Syllabus :  Definition and concept of personality; Theories of personality (psychoanalytical, sociocultural, interpersonal, developmental, humanistic, behaviouristic, trait and type approaches); Measurement of personality (projective tests, pencil-paper test); The Indian approach to personality; Training for personality development ; Latest approaches like big 5 factor theory; The notion of self in different traditions.

Social  identity refers to those aspects of a person  that link her to a social or cultural  group or are derived from it. When  someone says that s/he is a Hindu or a  Muslim, a Brahmin or an adivasi or a  North Indian or a South Indian, etc., s/he is trying to  indicate her social identity.

Personal Self : Emerges since childhood while crying for milk which slowly develops into the awareness with age which says "I am hungry". Such a self emerging out of biological needs may be described as biological self.  Personal self is an orientation in which one is primarily concerned with oneself.  Emphasis comes to be laid on  those aspects of life that relate only to the  concerned person, such as personal  freedom, personal responsibility, personal  achievement, or personal comforts.

Psychologist Albert Bandura has defined self-efficacy as one's belief in one's ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task. The theory of self-efficacy lies at the center of Bandura’s social cognitive theory, which emphasizes the role of observational learning and social experience in the development of personality. The main concept in social cognitive theory is that an individual’s actions and reactions, including social behaviors and cognitive processes, in almost every situation are influenced by the actions that individual has observed in others. Because self-efficacy is developed from external experiences and self-perception and is influential in determining the outcome of many events, it is an important aspect of social cognitive theory. Self-efficacy represents the personal perception of external social factors. According to Bandura's theory, people with high self-efficacy—that is, those who believe they can perform well—are more likely to view difficult tasks as something to be mastered rather than something to be avoided.

Q. What is Self-Regulation and Self-Control? How practices in Indian culture try to promote these. Enumerate some  psychological techniques to enhance self-control.

To find out, Chen, Lee, and Stevenson asked several thousand  high school students living in Taiwan, Japan, Canada, and two parts of the  United States (Virginia and Minnesota) to respond to questionnaires using the  “strongly agree–strongly disagree” format. Results were clear: Across a wide  range of items dealing with many different issues (e.g., the value of higher education,  the importance of having many friends, self-confidence), cultural differences  emerged. Specifically, students from the United States were more likely to  make extreme judgments than those from the other countries. Why was this the  case? Other findings indicated that U.S. students scored higher on individualism—on “doing their own thing”—than students in the other cultures.

Triandis in 1985,   assessed in two groups of male and female students, in Egypt and Germany. The results confirm that cultural background affects individualist vs collectivist orientations in both of these cultures for male and female students. Men and women scored higher on individualism in Germany than in Egypt, whereas collectivism scores were higher in Egypt than in Germany

Q. Clearly define the terms : temperament, trait, disposition, character, habit and values - terms which often get confused with Personality.

Some psychologists  have argued that personality is NOT real and that behavior is largely determined  by external factors rather than by stable traits (Mischel, 1985). According to  these critics, the very concept personality is misleading, because the kind of  stability it implies does not really exist. Rather, individuals behave  very differently in different situations; our perception that people possess  specific traits and behave in accordance with those traits much of the time is  largely an illusion, stemming from our desire to simplify the task of understanding  others.

While these arguments are intriguing ones, the weight of existing evidence  seems to be against them: Personality, defined in terms of stable behavior  tendencies, is indeed real. Many studies indicate that people do show at  least a moderate degree of consistency with respect to  many aspects of behavior. Some of these research projects  have continued for more than fifty years, studying the  same people from early childhood to old age; and in  general they have reported an impressive amount of  consistency in at least some traits (e.g., Heatherton &  Weinberger, 1994).

Moreover, a growing body of  evidence suggests that some aspects of personality are  influenced by genetic factors, as well as life experiences  and the environment. Indeed,  recent findings suggest that genetic factors may account  for as much as 50 % of individual variability  in the tendency to behave aggressively (Miles &  Carey, 1997).

However, such consistency over long periods of time does not exist for  all traits or in all persons. In fact, the extent  to which people show such consistency across time and  situations may itself be an important aspect of personality. Some  people are more consistent than others!

In  contrast, the trait approach focuses on  the specific psychological attributes along  which individuals tend to differ in  consistent and stable ways. For example,  one person may be less shy, whereas  another may be more. Here “shyness”  represents traits along which individuals  can be rated in terms of the degree of  presence or absence of the concerned  behavioural quality or a trait.

each characterised by specific behavioural features.

on the basis of three humoural  elements called tridosha. Each refers to a  type of temperament, called prakriti (basic  nature) of a person.

C.) Apart from this, there  is also a typology of personality based on  the trigunas, i.e.

D.) Another classification popular within psychology was given by Sheldon. He made body build and temperament  as the main basis and proposed the typology :

E.) Jung has proposed another important  typology by grouping people into

F.   Friedman and  Rosenman have classified individuals into  

This typology  has been further extended. Morris has  suggested a

Raymond Cattell tried to identify primary traits from a huge array of  descriptive adjectives found in language.  He applied  factor analysis, to discover the common  structures. He found

(1) Neuroticism vs. emotional stability :  refers to the degree to which people  have control over their feelings.  

(2)  Extraversion vs. introversion : refers  to the degree to which people are  socially outgoing or socially withdrawn.

(3)  Psychoticism vs.Sociability  : considered to interact  with the other two dimensions mentioned  above. A person who scores high on  psychoticism dimension tends to be  hostile, egocentric, and antisocial.

Paul Costa and Robert McCrae have examined all possible personality  traits. The findings indicate a set of five factors   called Big Five Factors :

Some psychologists have argued that personality is NOT real and that behavior is largely determined by external factors or situations rather than by stable traits (Mischel, 1985). According to these critics, the very concept personality is misleading, because the kind of stability it implies does not really exist. Rather, individuals behave very differently in different situations; our perception that people possess specific traits and behave in accordance with those traits much of the time is largely an illusion, stemming from our desire to simplify the task of understanding others.

Given by Freud.  According to Freud’s theory, the primary  structural elements of personality are :

They  reside in the unconscious, subconscious  and  conscious as forces, and can be inferred from the ways people  behave.

Q. What are Life instinct (Eros) and death instinct (Thanatos) as found in Freudian Theory ?

Freud assumed that id is  energised by two instinctual forces, called  life instinct and death instinct. He paid  less attention to the death instinct and  focused more on the life (or sexual)  instinct. The instinctual life force that  energises the id is called libido. It works  on the pleasure principle, and seeks  immediate gratification.

Sometimes referred to as sexual instincts, the life instincts are those that deal with basic survival, pleasure, and reproduction. These instincts are essential for sustaining the life of the individual as well as the continuation of the species. While they are often called sexual instincts, these drives also include such things as thirst, hunger and pain avoidance. The energy created by the life instincts is known as libido.  Behaviors commonly associated with the life instinct include love, cooperation and other prosocial actions.

Q. What are the different   Ego Defence Mechanisms  as found in Freudian Theory ? What are its criticisms.

Thus, defence mechanism  are techniques used by the ego to  keep threatening and unacceptable  material out of consciousness  and so to reduce anxiety by often distorting the reality. They are :

Q. Explain and critique key features of Carl Jung's Neo-Freudian approach to personality which he termed as Analytical Psychology.

Carl Jung worked earlier with Freud but later founded his own Analytical Psychology.   Major features are :

Jung believed that in looking for a mate, we  search for the person onto whom we can best project these hidden sides of  our personality. When there is a good match between such projections and another person, attraction occurs.

many aspects including and especially  the idea of the collective unconscious  in  Jung’s theory have been  rejected by psychologists.

Q. Explain key features of Karen Horney's Neo-Freudian approach.

Q. Explain key features of Alfred Adler's Neo-Freudian approach which is also termed as Individual Psychology.

Basic assumption :  human behaviour is purposeful and goal-directed.  Each one of us has the capacity  to choose and create.

In Adler’s view,  every individual suffers from the feelings  of inadequacy and guilt, i.e. inferiority  complex, which arise from childhood because as children we feel inferior due to our small  size and physical weakness. Overcoming this complex is essential for  optimal personality development.  

Like Horney and other neo-  Freudians, Adler also emphasized the importance of social factors in personality;  for instance, he emphasised birth order. He suggested tha Only  children are spoiled by too much parental attention, while firstborns  are “dethroned” by a second child. Second-borns, in contrast, are competitive,  because they have to struggle to catch up with an older sibling.

Q. Explain key features of Erich Fromm's Neo-Freudian approach.

Fromm  focused  more on social orientation than biological orientation as suggested by Freud.

His work recognises the value of positive  qualities, such as tenderness and love in  personality development

Q. Explain key features of Erik Erikson 's Neo-Freudian approach.

Erik Erikson : Search for Identity  (details in human dev. chapter)

In his theory, development is  viewed as a lifelong process, and ego  identity is granted a central place in this  process.

His concept of identity crisis of  adolescent age has drawn considerable  attention. Erikson argues that young  people must generate for themselves a  central perspective and a direction that can  give them a meaningful sense of unity and  purpose.

(2) They use small and atypical individuals  as samples for advancing generalisations.

e.g. Many children do not like eating many of the  vegetables (e.g., spinach, pumpkin, gourds,  etc.), but gradually they learn to eat them.  Why do they do so? According to the  behavioural approach,   initially they may learn to eat such vegetables in  anticipation of appreciation (reinforcement)  from their parents. Later on they may  eventually learn to eat vegetables not only  because their parents are pleased with this  behaviour, but also because they acquire  the taste of those vegetables, and find them  good.

e.g.    In the Birhor society of Jharkhand, children from  an early age are allowed enormous freedom  to move into forests and learn hunting and  gathering skills. Their child socialisation  practices are also aimed at making  children independent (do many things  without help from elders), autonomous  (take several decisions for themselves), and  achievement-oriented (accept risks and  challenges such as those involved in  hunting) from an early age of life.

Q. Explain the  characteristic  features of Carl Roger's humanistic  approach  to personality.

Rogers suggests that each person also  has a concept of ideal self.

Q. Explain the  characteristic  features of Maslow's humanistic  approach  to personality.

Maslow stressed on attainment of self-actualisation  by  psychologically healthy people. It is  a  state in which people have reached their  own fullest potential.

Human beings are  considered to have free-will   to shape their lives and to  self-actualise. Self-actualisation becomes  possible by analysing the motivations that  govern our life.

Psychometric tests/objective personality scales and Self report measures are forms of pencil-paper tests, in which participants provide written responses to written items. Responses can be given by marking out items on the assessment form itself or electronic forms. Typically, paper-pencil assessments include questions to answer, topics to address through paragraph responses, problems to solve, etc.

On the  basis of his studies, Cattell identified a large  set of personality descriptors, which were  subjected to factor analysis to identify the  basic personality structure. The  test provides with declarative statements,  and the subject responds to a specific  situation by choosing from a set of given  alternatives. The test can be used with  high school level students as well as with  adults. It has been found extremely useful  in career guidance, vocational exploration,  and occupational testing.

different examiners may interpret  the same response very differently, producing  unreliability among examiners. Although there have been attempts to achieve uniformity in the scoring system e.g.  Exner (1991) developed  a scoring system with specific coding categories  and scoring criteria; but the subjectivity still remains because of lack of  research support to these scoring methodologies.

The TAT, like the Rorschach, typically relies  on the subjective interpretation of test responses,  which can result in different interpretations of the  same stories. Since not everyone can be right, the  possibility of erroneous interpretations is obvious.

e.g.   1. My father——————————————.

2. My greatest fear is —————————.

3. The best thing about my mother is ——————————.

4. I am proud of ————————————  ————————.

(1) Omission of facial features  suggests that the person tries to evade  a highly conflict-ridden interpersonal  relationship.

(2) Graphic emphasis on the neck suggests  lack of control over impulses.

(3) Disproportionately large head suggests  organic brain disease and preoccupation  with headaches.