Individual: Testing Technieques 37

Understanding the

There are other interest inventories as well:

(a) Heprer's Vocational Interest Quotient

(b) Thur ton's Interest Schedule
(c) Mans on's Vocational Interest lnventory
(d) Lee 1 horpe's Questionnaires
(e) Guilford, Schneidmann, Zimmermann Interest Survey

Personality Tests
Fersonality i the most important aspect of an individual because while studying personality
we study an ndividual in totality. It encompasses an individual's complete external and internal
characteristi. s on the basis of which we can distinguish one person from the other. P'ersonal
ill those mental activities which influence an active individual's personality, and
y involves
is related to the environment. It is an individual's way of adaptation to his surroundings. An
individual b haves to adapt himself to his surroundings. There is a sort of selectivity in this
behaviour.
This sele tivity is found in different measures in different individuals. This specific selectiv
ity or charact eristic aspect of selectivity symbolizes personality. This distinguishes one individual
from the oth r. But personality is not static or fixed. It is a complex of attributes, constantly chang-
ing with chaiiging circumstances.
A study of personality is extremely significant in the process of guidance and counselling. An
individual's personality is the sum total of intelligence aptitude, capability, interest, etc. Guidance
is given to the individual and not to his aspects. The study of an individual is the study of his
personality.
Before defining 'personality', we must know the origin of the term personality
From the historical point of view, the term personality has come from the Latin word 'persona'
meaning dress, veil or mask. In the classical age, while staging plays, actors used to put on masks
and fanciful dresses. The difference in dress and facial appearance signified the difference of char-
acter. In the psychological context, this meaning of personality is extremely narrow. This is because
a mask can bring about a change only in the external appearance. But external appearance does not
give us much idea about his personality. It is essential to know his internal characteristics without
which it is impossible to describe his personality.
Some people believe that personality is what influences others. Hence, we can describe it as a
social stimulus value. But by doing so we overlook the internal characteristics of the individual.
According to this view, man is nothing more than a structure of bones and flesh.

Allport and Woodworth have defined personality from the psychological point of view. All-
port's definition is believed to be very extensive. Personality has been described as the sum total
of man's physical, mental, emotional, social and behavioural systerns. It is the essence of anindi
vidual's tendencies, feelings, emotions, intelligence, experiences, habits, appearance, memory,
perception and behaviour patterns. An individual's dress, reservedness, style of living, emotional
reactions represent his personality.
According to Allport, 'Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those
psycho-physical systems that determine his unique adjustment to thie environment.
Allport has, however, ignored the social influence on an individual's personality. The
Indian thinkers have pondered over personality through ages. In Sankhya Darshan, Kapií Muni
ascribes thre characteristics of personality-Satto Guna (preponderance of truth, equanimity and
peace), Rajo una (preponderance of passion, emotion, provocation and action) and Tamso Guna
 38
Guidance and Counselling
ponderance cf inertness, indolence, anger and malice). An individual's personality 1s aete nined
by the extent
to which each of these
gunas (quality) is inherent in him.
Durgess pr sents a sociological viewpoint of personality, 'Personality is the integrauo of all
s which de ermine the role and status of a person in society. Personality might De,
social effectiveiess'.
indiords of Woodworth (1958), Personality is the quality of individual's total behaviour
An individual can never develop himself living outside society. Just like the cells that within
the body, an
individual grows in society. B
ACCording to Valentine, 'It is the sum total of innate and acquired disposition
Eysenck (1959) too, while defining personalitv, talks about its different aspects, "Personay
ne more or less stable and enduring organization of a person's character, temperameny ellect
and
physique which determine his unique adjustment to the environment. uc

Development of Personality
An individual's personality can be determined only through tests. But in order to understand an
individual's personality it is necessary to understand the that influence his personay
Broadly, there are three factors that influence an individual'sfactors
Hereditary factors: We can describe the hereditary factor aspersonality:
an individual factor or living factor.
Under this the
following factors influence the
personality:
(a) Constitution structure
(b) Health
(c) Intelligence
(d) Sex differences
(e) Nervous system
(f) Endocrine gland
(1) Thyroid glands
(ii) Parathyroid glands
(ii) A drenal glands
(iv) P uitary glands
(v) S. glands
Envirome ttalfactors
(a) Family environment
(b) Educa ion
() Neighbourhood environment
(d) Finan ial condition
(e) Schoo environment
(f) Physi al or geographical environment
(g) Social environment
(h) Cultuial environment

Psychologi al factors
Psycholog ical factors like motivation, character, intellectual capabilities, attitudes and inter
ests, etc. play nain role in the development of personality.
Thus, an ndividual's personality is notinfluenced by a single factor but by multiple factors.
Hence, in ord1 r to develop a child's personality, teachers and parents should regulate these factors.
 Tochniques
Understanding the Indiv idual: Testing

Assessment of Personality
one's personalitv.
svchologists have used various techniques to evaluate
Personality Ervaluation Techniques are as foHbus.
Subjectite Methods
writes his life story and the read-
(a) An Autobiography: autobiography, an individual
In an
describes the subjective ver-
it. The writer
ers evaluate his personality by going through
method is not very reliable because of
Ston of his
experiences, interests, wishes, etc. This

the following:

(i) In an writer also writes certain fictiticus

autobiography, a things.
(ii) An individual describes his qualities and
achievement: in hyperbolic terms.
This
used method for testing one's personality.
6)Interiew Method: Interview is thecommonly candidates for private and government
is the most commonly used method for selecting
each other and the examinee
jobs. in this test, the examiner and the examinee sit facing exami-
the examiner. From the answers given by the
ans r s the questions put forth bywishes and can be made. His demeanour,
nee, r assessment of his interests, expectations
ach, manners and the way he answers questions also help in assessing his personality.
appr
The inain flows of this method are:

i) It is more time consuming8

(i) A competent examiner is required.
(ii) Sometimes a person cannot answer questions properly.
facts in controlled manner, the resu lts
But if the interviewer is trained and gathers a

obtained can be reliable and valid.

like sociability, self-
c) Que ionnaire Method: For evaluating social aspects of one's personality
There is a series of selected
expc sition, etc., questionnaire is widely used in psychology.
an individual's personality. These
ques ions, the answers to which give an insight into
ques ions have two or three alternatives like 'yes', 'no' and '?'. The
examinee marks
(V) on
the orrect word and (X) on the wrong word. From the questionnaire, different attributes
of pe rsonality like self-confidence, sociability, introversion, extroversion, dominance, sub-
serv ence, etc. become apparent.
iour important types of questionnaires are as follows.

() Closed Questionnaire: In this questionnaire, the questions are answered in 'yes' or 'no'.
Here are some sample questions:

Do you like gossiping? yes/no

Do you feel happy when guests come? yes/no
(ii) Open Questionnaire: In this questionnaire, as is apparent from its name, instead of
answering the questions with 'yes' or 'no' full answer is to be written, for example

.What are your views on changing social values?

What are your views about Kargil War?

(ii) Pictorial Questionnaire: Questions are answered by marking the pictures.

(iv) Mixed Questionnaire: In this questionnaire, there is a combination of all the above three
types of questionnaire.
 40
Guidance and Counselling

The nain drawbacks of this method are:

e o p l e feel hesitant to answer the questions clearly and honestly. Flence, it is vey dif-
ficult to
get correct answers for all the
o Sor emes questions are ambiguous-the questions.
examiner means one thing while the exam-
v e s a different meaning. As a result, the examinee gives a wrong answer by

un'erstanding the question wrongly.

oeste the above drawbacks questionnaire method is widely used. A question-
e ca be given to a single person at a time or even distributed among a BrOup a
reguire
ayase Stu y Method: To study an individual's vices, virtues and peculiarities, biograpnio
Vicase stu 'y method is used. In this method, information about the individual, under study,
IS
collec ed from
different sources. This information is extracted from his
ments, imily, school, office, relatives and friends and analyzed to arrive atdiaries,
I aocu
conclusion
about
th e subject's personality. This, in way, provides window view of an
personality. By this method, most of the adjustment capabilities of anindiviaua
a a
complet
can be s udied. indiviaua
The main
requirements are:
0) Patience, labour and time involved in
inc ividual under collecting and recording information about any
(ii) Sp cial
study.
training for the
(iii) Frankness and honesty personnel
associated with the study.
in collecting,
compiling and analyzing data.
Objective Methods
These methods take into account an
more scientific and reliable.
individual's external behaviour. Hence, these methods are

a) Observation Method: An individual's

personality can also be evaluated through observation
but this isan
ongoing process. Observation is of two types:
(i) Controlled Observation: In controlled observation, the individual is
aware of his behav-
iour being observed. Quite often then not he
(ii) Uncontrolled Observation:
adopts artificial behaviour.
In
uncontrolled observation, the individual is watched
without his knowledge. Care is taken to ensure that he
is not aware of his
observed. Through this type of observation, an individual's being
clearly. This method can be used for children personality unfolds itself
very successfully.
b) Sociometric Method: Through this method, the social
aspect of an individual's personality is
evaluated. This method was designed by Moreno, In this
method, an individual is asked
about his likes and
the basis of facts provided, a
on
is
sociograph is drawn. This sociograph
analyzed to study an individual's personality.
(c) Rating Scale Method: Another way of evaluating personality is the
Basically, this method is used in two ways-the subject is asked torating
scale method.
answer some
tions related only to a few aspects of his ques-
personality. The way the subject replies, or
chooses answers from the given ones tells about his
personality. In the other method,
the subject is placed in real situations and his behaviour iand
reactions studied. For
instance, to test someone's qualities of honesty and hard work, he
may be assigned
some tasks.
 Understanding the Individual: Testing Techniques 41

In this evaluation method, there are mainly two types of rating scales:

( Relative Rating Scale

In this method, a number of people are placed in the order of their relative seniority.
Frrinstance, if the relative sociability of 10 people is tobeevaluated then the most sociable
ariong them will come on the top and the least sociable at the bottom of the scale. The rest
wuld be placed between them at their relative places.
(iAbsolute Rating Scale
As is clear from its title, here people are not compared. They are rather placed in the
in.partial categories as per predetermined characteristics. For instance, if some individu-
als are to be evaluated for humility, questions are split into 5 to 7 sections.

Five-Category Rating Scale

1 2 3 4
Disagree Somewhat Disagree Uncertain Somewhat Agree Agree

In whatever category a person scores the maximum points, he will possess the quality
of that category.
At first sight, this method of evaluation appears to be very simple. But a very com-
petent evaluator is needed to use it. The biggest drawback of this method is that while
answering questions the person risks the chance of being partial because most people do
not see faults in their dear ones.
Another difficulty with this method is that on seeing a single good or bad quality in a
person, we start viewing the rest of his character in that very light.
Despite the above shortcomings, this method of evaluation is quite popular in both the
social and the industrial spheres.
(d) Situational Tests: As is clear from the term, the negative and the positive points of an indi-
vidual's personality are evaluated by placing him in a special situation. This method is like
performance method. The only difference is that in the performance method the individual
is given certain tasks to perform.
(e) Performance Method: Performance method was designed by May and Hartshorne. In this
method, the characteristics of an individual's personality ere evaluated by giving him a spe-
cific task for performance. For instarnce, in order to test childrens'honesty, 8-10 weight meas-
u as with minor differences were placed together. These were to be arranged in the order
o their respective weights. Each measure's weight was written at its bottom. The honest
c ldren found problem and took time in placing themin the order of their weight. But the
d shonest among them read the weights at the bottom ancd quickly placed them in order.
(f) Ppkonality Inventories: For personality evaluation, the different types of personality inven-
Éries are commonly used. In the personality inventories, there are questions regarding a
pirticular aspect of personality. There are two or three alternatives against each question.
A fter reading these the candidate has to give his reaction by marking tick () against "Yes,
o ' or ?' These inventories can be used both for an individual as well as for the group
te sts. This saves a lot of time and expense. But there are some shortcomings:
i) Through this method, the unconscious part of one's personality cannot be studied.
(11) The candidate may aver wrong meaning trom the question and answer accordingly.
(11) In group tests, there is a chance of copying.
 42
Guidance and Counselling

Some important inventories are as below.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
Bernreuter Personality Inventory
Bell's Adjustment Inventoryy
Freud Heidbreder's
Cattell Sixteen Introversion-Extroversion Test
Personality Questionnaire
Maudsley Personality Inventory
California Psychological Inventory
Woodworth's Personal Data Sheet
nventories used by Manovigyan Shala, Allahabad (UP), are in four sections.
() Your Home and
(ii) Your School
Family
(iii) You and Other People
(iv) Your Health and Other Problems
There 30, 40, 45 and 40 problems in the four sections,
are
In all there are 155
ems. In the inventory, questions are in the form of problems. respectively. proo-
The candidate after carefully reading
the questions (V) marks the problems relating to him.
For example:
(a) Your lome and Family
(i) y parents keep me under strict control.
ii) do not like staying away from my at all.
parents
(b) Your ichool
(i) I do not
enjoy playing unless I am made the captain of the team.
(ii) I feel
depressed when I see other boys in problem.
(c) You a nd Other People

()get angry very soon.

(i) can't make friends easily.
(d) Your Health and Other Problems
i) wish my body were sound and beautiful.
(i) get tired very soon.
This inve itory
helps in getting information on an individual's problems and his
cal needs in c ifferent psychologi-
spheres of life. This method is similar to the questionnaire method.
method, ques ions concern the subject person alone. But in the questionnaire method, the In this
tion on other hings, apart from the subject person, is also collated. informa-
Projective Techniques: The most popular and prevalent
projection tec inique. This method, as is evident from the method ot personality evaluation is the
term, is based on the
bution or pro ection. It was L. Frank who first used the word principle of attri-
an object in the light of own
'projection', It means to act or
see
personality. Through this technique, we can study the unconscious
behaviour wB ile other techniques enable us to study the conscious behavior
Projection technique has the following characteristics: only.
(a) The material used in this technique is vague or formless.
(b) It is used to study an unconscious behaviour.
 43
Individual: Testing Techniques
Understanding the
emotions
his views, feelings,
individual is completely free to express
C)In this technique, an
an 1 experiences. like social, intellectual,
of any means to record his response
(d) Ai individual can make
use

ve bal, physical, etc. individua s personality.

to evaluate on
(e) It ii holistic technique. It helps informed about the purpose
The individual is not
a
of the test is disguised. would lack reli-
() Th purpose Otherwise his responses
to e n s u r e veracity
of responses.
of che survey
ab lity. normal and mentally dis-
be used to study the personality of both
8) These techniques can

tubed individuals. are more reliable

conclusions drawn through
these techniques
(h) The results obtained and
other techniques.
an i valid than ones obtained through

Merits of Projective Techniques

individual's personal-
TI field of projective methods is very
extensive. Many aspects of an
(a)
ity can be evaluated. well as unconscious
behaviour of an individual can

(6) Th rough this method subconscious as

be studied. more reliable and valid than

(c) Tt 2 results and conclusions derived
from the techniques are
th s e obtained from other techniques. individuals.
be used on both the normal and mentally disturbed
(d) These techniques can

Demerits of Projective Techniques

cumbersome task.
and standardization ofthese techniques is a
(a) The development require the
Tt2 compilation and interpretation of data in these techniques
(6) management,
se vices of trained personnel. the respondent,
established between the instructor and
(C) Till adequate rapport has been data.
there is little possibility of obtaining meaningful
and time consumed is much more.
(d) The materials used in these tests are very expensive
In these there is better respondent involvement.
techniques,
(e) conclusions.
(f) There is also the fear of arriving at wrong

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Swiss psychiatrist, Hermann Rorschach,
(a) Material: This test technique was invented by
this test, Rorschach took 10 cards on which
1921: This is the most successful test. For
are printed. On the five cards,
there are completely
ambiguous inkblot-like caricatures black and red caricatures, and on the rest three
black caricatures, on two cards there are
can be discerned from the
there are multi-coloured caricatures. Hardly any meaning
10 caricatures so made.
Procedure: The individual whose personality
is to be evaluated is given those 10 cards, one by
(b)
to describe the caricature on the card. These blots give
an impression
one at a time. He is asked
with bugle, sparrows, animals, phantoms, etc.
of different objects, such as mar, bosom, girls
of time taken by the subject to visual-
There is no time limit for this test, but the amount
noted down. Besides time, the candidate's reac-
ize those caricatures as distinct images is
tions on watching the caricatures, his way of holding the cards and his facial expressions
are also recorded.
 Guidance and Counselling
al, sIS:
Thereafter, responses are marked for analvsis. For the fol-
lowi g points are observed. marking respO
et Which part of the caricature the respondent reacts to is taken into accOn
he react
Oes to the whole of
the caricature or a particular
whole, then it is marked as (w). If he describes it portion?
IT
cerure ne Tee. is
marked in very loud terms,
as
(D). If he looks at small details deeply, it is marked as (d). In case ne
i s reaction
about blank it is marked as (s).
B
spaces,
Otents: The respondent's perceptions noted down. Imaging a
arked (H), an animal figure (A), a natural scene (N) and other objects huiman a ig
like
n umbrella (O). vesse
(ii)
g Elements: What made the respondents react-the shape of the inkbiot, iits
COTOuror its speed is recorded. shape
speed by (M) and the loudness ofThe
colours
would be depicted by
( (T), colour by

by (K).
nterpretation: Observation recorded and evaluated is then interpreted. From
this, we
Eet rull information about the respondent's nature, his observation power, emotiona
maturity, range imagination, state of mind and intelligence level. But while
of
financial conditions should also be borne in interpret
mg, the respondent's social and
mind.

be
This technique is used in the
individual
conducted by qualified persons only.
cases. Hence, it involves a lot of time and cost. It can
This
as it
technique is used for
detecting mental illness. It is equally useful in the field of
enables us to learn about
basis, his individual's various abilities, normal
an guidance
capabilities and
potential. tendencies, and on thel

Thematic Apperception Test

(TAT)
This test was
designed by Morgan and Murray in 1943. In this test, there
meaningful pictures,
related
day-to-day to life. Ten
are 30 cards with
for both. Each
person is shown 10 pictures are for men, 10 for women and 10
shown these cards specifically selected pictures. In this test, the
after observing each card, usesrespondent
one by one. The is
tion to write respondent,
story within a given time. The his
has to keep in mind certainimagina-
a
like what must have respondent
happened before, what is depicted in the aspects
now?, who are the people in the picture and what is
outcome?, etc. picture?, what are they thinking? and what happening would be the
Through transplantation, the individual
tothe story. The individual uses the unknowingly relates cerain aspects of his personality
ments, tenden ies and desires.
story as a return to
express his natural wishes, emotions,
senti
After a ce. tain gap time, the
the first and s cond narrations are respondent is again asked to clarify the story's details. This
taken by the re pondent, his behaviour,
compared and analyzed. While analyzing the way,
demeanour, disposition, doubtfulness, etc. arenarratives, time
in detail. Fron this the documented
respondent's power of imagination too can be evaluated.
There are number of ways of
analyzing Anyway,
:
it.
competent psychologist can certainly the
An experience1 and analysis is structured but
discover many
characteristics of an indi-
qualitative.
vidual's persoriality from this test.
However, tis more reliable than Rorschach's Test. When
an individual
ture repeatedl his reaction would be almost the same. He is shown the
same pic-
may tell one story earlier and
later, but the i
nderlying theme would be the same. Since this test does not another
accord marks to the
 Understanding the Individual: Testing Techniques 45

respondent's reaction, it has failed to gain the status of a fully objective test. Despite this limitation
itis a comprehensive personality test-widely used in personality-related research, guidance and
clinical sphere. This test was adapted to Indian needs by Uma Chowdhary in Calcutta. But she has
indianized 14 pictures only.
Word Association Method
This method was first used by Galton in 1879 in his psychology laboratory. He designed aninven
tory of 75 words and experimented it on himself. He discovered that by remenmbering associated
words some mental pictures and symbols get registered in the brain. The number of these pic-
tures and symbols, and their clarity depends uponofthe power of association. After Galton, Jung too
find out the
adopted this method and prepared an inventory 100 words. Jung's objective was to
8lands responsible for emotional behaviour. In this technique, the investigator tells the subject-
I will speak before you certain words one by one. You listen to them carefull and after hearing
them whatever first word occurs to you please tell me. The word spoken by the investigator is
is called the 'response word'.
called the 'stimulus word' and the word uttered by the responcdent
The time gap between these two words is called 'reaction time'. 1he analysis of this method is done
on the basis of both the response word and the reaction time. Jung divided the response word in
the following categories:

(a) Egocentric
(b) Super Ordinates
() Opposite Words
(d) Speech Habit

Senten e Completion Test

This tecl nique was first used by Pyne and Tandler in 1930. It had 20 sentences like '1 feel good
because .The respondent has to complete these sentences quickly. In this
techniqu , the respondent uses only those words that express his fear, anxieties, wishes, etc. This
technique senses the characteristics of personality and is reliable. It has enough distinguishing
quality, and hence is very importarnt for guidance.

Play ar d Drama Method

This per sonality evaluation technique, in which the respondent freely expresses his emotions was
of the investigator or the
designed by Moreno 1953. Its clinical efficacy depends on the competenceutterances
surveyo and the of the
analysis emotive exposition. Even
respondent's spoken by the
are noted down.
responc nt while playing
Guidar ce and Personality Tests

lot of in guidance and counselling. Through guidance and

Persona ity tests carry a significance
counsel ing, we do not guide a single aspect of personality like intelligence, interests, capability,
etc. We rather provide guidance for the total personality. Intelligence, aptitude, capability have
no indeendent existence as such. For the study of personality these are interdependent. Hence,
while e /aluating human personality with the help of various personality evaluation techniques,
and aptitude tests too are used
the purpose of guidance is not served unless intelligence capability
as comlementary tools.
46
Guidance and Counselling

Summaryy
his
derstand a on difterenta
person it is essential to collect and analyze information ar
L On the basis of this information that a guide or a counsellor can decide the type o
thatmight be given to a person.
social environment influence his personality. Hence, studyin8 a per
for
d his
Son collecting data about family and social environment is e:isentia L
Knowledge of his mental abilities, interests, aptitudes
and personaiy
abilities, a counsellor can impart educational and vocational guidanceana

ee t an perform which work better depends on, apart from his intelligence
tan a ,to a large extent on his interests. In every individual's life, interests play
cause What an individual will do and how is determined mostly on the Dasi o is
interests.
sisof h e main reasons for individual diferences is the difference in aptitudes. It is on the
O d otitudinal differences that one individual is able to become a doctor while the otner a
cgneerind a third one a musician. In the field of guidance, knowledge of aptitude helps a cou
Seor in
Ounselling an individual as to in which profession or vocation he would have
Dette
chances of success.
1o
cal
un ierstand an individual's personality, we must study the coordination of his inherent pnys
and p ychological traits. Personality is that total which encompasses an individual's
external and internal
characteristics on the basis of which we can distinguish one compiete
other. Fron these
traits, we come to know about an individual's persor O
adjustment with his
For giving educational guidance to a student, it is very important environnelevel,
to know his adjustment
his relati ns with his friends, parents, teachers and peers; his reaction in different situations, etC.