CHAPTER-2: PERSONALITY

What is Personality?
 Personality:
“The dynamic organisation within the
individual of those psycho-physical systems
that determine his unique adjustment to his
environment”. [G. W. Allport]

Gordon Willard Allport

Personality related Terms Definitions
Temperament It denotes a person’s more or less stable or enduring organisation of affective
behavior.

Trait
An enduring personality characteristic that describes or determines an individual’s
behavior across a range of situations.

Disposition A recurrent behavioral, cognitive or affective tendency that distinguishes an

individual from others.

Character Individual’s personality trait that are moulded by moral, social and religious attitudes
constitutes one’s character.

Habit Any regularly repeated behaviour that requires little or no thought and is learned
rather than innate.

Values Values are internalized cognitive structures that guide choices by evoking a sense
of basic principles of right and wrong, a sense of priorities,

Self- concept It is a collection of beliefs one holds about oneself and the responses of others.
Theories of Personality
 Theories of
Personality

Type theories Psychoanalytic Social-Learning Humanistic Trait

theory and Theory Theories theories
Neo-Freudian
Approaches

➔ Hippocrates
Bandura’s Social ➔ Carl Rogers
➔ Sheldon ➔ Levels of Learning Theory ➔ Abraham
Consciousness Maslow
➔ Meyer ➔ Structures of
Friedman Personality
➔ Defense ➔ G. W. Allport
mechanisms ➔ Raymond
➔ Psychosexual Cattell
stages
➔ Karen Horney
➔ Erik Erikson
 Type Theories
According to Morgan and King, “ A type is simply a class of individuals said to share a
common collection of characteristics.” It means that people are classified into categories
according to the characteristics they share in common.

A number of thinkers have given their typological models to explain personality, some of
which include:

(i) Hippocrates typology

(ii) Friedman typology

(iii) Sheldon’s typology

Hippocrates Theory
In 400 B.C. Hippocrates attempted to explain personality in terms of body fluid or humors.
He postulated that our body has four types of fluid; yellow bile, black bile, blood and
phlegm. Every person is characterised by the prominence of one type of fluid which
determines the temperament of the person concerned.
a) Choleric – people with predominance of yellow bile are irritable, restless and hot
blooded.
b) Melancholic – people with high black bile are sad, depressed and devoid of hope in life
c) Sanguinary – When blood content is high the person remains cheerful, active and he is
optimistic in life.
d) Phlegmatic – predominance of phlegm makes a person calm and quite and usually there
behaviour is marked by inactiveness.
Meyer Friedman Theory
● Friedman, an american cardiologist developed Type-A and Type-B personality along with his
colleagues R. H. Rosenman.
● Based on the observation of patients with chronic heart disease.
● Later, Morris suggested two more types of personality- Type-C and Type-D.

Types of Personality:

● Type- A: [susceptible to hypertension and coronary heart diseases]: Highly motivated,

impatience, feel short of time, be in a great hurry, and feel like being always burdened with
work.
● Type- B: [The absence of Type-A Traits]: patient, relaxed, easy going, generally lacking an
overriding sense of urgency.
● Type-C: [Prone to cancer]: Co-operative, unassertive patient, suppress negative emotion, show
compliance to authority.
● Type-D: [Prone to depression]: feeling of worry, sadness and gloominess, fear of rejection, lack
of confidence, hopelessness, negative self-talk, pessimistic outlook.
Sheldon’s Type Theory [Somatotypical Approach]

Using body built and temperament as the

main basis for classification:
(i) Endomorphic [fat, soft and
round]-relaxed and sociable.
(ii) Mesomorphic [strong musculature,
rectangular, strong body build]-energetic and
courageous
(iii) Ectomorphic [thin, long, fragile]-brainy,
artistic and introverted.
 Psychoanalytic-theory and Neo-Freudian
Approach
A levels of Consciousness:

1. Conscious-thoughts, feelings and action of which people are aware.

2. Preconscious-mental activity which people may become aware only if they attend to it closely.

3. Unconscious-mental activity that people are aware of.

(i) A reservoir of instinctive or animal drives-stores all ideas and wishes that arise from sexual
desires.

(ii) Cannot be expressed openly and therefore are repressed or concealed from conscious awareness.

(iii) Constant struggle to find a socially acceptable way to express unconscious awareness.

(iv) Unsuccessful resolution of conflicts results in abnormal behavior.

Approaches to unconscious mind:
1. Free Association-a method in which a person is asked to openly share all the thoughts, feelings and ideas
that come to his/her mind.
2. Dream Analysis.
3. Analysis of Errors-mispronunciations, forgetting.
Psycho-analysis is a therapeutic procedure, the basic goal which is to bring repressed unconscious material to
consciousness, thereby helping people to live in a more self-aware and integrated manner.

Structures of personality:
1. Freud gave an imaginary division of mind it believed in internal dynamics which can be inferred from
the ways people behave.
2. Three competing forces-i.e. id, ego and superego influence behaviour relative strength of each structure
determines a person's stability.
 Structures of Personality:
Id: psychotic psyche Ego: healthy psyche
1. Source of a person's instinctual 1. Seeks to satisfy an individual's instinctual
energy-deals with immediate gratification of needs in accordance with reality.
primitive needs, sexual desires and 2. Works on the reality principle, and directs
aggressive impulses. the id towards more appropriate ways of
2. Works on the pleasure principle, which behaving.
assumes that people seek pleasure and try to 3. Patient and reasonable.
avoid pain.
3. Demanding, unrealistic and does not care
for moral values, society, or other
individuals.
4. Energised by instinctual forces, life
(sexual) instinct (libido) and death instinct.
Superego: Neurotic psyche
1. Moral branch of mental functioning.
2. tells the id and ego whether
gratification in a particular instance is
ethical
3. Controls the id by internalizing the
parental authority the process of
socialization.

● According to Freud personality is

Biological determined.
● It is instinctive.
● Life instinct and death instinct
determine behaviour.
● Life instinct is dominant in human
behaviour.
 Defense Mechanisms
Defense mechanisms are unconscious psychological responses that protect people from feelings of anxiety,
threats to self-esteem, and things that they don't want to think about or deal with.

According to Freud, these mechanisms protect the conscious mind from contradictions between the
animalistic id and the idealistic superego, ultimately contributing to "mental homeostasis."

Freud's daughter, Anna Freud, expanded on her father's theory by describing 10 different defense
mechanisms used by the ego.
 Psychosexual Stages of Development
● Freud believed that personality developed through a series of childhood stages in which the
pleasure-seeking energies of the id become focused on certain erogenous areas.

● An Erogenous zone is characterized as an area of the body that is particularly sensitive to

stimulation.
● During the five psychosexual stages, which are the oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital stages,
the erogenous zone associated with each stage serves as a source of pleasure.
● Psychosexual energy, or the libido, was described as the driving force behind behavior.
● If certain issues are not resolved at the appropriate stage, fixations can occur.
● A fixation is a persistent focus on an earlier psychosexual stage. Until this conflict is resolved, the
individual will remain "stuck" in this stage.
The Oral Stage
Age Range: Birth to 1 Year
Erogenous Zone: Mouth

The Anal Stage

Age Range: 1 to 3 years
Erogenous Zone: Bowel and Bladder Control

The Phallic Stage

Age Range: 3 to 6 Years
Erogenous Zone: Genitals

The Latent Period

Age Range: 6 to Puberty
Erogenous Zone: Sexual Feelings Are Inactive

The Genital Stage

Age Range: Puberty to Death
Erogenous Zone: Maturing Sexual Interests
● Freud suggested that during the phallic stage, the primary focus of the libido is on the genitals. At this
age, children also begin to discover the differences between males and females.
● Freud also believed that boys begin to view their fathers as a rival for the mother’s affection. The
Oedipus complex describes these feelings of wanting to possess the mother and the desire to replace the
father. However, the child also fears that he will be punished by the father for these feelings, a fear Freud
termed castration anxiety.
● The term Electra complex has been used to describe a similar set of feelings experienced by young girls.
Freud, however, believed that girls instead experience penis envy.
● Eventually, the child begins to identify with the same-sex parent as a means of vicariously possessing the
other parent. For girls, however, Freud believed that penis envy was never fully resolved and that all
women remain somewhat fixated on this stage.
● Psychologists such as Karen Horney disputed this theory, calling it both inaccurate and demeaning to
women. Instead, Horney proposed that men experience feelings of inferiority because they cannot give
birth to children, a concept she referred to as womb envy.
Neo -Freudian:
These theorists, referred to as neo-Freudians, generally agreed with Freud that childhood
experiences matter, but deemphasized sex, focusing more on the social environment and
effects of culture on personality.

Two notable neo-Freudians featured in this section include Erik Erikson and Carl Jung.

Erikson conceptualized a theory of ego development with eight-stages and each stage
shared some basic features.
They are as follows:

● Each stage is characterised by a crisis— a juncture

in personality brought by development of physical
maturity and demands placed by society, parents etc.

● Crisis is resolved by ego qualities of that particular

stage.

● Although Erikson laid more emphasis on the

psychosocial aspect of development, each stage has
components of both psychosexual and psychosocial
aspects of growth and change.
Karen Horney:
● According to her, psychological disorder are due to the disturbance in interpersonal
relationship during childhood.
● Focused on basic anxiety.
● Loving and reliable parents provide a child with security, while irresponsible,
indifferent, and rejecting parents can lead to increased insecurity and helplessness.
● This gives raise to basic hostile.
● As a consequence of repressed basic anxiety towards parents, the child might be
carried one of the three following models or style of social behavior.

➔ Moving towards people: when one clings to others and seeks to be loved.
➔ Moving away from people: when one does not want to become involved with others.
➔ Moving against people: when one sees the world as hostile and acts accordingly
towards others.
Humanistics Perspective:
Carl Rogers:
Focus on individual’s experience personal responsibilities
(innate tendencies), people’s self-perception.

Concept of fully functioning persons:

➔ Focused on self rather than overt behavior or physical

constitution.
➔ Fully functioning- psychologically healthy person.
Characteristics of fully functioning:
● Spontaneous, trust own feelings, sensitive, do
not feel pressured to excessively conform to
society’s rules.
● Regret wrong actions, but their lives are
channelized by constructive impulses.
● Do not lose touch with their values and
feelings and experience life more deeply than
most other people.
● An individual based on all the information
and beliefs he has about his own
characteristics, develops an idea about himself
called the self-concept.
Concept of selves:
➔ Ideal self- Based on hopes and wishes how
we would like to see ourselves.
➔ Real self- Based on actual experiences how
we really see ourselves.
➔ Distortion: An individual often changes the perception of reality to make it
consistent with his or her self-concept. Ex: a girl, who has self-concept of being
very independent, but is over protected by her parents, might perceive the
parents’ behavior as normal parental love.
➔ Denial: It is the method to reducing anxiety. Ex: the girl refuses to acknowledge
the fact that due to her parents’ overprotective behavior, she is losing her
independence.
➔ Conditional positive regards: We receive if we behave in certain acceptable
way.
➔ Unconditional positive regards: Warmth, acceptance and love that others show
you regardless of your behavior.
➔ Conditions of worth: A result of receiving conditional positive regard from
others.
Abraham Maslow:
● Urges and needs.
● Hierarchy of needs-phenomenological
approach.

Characteristics of self-actualization:

➔ Perceive reality efficiently, can tolerate

uncertainty
➔ Accept themselves and others for what
they are.
➔ Spontaneity in thought and actions.
➔ Problem-centered approach
➔ Unusual sense of humor.
Functional autonomy:

Behaviour learnt for one purpose, but can be used for another purpose.

Raymond Cattell-16PF
● Surface traits: it is recognized by overt behaviour. (Curiosity, integrity, honesty,
nervousness)
● Source traits: it is root of all behaviour. (Calm and stable, trust and suspicious)
● Common traits: Generally found widely among in all groups. (Honesty, aggression,
co-operation)
● Unique traits: Uniquely found in the person and makes one different from the rest.
(Spiritness, emotional reaction)
Raymond Cattell-16PF
Big Five Model-Big 5 Factor Model-OCEAN model:

● Robert McCrae and Paul Costa.

● 5 Personality traits -
relationship between
personality and academic
behaviour.
● Derives from factor analysis,
measures-self-report,
questionnaire, peer rating.
● Openness to experience: Intellectual curiosity, creativity, variety and preference for
novelty a person has on one end and simple, down to earth, without much interest in
new things at the other end.
● Conscientiousness: Tendency to be organized, dependable, dutiful, disciplined at one
end disorganized, impulsive, irresponsible and independable at other end.
● Extraversion: Tendency to be energetic, assertive, sociable, enthusiastic at the other
end retiring, sober, reserved, silent and cautions at the other end.
● Agreeableness: Tendency to be compassionate and co-operative, good natured,
trusting and helpful at one end non-cooperativeness, suspicious and irritable at other
end.
● Neuroticism: Tendency to be hypochondriacal and also experience unpleasant
emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression at one end to be calm and poised at
the other end.
Social Learning theory [Albert Bandura]
● Observing, modeling and imitating the behavior
● Bobo-doll experiment
● Individual that are observed are called models.

Mediational processes:

● Attention-Form a mental representation of behavior

● Retention- Behaviour is remembered.
● Reproduction- Ability to perform the behavior
● Motivation- Will to perform behavior.
● Self-system: Cognitive processes of perception, evaluation and regulation of behavior
appropriately.
● Self-reinforcement: Evaluating results of one’s actions.
● Self-efficacy: Individual’s expectations from himself/herself.

Observational Learning:
Individual acquire behavior patterns and information by observing others.
Bobo Doll Experiment:
➔ 8 groups of 6 subjects each and control group of 24 subjects:

Half exposed to aggressive models.

Half exposed to subdued and non-aggressive.

➔ Male and female divided:

Half observed same sex models.

Remaining in each group observed opposite sex.

Control had no prior exposure.

 Conclusion:

● Aggression is a learnt behavior, not innate.

● Children more likely to imitate behaviors modeled by adults with same gender.
● Girls less likely to be physically violent.
● Children observing adults using violence are likely to believe that this behavior is
normal.
● Children more likely to imitate behaviors modeled by same gender adults.
● Modeling is a powerful way of learning.
● Boys express violence physically, girls express violence verbally are socially.
Assessments of Personality
MMPI:
MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) is developed by clinical psychologist
Starke Hathaway and neuropsychiatrist J.C. McKinley, two faculty members at the
University of Minnesota.
Originally developed in the late 1930s and published through the University of Minnesota
in 1942 using visitors of patients at the University of Minnesota hospital.
Required Age for MMPI-A & MMPI-A-RF - Adolescent between 14-18 years of age
Administered via Paper and pencil or computer.
Interpretation – Following 8 steps are recommended for interpreting MMPI

● COMPLETION TIME
● SCORE AND PLOT THE PROFILE
● ORGANIZE THE SCALES AND IDENTIFY CODE TYPES
● DETERMINE PROFILE VALIDITY
● DETERMINE OVERALL LEVEL OF ADJUSTMENT
● DESCRIBE SYMPTOMS, BEHAVIORS, & PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS
● PROVIDE DIAGNOSTIC IMPRESSIONS
● ELABORATE ON TREATMENT IMPLICATION
Uses:
● MMPI is widely used and researched clinical assessment tool used by mental health
professionals to help diagnose mental health disorders.
● Sometimes, MMPI is used in child custody disputes, substance abuse programs,
educational settings, and even employment screenings.
● MMPI in all its versions can be used in criminology, population studies, and
prediction of aptitude in a particular role.
 Validity scale
? Question scale-left unanswered

K Correction scale- defensiveness/ Guardness

L Lie scale- trying to look good

F Infrequency scale- deviation from general population

TAT (Thematic Apperception Test):
● The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is a Projective technique originally published
by Murray and his colleagues.
● It consists of a series of pictures and the examinee is requested to create a story about
what they believe is depicted in the picture.
● It is different from other projective assessments as TAT cards are more structured
stimuli requiring more organized and complex verbal responses.
● It is not based on the underlying structure of personality but the individual’s present
life situation.
 Description:
● TAT was first conceptualized in a
● The TAT materials have 20 cards with 1935 article by Christina Morgan
ambiguous pictures with which the and Henry Murray.
● examinee is asked to make up a story. ● Administrators are told to give all
● The story includes about the present 20 cards in a sequence in 2 sessions,
moment, events that led to it, lasting up to 2 hours.
● thoughts & feelings of the characters ● The basic assumption was that
and the outcome of the story. unconscious fantasies could be
● It is interpreted quantitatively or revealed by interpreting the stories
qualitatively and the results are used to subjects told regarding ambiguous
● supplement other psychological tests. pictures.
Variations on the instructions should also emphasize the four requirements of the story
structure:

● 1. Current situation.
● 2. Thoughts and feelings of the characters.
● 3. Preceding events.
● 4. Outcome.

● The instructions, either in whole or in part, may be repeated at any time, if the
subject has given a story that is too short or too long, or if he or she has left out one
or more of the four requirements.
● The examiner may have to check whether the instructions have been clearly
understood.
Rorschach Inkblot Test:

● Hermann Rorschach was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.

● One of Hermann Rorschach’s favorite games as a child was Klecksography. “Klecks,”
the German word for “inkblot.”
● He published her work on inkblots in the year 1921.
● He died in 1922 after his publication of “Psychodiagnostik”.
Scoring:
 Behavioral Analysis:
● Interview method
● Observation
● Behavioral Ratings
● Nomination
● Situational test