Personality

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.