CHAPTER – 2

PERSONALITY & SELF (part 2)

Neo Freudians
Carl Jung: Aims and Aspirations
Jung saw human beings guided as much by aims and aspirations as by sex and
aggression. His theory of personality is called analytical psychology.
Its basic assumption is that personality consists of competing forces and structures
within the individual (that must be balanced) rather than between the individual and
the demands of society, or between the individual and reality.

He claimed that there was a collective unconscious : It is a part of the unconscious mind
which grows out of the past experiences of the human race and shared by all humans. It
is the storehouse of latent memory traces inherited from one’s ancestral past, a past that
includes not only the racial history of humans but also their pre human or animal
ancestory as well.

Collective unconscious consists of archetypes (the God or Mother Earth) or primordial

images. Archetypes are the structural components of collective unconscious. These are
not individually acquired, but are inherited. They are found in myths, dreams and arts
of all mankind.

He held that the self strives for unity and oneness. As per him, to achieve unity and
wholeness, a person must become increasingly aware of the wisdom available in one’s
personal and collective unconscious, and must learn to live in harmony with it.

Karen Horney : Optimism

Horney adopted a more optimistic view of human life with emphasis on human
growth and self-actualization.

According to her, each sex has attributes to be admired by the other, and neither sex
can be viewed as superior or inferior.

She said that women are more likely to be affected by social and cultural factors than
by biological factors.

She argued that psychological disorders were caused by disturbed interpersonal

relationship during childhood.

When parent’s behavior towards the child is indifferent, discouraging, and erratic, the
child feels insecure and a feeling called basic anxiety results, which is the cause of deep
resentment towards parents or basic hostility.

By showing excessive dominance or indifference, or by providing too much or too little

approval, parents can generate among children feelings of isolation and helplessness
which interfere with their healthy development.

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Alfred Adler :
Inferiority Complex and Striving for superiority
■ Adler’s theory is known as individual psychology and his basic assumption is
that human behavior is purposeful and goal-directed and each one of us has the
capacity to choose and create.
■ Our personal goals are our sources of motivation. The goals that help us feel
secure and overcome feelings of inadequacy and guilt (i.e. inferiority complex
which arises in child-hood) are important in personality development.
■ Since our personal goals are the source of motivation, our main motivation is
“striving for superiority” and overcoming a
sense of inferiority that we feel as infants .
■ A healthy person learns to cope with these feelings, becomes competent, and
develops a sense of self-esteem
■ Inferiority complex is the strong feeling of inferiority felt by those who never
overcome this initial feeling of inferiority
Extra Information
Social Interest (Extra Information)

■ Adler believed that humans are social creatures by nature and that social interest
is inborn. Though this innate predisposition does not appear spontaneously but
has to be brought out.
■ As the person grows, striving for superiority becomes [Link] ideal of a
perfect society takes the place of purely personal ambition and selfish gain.
■ By working for the common good, humans compensate for their individual
weaknesses. Social interest is the true and inevitable compensation for all the
natural weaknesses of individual human beings.

Style of Life (Extra Information)

■ Adler explains the uniqueness of the person. According to this concept, one has a
style of life but no two people develop the same style.
■ Everyone has the same goal, that of superiority, but there are innumerable ways
of striving for this goal. One person tries to become superior through developing
the intellect, while another bends all of his or her efforts to achieving muscular
perfection. The person perceives, learns and retains what fits his style of life and
ignores everything else.

Parenting Styles. (Extra Information ) Adler did agree with Freud on some major issues
relating to the parenting of children and the long term effects of improper or inefficient
child rearing. He identified two parental styles that he argued will cause almost certain
problems in adulthood.
1. The first was pampering, referring to a parent overprotecting a child, giving him
too much attention, and sheltering him from the negative realities of life. As this
child grows older, he will be ill equipped to deal with these realities, may doubt
his own abilities or decision making skills, and may seek out others to replace the
safety he once enjoyed as a child.
2. On the other extreme is what Adler called neglect. A neglected child is one who
is not protected at all from the world and is forced to face life’s struggles alone.

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 This child may grow up to fear the world, have a strong sense of mistrust for
others and she may have a difficult time forming intimate relationships.

Birth Order. Simply put, Adler believed that the order in which you are born to a family
inherently affects your personality.
1. First born children who later have younger siblings may have it the worst. These
children are given excessive attention and pampering by their parents until that
fateful day when the little brother or sister arrives. Suddenly they are no longer
the center of attention and fall into the shadows wondering why everything
changed. According to Adler, they are left feeling inferior, questioning their
importance in the family, and trying desperately to gain back the attention they
suddenly lost. The birth order theory holds that first born children often have
the greatest number of problems as they get older.
2. Middle born children may have it the easiest, and interestingly, Adler was a
middle born child. These children are not pampered as their older sibling was,
but are still afforded the attention. As a middle child, they have the luxury of
trying to dethrone the oldest child and become more superior while at the same
time knowing that they hold this same power over their younger siblings. Adler
believed that middle children have a high need for superiority and are often able
to seek it out such as through healthy competition.
3. The youngest children, like the first born, may be more likely to experience
personality problems later in life. This is the child who grows up knowing that
he has the least amount of power in the whole family. He sees his older siblings
having more freedom and more superiority. He also gets pampered and
protected more than any other child did. This could leave him with a sense that
he can not take on the world alone and will always be inferior to others.

■ In summary, Adler endowed humans with cooperation, altruism, uniqueness; he

restored to humans a sense of dignity and worth that psychoanalysis had pretty
largely destroyed.

Erich Fromm : The Human Concerns

Fromm developed his theory from a social orientation.

He viewed human beings as essentially being social beings who could be understood in
terms of the relationship with others.

He argued that psychological qualities like growth realization of potentials result from
desire for freedom and striving for justice and truth.

(Additional Information )

■ Our character traits develop from our experience with other individuals. People’s
dominant character traits in a given society work as forces in shaping the social

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 processes and the culture itself. Social orientation : humans can be understood in
terms of their relationship with others.
■ Fromm's theory is a rather unique blend of Freud and Marx. Freud, of course,
emphasized the unconscious, biological drives, repression, and so on. In other
words, Freud postulated that our characters were determined by biology. Marx,
on the other hand, saw people as determined by their society, and most
especially by their economic systems.
■ He added to this mix of two deterministic systems something quite foreign to
them: The idea of freedom. In fact, Fromm makes freedom the central
characteristic of human nature! There are, Fromm points out, examples where
determinism alone operates. A good example of nearly pure biological
determinism, ala Freud, is animals (at least simple ones). Animals don't worry
about freedom -- their instincts take care of everything. Woodchucks, for
example, don't need career counseling to decide what they are going to be when
they grow up: They are going to be woodchucks!
■ A good example of socioeconomic determinism, ala Marx, is the traditional
society of the Middle Ages. Just like woodchucks, few people in the Middle Ages
needed career counseling: They had fate, the Great Chain of Being, to tell them
what to do.
■ Today, we might look at life in the Middle Ages, or life as an animal, and cringe.
But the fact is that the lack of freedom represented by biological or social
determinism is easy. Your life has structure, meaning, there are no doubts, no
cause for soul-searching, you fit in and never suffered an identity crisis.
■ Over a mere 500 years, the idea of the individual, with individual thoughts,
feelings, moral conscience, freedom, and responsibility, came into being, but
with individuality came isolation, alienation, and bewilderment. Freedom is a
difficult thing to have, and when we can we tend to flee from it.
■ A person’s adjustment to society usually represents a compromise between inner
needs and outer demands. A person develops a social character in keeping with
the requirements of the society
■ By making demands upon humans that are contrary to their nature (desire for
freedom and self actualisation), society wraps and frustrates humans.
■ Fromm believed that character(personality) affects and is affected by social
structure and social change.
■ The human dilemma can only be solved through positive freedom, which is the
spontaneous activity of the whole, integrated personality, and which is achieved
when a person becomes reunited with others.
■ Fromm recognizes the value of positive qualities, such as love and tenderness in
personality development.

Erik Erikson : Search for identity :

His theory lays stress on rational, conscious ego processes in personality development.

Development is viewed as a lifelong process, and ego identity is granted a central place
in this process.

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His concept of identity crisis of adolescent age has drawn considerable attention.

Erikson argues that young people must generate for themselves a central perspective
and a direction that can give them a meaningful sense of unity and purpose.

The major criticisms faced by Psychodynamic theories are :

● They are largely based on case studies; they lack rigorous scientific basis.
● They use small and atypical individuals as samples for advancing
generalizations.
● The concepts are not properly defined, and it is difficult to submit them to
scientific testing.
● Freud has used males as prototype of all human personality development. He
over looked female experiences and perspectives.

Behavrioural Approach

It gives no importance to internal dynamics.

The behaviorists believe in data which they are definable, observable and measurable.

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They focus on learning of stimulus response connections and their reinforcement.

Personality can be best understood as the response of an individual to the environment.

For most behaviorists the structural unit of personality is the response. Each response is
a behaviour which is emitted to satisfy a specific need.

All of us eat because of hunger but we are choosy also about foods. E.g children do not
like eating many vegetables like spinach, etc. but they gradually learn to eat them.
Initially they do so in anticipation on appreciation/reinforcement from their parents.
Later they may learn not only because of parents but also because they acquire the taste
of those vegetables and find them good.

The core tendency that organizes behaviour is the reduction of biological or social needs
that energize behaviour.

Theories of classical conditioning (Pavlov), instrumental conditioning (Skinner), and

observational learning (Bandura) view learning and maintenance of behaviour from
different angles. The principles of these theories have been widely used in developing
personality theories.

B. F. Skinner’s Ideas: B. F. Skinner is well known for describing the principles of operant
conditioning. Skinner believed that the environment determines behavior. This means
that over time, people learn to behave in particular ways. Behaviors that have positive
consequences tend to increase, while behaviors that have negative consequences tend to
decrease.

Skinner didn’t think that childhood played an especially important role in shaping
personality. Instead, he thought that personality develops over the whole life span.
People’s responses change as they encounter new situations.
Example: When Jeff was young, he lived in the suburbs. He developed a liking for fast
driving because his friends enjoyed riding with him and he never got speeding tickets. After he
left college, though, he moved to the city. Whenever he drove fast, he got a speeding ticket. Also,
his new friends were much more cautious about driving in fast cars. Now Jeff doesn’t like to drive
fast and considers himself to be a cautious person.
Albert Bandura’s Ideas: Albert Bandura pointed out that people learn to respond in
particular ways by watching other people, who are called models. Although Bandura
agrees that personality arises through learning, he believes that conditioning is not an
automatic, mechanical process. He and other theorists believe that cognitive processes
like thinking and reasoning are important in learning. The kind of behaviorism they
advocate is called social-cognitive learning.

Whom Do We Imitate?
Research has shown that people are more likely to imitate some models than others.
People tend to imitate models they like or admire and models they consider attractive
and powerful. People are also more likely to imitate models who seem similar to
themselves. Furthermore, if people see models being rewarded for their behavior, they
will be more likely to imitate those models. Advertisers often use these research results
when they design ads. For example, ads that try to persuade young adults to purchase a

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 certain brand of soft drink often show young, attractive models who are being rewarded
with good times for their soda-drinking behavior.
Criticisms of Behavioral Approaches
1. Behaviorist researchers often do animal studies of behavior and then
generalize their results to human beings. Generalizing results in this way can
be misleading, since humans have complex thought processes that affect
behavior.
2. Behaviorists often underestimate the importance of biological factors.
3. By emphasizing the situational influences on personality, some
social-cognitive theorists underestimate the importance of personality traits.

CULTURAL APPROACH :
This approach attempts to understand personality in relation to the features of ecological
and cultural environment.
It proposes that a group economic system play a vital role in the origin of cultural and
behavioural varieties.
Climatic conditions, nature of terrain of the habitat and availability of food (flora and
fauna) in it determine people.

Economic activities, division of Labour , social Structure , child rearing practices and
settlement patterns contributes to the child’s overall learning environment.
▪ Peoples skills
▪ Ability as strongly linked
▪ Behavioural style
▪ Value priority
▪ Rituals
▪ Ceremonies
▪ Religious practices
▪ Arts
▪ Recreational activities
▪ Games and Play
are means through which people’s personality are reflected through culture.

Cultural Approach considers personality as adaptation of an individual or groups to the

demands of ecology and culture. Example :

■ Hunting and gathering society ■ Agricultural societies

(Birhor : a tribal group)

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The child socialization practices are aimed Chidren are socialized to be obedient to
at making chidren independent, elders, nurturant to youngsters , and
autonomous and achievement oriented responsible to their duties.
from an early age of life.

HUMANISTIC THEORY/APPROACH (Abrahan Maslow & Carl Rogers )

● The humanistic theories are mainly developed in response to Freud’s theory. Carl
Rogers and Abraham Maslow have particularly contributed to the development
of humanistic perspective on personality The humanistic approach emphasises
the significance of positive aspects of life .
● We will briefly examine their theories.

Carl Rogers
● The most important idea proposed by Rogers is that of a fully functioning
person. He believes that fulfilment is the motivating force for personality
development. People try to express their capabilities, potentials and talents to the
fullest extent possible. There is an inborn tendency among persons that directs
them to actualise their inherited nature.
● Rogers makes two basic assumptions about human behaviour.
1. behaviour is goal-directed and worthwhile.
2. people (who are innately good) will almost always choose adaptive,
self-actualising behaviour.
● Rogers’ theory grew out of his experiences of listening to patients in his clinic. He
noted that self was an important element in the experience of his clients. Thus,
his theory is structured around the concept of self. The theory assumes that
people are constantly engaged in the process of actualising their true self.
● Congruence and Incongruence: Rogers said that people’s self-concepts often do
not exactly match reality. For example, a person may consider himself to be very
honest but often lies to his boss about why he is late to work. Rogers used the
term incongruence to refer to the discrepancy between the self-concept and
reality. Congruence, on the other hand, is a fairly accurate match between the
self-concept and reality.
Rogers suggests that each person also has a concept of ideal self. An ideal self is
the self that a person would like to be. When there is a correspondence between
the real self and ideal self, a person is generally happy. Discrepancy between the
real self and ideal self often results in unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Rogers’
basic principle is that people have a tendency to maximise self-concept through
self-actualisation. In this process, the self grows, expands and becomes more
social.
● According to Rogers, parents promote incongruence if they give their children
conditional love. If a parent accepts a child only when the child behaves a
particular way, the child is likely to block out experiences that are considered
unacceptable. On the other hand, if the parent shows unconditional love, the
child can develop congruence.

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 Results of Incongruence: Rogers thought that people experience anxiety when
their self-concepts are threatened. To protect themselves from anxiety, people distort
their experiences so that they can hold on to their self-concept. People who have a high
degree of incongruence are likely to feel very anxious because reality continually
threatens their self-concepts.
Example: Erin believes she is a very generous person, although she is often stingy with her money
and usually leaves small tips or no tips at restaurants. When a dining companion comments on
her tipping behavior, she insists that the tips she leaves are proportional to the service she gets. By
attributing her tipping behavior to bad service, she can avoid anxiety and maintain her
self-concept of being generous

● Rogers views personality development as a continuous process. It involves

learning to evaluate oneself and mastering the process of self-actualisation. He
recognises the role of social influences in the development of self-concept. When
social conditions are positive, the self-concept and self-esteem are high. In
contrast, when the conditions are negative, the self-concept and self-esteem are
low. People with high self-concept and self-esteem are generally flexible and
open to new experiences, so that they can continue to grow and self-actualise.

Pattern of Adjustment and self concept

● This situation warrants that an atmosphere of unconditional positive regard

must be created in order to ensure enhancement of people’s self-concept. The
client-centred therapy that Rogers developed basically attempts to create this
condition.

Abraham Maslow
● Maslow has given a detailed account of psychologically healthy people in terms
of their attainment of self-actualisation, a state in which people have reached
their own fullest potential.

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 ● Maslow had an optimistic and positive view of man who has the potentialities
for love, joy and to do creative work. Human beings are considered free to shape
their lives and to self-actualise. Self-actualisation becomes possible by analysing
the motivations that govern our life. We know that biological, security, and
belongingness needs (called survival needs) are commonly found among animals
and human beings. Thus, an individual’s sole concern with the satisfaction of
these needs reduces her/ him to the level of animals. The real journey of human
life begins with the pursuit of self-esteem and self-actualisation needs.
Who is a a healthy person ? ( see box 2.3 in the textbook)
ASSESSMENT OF PERSONALITY

To understand and describe the individual we have to assess the personality of the
individual.
Personality assessment is
● a formal effort aimed at understanding personality of an individual.
● Assessment refers to procedure used to evaluate or differentiate people on the
basis of certain characteristics.

GOALS OF ASSESSMENT
● to understand and predict behavior of an individual with minimum (error) and
increased accuracy.
● to study the behavior of an individual in a given situation
● Useful for diagnosis, training placement, counseling and other purposes.

TECHNIQUES OF PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT :

These techniques are routed in different theoretical orientation.
● Psychometric Tests /Self Report measures
● Projective Techniques
● Behaviour Analysis

SELF REPORT MEASURES (DIRECT TECHNIQUES) –

● This is a direct technique of personality assessment because these techniques tend
to rely on information directly obtained from the person who clearly knows that
his/her personality is being assessed.
● Allport suggested best method to assess a person by asking him/her about
himself/herself through self report measures.
● These are fairly structured measures often based on theory that requires the
subject to give verbal responses using some kind of rating scales.
● The test requires Subject to report his/her feeling objectively with respect to
various items.
● Responses are accepted at face value.
● Records are generated on quantitative terms and
● Interpreted on basis of norms developed for the test.
● Some of the well known tests are as under :
1. MMPI (The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality inventory).
2. Eysenck Personality Questionnaire
3. 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire.

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 MMPI (The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality inventory)
● Hathaway and Mckinley had developed MMPI Test as a helping tool for diagnosis of
psychiatric illnesses.
● This test is also found to be very effective in identifying varieties of psycho pathology
(lack of feeling for others).
● Revised version called MMPI-2. It consists of 567 items.
● The subject judges each item ‘statements’ as true or false for her/him.
● The test is divided into 10 sub scales which seek to diagnose
▪ Hypochondriasis ▪ Paranoia
▪ Depression ▪ Psychasthenia
▪ Hysteria ▪ Schizophrenia
▪ Psychopathic Deviate ▪ Mania
▪ Masculinity femininity ▪ Social introversion

● Indian Version MMPI called Multiphasic personality Inventory (JMPI) developed

by Mallik and Joshi.

Eysenck Personality Questionnaire

● Eysenck developed two dimensions of personality
▪ Introverted – Extroverted
▪ Emotionally stable – Emotionally unstable
These dimensions are characterised by 32 personality traits.
● Later-on Eysenck added a third dimension :
▪ Psychoticism – Sociability
Psychoticism is psychopathology that represents
▪ lack of feeling for others
▪ tough manner of interacting with others
▪ tendency to defy social conventions
People high on this dimension tend to be hostile, egocentric, antisocial.

16 PF questionnaire (Cattell)
● On the basis of his studies , Cattell identified a large set of personality
descriptors which are subjected to factor analysis to identify the basic personality
structure.
● The Test provides with declarative statements and the subject responds to a
specific situation by choosing from a set of given alternatives
● Test can be used with high school level students and adults. It is useful in career
guidance, vocational guidance/exploration and in occupational testing.

LIMITATIONS OF SELF REPORT MEAUSRES :

1. Social desirability - Tendency on part of the respondent to endorse items in a
socially desirable manner.

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2. Acquiescence - It is a tendency of the subject to agree with items/questions
irrespective of their contents).It often appear in the form of saying ‘Yes’ to items.
3. Random Responding
[Link]
These problems renders the assessment of personality less reliable.
Note of Caution :
● Psychological Testing and understanding personality require great skill and
training.
● Unless one has acquired these to an optimum level under careful supervision of
an expert, one should not venture into testing and interpreting the personality of
an individual.

PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUE (INDIRECT METHOD)

General theoretical position behind projective tests is that
● Whenever specific question is asked from a person the response will be
consciously formulated and socially determined.
● These responses don’t reflect respondent’s unconscious or implicit altitude or
motivations.
● The respondent deep seated motivation may not be consciously recognized by
the respondent or
● Respondent may not be able to verbally express them in the form demanded by
the questionnaire.
What are projective techniques ?
● Projective technique uses various kinds of ambiguous stimulus materials or
situations (ambiguous stimuli) for assessment of personality.
● These ambiguous stimulus allow the subject to express their thoughts that
originate on a deeper level than tapped by explicit questions.
● That means projective techniques were developed to assess unconscious motives
and feelings.
● These techniques are based on the assumption that a less structured or
unstructured stimulus or situation will allow the individual to project his/her
feelings or desires and needs on that situation.
● These projections are interpreted by experts.
● A variety of projective technique have been developed using various kinds of
stimulus materials and situations for assessing personality.

Nature of Stimuli and Responses :

These technique vary enormously but all of them do share the following features :
● Stimuli are relatively or fully unstructured and poorly defined.
● The Person being assessed is usually not told about the purpose of assessment,
method of scoring and interpretation.
● Person is informed that there are no correct or incorrect responses.
● Each response reveals a significant aspect of personality.
● Scoring and interpretation are lengthy and sometimes subjective.
Difference between Projective techniques and psychometric tests
● Projective techniques cannot be scored in any objective manner.
● They require qualitative analysis for which a rigorous training is needed.

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Well known projective techniques
● RORSCHACH INKBLOT TEST
● THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST (TAT)
● ROSENWEIG’S PICTURE – FRUSTRATION STUDY (P. F. STUDY)
● SENTENCE COMPLETION TEST.
● DRAW A PERSON TEST

RORSCHACH INKBLOT TEST

● Developed by Herman Rorschach
● There are 10 inkblots : 5 Black & white 2 with some Red Ink and 3 with pastel
shades
● Blots are symmetrical in design with a specific shape or form.
● Each blot printed in the centre of a white cardboard of about 7” x 10” size.
● Blots were originally made b y dropping ink on a piece of paper and then
folding the paper in half. Hence called Inkblot test.
● These cards are administered in two phases.
1st Stage/Phase called Performance proper
The subject are shown the cards and asked to tell what they see in each of them.
2nd Phase called Inquiry stage
A detailed report of the response is prepared by asking the subject to tell
● Where, How and on what basis a response was made.
● Fine judgment is required to place the subject’s responses in a meaningful
context.
● The use and interpretation requires extensive training.
● Computer techniques too have been developed for analysis of the data.
●
THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST (TAT)
Another popular projective test is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) in which
o an individual views ambiguous scenes of people,
o and is asked to describe various aspects of the scene
o for example, the subject may be asked
▪ to describe what led up to this scene,
▪ the emotions of the characters, and
▪ what might happen afterwards.

● Developed by Morgan and Murray

● Consists of – 30 black and white picture cards .One blank card
● Each picture card depict one or more people in a variety of situation.
● Some cards used with adult male or female .Others used with boys & girls.
● 20 cards appropriate for a subject.
● Cards presented one by one. Subject is required to narrate a story describing the
situation present in the picture.
▪ What led to the situation
▪ What is happening at that situation

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 ▪ What will happen in the future
▪ What the characters are thinking and feeling.
● The examiner then evaluates these descriptions, attempting to discover the
conflicts, motivations and attitudes of the respondent.
● In the answers, the respondent "projects" their unconscious attitudes and
motivations into the picture, which is why this is referred to as "projective test."
● Test modified for children and aged
● Uma Chaudhary of India developed the Indian Version of TAT test.

ROSENWEIG’S PICTURE – FRUSTRATION STUDY (P. F. STUDY)

● Developed by Rozenzweig’s
● It assesses how people express aggression in the face of a frustrating
situation/condition.
● The test presents with the help of Cartoon like pictures, a series of situation in
which one person frustrates other or call attention to a frustrating condition. The
subject is asked to tell what the other (frustrated) person will say or do.
● Analysis depends upon type and direction of aggression. An attempt is made to
examine whether the focus is
▪ on frustrating object or
▪ on protection of frustrated individual or
▪ on Constructive solution to a problem
▪ Direction of aggression may be towards the :
▪ Environment or
▪ One Self or
▪ May be turned off in an attempt to gloss over or evade (avoid) the situation
● Pareek has proposed the Indian version of PF study.

SENTENCE COMPLETION TEST

● The test provides subject with several opportunities to reveal their unconscious
motivation
● This test makes use of no. of incomplete sentences. Starting part of the sentence is
first presented and then subject has to provide an ending to the sentence
● It is held that the type of ending used by the subject reflects their
▪ Attitudes
▪ Motivations
▪
Conflict
● Sample item of a Sentence Completion test :
1. My father_______________________________
2. My greatest feat is ________________________
3. The best thing about my mother is ___________
4. I am proud of ____________________________
DRAW A PERSON TEST

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 ● Subject is asked to draw a person on a sheet of paper. A pencil and eraser is
provided to facilitate drawing.
● After completion person is asked to draw a person of the opposite sex person.
● Finally subject is asked to make a story about the character as if he/she was a
character in a novel or a play.
● Some examples of interpretations are as follows :
▪ Omission of facial expression or features involves a highly conflict ridden inter
personal relationship.
▪ Graphic emphasis on the neck suggest Lack of control over impulses.
▪Large Head suggests organic brain disease and pre-occupation with
headaches.
CRITICISM OF PROJECTIVE TEST :
● They rely heavily on clinical judgment,
● lack reliability and validity
● have no standardized criteria to which result may be compared
● However inspite of these criticisms they are still very popular and used quite
frequently.

BEHAVRIOUR ANALYSIS
● A person’s behaviour in a variety of situations provides us with meaningful
information about his/her personality.
● Observation of behaviour serve as a basis of Behavrioural analysis.
● An observer’s report may contain data obtained from:
▪ OBSERVATION
▪ NOMINATIONS
▪ INTERVIEW
▪ SITUATIONAL TESTS
▪ RATINGS

INTERVIEW :
▪ Most commonly used method for assessing personality
▪ Involves talking to the person being assessed and asking specific
questions
▪ Diagnostic interview generally involves in-depth interview.
▪ Interview may be structured or unstructured depending upon the
purpose of assessment.
Unstructured Interview:
▪ To develop impression by asking questions.
▪ The way a person presents himself/herself and answers the
question carries enough potential to reveal his/her personality.
Structured Interview :

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 ▪ address very specific questions and
▪ follow a set procedures
▪ help in objective comparisons of the interviewed person
▪ Use of rating scales enhance the objectivity of evaluations.
OBSERVATIONS :
● Use of observation for personality assessment is a sophisticated procedure that cannot
carried out by untrained people.
● It requires careful training of the observer
● and fairly detailed guideline about analysis of behaviour to assess personality of a given
person
E.g. A clincal psychologist may like to observe her/his client interaction with family
members and home visitors. With careful designed observations Psychologist may gain
considerable insight into client’s personality.
Limitations of Observation and interviews:
▪ Professional training required for collection of useful data through these methods.
▪ These methods are time consuming
▪ Maturity of the psychologist is a pre condition for obtaining valid data.
▪ Presence of the observer may contaminate results thus leading to manipulation of
information.

BEHAVIOURAL RATING
▪ Frequently used for assessment of personality in educational and industrial setting
▪ Rating are generally taken from peoples
▪ who know the assessee intimately
▪ and have interacted with them over a period of time or
▪ have had a chance to observe them.
▪ They attempt to put individuals into certain categories in terms of their behavioural
qualities.
▪ The category involves different no. of descriptive terms.
▪ It has been found that use of no. of general descriptive adjectives in rating scale always
creates confusion for the rater.
▪ In order to use ratings effectively the
▪ traits should be clearly defined in terms of carefully stated behavioural anchor.
Limitation of Behavrioural rating :
▪ Rater display certain biases that colour (influence) their judgments of different traits.
▪ E.g. : Most of us are greatly influenced by a single favourable or unfavourable trait. This often
forms the basis of rater’s overall judgment of a person.

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 ▪ This tendency is known as Halo Effect.
▪ Raters have a tendency to place individual
▪ either in the middle of the scale (called middle category bias) by avoiding extreme position or
▪ in the extreme position (extreme response bias) by avoiding middle categories on the scale.

NOMINATIONS :
This method is used :
▪ In obtaining peer assessment
▪ With persons who have been in the long term interaction with each other and who know each
other very well.
▪ Each person is asked to choose one or more persons of the group with whom she/he would like to
work, study, play or participate in any other activity.
▪ The person may also be asked to specify the reason for his /her choices.
▪ Nomination thus received may be analysed to understand the personality and behavioural quality
of a person.
▪ Found to be very highly dependable technique though effected by personal bias.

SITUATIONAL TESTS :
● Variety of situational tests have been devised for assessment of personality. Most common is
situational stress test.
● It provides us with information about how a person behaves under stressful situations.
● The test requires a person to perform a given task with other persons who are instructed to be
non-cooperative and interfering
● Test involves a kind of role playing.
● Person is instructed to play a role for which he/she is observed.
● A verbal report is also obtained on what he/she was asked to do
● The situation may be realistic one or it may be created through a video player.

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