Personality
Personality:
Meaning: it is derived from Latin word persona which means mask worn by actors during a
play. In ancient personality referred to the social role an actor portray on stage. Overtime this
concept evolved to refer to the characteristics or traits that define a person behavior, thoughts and
emotions.
Definition: Personality is defined as “the unique and consistent pattern of thinking, feeling and
behaving that makes an individual distinct\unique from others.
Theories of personality: The following are the well-known theories of personality.
Psychoanalytic theory:
This theory was presented by Sigmund Freud to explain personality and treat people with
psychological problems. Freud emphasized that personality is greatly influenced due to
childhood experiences, unconscious mind and inner conflicts. He explained structure of
personality and stages for the development of personality.
Structure of personality: for Freud the personality forms from a conflict between our
aggressive, pleasure-seeking biological impulses and the social restraints against them.
Personality results from our efforts to resolve this basic conflict. Conflict enters at three
interacting systems id, ego and super-ego.
1. ID: it is the raw, unorganized and inherited part of personality whose sole purpose is to
reduce tension created by primitive drives related to hunger, thirst, sleep, aggression and
irrational impulses. ID operates on pleasure principle in which the goal is the immediate
reduction of tension and maximization of satisfaction.
2. EGO: As the child grows up, another mental structure develops which is conscious and
operates according to reality principles. The ego obeys reality principle which means that
the gratification of the imposes must be delayed until the appropriate environmental
conditions are found. Example, ego delays the satisfaction of hunger until having own
food and not by snatching or stealing.
3. Super-ego: it is the final personality structure represents the right and wrong of society.
At the age of five this structure develops. It contains the moral principles and values
which have acquired from the parents and society. It consists of two parts one is
conscience- which prevents us from morally bad things and the other is ego-ideal-
motivates us to do what is normally good and what ones should do.
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Stages of personality development: Freud also provides view about how personality develops
throughout a series of stages during childhood.
1. Oral stage: (birth-18 months): In this stage the child mouth is the pleasure zone. In this
stage the child achieve pleasure through oral activities like feeding, thumb sucking and
sucking of non-food items like nipple, rattle etc. over gratification and under gratification
at this stage can cause fixation which later produces characteristics like smoking or
alcohol dependency, verbal aggression, nails biting and tongue biting etc.
2. Anal stage :( 2-3years): At this stage the child faces the demands of society like
cleanliness. At this stage the children learn to respond to some of the demands of society
such as cleanliness. If fixation occurs at this stage, Freud suggested that adults might
show unusual rigidity, orderliness, punctuality or extreme disorderliness.
3. Phallic stage :( 3-6 years): In this stage the child learns difference between male and
female and become aware of gender. At this stage baby boy develops attachment with
mother called Oedipus complex and baby girls develop attachment with father called
Electra complex.
4. Latency stage: (6-puberty): At this stage the individual gains satisfaction by exploring the
environment and developing skills. The main focus of individual is on peer relationship –
means making friends.
5. Genital stage: (During adolescence): In this stage the individual’s main focus is on
making career and intimate relationships.
2. Type and trait theory:
Type theory: this theory categorizes people into certain personality types due to some
shared characteristics. It states that people fit into fixed category and behave in similar
ways. Famous type theory was given by Carl Jung. He explained personality on the basis
of introvert (Quite, reserved, shy, less confident and enjoy solitary activities) and
extrovert (outgoing, sociable, talkative, expressive and confident).
And another example is Type A and Type B personality identified by Friedman and
Rosenman.
Type A- competitive, aggressive and time urgent.
Type B- relaxed, non-competitive and easy going.
Trait theory: trait theory suggests that personality is made up of individual traits, which
are stable and influence human behavior.
Example: Raymond Catell theory of sixteen personality factors also known as 16PF
theory. According to him each individual contain these sixteen traits in varying degree.
1. Warmth
2. Reasoning
3. Emotional stability
4. Dominance
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5. Liveliness
6. Rule-consciousness
7. Social boldness
8. Sensitivity
9. Vigilance
10. Abstractedness
11. Privatedness
12. Apprehension
13. Openness to change
14. Self-reliance
15. Perfectionism
16. Tension
Assessment of personality:
Personality assessment refers to the process of describing or evaluating individual’s behavior.
Assessment includes two types of techniques:
1. Projective: In this type of tests people can project their needs, feelings and conflicts or
can share their personal opinion. It includes:
I. Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): it consists of 31 cards or pictures about
which a person is asked to write a story. The stories are then used to assess
individual’s personality. The term apperception refers to contention that
people being tested to do more perceive than what is there. It is assumed that
what people write in the story will reflect central themes that are motives,
concerns, interests and fears in their personalities.
II. House Tree Person test (HTP): This test involves free hand drawing by the
subject. A person draws house tree and person. From which psychologist assesses
one’s personality structure, detecting emotional problems, evaluating self-
perception, family dynamics and inter-personal relationships.
III. Sentence completion test: This involves incomplete sentences which an
individual completes and then psychologists assess a person by his manner of
completion, give the psychologist a certain aspects of personality.
2. Non-projective: In which a person cannot share personal opinion. It includes self-report
tests.
I. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): it was designed in 1940 to
identify people with psychological disorder. Since then it has been widely used
for normal and abnormal individuals. It consists of 567 items to which a person
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respond “true”, “false” or “cannot say”. The questions cover a variety of issues
ranging from mood to physical and psychological health.
II. California Personality Inventory (CPI): it contains 434(full) and (260) items in
shorter version. It measure normal personality traits, interpersonal behavior and
leadership potential.
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