BA I, PAPER B, SECTION A, UNIT I 1

PERSONALITY
CONCEPT, THEORIES (WITH EMPHASIS ON TRAIT, PSYCHOANALYTIC, AND HUMANISTIC THEORIES),
MEASUREMENT OF PERSONALITY (SELF REPORT MEASURES, PROJECTIVE METHODS, AND BEHAVIORAL
ASSESSMENT)

CONCEPT OF PERSONALITY

Etymologists trace the word personality to the Latin words per and sonare, which mean, “to sound through”.
The word ‘persona’ was derived from these two words and originally meant on actor’s mask through which the
sound of his voice was projected. Later ‘persona’ was used to mean not the mask itself but the false
appearance it created. Still later, the word came to mean the characters in the plays (as in dramatis
personnae). Thus by derivation, the word personality means, “what an individual appears to be, not what he
really is”. However, an almost exactly opposite meaning is implied in psychology. Here personality signifies
the true inner characteristics of the person. Some definitions of personality are:
1. Allport (1937): Personality is “the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psycho physical
systems that determine his unique adjustment to the environment”. (Changed in 1961 to “… that
determine his characteristic behaviour and thought”).
2. Guilford (1959): “A person’s unique pattern of traits”.
3. Phares (1991): “Personality is that pattern or characteristics thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that
distinguishes one person from another and that persists over time and situations”.
4. Pervin and John (1997): “Personality represents those characteristics of the person that account for
consistent patterns of feeling, thinking, and behaving”.
5. Friedman and Schustack (1999): “Personality represents the psychological forces that make people
uniquely themselves”.
6. Baron (2001): “An individual’s unique and relatively stable pattern of behaviours, thoughts and emotions”.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PERSONALITY

Though theorists differ widely regarding the nature of personality, certain common features of the
psychological concept ‘Personality’ can be identified as follows:
1. Personality is a complex entity. It cannot be explained on the basis of a single factor or even a few factors.
All theorists believe it to be a complex structure subsuming many different traits.
2. Personality is organised: It is not a haphazard collection of traits. It has an organised structure, which helps
the individual to maintain his integrity and unity. In fact, one sure sign of ‘abnormality’ is personality
disorganisation.
3. Personality includes both physical and psychological characteristics. Since Hippocrates (400BC) and
perhaps even earlier, the link between physical and psychological aspects of personality has been
recognised. Hippocrates believed that depending on the liquid content of the body, four types of
people with different temperament may be distinguished:
 Excess of Blood - Sanguine - Active and fast.
 Excess of Phlegm - Phlegmatic - Slow and dull.
 Excess of Yellow Bile - Choleric - Industrious and irritable.
 Excess of Black Bile - Melancholic - Pessimist and Reflective.
Kretschmer distinguished among Aesthetic, Athletic and Pyknic (Round face, happy, and sociable) types.
Sheldon, a modern personality theorist, distinguishes between:
 Endomorphs: Viscerotonic temperament - Fat round jolly person, loves to eat, seeks love of others, loves to
eat, seeks love of others, likes others to help him when he is in trouble, sleeps deeply.
 Ectomorphs: Cerebrotonic temperament - tall, thin, poorly developed, lover of solitude, avoids social
contacts, soft, spoken, disturbed sleep.
 Mesomorph: Somatotonic temperament - athletic, strong, tough, fond of muscular activity, tends to be
aggressive and self-assertive.
4. Personality is the result of an interaction between heredity and environment: The environmental effects on
personality are perhaps too obvious to be explained. In recent years, evidence has mounted that genetic
factors are also in important, particularly in the EAS traits (Plomin, 1996). I.e. traits related to Emotionality,
Activity, and Sociability.
5. Traits are the building blocks of personality and lend many features to it such as:
 Consistency: They make a person behave in a similar way across many situations.
 Universality: Members of the same social group share Traits. Indeed certain traits are universal, different
people possessing different amount of the trait.
 Scalability: Traits can be measured on a scale and this way comparison between people and within the
same person from time to time is possible.
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 Unique pattern: Traits are correlated to each other e.g. Nervousness, sensitivity, and emotional excitability
is positively related to each other. On the other hand emotional stability is negatively related to arousal.
This relatedness of traits varies from person to person and gives uniqueness to each person.
6. The self is the integrating core of personality. Freud calls it Ego, Rogers calls it the self. Allport calls it the
Proprium. The terms have similar implications, for every theorist believes that the self is necessary to
explain the organised pattern and day-to-day functioning of personality. In fact, in recent years,
humanistic psychologists have particularly emphasised on the concept of self at the cost of traits because
they believe personality to be a whole, a gestalt, and not diverse bits and pieces. They emphasise the total
being.
7. Personality has survival value: It helps the individual to adjust to the environment - the environment, as the
individual perceives it.
8. Personality is dynamic: Personality is never static. It is ever changing due to the constant influx from the
environment and its interaction with the already existing forces in the person. These changes over time
are measurable. Though generally they are gradual, at times they can also be sudden.
9. Personality is consistent: More than the dynamism, it is perhaps the consistency of personality, which is
remarkable. The adult personality can often be predicted from childhood characteristics. Evolution not
revolution is the rule in personality development. Moreover, due to personality, the individual reacts in the
same manner to widely different situations.
10. Distinctiveness: Each person is unique. Humanistic psychologists regard every person as a unique, one of
a kind person. However, this precludes the scientific study of personality. Other psychologists (trait
theorists) hold that what is unique is just the pattern of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviour of the person.
People may possess differing degrees of intelligence, aggressiveness, sensitivity etc. The critical feature is
the unique way in which each person combines these traits.
11. Personality can be measured: The assessment of personality takes different forms depending on the
approach of the scientist .The idiographic approach focuses on the individual, studying consistency and
change within the same individual, over time. Clinical, case study methods are generally used. The
nomothetic approach generally relies on objective self-report methods to study a group of individuals,
studying one individual in relation to others. It helps to arrive at generalisations regarding personality but it
cannot predict the behaviour of particular individuals in particular situations.
12. Personality is conscious as well as unconscious. We are not always aware of, or in control of the factors
determining our behaviour. At times, people cannot explain why they act in ways contrary to their own
expressed wishes. This implies an acceptance of the Freud’s idea of the unconscious, though it is not
necessary to accept all aspects of the Freudian view of the conscious.
13. Personality is not always what it appears to be. There are differences in actual self, what others perceive it
to be, and what we perceive ourselves to be. Perhaps none of the three is the real person. Personality is
after all an abstraction, an idea of the personality theorist.

FACTORS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY

Two major factors affect the development of personality - biological and environmental. Both contribute to
similarity as well as variability in personality. Biological factors, though extremely important themselves, are
generally overshadowed by environmental factors. Moreover, environments can mould the biological makeup
of a person. E.g., Mutant genes show the effect of environment on the genes.

BIOLOGICAL FACTORS
1. Heredity: The basic unit of heredity is the gene, which carries the blue print for the growth and
development of various aspects of the organism. 23 pairs of chromosomes carry Genes. When
gametogenesis occurs i.e. when the sex - cells are generated in the body through the process of meiosis,
the genetic material is mixed up so that there is only 1 chance in 281 trillion that a pattern of genes with
recur. Then, during conception two different lines of heredity contribute to the individual. Thus, despite the
fact that the same genes have been conveyed down the generations, we all are not genetically alike
because the hereditary mechanism itself ensures variability. Moreover, most traits are polygenic; i.e. they
depend on the action of a number of genes. Mutant genes also contribute genetic variability. The direct
effects of heredity are seen in genetic disorders such as Huntington’s chorea, Down’s syndrome etc. Less
obvious effects appear in many personality traits. Intelligence and many other ability traits are largely
determined by heredity (Erlenmeyer - Kimling & Jarvik, 1963). Plomin (1990) has found evidence for the
heritability of EAS traits -- having to do with Emotionality, Activity level, and Sociability. Major mental
illness also shows a greater concordance for identical twins rather than fraternal twins, (Gottesman and
Shields, 1972, for Schizophrenia, and Winokur, 1973 for manic depressive psychosis).
2. Constitution: To a large extent, heredity also determines the physical characteristics of the individual - his
constitution being the most important one from the point of view of the psychologist. Since Hippocrates,
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psychologists have linked temperament and personality to constitutional factors. Kretschmer, Sheldon and
Eysenck all recognised the validity of the idea that personality types differ constitutionally.
3. Biochemical factors: Hormonal factors are often implicated in behaviour. Thyroid secretions can directly
affect activity levels. Distributed insulin secretions can result in mental confusion. In all normal individuals,
the increase of sex hormones during adolescence leads to increased sexual activity. Sexuality,
aggressiveness, and emotionality are three personality characteristics greatly affected by hormonal factors.
Recently, the discovery of neurohormones - chemicals which transmit the message from one neuron to
another - has increased the importance of biochemistry. Imbalance in neurohormones frequently results in
psychoses. E.g.: Schizophrenia is caused by excessive levels of dopamine (Davison & Neale, 1990).

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
1. Pre natal environment: We generally think that the environment starts affecting the person only after birth.
But this is not true. The pre natal environment of the individual is equally important. Research shows that
mothers who want their babies consciously as well as unconsciously have the easiest deliveries and
temperamentally ‘easy’ babies (Salzburg, 1981). The ill effects of maternal smoking and drinking on the
temperament of the babies are well documented. The foetus is soothed by the mother’s heartbeat and can
hear external sounds as well. If you put on a Vivaldi record even the most agitated foetus relaxes, if you put
on rock music, he starts kicking violently.
2. Parents: Parents are the most significant people with whom the child interacts. They are his first
environments. They not only mould the child’s personality, but also serve as models that the child imitates.
Parental deprivation, being separated from parents and being placed in an institution, can result in
profound deficits in behaviour. Provence and Lipton (1962) found institutionalised children to be profoundly
retarded in speech and dysfunctional in emotions and interpersonal behaviour. Parental rejection is even
more devastating, resulting in clear-cut negative out comes for the child (Yates, 1981). In a longitudinal
study Baumrind (1991) demonstrated how differences in child rearing practices lead to the development of
temperamentally different children. The effects lasted all through her twenty-year study.
3. Siblings: In many ways siblings are like substitute parents. However a sibling is also a child’s equal, like a
peer or a friend. The importance of siblings in child development was first emphasised by Adler who
extensively studied sibling rivalry and ordinal position at birth. However it is also important to realise that
siblings are not only rivals, but also friends, models and teachers for the interaction is in many ways unique
and cannot be duplicated.
4. Peers, friends and classmates: Peers and friends are the first interactions of the child with the external
world. Deprivation at home is often ameliorated by the child’s interaction with the peers. But if family ties
are strong, peer influence is less. In the school, peers’ influence is perhaps even greater than that of the
teacher.
5. Social class: Nearly every society is divided into classes in some fashion. Upper classes have greater access
to material goods and personal recognition than lower classes. Psychopathology is significantly related to
social class membership, the lower classes being more prone to mental disorders (Eron and Peterson,
1982).
6. Cultural differences: Anthropologists perhaps best document the effect of culture on personality. An
interesting study by Margaret Mead found that all people from Arapesh tribe had feminine characteristics,
people from Mundugumor had masculine characteristics, whereas a role reversal occurred among the
Tchambuli. Cultural effects on personality are implicit rather than explicit. The term ‘National Character’
refers to the fact that there are distinct differences among people of different nationalities. According to
Udai Pareek (1981) Indians have the “psychology of a puppet”, possessing an external locus of control,
dependency behaviour and an inactive nature.

INTERACTION BETWEEN BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

Earlier, psychologists used to ask whether heredity is more powerful than environment. Now it is held that the
question itself is wrong. There is always an interaction between biological and environmental forces. The
question is -- how do they interact? The Reaction Range model suggests that heredity set the genotype, which
is expressed as the phenotype depending on the variety of environments encountered by the individual. The
concept of Canalisation suggests that the development of some traits is restricted to one or a few outcomes.
The Niche picking model holds that genes probably help to determine aspects of the environment that are
experienced. E.g., happy pleasant babies evoke pleasant responses from others whereas passive, sober infants
evoke a totally different response from people. Individuals actively choose environments that complement their
heredity. In this way, we make our own environment.
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THEORIES (WITH EMPHASIS ON TRAIT, PSYCHOANALYTIC, AND HUMANISTIC THEORIES)

Personality is one topic in psychology, which has to do with total human behavior. It tells us how a person
functions as a whole as he interacts with the environment. The various personality theories can be studied in
the following categories.

HISTORICAL VIEWPOINTS REGARDING PERSONALITY

Although it is generally known that each person is unique, most of us find it convenient to classify individuals
into groups according to the characteristics they possess. The Greek physician Hippocrates believed that
people could be divided into sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic types. These types were based
on his ideas regarding body humors. These types are no longer taken seriously. Interestingly, ancient Indian
ideas were more akin to modern views regarding personality.

According to Hindu philosophers (Samkhya School), human personality is a component of two interdependent
entities – pure spirit (purush) and the matter (prakriti). Prakriti has 3 aspects or gunas – the Sattva, Rajas and
Tamas. The entire manifest creation is nothing but an expression of these native qualities of prakriti. Man is
also one of the phenomenal creations and is therefore constituted of three modes of prakriti: Sattva, Rajas, and
Tamas. Men are known as Sattvik, Rajasik or Tamsik according to the mode, which prevails in them at any
particular time.

The Sattva nature is naturally inclined towards knowledge and wisdom. The activities of such a man are free,
calm and selfless. It implies right knowledge, right dealing, harmony and balance, and right law of nature. The
Sattvik nature is distinguished by self-control, sacrifice, religiosity, cleanliness, purity, straightforwardness,
modesty, gentleness, forgiveness, patience, and a deep and serious freedom from all restlessness. The whole
self (being) of a Sattvik person seeks right knowledge with the aim of being calm and finds peace in that
knowledge.

Rajas is the principle of motion, of energy, of work. The Rajas nature is restless, full of desire. He actively tries
to satisfy his desires. Such individuals turn towards egoistic greatness. They try to indulge their own strong
will, to impose on the world for their own pride, glory and leisure. They are aggressive and assertive in nature.
Greed, selfish activity, negative emotions, longing for material things, sensuous pleasures, lust, and
attachment to persons and things, indicate the dominance of rajas. Reason and will are the servants of
restlessness and desires.

Tamas, which literally means darkness, is the principle of inertia. It resists activity, produces indifference,
ignorance, slothfulness, confusion, passivity and negative feelings. It represents the obstacles in the
realization of the essential spirit of man. It is also opposite of rajas because it is against activity. Tamas is
shown in self-satisfied people, those who yield to environment as long as their personal safety and interests are
not disturbed. The Tamsik person is dull and inert and leads a life of continuous submission to environment.

These three qualities of nature are present and active in all human beings but they are never constant. In any
man, they exist as a continuous process, displacing each other, and interacting amongst themselves. At times,
one predominates, and at times the other increases. A man can be called either Sattvik or Rajasik or Tamsik
only by general predominance of one or other quality.
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The interaction between the three determines the characteristics and behavior of man. The gunas are referred
to as the strands of a rope that interact to produce an endless variety of behaviors shown by human beings.
Thus, men can be categorized as Sattvik, Rajasik and Tamsik on the basis of their predominant guna though all
three dimensions have their low or high ends.

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OR PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY

The psychoanalytical school of psychologists provides the most comprehensive view of man. All
psychoanalysts believe:
1. Behavior is motivated.
2. Mind has an unconscious aspect as well.
3. Personality develops in stages.
4. Adult personality is determined by childhood experience.
The major figures in this school are Freud, Adler, Jung; the Neo-Freudians -- Horney, Sullivan, Rank, and Anna
Freud; the post Freudian Erikson.

Freud’s theory is the first comprehensive theory of personality. He envisaged full bodied individuals -- living
partly in a world of reality and partly in a world of make-believe, beset by conflict yet capable of rational
thought and action, moved by unknown forces and unattainable aspirations, by turn confused and clear
headed, frustrated and satisfied, hopeful and despairing, selfish and altruistic -- in short complex human
beings. For most people this picture of the individual is essentially true and thus Freud’s theory has a universal
appeal.

Freud’s theory is based on the scientific assumption of determinism. He formulated a similar idea of psychic
determinism, which holds that psychological phenomena and processes are determined by certain causes,
which can be studied through the appropriate means. Freud tried all his life to study these causes. His theory
can be divided for the sake of study into the following topics:

1. The Structure of Mind – The Topographical Approach: Freud divided the human mind into the
unconscious, preconscious, and conscious. This is not an actual division. It is a hypothetical or
conceptual division. The conscious aspect of mind consists of perceptions and conditions of which the
individual is aware at any particular moment. The preconscious mind consists of memories and ideas
associated with the conscious material and which can be made conscious with an effort. The unconscious
consists of repressed motives, emotions, and thoughts, which the individual is usually not aware of. The
unconscious material can be brought into awareness only through specific techniques of psychoanalyses such
as dream analysis, free association etc. The unconscious springs from two major sources:
 It is inherited at the time of birth.
 It is acquired due to repression of desires, wishes, thoughts etc., which conflict with the external world. Any
memory, desire or thought, which clashes with the super-ego or the reality, is repressed into the
unconscious.
Though the individual is unaware of the unconscious, the unconscious material makes itself evident in
fantasies and dreams, lapses of memory, slips of tongue, slips of pen, and so on. Freud asserts that
unintentional forgetting is unconsciously intentional. E.g. If a bride looses her wedding ring; it betrays her wish
to be free from her wedding or the present partner, though this wish is unconscious.
The unconscious material remains unconscious for most part of the individual’s life, yet it determines
almost all his behaviors. Freud likens the human mind to an iceberg – the conscious mind is like the tip of
the iceberg, which is visible. The unconscious mind is the larger, submerged portion of the iceberg.

2. The structure of personality: Personality has three aspects – id, ego, and superego. Id is the original
system of personality from which the ego and superego are differentiated. The child is all Id when it is born. Id
consists of psychological entities that are inherited and are present at birth including the instincts. Id is the
reservoir of psychic energy and furnishes all the power for the operation of personality. It is a cauldron of
desires. It is completely out of touch from reality. Consequently it is illogical and irrational.
Id operates according to the pleasure principle i.e. it seeks immediate, complete gratification of desires
regardless of consequences. It cannot delay gratification for realistic or moral considerations. Id lacks moral
and ethical judgement and has no sense of social values. To accomplish its aims of avoiding pain and obtaining
pleasure, id has two processes at its command. Reflex actions are inborn and automatic reactions such as
sneezing and blinking; they reduce tension immediately. The primary process is a more complicated
psychological reaction. It tries to discharge tension by forming an image of the object, which removes tension.
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E.g. A hungry person has a mental picture of or imagines food items, as a result of primary process thinking.
Wishful thinking, dreams, and hallucinations are all examples of primary process thinking. Obviously the
primary process cannot reduce tension permanently.

The ego comes into existence because Id alone cannot fulfil the desires of the organism. The ego is logical and
reasonable and can cope with the demands of reality. The basic distinction between the Id and the ego is that
the Id knows only the subjective reality of mind whereas the ego can distinguish between subjective and
objective reality. The ego works according to the reality principle. Its aim is to prevent the discharge of tension
until an object that is appropriate for the satisfaction of the need has been discovered. The reality principle
suspends the pleasure principle temporarily; although ultimately, the pleasure principle is served when the
desired object is found and tension is reduced. The reality principle asks whether an experience is true or
false, whether it has external existence or not; whereas the pleasure principle only asks whether an experience
is painful or pleasurable. The ego uses the secondary process, which implies realistic logical thinking. It helps
the ego to formulate a plan of action for the satisfaction of a need and to carry out that plan. To do this
efficiently, the ego has control over all cognitive and intellectual functions. The Ego is the executive of the
personality. It integrates and mediates among the conflicting demands of the super-ego, id, and the external
world i.e. reality. Thus it serves three harsh matters.

However, it should be remembered that ego is an organized part of the id, it develops from id, and it comes
into existence to forward the aims of id and not to frustrate id. All its power is derived from the id. It has no
existence apart from the id and never becomes completely independent of id. Its principle role is to balance
the desires of the id and the demands of reality.

The last system of personality to be developed is the Superego. It is the moral aspect of personality. It
represents the ideal rather than the real and it strives for perfection rather than pleasure. Its main concern is
to decide whether something is right or wrong so that it can act in accordance with moral standards set by
social agents. The Super-ego develops in response to rewards and punishments given by parents; whatever
they punish, the don’ts, are incorporated into the conscience; whatever is rewarded, the dos, are incorporated
into the ego ideal. The conscience punishes people by making them feel guilty. The ego ideal rewards a person
by making him feel proud. In this way the child introjects the moral standards of the parents. The main
functions of the Superego are:
1. To inhibit the impulses of the Id -- particularly sexual and aggressive impulses, because these are the ones
whose expression is highly condemned by the society.
2. To persuade the Ego to substitute moral goals for realistic ones.
3. To strive for perfection.
The Superego is opposed to both the id and the ego. Yet it is like the Id in being non-rational and unconscious
and it is like the ego in its attempt to control instincts. However, unlike the ego, the super-ego does not merely
postpone gratification of instincts, it tries to block instincts permanently.

Under ordinary circumstances, the id, ego, and superego work as a team under the administrative leadership of
the ego. The personality normally functions as a whole. In a very general way, the id may be thought of as the
biological component of personality, the ego as the psychological component, and the superego as the social
component. One might liken their inter-relationship to the driving of a car. The engine is the id, the driver who
keeps the car on the road is the ego, and the back seat driver or the navigator is the superego.

3. The dynamics of personality: The human organism is a complex energy system. Since human beings are
psychological beings, their energy is known as Psychic Energy. According to the Principle of conservation of
energy, it may be transformed or redistributed but it can neither be increased nor decreased. An instinct is a
quantum of Psychic energy. All the instincts taken together constitute the sum total of psychic energy
available to the personality. An instinct related to the body is defined as an inborn psychological
representation of an inner somatic source of excitation. The Psychological representation is called a wish and
the bodily excitation from which it stems is called a need. An instinct has four aspects:
1. Source: The source is the bodily process that produces excitation.
2. Aim: The aim of the instinct is satisfaction in some from or in some degree.
3. Object: The object is that entity towards which the instinct is directed and which can satisfy it in some
measure.
4. Impetus: It is the force behind the instinct determined by the intensity of the underlying need.
E.g. Hunger is an instinct whose source is the physiological need of food; aim is to eat; object is food, and
impetus is shown when the individual seeks food. The source, aim, and impetus, of an instinct remain constant.
However the object of an instinct can and does vary considerably during the lifetime of a person. This variation
is possible because psychic-energy is displaceable.
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Freud classified all instincts under two fundamental instincts -- eros and thanatos or the life and death instinct.
The life instincts serve the purpose of the individual or species survival. Hunger, thirst, sex etc. fall in this
category. Freud divides eros into the ego drives and sex drives. However he doesn’t give importance to the
ego drives and lays special emphasis on the sex drive. The death instinct is the other fundamental
unconscious drive present in all individuals from birth to death. It manifests itself mostly in a desire for suicide.
Turned outwards it is an urge to destroy, injure, or kill. It also covers milder forms of aggression such a self-
punishment, self-condemnation, jealousy among rivals, and rebellion against authority. Thus eros is the
principle of life and growth. Thanatos is the principle of decay and death. Eros is pleasurable and constructive.
Thanatos is hateful and destructive. Eros is associated with the anabolic processes and thanatos is associated
with the catabolic processes of the body. A person is ambivalent in that he shows both these instincts at the
same time. They are conflicting but co-existing motives e.g. one may compete against and admire the same
person. These instincts may fuse together neutralize each other, or replace one another.

Anxiety is a state of tension, which also has motivating properties. The ego has three harsh masters – id,
superego, and reality. For an adequate functioning of personality it must maintain a balance between these
three. Overwhelmed by excessive stimulation from any of these three sources, the ego becomes flooded with
anxiety. Due to the id, the ego faces neurotic anxiety, due to the reality it faces reality anxiety; due to the
superego, it faces moral anxiety. The ego acts to reduce anxiety. When it cannot cope with anxiety with
rational methods it uses unrealistic, unconscious methods known as defense mechanisms. All defense
mechanisms have two characteristics in common:
 They deny, falsify, or distort reality.
 They operate unconsciously.
The basic defense mechanism used by the ego is repression. Repression implies unwanted desires, negative
memories, disliked principles, all put into the unconscious. This material is, however, always trying to become
unconscious. To keep it repressed, the ego uses additional defense mechanisms such as reaction formation,
projection, rationalization etc.

4. The development of personality: psychosexual stages of development: Freud held that the first few years
are decisive for the formation of personality. Each individual passes through stages of development. Each
stage is characterized by a dominant mode of achieving libidinal pleasure and leaves its mark on the adult
personality.

A. Infantile Sexuality: This period extends from birth to 6 years of age. It is further subdivided into Oral, Anal,
and Phallic Stages
a. Oral stage: At birth, libido is diffused over the entire area of the skin and stroking the body is highly
pleasurable to the infant. However, very soon, the libido is localized in the mouth because it is the principle
source of pleasure. The oral stage extends from birth to 2 years of age. In the early oral stage, pleasure is
derived from sucking, mouthing, and swallowing, but when the teeth erupt and the infant enters the late
oral stage, pleasure is derived from biting. These two modes of oral activity are prototypes for many later
character traits that develop. E.g. Sucking is a prototype for pleasure gained from smoking, eating and so
on. Biting is the prototype for sarcasm, argumentativeness.
b. Anal stage: This extends from age 2 to 4. The child is chiefly concerned with the satisfaction derived from
his toilet habits. Toilet training, which generally begins in the second year of life, is the child’s first
experience of external regulation of an instinctual reflex. Toilet training has far reaching effects on the
personality of a child. If the mother is strict and repressive, the child develops a retentive character
becoming obstinate and stingy. Also, the child shows his rage by expulsion of feces at the most
inappropriate time. This is the prototype for all kinds of expulsive traits – guilt, destructiveness, temper-
tantrums, disorderliness etc. On the other hand if the mother is relaxed and uses rewards for toilet training,
the child acquires the notion that productivity is extremely important. This idea is the basis of creativity
and productivity in adulthood. During this stage a child also becomes conscious of himself as an
independent individual and thus the ego develops. A portion of libido is directed upon himself. This self-
love is termed narcissism. Individuals whose professions put them in the spotlight such as singers, actors
etc. are greater on narcissistic tendencies.
c. The phallic stage: Also called the early genital period, it extends from 4 to 6 years of age. The libido is
localized in the genital organs, as the child becomes increasingly conscious of them. Oedipus complex
characterizes this stage among the boys and the electra complex among the girls. The oedipal complex
consists of a sexual cathexis, for the parents of the opposite sex and a hostile cathexis for the parent of the
same sex. The successful resolution leads to the development of super ego, though it affects the individual
throughout his life. Attitudes towards the opposite sex and people in authority are largely based on the
oedipus complex. The oedipus complex in boys is that the boy wants to possess his mother and hates his
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father. He fears that the father may punish him by removing his genital organs, which are the dominant
source of pleasure during this stage. This castration anxiety leads to the repression of his sexual desire for
his mother and aggression towards the father. The boy starts identifying with the father, in the process
gaining vicarious satisfaction for his sexual impulses towards the mother. Eventually, his dangerous sexual
feelings for the mother are converted into harmless tender affection. The female counterpart of the oedipus
complex is the electra complex due to which the girl wants to possess her father and displace the mother.
To begin with the girl also resents the father and loves the mother because she satisfies her needs. But
during the phallic stage she discovers that boys have a protruding sex organ whereas she does not possess
one. This traumatic discovery weakens her love for the mother because she holds her mother responsible
for her castrated condition. She transfers her love to the father because the father has the valued organ
that she aspires to share. This love is, however, mixed with feelings of envy, because the father (in fact all
men) possesses something she lacks. Penis envy is the female counterpart of castration anxiety in boys
and collectively they are called the castration complex. In boys, the castration anxiety helps to resolve the
oedipal complex, in girls penis envy initiates the electra complex. Electra complex is never resolved,
though it weakens due to realistic taboos. To some extent the lack of a penis is compensated for when the
mother has a baby, specially a baby boy. Since the electra complex is never resolved. Freud held that
women have a weaker super-ego than men and are thus more prone to neurosis. It is important that the
child resolves complexes during this stage or he may grow up lacking an adequate superego, a proper sex
identity, and may even be homosexually inclined.

B. Latent Stage: This stage extends from 6 years of age to the beginning of adolescence. During this period
the libido is relatively suppressed. There is a greater emphasis on intellectual and social development of
the child. He is interested in playing with friends at school. Though he is fond of both the parents, the child
dislikes excessive displays of love and affection. In his search for being one of the group he shows a
decline in narcissism. This stage is governed by the reality principle.

C. Genital stage: It extends from the onset of puberty through adolescence to maturity. It begins with a
revival of infantile sexuality. The pleasure principle is dominant again. In the early genital stage, between
12-15 years, homoeroticism is shown. It is an attachment towards members of the same sex. Girls develop
crushes on each other and then teachers. Boys form gangs and indulge in hero worship. These homo
attachments rarely go beyond the platonic level. Adolescents are egocentric and their love of the same sex
is just a manifestation of self-love or narcissism. Another reason is adolescent insecurity. They are
conscious of their growing sexual impulses, but they fail to understand them fully. Consequently, they are
more at ease with members of the same sex. They fear the opposite sex, more so because society
discourages opposite sex attachments very early in life. Heterosexuality marks the late genital or the final
stage of psychosexual development. Early adolescent love affairs are largely experimental and narcissistic.
However, gradually, individuals gain and demonstrate confidence in their sexual attraction and maturity. In
the early stage there is a revival of pleasure principle but eventually it yields to the reality principle. Thus
the individual is able to maintain a normal heterosexual life.
In this way the person is transformed from a pleasure-seeking narcissistic infant into a reality-oriented
socialized adult. This doesn’t imply that pre-genital impulses are displaced by the genital ones. They
merely become fused (synthesized) with the genital impulses. Each site in which the libido is invested
becomes a zone, which gives pleasure when stimulated. The principle biological function of the genital
stage is reproduction; the psychological aspects help to achieve this end by providing a certain amount of
stability and security.

In spite of the fact that Freud differentiated these stages of personality growth, he did not assume that there
were any sharp breaks or abrupt transitions in passing from one stage to another. The final organization of
personality represents contributions from all the stages.

Criticism of Freud’s theory: No other theory of personality has been so bitterly criticized as Freud’s theory. The
critique may be enumerated as follows:
1. In his own times “decent” people were outraged, particularly by Freud’s idea of infantile sexuality. His own
students, Jung and Adler, parted with him on this account.
2. Humanistic philosophers criticized Freud for painting a bleak, pessimistic picture of man.
3. Feminists attacked his concept of Penis envy and the idea that women had weaker superegos.
4. Scientifically speaking, Freud’s concepts are not testable. His ideas of Id, Ego, Super-ego, Oedipus and
Electra complex are difficult, if not impossible, to test in experiments. Though some recent investigations
have been done in the area of the unconscious, no one has yet demonstrated that the unconscious consists
only of what Freud says it does.
BA I, PAPER B, SECTION A, UNIT I 9

5. Quantitative measurement is impossible. There are no answers to questions such as how intense must an
experience be before it can be called a trauma or how weak must the ego be to be overridden by an id
impulse.
6. Freudian theory also fails to make adequate predictions. It is an after the fact explanation of phenomena.
It cannot predict or control future events e.g. the death wish is an idea, which doesn’t help to predict or
control events such as suicide or murder.
7. Even Freudian therapy, which is a direct application of the theory, is successful only for a short period, for
neuroses, and for YAVIS patients (Schofield, 1964). When it does work, no one seems to know why it works.
8. Freud’s techniques of arriving at the theory are also criticized. The theory is based on a few neurotic
patients who hardly represent the whole human population. Observer bias and suggestive influence on the
patients cannot be ruled out. Freud never bothered to check the interpretations against the judgement of
other observers/analysts. He never even secured data from relatives, friends and other sources regarding
his patients. He relied only on the reports of the patients and his own interpretations. He did not keep a
verbatim record of the clinical interview but worked from notes made several hours later. So how reliable
and valid his conclusions can be?
The question arises -- why psychoanalysis still flourishes? Why is it so dominant and influential? Why is it
that even behavioural therapist go for psychoanalysis if they need therapy themselves?

Some people like Freud’s literary style, others find his subject matter exciting. But these are not the only
reasons for the great esteem in which Freud is held. The fact is that all psychological theories of personality
focus only on limited aspects. Moreover they also lack scientific proof. By contrast, Freud offers the most
comprehensive theory of personality. His conception of the individual is both broad and complex. His ideas
are challenging to scientists and laymen alike. Freud was a patient, penetrating observer and a courageous,
original thinker. He saw human beings as they actually are – conscious and unconscious, rational and irrational,
egoistic and impulsive, frustrated and satisfied – in short simple complex human beings. This is Freud’s
strength.

Modifications in Freud’s theory:

Freud’s theory has undergone many modifications. The first important change came around 1912, when Jung
and Adler disagreed with Freud’s emphasis on libido and left his inner circle of students. Adler then formed his
own group and his own theory known as Individual Psychology focusing on the conscious, rational, social
aspect of personality.
Adler stressed the drive for power, mastery, and superiority. An infant is weak, helpless, and insecure,
completely dependent on others, even for such basic things as food and comfort. Thus the child develops an
enormous sense of inferiority. To overcome inferiority feelings, the child adopts compensation as a defense
mechanism. Compensation may be direct or indirect. Direct compensation involves working in the area of
weakness itself to overcome it. E.g. A person who stammers may work to conquer his speech difficulties and
becomes an excellent speaker. Indirect compensation involves working in a different area to balance for
weakness in a particular area. E.g. A physically handicapped person may become a great scientist by virtue of
his mental powers. Nevertheless, extreme use of this defense mechanism, known as overcompensation, is
maladaptive. Overcompensation is a desire to prove superiority over others rather than to perfect one’s own
life. It leads to one-sided development and goes against social interest. In a mild form it may be seen in a
wealthy industrialist who accumulates wealth to satisfy his desire for security and security plus. In an extreme
form it may be seen in Hitler who tried to exterminate the whole race of Jews to compensate for his own sexual
impotence. Every individual makes efforts to bring about security. To preserve security, he also seeks a
measure of reserve. It is this striving for security plus which often leads to one-sided development. Adler
contends that inferiority feelings, in themselves, are not a sign of abnormality. They are the cause of all
improvement in the human lot. But when they are exaggerated and unrealistic, as in an inferiority complex or
a compensatory superiority complex, then abnormal behaviour results.

Early in his career (1908) Adler reached the conclusion that aggression was a more important drive than
sexuality. A little later the aggressive impulse was replaced by the will to power. He identified power with
masculinity and weakness with femininity. At this stage of his theory (1910) he gave the idea of masculine
protest, a form of overcompensation that both men and women indulge in when they feel inadequate and
inferior. Later, he abandoned the will to power in favor of striving for superiority. Adler makes it very clear that
by superiority he does not mean social distinction, leadership, or a pre-eminent position in society. He holds
that it is a striving for perfect completion, the great upward drive close to Jung’s and Rogers’ self realization;
Goldstein’s and Maslow’s self-actualization. From birth to death, the striving for superiority carries the person
from one stage of development to the next higher stage. It is the prepotent dynamic principle.
BA I, PAPER B, SECTION A, UNIT I 10

Striving for superiority sounded like a war cry of Nazism, a companion of the Darwinian slogan of survival of the
fittest. In response, Adler, who was an advocate of social justice and a supporter of a social democracy,
enlarged his concept to include the factor of social interest (1939). By working for the common good, humans
compensate for their individual weaknesses. As Adler said, “Social interest is the true and inevitable
compensation for all the natural weaknesses of individual human beings”.

Adler held that a person’s behavior could be understood in terms of his guiding goal. Humans are motivated
more by their expectations of the future than by experiences of the past. Each person has a guiding goal in life
– this may take any form and thus there are as many guiding goals as there are persons. In Adlerian
psychology, all guiding goals are functions. A function is not true or false, or right or wrong, but rather “useful
or not useful”. It should serve the individual i.e. it should have functional utility. If it does not, then it should
be discarded or modified. Adler speaks of a goal of life of every person – this is usually the one outstanding
goal, conscious or not, which plays a dominant role in that person’s life. Each person is unique is because of his
style of life. Style of life describes how an individual personality functions. Everyone has a style of life, but no
two people develop the same style. All behavior springs from the person’s style of life. What determines the
individual’s style of life? In his earlier writings, Adler felt that it is largely determined by specific inferiority,
either fancied or real, that the person has. Later he changed this idea to suggest a more dynamic principle, the
creative self. The doctrine of a creative self asserts that human beings make their own personalities
constructing them out of the raw material of heredity and experience. The creative self gives meaning to life; it
is life itself, it creates the goal as well as the means to the goal. It is something like the metaphysical soul and
coincides with the popular idea that humans are the masters, and not the victims of their fate.
Adler investigated the relationship between birth order and personality. The personalities of the oldest, middle,
and youngest child in the family are quite different. The first-born is the centre of attention until the second
child dethrones him. First-borns who are not prepared for this change by the parents show attention-seeking
regressive behavior, feel insecure, protect the self from sudden reversal of fortune, and sometimes start hating
other people. However, if parents prepare the child for the arrival of the newborn, the first-born is likely to
develop into a responsible, protective person. The second or middle child is ambitious and rebellious,
constantly trying to surpass its older sibling. Largely, however, it is better adjusted than the older or younger
sibling is. The youngest child is a spoilt brat, a problem child and the most likely to become a neurotic next to
the oldest child.

The focus of Adlerian therapy is to enhance the creative self. Adler helped his patient to explore the various
ramifications of the neurotic style of living to which the patient had become enthralled. The unrealistic,
fictional goals must be revealed and understood, and the patient’s energies must be redirected towards
socially useful goals.
Thus, Adler fashioned a humanistic theory of personality that as the antithesis of Freud’s conception of the
individual. He offered a portrait of humans that was more satisfying, more hopeful and more complimentary.
He was also the first psychoanalyst to stress the social factors in personality, and to emphasize the ego at the
cost of Id. He anticipated the neo-Freudians in this respect. He is also the forerunner of humanistic
psychologists in his emphasis on the uniqueness of the individual and the creative self. Critics, however,
maintain that Adler’s theory merely elaborates on one aspect of Freudian theory, namely the ego and its
defenses. Thus, nothing new has been added.

Carl Jung (1875-1961) was another close associate of Freud during the early period of psychoanalysis. In fact,
he was known as the Crown Prince of Psychoanalysis. However, ultimately he disagreed with the master and
founded his own system called Analytical Psychology. Jung’s major point of disagreement with Freud was the
nature of libido. Years before Freud integrated the concept of libido with eros, Jung defined it was a general life
urge. He conceived of sexual energy as only one form of an undifferentiated psychic energy, the primal libido
or general life-force. Jung consistently downplayed the importance of the sexual instinct. For example (1) he
held that in primitive societies, the hunger drive plays a more important role than sexuality, and in civilized
societies the drive for power is of more importance to many individuals than sexual satisfaction. (2) Jung held
that the archetypes of the collective unconscious played a far more important role in a person’s life than the
sexual instinct alone. (3). He held that Freud’s conception of infantile sexuality was incorrect and that the
child’s libido expresses itself in terms of growth and urge to excel rather than in direct sexuality. In short, the
sexual aspect of Freudian theory repelled Jung. Jung also disagreed with Freud on the nature of unconscious,
arguing that it exists on two levels, the individual unconscious and the collective unconscious. The individual
unconscious is personal arising from repression, and consisting of complexes. The collective unconscious is
racial, arising perhaps from inherited neural pattern, consisting of archetypes. Unconscious is thus not only
negative in nature, but it is both positive and negative.
BA I, PAPER B, SECTION A, UNIT I 11

Jung also gave a well-formulated theory of personality types. He proposed that people could be generally
divided into two types – extroverts and introverts. An individual possesses two attitudes (introversion and
extroversion) and four functions:
i) Thinking -- Feeling
ii) Sensation -- Intuition
Each person possesses all of these -- one dominating consciously and the other unconsciously. An extrovert is
an individual who orients himself positively towards the external world, whose decisions and actions are
primarily determined by objective relationships. His attention and interest are focussed on the immediate
environment. He is an objective, reality-oriented individual. On the other hand, the introvert is oriented
towards his own inner world. His behaviour is determined by subjective factors, his actions are guided by his
own ideas or by absolute standards. He tends to lack flexibility and therefore finds it difficult to adjust to the
external world.

The four functions are actually different ways of approaching the universe. The two rational functions, thinking
and feeling, are characterized by making judgements and evaluations. When judgements are in terms of truth
or falsity and are arrived at by logical inference, the thinking function is being utilised. The opposite function is
feeling, where the evaluation is based upon the pleasantness and unpleasantness of the event. The other pair
of opposites is the irrational function, according to which the events are not evaluated on the basis of reason,
they are simply experienced. Using the sensation function, the event is experienced realistically (just as a
photograph faithfully resembles the event that is photographed). In the intuitive functions the essence or the
inherent meaning of the event is experienced with penetrating vision.

At any particular moment, in any situation, only one of these pairs of opposites is dominant and is manifested
in behavior. Most people do not develop all aspects of their personality. Jung holds that one can grow to one’s
full potential only through the recognition, use, and differentiation of all sides of our personality. The
dominance of one function in consciousness and the dominance of another function in the unconscious is a
kind of compensation. These opposites have a natural center of equilibrium. Jung calls this mid-point of the
personality, the self. It is the point at which the union of opposites occurs. There is a driving force in every
person to realize the self through the union of opposites. This is called the individuation process or self-
realization. As a result of this process, there is a synthesis of the pairs of opposites.

Three concepts fall within the concept of personality: ego, persona and self. Ego is the subject of the content of
consciousness. It is the reference point I. It is the center of conscious life. It seems to arise from the early
clash between the world within and without. The aspect of ego turned toward the outer world is called persona.
It is the donning of a socially accepted and expected role. It may serve as an aid in adjusting to the abrasions
from the outside world or it may itself be source of constant irritation. The persona is useful as long as the
individual keeps in mind that it is a mask and not really his self; as long as the persona is not at great variance
with the nature of the individual wearing it. The self is the center of the total personality, just as the ego is the
reference point of the conscious psyche. The concept ego is thus subordinate to the concept self. The
existence of the self is dimly perceived by the ego, which senses only that it is a part of a super-ordinate
object.
The more aspects of his total personality he can recognize and incorporate into his self, the closer the person is
to self-realization. However, many aspects are unconscious, thus this is very difficult to do. The dark portion of
the psyche that consists of personal qualities that the person considers negative, the inferior function and
attitude, and the contents of his personal unconscious are the shadow. Whatever one is in terms of his ego
and conscious, the dark other side will be composed of the opposite characteristics. Jung’s analysis of the
shadow revealed the soul image (anima and animus). The soul image is Jung’s acknowledgement of the
universal bisexual nature of man. The male, whose masculine characteristics dominate his persona, represses
his feminine aspect, his anima. Similarly, the female persona in a woman is balanced by the animus, her
unconscious male counterpart. Thus, the soul image is in an opposite but compensatory relation to the
persona.

Beneath the small portion of the psyche that is conscious, lies the vast territory of the unconscious. Differing
from Freud, Jung collapsed Freud’s preconscious and unconscious into one layer, the personal unconscious.
Secondly, while Freud only hinted at the possibility of a collective unconscious, it became a central concept in
Jung’s theory. Finally, Jung found not only the worst in man in the unconscious, but also his best.
The personal unconscious is a portion of the personal shadow. The contents of the personal unconscious are
either repressed or suppressed. Jung made a distinction between these two mechanisms. Repression is an
automatic, uncontrolled mechanism for removing disagreeable thoughts, emotions, and desires from the
conscious. Suppression is the conscious choice to shift attention and to temporarily inhibit certain experiences
that can be attended to later without difficulty if necessary. Primarily, the personal unconscious consists of the
BA I, PAPER B, SECTION A, UNIT I 12

complexes. Below the thin layer of personal unconscious is the collective or transpersonal unconscious. This
very deep and inaccessible layer of the mind contains the ancestral heritage of man’s typical reactions to
universal experiences in the form of archetypes or thought forms. An archetype is an inherited concept with a
high charge of energy. The energy controls thinking and reaction. Archetypes are inherited universal thought
forms. While deeply buried, these archetypes exert a powerful influence over behavior and perception.
Archetypes are the residues of mankind’s universal experiences. Among the more prominent ones are Great
Earth Mother, and Wise Old Man

In more recent times Neo-Freudians such as Horney, Fromm, and Sullivan have replaced the over-emphasis on
sex with an emphasis on social motives, learnt by an individual as he grows up. They also emphasize the ego
at the cost of id. The post-Freudian Erikson has expanded Freud’s theory of psychosexual development of
personality. Erikson has given psychosocial stages of personality development. He has given eight stages
starting from birth till old age.
1. Basic trust Vs Mistrust 0-1 year
2. Autonomy Vs Shame and doubt 2-3 years
3. Initiative Vs Guilt 4-5 years
4. Industry Vs Inferiority Latency
5. Identity Vs Role diffusion/confusion Adolescence
6. Intimacy Vs Isolation Early adulthood
7. Generativity Vs Stagnation Adulthood
8. Ego integrity Vs Despair Later years

TRAIT APPROACHES TO PERSONALITY:

Trait is defined as a particular quality of behavior which characterizes the individual in a wide range of his
activities and which is fairly consistent over a period of time. Most people refer to traits when they are asked to
describe an individual. Some properties of traits are:
1. Scalability -- There are degrees of traits. Various people vary along the dimension of a trait.
2. Consistency -- Traits lead to consistency of behavior across many situations.
BA I, PAPER B, SECTION A, UNIT I 13

3. Durability -- There may be temporary minor fluctuations. However, traits are generally enduring
characteristics of personality.
4. Universality -- Traits are shared by members of a group. All members can be placed somewhere on traits.
Nevertheless, there are certain unique traits, which are not shared by other people.
5. Generality -- Some traits such as intelligence and self-confidence are manifested in many aspects of
behavior. However, certain other traits can be manifested only in a specific situation.
6. Inclusiveness -- Some traits include other traits e.g. Intelligence is an inclusive trait whereas perceptual
speed is a relatively non-inclusive trait. The more inclusive the trait, the greater is its significance.
7. Correlated vs. Independent traits: Some traits such as nervousness, sensitivity and emotional excitability
are related to each other. However, unique traits are generally independent of other traits.

In modern psychology, the first important trait theorist in the area of personality was Gordon Allport. In 1936,
with Odbert, he collected 17953 terms used to characterize people. However, instead of using the term trait,
Allport preferred the term personal disposition. He defines personal disposition as “a generalized neuro-psychic
structure peculiar to the individual with the capacity to render many stimuli functionally equivalent, and to
initiate and guide, consistent forms of adaptive and stylistic behavior.” An examination of this definition reveals
the following characteristics of personal dispositions or traits:
1. Traits are generalized i.e. many people share a trait, perhaps due to common culture, society or pool of
genes.
2. Traits are neuro-psychic in nature. A trait has physical existence. It is a part of the nervous system of the
individual. It is not a mere collection of habits learnt from the environment; rather it is a fusion of innate
and constitutional predispositions with selected sets of habits.
3. Since the neuropsychic structure is peculiar to the individual, traits give uniqueness to personality. They
are shown in a person in a way that does not match any other person.
4. Traits have the capacity to make many stimuli functionally equivalent. This implies that the individual
reacts in the same way to many different stimuli. E.g., an extrovert shows the same warmth to a stranger,
an acquaintance, or a friend.
5. Traits initiate behavior even in the absence of external stimuli.
6. Traits guide behavior into particular channels. They make a person do one thing rather than the other.
They select behavior.
7. Traits give consistency to behavior over time. They give stability and reliability to a person.
8. Traits make the person adapt to the environment. They have survival value.
9. Traits lead to stylistic behavior. Style refers to a unique pattern, characteristic of an individual. Traits lead
to a unique manifestation of behavior.

Allport distinguished individual traits or unique traits, which are possessed by only one person; from common
traits, which are possessed by many people, each to a varying extent.
Personal dispositions can be grouped into three categories:
1. Cardinal disposition -- It renders practically all stimuli functionally equivalent for the person. All his actions
are consistent with this single disposition.
2. Central dispositions -- This is less pervasive. Allport estimates that 5 or 10 such personal dispositions are
sufficient to describe most persons. Central dispositions are relatively independent of each other and are
peculiarly organized in each person.
3. Secondary dispositions -- They are not very obvious. They bind few situations and behaviours together.
They are not very important for initiating and guiding behavior.

The traits are organized in a unique manner in each person. This unique organization of dispositions around a
central core of personality is important to the individual's existence. Abnormality results as the personality
disintegrates. Allport introduced the term proprium to refer to the individual’s sense of identity or existence.
Other psychologists use similar terms such as the ego or the self. Proprium refers to those functions that seem
self-relevant, those aspects of behavior that are particularly our own. In the normal adult, proprium is a major
internal source of behavior. According to Allport, a mature adult has the following characteristics:
1 A widely extended sense of self.
2 Ability to relate warmly to others.
3 Emotional security and self-acceptance.
4 Realistic perception and skills.
5 Self-objectification; ability to evaluate oneself.
6 Unifying philosophy of life.
Thus, Allport’s view of human beings is one in which the conscious elements of motivation are emphasized.
Behavior is seen as internally consistent, determined by contemporary factors and oriented towards the future.
Allport (1937a, 1950b) proposed a theoretical concept of functional autonomy of motivation. Whatever the
BA I, PAPER B, SECTION A, UNIT I 14

original cause for developing a motive or trait, at some point it begins to function independently of its origins.
Example a female who as a child really wanted to be like her mother, and as she grew up she continued to
dress like her and to imitate her as an adult and aimed to marry some one like her father. Allport argued that
as for an adult, the motivation is no longer to be like her mother. The particular values and interests have been
internalized; they are now her own. They are “functionally autonomous” from their origins. He has emphasized
the uniqueness of the human being and the study of the individual rather than the individuals i.e. he stresses
the idiographic approach to personality.

Sheldon attempted to give a physiological basis to personality. He held that there is a relationship between the
shape and size of the body and personality. Consequently, his theory is known as the constitutional theory of
personality. The German psychologist, Kretschmer, had earlier divided people into three personality types –
aesthetic, athletic and pyknic, on the basis of their body types. Sheldon held that there are three important
components of the body and that everyone has varying degrees of each component. The temperament of a
person depends primarily upon his particular combination of these components. The three components of the
body are:
1. Endomorphy
2. Mesomorphy
3. Ectomorphy
In an endomorph, the internal organs of the body are well developed. He tends to be fat in proportion to his
height. A mesomorph is tough and athletic, usually well built, and well proportioned. An ectomorph is long,
thin, poorly developed, and on the whole rather physically weak. An endomorph has a viscerotonic
temperament. He seeks comfort, loves fine food, eats too much of it and is greatly interested in securing
affection. A mesomorph has somatotonic temperament. He is fond of muscular activity and tends to be
aggressive and self-assertive. An ectomorph has cerebrotonic temperament, which is characterized by
excessive restraint, inhibitions, and avoidance of social contacts.

It is important to realize that Sheldon holds that each of these three aspects of physique and temperament are
present in all of us but to varying degrees. Thus they are traits. In any individual, one, two, or all three may be
dominant or may balance each other. Sheldon made a 7-point scale to measure each type of body built and he
uses a 3-place number to describe any person. The first place (beginning from the right) is for Endomorphy,
the second for Mesomorphy and the third for Ectomorphy. Thus, a person who is 7,1,1 is an extreme
endomorph; a person 1,7,1 is an extreme mesomorph; a person 1,1,7 is an extreme ectomorph; a person 4,4,4
is balanced on all three dimensions. Sheldon’s theory is unique because he postulates a physiological basis for
personality. He holds that the constitution of the person, largely determined by genetic factors, determines the
temperament of a person.

Cattell and Eysenck, who used factor analysis, gave a more scientific-mathematical basis to research on
personality. Cattell thinks of factors as traits and hence his approach is often called the factorial approach to
personality. On the other hand Eysenck thinks of his factors as dimensions and hence his approach is known as
the dimensional approach to personality. He also uses the concept of types in his theory. Nevertheless both
Cattell and Eysenck stress the nomothetic approach to personality.

R.B CATTELL
R.B. Cattell’s theory is the most comprehensive and fully developed theory of personality based on factor
analysis.
Cattell defines personality as “that which permits a prediction of what a person will do in a given situation”.
Structurally speaking, personality consists of traits. According to Cattell, trait is a “unitary configuration in
behavior such that when one part is present in a certain degree, we can infer that the person will show the
other parts in a certain degree”. Cattell used factor analysis to identify traits.
Sources of data: L-data, Q-data, OT-data
L-data are gathered from a person’s life record and relates to behaviour in actual everyday situations such as
school performance, interaction with peers. Q-data is gathered from questionnaires and interviews; OT-data are
obtained from objective testing situations. It involves miniature situations in which the subject is unaware of
relationship between the response and the personality characteristic being measured. Cattell started his
research with L-data and through factor analysis of ratings came up with 15 source traits. Guided in his
research on Q-data by L-data findings, Cattell developed 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire, which contains
12 traits that match those found in L-data research and 4 traits that appear unique to questionnaire methods.
Cattell found 21 source traits in OT-data that appear to have complex relationship to traits previously found in
other data.
To him, a trait is like a factor i.e. it is a cluster of variables, which are correlated with one another. Cattell has
given various classifications of traits:
BA I, PAPER B, SECTION A, UNIT I 15

1. Source and surface traits -- A source trait is a key dimension of personality that underlies many other traits.
A source trait is a factor, in which variations in the value of the dimension are determined by a single
unitary influence or source. A surface trait is a set of personality characteristics, which are correlated but
do not form a factor. Hence, they are determined by more than one influence or source. E.g., the level of
arousal (anxiety or drive) is a source trait, but most psychiatric symptoms such as depression are surface
traits. Surface traits are produced by the interaction of source traits. They can be generally expected to be
less stable than source factors. Surface traits are expressive of behaviors that on a superficial level may
appear to go together but in fact don’t always move up and down together and do not necessarily have a
common cause. A source trait on the other hand expresses an association among behaviors that do vary
together to form a unitary independent dimension of personality. Whereas surface traits can be discovered
through subjective methods, such as asking people which personality characteristics they think go together,
the refined statistical procedures of factor analysis are necessary for the discovery of source traits. Surface
traits are likely to appeal to the layman as more valid and meaningful than source traits; therefore they
correspond to the type of generalizations that can be made on the basis of simple observations. However,
in the long run, it is the source traits, which are important to account for a person’s behavior.
2. Constitutional and environment-mold traits -- Traits that result from the influence of the environment are
called environment-mold trait. Those that reflect hereditary factors are constitutional traits. Source traits
can be either environment mold or constitutional. However, surface traits are generally environment mold.
Cattell holds that the environment determines the range in which the trait is displayed. Heredity more
often governs the absolute amount of the trait in a person.
3. Ability, temperament, and dynamic traits -- Traits can also be divided in terms of the modality through
which they are expressed. If they are concerned with setting the individual towards a goal through some
action, then they are dynamic traits. If they are concerned with the effectiveness with which the individual
reaches the goal, then they are ability traits. They may also be concerned largely with the constitutional
aspects of responses such as speed, energy or emotional reactivity in which case they are called
temperament traits.
4. Common and unique traits -- On the basis of the number of people who possess them, traits may be
grouped as common or unique. Common traits have the same form for everyone and people differ from one
another only in the strength of the trait. A unique trait is so specific to a particular person, that no one else
can be measured on it. Unique traits may be divided into relatively unique and intrinsically unique traits. In
the former, uniqueness derives from a slightly different arrangement of the elements making up the trait; in
the latter, the individual possess a genuinely different trait which is possessed by no other person.

On the basis of the traits, it is possible to predict a person’s response in a particular situation with the help of a
specification equation.
R = S1 T1 + S2 T2 + ……………… Sn Tn
A response may be predicted from the traits of a given person, each weighted according to its relevance in a
particular situation (the situational indices). If a particular trait is highly relevant to a given response, the
corresponding S will be large. If the trait is totally irrelevant, S will be 0. If the trait inhibits the response, the
sign of S is negative and it is subtracted from the situation. This equation implies:
1. Each trait has an independent additive influence in the response. This method of combining trait scores is
adequate to predict the response in a particular situation. However, there are a few traits, which do not fit
the model and thus cannot be simply added to other traits in a prediction equation. E.g., anxiety.
2. More than one trait must be measured to effectively predict the individual’s response.
3. The same response may be given as a result of different combinations of traits.
4. The strength of the trait is the pervasiveness of that trait in various situations.

Cattell views personality as a complex and differentiated structure of traits with the motivation being provided
by the dynamic lattice consisting of the ergs, sentiments and attitudes. They are in subsidiation to each
other. It means that certain elements are subsidiary to others, or serve as means to their ends. In general,
attitudes are subsidiary to sentiments and sentiments are subsidiary to ergs, which are basic driving forces in
personality.
Dynamic source traits are of two types – erg and sentiment.
 Erg: Simply defined, an erg is a unit of energy. Cattell defines it as “an innate source of reactivity often
described as a drive, directed towards a certain goal, but of many motivational definitions”. A wide
variety of behaviors are related to the same erg. Cattell feels that he has identified nine to eleven ergs
including sex, fear, assertion, curiosity, etc.
 Metaergs: Ergs with energy are channelled into learned patterns, called metaergs. Metaergs are
environmental-mold dynamic source traits. These learned motivations can range from the very general,
like love of country and esteem of education, to very specific like opposition to particular political
candidate.
BA I, PAPER B, SECTION A, UNIT I 16

 Sentiment: A sentiment (a general metaerg) is a motivational source trait, which comes from
environmental influences. E.g., a religious sentiment, a family sentiment etc. Cattell defined it as
“a set of attitudes, the strength of which has become related, through their being all learnt by
contact with a particular social institution”. An important difference between an erg and the
sentiment is that an erg is constitutional and cannot disintegrate. But a sentiment, having been
learnt, can be unlearnt, and therefore can disintegrate.
 Attitude: At the surface level of the dynamic lattice, there is the attitude (specific responses to
particular situations) or interest defined as “a tendency to act in a certain way towards an object
in a particular situation”. It includes all feelings, emotions, and behaviors. Cattell speaks of the
self-sentiment, which gives stability and a high degree of organization to the traits. Cattell holds
that the self-sentiment plays a crucial role in the integration of personality. He calls it the master
sentiment. The integrating core of personality is the self.

Certain patterns within the personality come and go to a much greater extent than others. Example, Mood
states change, a person steps into or out of a particular role, momentary mental sets are adopted toward
aspects of the environment. Two concepts are vital to account for the variability in behaviour – states and
roles. The concept of state relates to emotional and mood changes that are partly determined by the
provocative power of specific situations. Illustrative states are anxiety, depression, fatigue, curiosity, etc.
Cattell emphasizes that exact description of an individual at a given moment requires measurement of both
traits and states. Cattell also holds that the concept of role expresses the same stimulus is perceived in a
different way by an individual according to his or her role in the situation. For example, a teacher may respond
differently to a child’s behaviour in the classroom than when no longer in the role of teacher. In sum, although
Cattell believes that personality factors lead to a certain degree of stability in behaviour across situations, he
also believes that a person’s mood (state) and the way he is presenting himself in a given situation (role) will
influence his behaviour.

Cattell also tries to explain the significant developmental phases of personality from conception to puberty.
The years from 1 to 5 are critical for the development of both normal and abnormal traits. Either type of trait
remains remarkably constant from 5 till puberty. About the age of 7 to 8, the child begins to be weaned from
parental influence. He or she acquires the social code of the culture, the dominant trends in interests and
characteristic emotional patterns are developed; finally leader-follower characteristics also begin to appear.
Around the age of 10 or 11, secondary groups, such as the gang and the school, begin to exert as much
influence on the developing personality as does the home. Depending upon the rate of development, some
children at this age begin to experience the cleavage between home and peer-group approved forms of
behavior. At the end of the period, adolescent interests start to emerge. Adolescence is a period that makes
great demands on the child. He or she must adjust to the demands of sex, accompanied as they are by self-
assertion, and at the same time is under pressure to postpone the satisfaction of sexual needs. In short, a child
must attempt to satisfy the different sets of demands that arise from the following sources:
1. Parents.
2. Adolescent peers.
3. Adult culture patterns.
4. The internal “residues” of childhood
The period of maturity is one of a gradual but steady decline of most of the biologically based mental
processes. During this period the average individual grows more philosophical and becomes emotionally
stable. With the onset of the old age, new adjustments are demanded as a result of both loss of occupations
and the decrease in the social value of the aged in our culture.
Cattell investigated nature-nurture question by using a statistical technique he developed, the Multiple Abstract
Variance Analysis (MAVA). The technique analyzes the effects of heredity and environment based on data from
relatives and non-relatives. It examines the similarity of relatives (identical twins, fraternal twins, siblings, and
unrelated children) raised together. This variation is compared with the variation occurring when relatives are
raised apart and with the variation in the general population. The variance due to heredity and environment
are estimated. To the extent that genetics determines a trait, relatives will be more similar than non-relatives.
Cattell found out the highest level of heritability for intelligence, and Affectia (Factor A), Ego strength (Factor
C), etc.
Cattell has been criticized for ignoring many aspects of personality and focussing on traits. Nevertheless, his
objective approach, his use of factor analysis, and the sheer amount of data that his lab has gathered over the
years, appeal to the scientist in the area of personality. To assess personality differences in the population at
large, Cattell developed his best-known and most widely used test, the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire.
Several tests have been designed for clinical use, including the Neuroticism Scale Questionnaire, Clinical
Analysis Questionnaire, and Marriage Counseling Report. Cattell also developed various intelligence and
motivation tests like Culture Fair Intelligence Test and Motivational Analysis Test (MAT) respectively.
BA I, PAPER B, SECTION A, UNIT I 17

Personality tests devised by the Institute of Personality and Ability Testing are used throughout the world for
research as well as practical purposes.

EYSENCK
Eysenck, a British psychologist, holds that personality is manifested in dimensions that are broad types
encompassing a wide variety of traits. Behaviour typically reflects an interaction of person tendencies and
environmental forces. Thus, Eysenck focuses on “biological dimensions of personality” and his approach is
“biosocial” in that the characteristic functioning of the central nervous system predisposes individuals to
respond in certain ways to their environment.
Eysenck distinguishes between the concepts of trait and type. A trait refers to a set of related behaviours that
covary or repeatedly vary together. A person with the trait of sociability goes to parties, talks to friends, etc. A
type is a higher order construct comprised of a set of correlated traits. An extravert for example is sociable,
assertive, venturesome, etc.

Eysenck argues that personality is hierarchically

Extraversion organized. At the lowest level in the hierarchy,
people have specific responses or individual acts that
may or may not be a characteristic of them. At the
second level, people have habitual responses, which
are characteristic patterns of behavior, repeated in
sociable lively assertive dominant similar situations. Then, we have traits, which are
interrelated sets of habitual behavior. At the highest
venturesom carefree active level is the type based on interrelationship among
traits.

Eysenck’s types are dimensions of personality such

that people possess more or less of each type, with most people being in the average range in each. Eysenck
believes that a few basic dimensions serve to unify and direct behavior. Each dimension encompasses a wide
variety of traits. Eysenck has used factor analysis to identify three dimensions of personality:
1. Introversion -- Extraversion (simply called Extraversion)
2. Stability -- Instability (Neuroticism).
3. Intelligence and Psychoticism (differentiates between normal and psychotic individuals)

A typical extravert is sociable, exuberant, likes parties, has many friends, craves excitement, and is impulsive,
carefree, easy going and optimistic. In contrast, a typical introvert is shy, self-controlled, quiet, retiring,
reserved, introspective, inhibited, and does not like excitement. A review of studies presents an impressive
array of significant and theoretically meaningful differences in behaviour associated with varying scores on the
extraversion-introversion dimension. Introverts are more sensitive to pain than extraverts, they become
fatigued more easily than do extraverts, excitement interferes with their performance whereas it enhances
performance for extraverts, and they tend to be more careful but less fast than extraverts (Wilson, 1978).
Extraverts prefer vocations that involve interactions with other people whereas introverts tend to prefer more
solitary vocations. Extraverts are more suggestible than introverts.
People low on neuroticism are emotionally stable, reliable, calm, and even-tempered. Those high in neuroticism
tend to be emotionally unstable, easily aroused, worried, reacts too strongly to all sorts of stimuli, and
frequently complain about anxieties and bodily pains. His strong emotional reactions interfere with his proper
adjustment, making him react in irrational and rigid manner. Eysenck relates neuroticism to personality traits
such as anxiety, tension and worry. Psychoticism includes a disposition towards psychoses and a degree of
psychopathology. Unlike extraversion and neuroticism, psychoticism is not a dimension with polar opposites;
rather it is an ingredient that is present to varying degrees in individual personalities. According to Eysenck
(1975), people who score high in psychoticism are characterized by eleven dispositions:
1 Solitary (not caring for people)
2 Troublesome (not fitting in with others)
3 Cruel or inhuman.
4 They lack feeling. They are insensitive.
5 They are sensation seeking or underaroused.
6 They are hostile to others; aggressive.
7 They like odd, unusual timings.
8 They disregard danger. They are foolhardy.
9 They like to make a fool of others, upsetting them.
BA I, PAPER B, SECTION A, UNIT I 18

10 They oppose accepted social customs.

11 They engage in little personal interaction and prefer impersonal sexual relations.

Eysenck has constructed objective tests to assess people on these dimensions. Eysenck Personality Inventory
(EPI) measures extraversion and neuroticism, whereas Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) measures
psychoticism as well. His description of neuroticism has remained relatively stable across time, but he modified
his description of extraversion. Extraversion was originally conceptualized in terms of combination of the traits
of sociability and impulsivity (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1965). With an introduction in the EPQ of a scale for
psychoticism, however, the trait of impulsivity was shifted to contribute to psychoticism. Eysenck has also tied
his dimensions of personality to physiological factors. He believes that basic physiological differences interact
with environmental factors to produce differences in personality. Extraverts have a lower level of arousal of
the ARAS (Ascending Reticular Activating system) in the central nervous system; hence they seek external
stimulation. Introverts have a higher level of arousal in the ARAS; thus they tend to avoid external stimulation.
Individuals high on neuroticism have more arousable autonomic (related with emotions) nervous systems and
lower thresholds within the Visceral Brain (i.e the limbic system - hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus -
related to emotional states) than emotionally stable individual. People very high on neuroticism have over-
reactive systems due to which they are in a psychological state of instability. On the other hand, people who
are stable or steady as a rock display the underreactivity of their emotional system. Eysenck (1967) also
specifies a curvilinear relationship between stimulation and cortical arousal, with introverts reaching their point
of maximum arousal at a lower level of stimulation than extraverts. According to Eysenck, a strong nervous
system can tolerate intense stimulation while a weak nervous system is chronically at high level of excitation
and has limited capacity to tolerate additional stimulation. Thus, he incorporates the concept of transmarginal
inhibition which suggests that response to stimulus increases as stimulus intensity increases, but only upto a
point. Beyond that point, the magnitude of response decreases as stimulus intensity increases. Introverts
behave like individuals with weak nervous system and extraverts behave like individuals with strong nervous
systems. That is, cortical arousal increases as stimulus intensity increases for both types, but the rate of
increase is more rapid for introverts because of their more sensitive ARAS. Thus, introverts reach the point of
transmarginal inhibition at a lower level of stimulation than extraverts.
Because the introverts are more sensitive to external stimulation and are easily overstimulated than
extraverts, they avoid excessive stimulation. Whereas extraverts seek stimulation. Eysenck says that introverts
are “stimulus shy” and extraverts are “stimulus hungry”.
Degree of cortical arousal

Level for transmarginal

extraverts

introvert

Stimulus intensity

Psychoticism has not been related to physiological functioning. However, it has been found that genetic factors
play a role in psychoticism. Identical twins are more concordant for psychoticism than fraternal twins.

Most psychologists feel that Eysenck has made a significant contribution to psychology because he has tied his
personality variables to methods of measurement, to physiological factors, and to ideas regarding
psychopathology and behavior change.

In recent years the Big Five has emerged as a general model for describing personality structure. Several
versions exist, all uses various types of factor analysis, and arrive at five global factors tom describe
personality. Fiske(1949) first extracted five factors based on Cattell’s data. They were: surgency (assertive
talkativeness), agreeableness, dependability, emotional stability, and culture. McCrae and Costa (1987),
identified neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness as the Big Five. Each of
BA I, PAPER B, SECTION A, UNIT I 19

these have six specific facets. For example, the six facets of extraversion are: warmth, gregariousness,
assertiveness, activity, excitement-seeking, and positive emotions. They initially developed the NEO-PI to
measure this structure. The Revised NEO-PI (Costa and McCrae, 1992) measures the Big Five as well as each of
their facets.

LEARNING THEORY OR SOCIAL LEARNING APPROACH TO PERSONALITY

Since the adult personality is a product of many years of social learning, it was inevitable that an attempt
would be made to explain personality in terms of learning theories. Miller and Dollard of Yale University have
formulated the most complete personality theory on the basis of learning. They use four fundamental
concepts: Drive, Cue, Response, and Reinforcement.

Drive is defined as strong stimuli, which lead to action. Primary drives are physiological drives such as thirst,
hunger, and sex. Cue is their word for any stimulus. Neutral cues may be connected with a primary drive
through conditioning and become secondary drives. Response is manifested in the behavior of the organism.
Reinforcement is defined as a connection that is made between a cue and a response whenever a prompt
reduction in drive strength occurs. Since they are often need satisfiers, rewards act as reinforcers when we
make a stimulus - response, (S-R) connection.

The main assumption about human personality is that it is learnt according to the basic principles of learning.
The distinctive traits and characteristics of the individual are learnt as he grows up in a social environment.
Miller and Dollard point out that in order to obtain conformity, society uses the emotion of fear, which can be
easily conditioned to neutral events and become a learnt drive. In fact, any of the primary drives (hunger, sex,
and thirst) may be conditioned to neutral cues and become learnt drives. Secondary drives, that is, social
motives and interpersonal responses follow the same principles as primary drives and responses. Thus, Miller
and Dollard trace all complex behaviors to the relatively simple inborn primary drives. Their theory of
personality is an atomistic or molecular approach to personality i.e., complex behavior has been reduced to its
simplest elements – the stimulus and the response. It is in direct contrast to holistic approaches, such as that of
Rogers and Maslow, who hold that behavior cannot be understood in such simple terms.

Bandura is another theorist who also adheres to a learning theory approach to personality. He believes that as
a child grows up, he learns certain responses through direct reinforcement or by vicarious reinforcement. As
he grows up, he also imitates parents, siblings, and close friends. Eventually, all these responses come
together to form the personality.

Rotter is another theorist in the social learning approach. He feels that Personality is expressed in a particular
situation according to a generalized expectancy called locus of Control. He has done extensive research with
this concept, which is a bipolar dimension – the opposite poles being internal and external locus of control.
Internal locus of control implies confidence and belief in oneself. External locus of control implies belief in luck,
fate, chance, others in the society, significant others, powerful others etc. In short, it is a belief in any agency
external to the person himself. Rotter believes that there are many correlates of locus of control. Man
expresses himself in terms of these behavioral correlates according to his generalized expectancy. E.g., a
person with an internal locus of control is more persistent, health oriented, does his duty well, likes to achieve
in life and generally performs better on all tasks, as compared to a person who has an external locus of control.

The problem with the social learning approach to personality is that, to predict a person’s behavior in a
particular situation, too many factors have to be considered. This may be theoretically valid but practically
difficult.
BA I, PAPER B, SECTION A, UNIT I 20

ROGERS

Carl Rogers (1902-1987) finds the source of his theory of personality in his clinical practice like Freud.
However, unlike Freud, Rogers holds a very positive, optimistic view of man. He believed that people who
came to him for therapy were actually searching for their reel selves. As he says “I began my work with the
settled notion that the self was a vague, ambiguous, scientifically meaningless term … (however) … the self
was an important element in the experience of the client, and his goal was to become his real self” (Rogers,
1959). Thus, self became the most important concept in his theory (known as the self-theory) and his therapy
(known as the client-centered therapy). According to Roger’s phenomenological approach, the individual
perceives the world in a unique way. These perceptions make up the individual’s phenomenal field. The
organism reacts to the field as it is experienced and perceived. The phenomenal field at any time is made up of
conscious (symbolized) and unconscious (unsymbolised) experiences.

The Actualizing Tendency

He believed that all human beings are motivated fundamentally by a growth directed process, which he called
actualizing tendency (Rogers, 1963). It is “the inherent tendency of the organism to develop all its capacities in
ways which serve to maintain or enhance the organism”. It is the urge to expand, extend, develop, and mature.
It affects both the biological (meeting basic needs for water, oxygen, food) and psychological functions (guiding
towards increased autonomy, self sufficiency, and fostering personal growth).

Organismic Valuing Process

A self actualizing person is in touch with the inner experience that is inherently growth producing, the
organismic valuing process. It is a subconscious guide that evaluates experience for its growth potential. It
draws the person toward experiences that are growth producing and away from those that would inhibit
growth. (It means experiences perceived as enhancing individual are evaluated positively, and people actively
seek them and vice-versa). Thus internal experience rather than external rules directs choices.

Self
Self refers to the organised, consistent, and whole perceptions that people have of themselves (Rogers, 1959).
The self includes people’s perceptions of the world and the values or attitudes they have about these
perceptions. A portion of the total perceptual field (phenomenal field) gradually becomes differentiated as the
self. As a result of interaction with the environment, and particularly, interaction with others, the structure of
the self is formed.
The values attached to experiences and the values which are a part of the self structure, in some instances, are
values experienced directly by the organism, and in some instances are values introjected or taken over from
others but perceived in a distorted fashion as if they have been experienced directly. Thus, Rogers divided self
into two aspects: ideal self and real self. The ideal self is the self – concept that the individual would most like
to possess. The real self is person’s true qualities.
According to Rogers, the organism functions to maintain consistency among self-perceptions and congruence
between perceptions of self and experiences. “Most of the ways of behaving which are adopted by the
organism are those which are consistent with the concept of the self” (Rogers, 1951). Rogers used the term
incongruence to describe the experience of conflict between the real self and ideal self. When a person is
incongruent, he or she experiences real self threatening. To prevent this, defense mechanisms distort and deny
experience.

Development of Personality
Rogers held that though the individuals possess inherent tendency to actualize themselves, they are subject to
strong binfluences from the environment, especially, the social environment. In 1959, Rogers introduced the
BA I, PAPER B, SECTION A, UNIT I 21

concept of need for positive regard. Positive regard refers to acceptance, love, respect, warmth, liking, and
sympathy.
Unconditional positive regard: it means loving the person regardless of his or her behaviour. It is not based on
anything the person does. The person is valued because he or she is worthy of positive regard as a human
being. It may also mean accepting without criticism even behaviours that are generally viewed as negative.
This allows him to explore all his or her potentials.
Conditional positive regard: it means that the parents will love (positive regard) children only to the extent that
children live up to their conditions of worth. The child learns to differentiate between actions and feelings that
are worthy (approved) and those that are unworthy (unapproved). Unworthy experiences tend to be excluded
from the self-concept. Thus, the child tries to be what others want him to be than trying to be what it really is.
Thus, the imposition of conditions of worth on the child evoked anxiety and leads to the denial of experiences.
At first, the basic feelings of worthiness come from others. As people develop more autonomy, the feelings of
worthiness also come from themselves. It is called positive self-regard. In terms of self actualization,
unconditional positive self regard is the most important because the individual relies on herself/himself than
others for overall feelings of worth and esteem.

Rogers’ theory of personality development has numerous implications for child rearing practices. Rogers
theorized that creativity can emerge when two basic conditions exist: psychological safety and psychological
freedom. Psychological safety requires a social environment that provides (1) Unconditional positive regard (2)
an absence of evaluation from others, and (3) empathic understanding. Psychological freedom exists when
permission is given to engage in unrestricted creative experience or unrestrained expression of ideas.

Rogers presented the latest elements in his theory of personality.

1. This concerns the personality’s desire for social esteem. At times the desire for social esteem overtakes
the values that the self–organism desires. When it is too important for the personality to be considered
worthwhile for others, it may hamper the inner functions and dynamics of the organismic self.
2. There is an extremely strong desire for self-esteem parallel to the desire for social esteem. Since the
desire for self esteem grows out of experience, it is possible for the personality to ignore the pressures
of society, which gave him the desire for social esteem.
3. Due to the forces, desires, and demands of social esteem and self-esteem, there develops an attitude of
self-worth, which helps the individual in his everyday life.

Rogers’s view of personality can be summarized as follows:

1. The organism acts at all times as a “whole” striving to actualize, maintain, and enhance his self.
2. The self is differentiated part of the phenomenal field.
3. The self develops and changes due to experience – thus the development of self is a process of
interaction between experience and the organism’s existing self-perceptions.
4. Maladjustment occurs due to:
 Incongruence: gap between real and phenomenal self.
 Introjections.
 Negative experiences.
 Profound dislike of self.
 Masks.
 Conformity to social expectations.
All these represent a distortion or denial of experience.
5. If maladjustments do not occur, the person is likely to develop into a “fully functioning personality”, a
concept similar to Maslow’s concept of a self – actualized person. According to Rogers, a fully
functioning personality has three essential characteristics:
a) Openness to experience: person is receptive to the subjective, objective happenings of life.
Openness includes the ability to tolerate ambiguity in experience.
b) Congruence: Living in an existential manner. Experiences changes and each moment allows the
self to emerge possibly changed by the new experience. Person experiences freedom in each
moment to choose.
c) Internal locus of evaluation.

Rogers has a deep abiding optimism regarding the basic goodness of man. He believes that generally people
are socialized, forward moving, rational, and realistic individuals. If left, on their own, and not blocked by social
concerns, a human being’s inherent tendencies for socialized self-realization prevail and he becomes a fully
functioning personality. In his therapy, Rogers tries to promote self-realization, primarily through empathy and
unconditional positive regard, towards the goal of making the client a fully functioning personality. A process of
BA I, PAPER B, SECTION A, UNIT I 22

change is set in motion when the client perceives that the therapist has unconditional positive regard for him
and an empathic understanding of his internal frame of reference. During this process, the client becomes
increasingly more aware of his true feelings and experiences, and his self-concept becomes more congruent
with the total experiences of the organism. If complete congruence is achieved, the client would then be a fully
functioning person.

MEASUREMENT OF PERSONALITY (SELF REPORT MEASURES, PROJECTIVE METHODS, AND BEHAVIORAL

ASSESSMENT)

Research Methods in Personality

Research implies a systematic study of relationship among phenomena. It implies gathering data, which can
be interpreted in a broader theoretical framework. Personality research is generally divided into the following
four types:
1. Observation: It is the basic research approach. All other methods, experimental, correlational or case
study (clinical), involve observation. Observation can be a fruitful research method on its own as well.
Three different kinds may be described:
a) Unsystematic observation: It consists of anecdotal, ex post facto collection of facts, which is not planned
but may provide the impetus for a systematic rigorous study. Baby diaries are an excellent example.
b) Naturalistic observation: Studying phenomena as they occur in nature, without any attempt at
manipulation or control of variables. Ethologists and sociologists use this approach.
c) Field studies: Here too phenomena are studied natural environment; but some degree of manipulation is
present.
2. The experimental method: An experiment is an observation under control conditions, in which an
independent variable is manipulated to study its effect on the dependent variable, other variables being
controlled. An excellent example is Seligman’s research on “learned helplessness” later extended to
humans.
3. The correlational method: By far, the most popular method of personality research, it involves studying the
covariance between two or more variables, which do not lend themselves to experimental manipulation
easily. An example is the extensive research, which has taken place in relation to Rotter’s locus of control
construct.
4. The case-study method: The case-study method is the major research strategy of idiographic approaches to
personality. Though it is descriptive and statistics take a backseat, it is a rich source of hypotheses. The
uniqueness and organisation of personality cannot perhaps be studied by any other method. It is the
method of research used by all clinicians ranging from Freud to Rogers.
The potential strengths and limitations of these approaches may be evaluated as follows:
POTENTIAL STRENGTHS POTENTIAL LIMITATIONS
Naturalistic observations and case study method
1. Avoid artificiality of labs. 1. Lead to unsystematic observations.
2. Study full complexity of person- 2. Encourage subjective interpretation of data
environment relations
3. Lead to in-depth study of individual. 3. Entangled relationships among variables.
Experimental Research
1. Manipulates specific variables 1. Cannot study all phenomena.
2. Records data objectively 2. Creates artificiality
3. Establish cause-effect relationships. 3. Narrow, focus only on a small aspect of behaviour
Correlational Research and Questionnaires.
1. Study a wide range of variables. 1. Establish associational, not causal relations.
2. Study relations among many variables. 2. Problems of reliability and validity.
It must be remembered that these are potential strengths and weaknesses. Different methods may be
combined with effective results in a single research enterprise.

Assessment of Personality
Personality assessment implies acquiring information about people systematically. The idea is not new. In
1884, Francis Galton wrote “The character which shapes our conduct is a definite and durable ‘something’, and
therefore, it is reasonable to attempt to measure it”. Towards this end, Galton made a number of specific
proposals regarding assessment of personality, including ratings by teachers and peers, and direct observation
of the person in social situations. Personality assessment sources are:
1. Personal history and life record: This may be obtained from the person himself, his friends and relatives,
state and government agencies etc. Educational, employment ad marital history as well as personal
BA I, PAPER B, SECTION A, UNIT I 23

accomplishments can reveal a great deal about a person. Such data have the advantage that they can be
obtained confirmed objectively, such as by consulting school records.
2. Impressions of others: Goffman (1959) suggests that personality include both how people express
themselves and how they impress others. How others including friends, family and employers see people is
an important part of which they are. Thus the impressions of others may be used to judge personality.
3. Direct observations of behaviour by the researcher: Experimentally oriented scientists use direct to study
personality e.g. Aggression can be studied in a naturalistic way by observing children who are playing
together or by observing their reactions to each other in a laboratory situation. However direct
observations are expensive, time consuming and provide a very meagre amount of the data needed for a
complete understanding of personality.
4. Personality tests: One way to find out about a person is to ask the person directly. Not only is such a
procedure quick, it is also our only way of gathering information regarding the person’s subjective
experiences. However, direct questions alone provide an incomplete picture, being subject to memory
lapses, misunderstandings, and a variety of distortions. This is especially true when “sensitive “ content is
involved. In such cases, indirect assessment with projective techniques is usually more valid. However, the
utility of projective techniques depends on the expertise of the interpreter.
By far, the most common method of personality assessment is psychological tests. According to Anastasi and
Urbina (1997), “A psychological test is essentially an objective and standardised measure of a sample of
behaviour”. Standardisation implies that the test is reliable, valid, and allows the comparison of the individual
to norms derived from a group of similar individuals. The same authors hold that “ Although the term
personality is sometimes employed in a broader sense, in conventional psychometric terminology personality
tests are instruments for the measurement of emotional, motivational, interpersonal, and attitudinal
characteristics, as distinguished from abilities”. There are several hundred personality tests. Many of them are
used as group screening instruments; the majority find their principal application in clinical/ counselling
settings. Tests of personality are generally divided into structured and unstructured tests, or objective and
projective tests. Structured tests provide a clear-cut stimulus question to the subject, specifying the answers he
may choose from. The scoring is objective. Hence the tests tend to be high on reliability and validity. They
generally measure surface personality traits. Unstructured or projective tests provide an ambiguous stimulus to
the subject, which is open to a variety of interpretations. In response, the subject may write or speak as he
desires. His response is content analysed by an expert scorer. These tests are high on validity but low on
reliability, perhaps because they generally measure dynamic (motivational -emotional) factors that change
over time.

SELF REPORT MEASURES

Kaplan and Saccuzzo (2001) write, “structured personality tests attempt to evaluate personality traits,
personality types, personality types, personality states and other aspects of personality, such as self concept”.
Personality traits refer to relatively enduring dispositions – tendencies to act, think, or feel in a certain manner
in any given circumstance that distinguish one person from another. Personality types refer to general
descriptions of people; for example the avoidant personality types have low social interest and low social
interest and low activity and cope with stress by avoiding social situations. Personality states refer to emotional
reactions that vary from one situation to another. Self concept refers to a person’s self definition – an organised
and relatively consistent set of assumptions that a person has about himself or herself.

Self report techniques may be categorized on the basis of the strategy used in their development.
Psychologists disagree on how these strategies should be classified, what they should be called, and even how
many distinctly different strategies exist. Kaplan and Saccuzzo (2001) broadly classify them into deductive and
empirical. In turn, deductive strategies comprise the logical content and the theoretical approach. Empirical
strategies comprise the criterion group and the factor analysis method.
1. Deductive strategies: Deductive strategies use reason and deductive logic to determine the meaning of a
test response.
 In the logical content method, the test designer selects items on the basis of simple face validity. Initial
efforts to measure personality used this approach. E.g. Woodworth Personal Data Sheet, Bell Adjustment
Inventory, Bernreuter Personality Inventory, Mooney Problem Checklist. Their major criticism is that the
meaning of the items differs from one person to another, and may also differ between the test constructer
and the respondent.
 In the theoretical approach, test construction is guided by a particular theory. The selected items are
consistent with a theory. If the theory hypothesizes that personality can be broken down into six major
areas, then the test developer strives to create items that tap each of these six areas. E.g. Edward Personal
Preference Schedule, the Personality Research Form, and Jackson Personality Inventory are based on
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Murray’s need-press theory of personality. Myers Briggs Type Indicator uses Jung’s theory of personality
types.
2. Empirical strategies: Empirical strategies rely on data collection and statistical analyses to determine
the meaning of a test response or the nature of personality.
 In the criterion group method, test items are selected if and only if they reliably discriminate between a
control group and a group of subjects known to possess the trait in advance. E.g. only items that can
distinguish between depressed and non-depressed groups are included in a depression inventory. The test
constructor is here an extreme empiricist, guided only by data. Examples of such inventories are MMPI, CPI,
etc.
 In the factor analytic approach, the statistical technique of factor analysis is used to derive the basic
dimensions of personality. Guilford - Zimmerman Temperament Survey, Cattell’s 16 PF, Eysenck’s
Personality Questionnaire, are examples. However, the mathematical procedure is not free from
subjectivity. Factor analysis will identify only those traits about which the questions are asked initially.
Naming of the factors is also subjective.
It is well to remember that these boundaries are somewhat artificial and many test developers use a
combination of strategies. Two self report measures that rely on a combination of strategies are Millon Clinical
Multiaxial Inventory consisting of three versions, and NEO Personality Inventory – Revised.

Some famous objective tests are:

1. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): Consists of 550 statements to be classified True,
False, and cannot say. Yields scores on 10 clinical scales such as hypochondriasis, schizophrenia etc.
Generally used for clinical testing.
2. California Psychological Inventory (CPI): Based on MMPI but shorter than it, CPI gives 18 scores classified
into 4 categories Poise and self assurance; social maturity; Achievement and intellectual efficiency; and
intellectual and interest modes.
3. Edward’s Personal preference Schedule (EPPS): Measures 15 needs through an objective questionnaire
format.
4. Bell Adjustment Inventory: Measures 5 kinds of adjustment - home, health, social, emotional, and
occupational.
5. Guilford - Zimmerman Temperament Survey: Gives scores on 10 independent factors such as general
activity, restraint, ascendance, sociability, emotional stability, objectivity, friendliness, thoughtfulness etc.
6. Cattell’s16 PF: Gives a profile of scores on 16 bipolar source factors, and four second order factors.
7. Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire (EPQ): 90 items to be answered Yes/No give scores on 4 dimensions.
Psychoticism, Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Social Desirability.

PROJECTIVE METHODS

“Projective tests are those in which respondents are exposed to ambiguous stimuli that presumably yield
information about various aspects of personality” (Baron, 1992). Projective techniques originated in the clinical
setting, with the assumption (called the projective hypothesis by Frank, 1939) that while responding to an
unstructured situation, an individual projects his own feelings, needs, emotions, motives etc. without being
necessarily aware of doing so. Since he is not aware of these revelations, he does not resort to any defences.
Thus material that is latent or unconscious may also be revealed by a projective test. Objective techniques are
generally incapable of exposing such material. A convincing classification of projective techniques based on
the responses of the examinees has been given by Lindzey (1959):
1. Association techniques: The examinee is required to respond with the associations evoked in his mind
after seeing or listening to stimulus materials. These associations are not organized in any way. Jung’s
word association test, Rorschach’s inkblot test etc. are examples.
2. Construction techniques: The examinee is required to construct a response, e.g. writing a story within a
specified time, after seeing the stimulus material. E.g. TAT, Rosenzweig’s picture frustration study, etc.
3. Completion techniques: The examinee is presented incomplete sentences with instructions to complete
them in any way he likes. The responses may be interpreted in a subjective – intuitive way to assess
underlying motivations projected by the subject, or an objective analysis may be done by assigning
scores to each completed answer. Rotter incomplete sentences blank, Activity completion technique,
Incomplete sentences task, are examples.
4. Expressive techniques: The examinee expresses himself through some manipulative tasks which usually
involve some interaction with given materials. Play, Role playing, Draw – a – person, House – tree –
person, etc. are examples.
5. Choice techniques: These may be regarded as a step towards objectifying the projective techniques.
The individual has to select on of two alternatives (as in Rotter’s LOC scale) or he has to arrange or
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order the stimuli within a set (as in the Szondi test the examinee ranks the pictures in a set along a like
– dislike dimension).

Some famous projective techniques are:

1. Rorschach Inkblot Test: Developed by a Swiss Psychologist, Hermann Rorschach, in 1921, consists of 10
cards with inkblots - 5 black/white and 5 coloured. The subject writes what he ‘sees’ in each card. His
projections are thought to reveal his basic personality, intellect, motivation, creativity etc.
2. Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): Developed by Murray and popularised by McClelland, it consists of
ambiguous pictures and a blank card. The subject writes a story about each card or answers question about
it and presumably projects his needs onto the characters of this story. It is used as a measure of needs.
3. Rosenzweig P.F. Study: Studies aggression scored from responses written to 24 cartoon like pictures, which
depict frustrating situations. Based on the hypothesis that frustration leads to aggression.

BEHAVIOURAL ASSESSMENT

These techniques represent the most recent advance in personality testing. They are often – but not always –
an integral part of behavior therapy. Designed to meet the needs of therapists and clients in a quick,
uncomplicated manner, they include behavioural observations, self reports, parent ratings, staff ratings,
siblings’ ratings, teachers’ ratings, physiological assessment, biochemical assessment, interviews, etc.
Behavioural assessment implies direct measures of an individual’s behavior used to describe characteristics
indicative pf personality. These techniques concentrate on behavior itself rather than on underlying traits,
hypothetical causes, or presumed dimensions of personality.

Behavior assessment may be carried out naturalistically by observing people in their own settings: in the
workplace, at home, or in school, etc. behavioural assessment may also occur in the laboratory, under
controlled conditions, in which a psychologist sets up a situation and observes an individual’s behavior.
Regardless of the setting in which behavior is observed, an effort is made to ensure that behavioural
assessment is carried out objectively, quantifying behavior as much as possible. Various ways of quantification
are possible, such as:
 counting the frequency of behavior: an observer might record the number of social contacts a person
initiates, the number of questions asked, or the number of aggressive acts
 measuring the duration of events: an observer may measure the length of a temper tantrum in a child,
the length of a conversation, the amount of time spent working, or the time spent in cooperative
behavior.
More recently behavioural assessment procedures have also been used to get subjective reports. For example,
using electronic pagers, a researcher may beep individuals at random times during the day to get descriptions
of their behavior at that time.
Interviews may be used to get specific information indicative of personality pattern. For example, Type A
behavior pattern is associated with being constantly in a hurry. A question asked during the interview focused
on this tendency may be: “What do you do when you are stuck on the road behind a slow driver?”

Behavioural assessment procedures are an integral part of behaviour therapy used for observing and
eventually remedying specific behavioural difficulties such as excessive shyness in children, or temper
tantrums, or extremely aggressive behavior, etc. Behavioral assessment procedures provide a means of
assessing the specific nature and incidence of a problem and subsequently allow psychologists to determine
whether intervention techniques have been successful.

Some established procedures used for Behavioral Assessment are:

1. Functional (Behavior Analytic) Approach: Kanfer and Saslow (1969) developed this approach to assessment.
It focuses on behavioural excesses, and behavioural deficits, the treatment program focusing on reducing
and increasing them respectively. The approach assumes that normal and abnormal behaviors develop
according to the same laws and differ only in extremes. Behavioural excess is any behavior or class of
behaviors described as problematic by an individual because of its inappropriateness or because of
excesses in its frequency, intensity, or duration. Behavioural deficits are classes of behaviors described as
problematic because they fail to occur with sufficient frequency, with adequate intensity, in appropriate
form, or under socially expected conditions.
2. Fear Survey Schedule: Introduced by Akutagawa (1956) as a 50 item self rating scale, it now exists in many
versions with 50 to 122 items, and has been adapted for use with children, adolescents and adults. Items
typically relate to situations that involve fear and avoidance, such as open spaces, snakes, dead animals,
darkness etc, Subjects rate each item on either a 5 point or 7 point rating scale according to the degree to
which they experience that particular fear.
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3. Dysfunctional Attitude Scale: Developed by Weissman and Beck (1978) it has two parallel forms and
identifies beliefs that might interact with a stressor to produce psychopathology.
4. Irrational Beliefs Test: Developed by Jones (1968), it requires the subject to indicate
agreement/disagreement to each of the 100 items on a 5 point scale. Half of the items indicate presence of
an irrational belief, the other half, its absence.
5. Cognitive Functional Analysis: Developed by Meichenbaum (1976), it focuses on the internal dialogue of the
client, his self appraisals and expectations. Research indicates that these self statements influence your
feelings as well as behaviors.
6. Various kinds of electronic devices may be used to provide feedback. A mechanical counter, attached to the
jaw counts the number of bites a person takes when eating. It can be used to lower intake of food,
ultimately resulting in weight loss. Azrin and Powell (1968) developed an electronis device that counts the
number of times a cigarette case is opened. One can easily cheat with these devices, but the point is that
these devices help people help themselves by increasing awareness through feedback.
7. Psychophysiological measures of arousal such as EEG, ECG, alpha recordings etc. can also be used to
provide biofeedback in various treatment programs, such as those for relaxation training.

Problems in Personality Assessment: Objective tests are prone to faking by the subject, conscious as well as
unconscious. Another problem is Response styles i.e. giving the same response continuously e.g. constantly
marking Yes or No or giving extreme response or giving the middle responses. Projective techniques are not
prone to such problems because the subject does not know the purpose of the test and is generally required to
give an original, long answer to the stimulus. However, for these same reasons, they tend to be less reliable.
Situational specificity is a problem for all tests, but even more so for behavioural assessment measures. It is
the fact that tests measure only a small sample of behaviour, which the respondent may not show in actual
situations. Thus it may not be appropriate to make generalizations regarding a person’s behavior on the basis
of a single or even few tests.

CONCLUSION
Personality psychologists debate on certain enduring issues in personality assessment:
1. Whether objective (overt) aspects or subjective (covert) aspects should be assessed?
2. What is more important - the person or the situation?
3. Is the person’s uniqueness to be studied (idiographic approach) or is his alikeness to other individuals more
important (nomothetic approach)?
4. What is the goal of personality assessment -- is more understanding (explanation) enough or do we seek to
predict behaviour? Is control possible, or even desirable?
--- Every student in the area of personality needs to answer these questions.