positive regard and develop distorted self-concepts which interferes with personal growth. Such people fail to self-actualise.

All human beings desire unconditional positive regard, freedom of choice and feeling of fulfilment for attainment of self-actualization.

Humanistic theories don't deny the importance of past experience but they generally focus on the present.

Coping is a dynamic, situation-specific reaction to stress. It is a set of concrete responses to stressful situations that are intended to resolve the problem and reduces stress. Endler and Parker gave following Coping Strategies: 
1. Task-oriented Strategy:

• It is goal management through confrontation with the problem.
• This involves obtaining information about the stressful situation and making the best use of resources available.
• It also involves prioritising and acting so as to deal directly with the stressful situation.
• Mostly it is used by optimists.

Task-oriented strategies are particularly effective when the resources in the environment are within the control of the individual. It is a cognitive response to stress.

2. Emotion-oriented Strategy:

• It is emotion management.
• This strategy involves efforts to maintain hope and to control one's emotions. Individual works on his emotions rather than situations and goals.
• This mainly happens when the stressful event is such that it can not be manipulated in any way eg. loss of a spouse or a family member.
• The individual deals with his emotions of anxiety, helplessness, hopelessness etc. and tries to gain hope and happiness again in his life.
• It can also involve venting feelings of anger and frustration or decide that nothing can be done to change things.
• Emotion oriented strategies are particularly effective when the resources in the environment are beyond the controlled of the individual.

3. Avoidance–riented strategy:

• It is avoiding stressful event by indulging in different activities. The individual does not want to accept that he is facing such a stressful situation.
• This involves denying or minimising the seriousness of the situation.
• It also involves conscious suppression of stressful thoughts and their replacement by self-protective thoughts.
• Watching T.V., attending parties or going to sleep is an example of this type of coping.
• It is basically escapism by using defence mechanisms.

According to Lazarus and Folkman, coping responses can be divided into two types of responses:

(a) Problem-Focused:

• It includes taking direct action to solve the problem.
• It is seeking information that will be relevant to the solution for, e.g., developing a study schedule to cope up with the semester demands and thereby reduce examination pressure.
• It is basically confronting with the problem using all the available resources.

(b) Emotion-Focused: It refers to the reduction of the negative emotional reaction to stress. e.g., by distracting oneself from the problem, relaxing or seeking comfort from others.