Personality
Introduction
Personality is the product of
social interaction in group life. In society every person has different traits
such as skin, color, height and weight. They have different types of
personalities because individual are not alike. It refers to the habits, attitudes
as well as physical traits of a person which are not same but have vary from
group to group and society to society. Everyone has personality which may be
good or bad, impressive or unimpressive. It develops during the process of
socialization in a culture of a specific group or society. One cannot determine
it of an individual exactly because it varies from culture to culture and time
to time. For example, a killer is considered criminal in peace time and hero in
war. The feeling and action of an individual during interaction mould the
personality. It is the sum of mental and physical abilities and capabilities.
Meaning
Personality has been derived from the Latin word “persona” which
means “masks” used by the actors to change their
appearance. It is the combination of an individual thought characteristics,
behaviors, attitude, idea and habits.
In the beginning it was understood
that personality directly refers to physical appearance of a person. Later this
concept was abnegated and it was accepted that personality is the sum of
mental and physical abilities and capabilities.
Nature
1.
Personality is consistent.
2.
Personality can change.
3.
May be altered by major life events- birth of
child, death of a loved one, personal tragedies- accident, health problem, divorce,
significant career promotion etc.
4.
Personality changes can also be a part of
maturing process.
5.
Women’s personality in general has been
changing faster.
Definitions
1. According
to Valentine- “Personality is the sum total of innate and
acquired dispositions.”
2. According
to MacCurdy- “Personality is an integration of patterns which
gives a peculiar individual trend to the behavior of the organism.”
3. According
to Woodworth- “Personality is the Entire Qualitativeness of a
person.”
4. According
to Allport- “Personality is the dynamic organization within the
individual of those psycho-physical systems that determine his unique
adjustment to his environbment.”
5. According
to Deshell- “Personality is the sum total of behavior trends
manifested in his social adjustment.”
6.
Macionis defines as “It is a constant
pattern of thinking, feeling and acting.”
7.
Ogburn and Nimkoff define it as the
totality of sentiments, attitudes, ideas, habits, skills and behaviors of an
individual.
Types of Personality
1. On the basis of physique- Some scientists have
classified personality on the basis of physique. Classification of Kretchmer has been
presented here-
a. Asthenic type- This is characterized by narrow and elongated
extremities. They look very sickly and weak. They are depressive and want to be
alone. They are unsociable, quiet, serious, withdrawn and reserved. They enjoy
criticizing others but can’t bear theirs.
b. Athletic type- The athletic type person is strong with good body
built. They are considered to be healthy, active and aggressive. They have
general human tendency.
c. Pyknic type- The pyknic type person is characterized with broad
trunk, short arms and legs, round solid body and heavy. They can be described
as sociable, good natured, humorous and impulsive.
2. Depending on the nature- Gallen divided people in 4 classes
depending on the nature-
a.
Chalenic- This
class includes powerful and rowdy persons. They are short tempered.
b.
Melancholy-
Individuals who suffer from anxiety have been placed in this category. People
included in this group are pessimist and sheepish and generally live sad.
c.
Phlegmatic-
This class includes dull, peace loving and lazy people.
d.
Sanguine- This
class includes enthusiastic people. They are generally active and optimistic.
3. On the basis of social interaction- On the basis of social
interaction psychologist Jung has divide people in three classes-
a.
Extrovert – This type has the tendency
to live mostly outside the like to live others. Those individuals are highly
socialized and have contacts with outside people in the society. They went to
join other groups who are more in number. These types of people are drivers,
excessive drinkers, smokers, robbers, thieves, wicked person etc.
b.
Introvert- Introvert is opposite to
extrovert. Those people always live alone in their rooms and don’t want to go
outside. They have their own imaginary world. They are teachers, scientists,
thinkers and philosophers.
c.
Ambivert- Between extrovert and introvert
personalities there is a third one type called ambivert. People belonging to
this type enjoy both the group and attend them. They have middle mind and want
to live in both parties. Sometimes they join outside people but sometimes they
live in their own rooms.
4. On the basis of creativity- on the basis of creativity persons
have been classified into two classes-
a.
Creative- Creative individuals have new thoughts and high enthusiasm.
Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any
situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals.
b.
Non-Creative- Non-creative
people are generally dull and they neither think anything new nor do anything new. They just
follow the old paths only. They are orthodox.
5. In Indian perspective- According to the Srimadbhagwadgeeta
there are three virtues of personality-
a.
Sattwa Gun
b.
Rajas Gun
c.
.TamasGun
In verse
9 of chapter 14 of the Srimadbhagwadgeeta it has been stated that sattwa
gun leads to prosperity and happiness. Rajas gun leads to greed, activity, undertaking of
works, restlessness, and desires. Tamas gun leads to luxury, idleness,
fantasy, and persistence. Thus there are three types of personality.
a. Satwik personality- Sattva
guna is the “spiritual quality”. When sattva guna is dominant, a person has
inherent desire to be good and caring. Sattvic intellect clearly understands
the difference between desirable and undesirable, undutiful and dutiful action.
When sattva is dominant a person does his work as a duty. An action is done
with calm understanding and the person is free from doubts. When sattva is
dominant a person pays homage to divine and spiritual values.
b. Rajasi
personality- Rajas guna is the “active quality”. Rajas guna
is considered to give rise to passion and desire, it causes greed, activity,
undertaking of works, restlessness, and desire. Rajas dominant person is full
of attachment, full of longings for fruits of action. Due to dominance of
self-interest, the intellect gives distorted picture of right and wrong.
Enthusiasm, interest, and activity are some of the attributes of this guna.
c. Tamasi Gun-
Tamas produces idleness, fantasy, and persistence.
Characteristics of Tamas guna dominant people are revengeful and cautious. They
like to pass luxurious life.
Objectives of Personality test
1.
To compare personalities of ......... and ........ on activity-passivity dimension.
2.
To compare personalities of ......... and ........ on enthusiastic-non enthusiastic dimension.
3.
To compare personalities of ......... and ........ on assertive-submissive dimension.
4.
To compare personalities of ......... and ........ on suspicious-trusting dimension.
5.
To compare personalities of ......... and ........ on depressive-non depressive dimension.
6.
To compare personalities of ......... and ........ on emotional instability-emotional stability dimension.
Personality
Test and Its Need
A personality
test is a questionnaire or other standardized instrument
designed to reveal aspects of an individual's character or psychological makeup.
The first personality tests were developed in the 1920s and were intended to ease the process of personnel selection,
particularly in the armed forces. Today people are facing many mental problems
and personality tests are very helpful in solving them. Many techniques are
used for personality measurement. They can be classified in three classes-
1.
Personality inventory
2.
Direct technique
3.
Projective
technique
Personality inventory was
developed by Wood Worth in 1919 for the first time. Personality inventories are
of two types-
1.
One Dimensional Inventory
2.
Multi Dimension Inventory
Here I’m
going to use multi dimensional inventory.
Hypothesis for Personality Test
Hypothesis for Personality Test
1.
There is difference in personalities of ......... and ........ on activity-passivity dimension.
2. ......... and ........ are like in personalities on
enthusiastic-non enthusiastic dimension.
3. ......... and ........ are like in personalities on
assertive-submissive dimension.
4.
There is difference in personalities of ......... and ........ on suspicious-non suspicious dimension.
5.
There is no difference in personalities of ......... and ........ on depressive-non depressive dimension.
6. ......... and ........ are unlike in personalities
on on emotional instability-emotional stability dimension.
Tool Used
for Personality Test (DPI) and Its Description
Here I’ve used D.P.I. prepared by
Dr. Mahesh Bhargav for measuring personality. It was made on the basis of dimensions and items
which are very much suited to a common person. The test is devised with this
uniqueness that it is applicable to normal person aging from 14+ to any age
limit of either sexes, it is also suitable to neurotics and psychotic patients,
women with menstrual distress and physically
handicapped and disabled in any area of behavior.
This is an internationally
accepted tool. It’s valid and reliable. Initially 90 items were prepared for this inventory and they
were administered on 100 adult healthy subjects. Item Analysis was done and
items showing low internal consistency were deleted. It consists of 60
statements in Hindi / English. It measures six important personality
dimensions-
(i)
Activity-Passivity
(ii)
Enthusiastic-non-enthusiastic
(iii)
Assertive-Submissive
(iv)
Suspicious- Trusting
(v)
Depressive-Non-Depressive
(vi)
Emotional Instability-Emotional
Stability
The areas of Dimensional Personality Inventory are described
as below-
(I)
Activity-Passivity Trait — The person is active, energetic, enthusiastic,
regular, persistent and busy with ability to concentrate for long duration of
time, on the one hand and passive, dull, inactive, slow and irregular in
working, deviation with constructive output, delayed reactions in work,
unwillingness to act on the other hand.
(II)
Enthusiastic and Non-Enthusiastic Trait —It indicates the tendency to be happy
go lucky, warm hearted person, enjoying life, fond of being in company of
others, social and outgoing, mixing easily in the company of others, witty,
loves enthusiastic and courageous work, open hearted, ability to move persons
for various functions. On the other hand, lower score indicates non-enthusiastic
trend by expressing reserved, shyness, inhibited, cold, keeping aloof, feeling
difficulty to contact other people, slow spoken, non-participation of various
functions.
(III)
Assertive-Submissive— It indicates the assertiveness of an individual as person is
straight forward in all dealing of life, bold, having traits of leadership,
likes to act as a main role player, independent nature, non-convincing with
other's ideas, dominant, whereas submissiveness keeps his ideas to himself
only, not dare to open his mouth, fearful to meet and exchange views with
others, accept subordination and act as others say, hesitant to oppose other's
views. High score indicates the assertiveness trait of personality, whereas low
score is near to submissiveness dimension.
(IV)
Suspicious-Trusting—High score of an individual shows his suspicious nature about others,
having no faith on others, blaming others for his all failures and non-achievement,
feeling misconception of people about himself and feels that others are jealous
of him and want to harm him, whereas low score tends to trusting trait of
personality which do not have any such tendency. This positive dimension of
personality is characterized by free of jealous tendencies, accepting
conditions, easy to get on with others, adaptable, cheerful, uncompetive, a
good team worker, an open and tolerant person and usually willing to take a
chance with people, realizing own weaknesses and faults.
(V)
Depressive-Non-Depressive—High score on this personality trait indicates feeling of
helplessness, worthlessness, depressed, unwanted, unloved, suicidal ideas,
feeling of inferiority, highly frustrated, lack of self confidence, sad on
misdeeds and mistakes done in the past, jealous about others happiness,
restless and full of tense. Whereas low score tends to be non-depressive characterized
by relaxation, non-frustrated, composed and satisfied.
(VI)
Emotional Instability-Emotional Stability—The high score on this personality
trait indicates emotional instability where individual is affected by feelings,
emotionally less stable, easily annoyed and upset having low frustration
tolerance for unsatisfactory conditions, highly anxious and worrying, fearful,
sensitive, touchy, given to mood swings, depressed and sad whenever confronted
with stressful situations, having neurotic symptoms like phobias, sleep
disturbances and psychotic disorders. The low score is indicative of
emotionally stable trait of the personality where person is with full control
over his emotional expressions, emotionally mature, stable, realistic about
life situations, possessing ego strength, high level of adjustment with
unsolved emotional problems.
Administration
of the Test
This test may be administered on all individuals regardless
to sex above the age of 14 years. It can be used individually as self
administration as well as in group also. It can also be used by the Test
Administrator by taking verbal response alternative on those who cannot read
and so depleted by illness. Instructions are very easy. Every individual or
group is to be instructed that they should read every statement carefully and
his response is to be recorded on the basis of 3 response alternatives-Yes,
Undecided and No. He has to decide which statement is true according
to his behavior. If it is true, he has to put a cross (×) on cell below
yes alternative, if it is not true, then he has to put a cross (×) on cell below
no alternative and if he fails to decide, he has to put a cross (×) on cell
below undecided alternative.
Scoring
Each personality trait is measured by 10 items through three
response alternatives-Yes, Undecided and No. Scoring each yes response is to be
scored as 2, undecided is to be scored as 1, whereas no and
unmarked response is to be scored as zero. All the six dimensional 80
areas of personality are grouped as Part I, II, III, IV, V and VI, each
containing 10 statements. Thus on each area of personality, score may range
from 0 to 20 and thus may be calculated area-wise and total score of each part
may be obtained at that place and then transfer to scoring table below each
part against raw scores column.
Scores obtained from parts of D.P.I. are called raw scores
that are converted with the help of Z-score table.
The total time required for administration is 15 minutes. It
is assumed that each of the personality traits is normally distributed.
Selection
of Subjects for Personality Test
Two normal subjected were selected
for measurement of their personality on various 6 dimensions of D.P.I. I
selected them for the following reasons-
1.
Both the subjects are physically and mentally
fit.
2.
Both the subjects are well educated,
understanding and civilized.
3.
Both of them are my students. Hence, I know
both of them very well.
4.
Both of them are of similar age.
Detailed Description of the Subjects
1. First Subject
Name-
Age-
Gender-
Education-
Religion-
Caste-
Urban/Rural-
Occupation-
Address-
Contact Number-
2. Second Subject
Name-
Age-
Gender-
Education-
Religion-
Caste-
Urban/Rural-
Address-
Contact Number-
Raw
scores Obtained from Personality Test
For first subject
Serial no.
|
Raw score
|
Z-score
|
1
|
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2
|
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3
|
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4
|
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5
|
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6
|
For second subject
Serial no.
|
Raw score
|
Z-score
|
1
|
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2
|
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3
|
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4
|
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5
|
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6
|
Comparative Analytical Table of Scores
First
|
Person
|
Second
|
Person
|
||||
Serial
no.
|
Raw
score
|
Z-score
|
Interpretation
|
Raw
score
|
Z-score
|
Interpretation
|
Hypothesis
|
1
|
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2
|
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3
|
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4
|
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5
|
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6
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