CHAPTER – 2

SELF & PERSONALITY ( Part 1)

Self and Personality

Different people behave differently in a given situation, but the behaviour of a particular
person from one situation to another generally remains fairly stable.

Concept of Self
 A newly born child has no idea about himself.
 As a child grows older, the idea of self emerges and its formation begins.
Parents, friends, teachers, etc help in this.
 Our interaction with other people, our experiences, and the meaning we give to
them, serve as the basis of our self is modifiable in the light of our own
experiences and the experiences we have of other people.
 Personal Identity refers to those attributes of a person that make her/him different
from others.
 When a person describes herself/himself by telling her/his name, like I am
Sanjana or Karim, or
 her/his qualitites or characteristics, like I am honest or a hardworking person,or
 her /his potential or capabilities, like I am a singer or dancer, or
 her/his beliefs, like I am a believer in God or destiny,
 she/he is disclosing his/her personal identity.
 Social Identify refers to those aspects of a person that link her/him to a social or
cultural group or are derived from it.
 When someone says that
 she/he is a Hindu or a Muslim, a Brahmin or
 an Adivasi or a North Indian or a South Indian
 She/he is trying to indicate her/his social identity
 Self refers to the totality of an individual‟s conscious experiences, ideas, thoughts and
feelings with regard to herself or himself.

Self as Subject and Self as Object:

 When describe ourselves either as an entity that does something (e.g. I am a dancer). Or
as an entity on which something is done (e.g. I am one who easily gets hurt).
 In the former case, the self is described as a „subject‟ (who does something); in the latter
case, the self is described as an „object‟ (which gets affected).
 This shows that self can be understood as a subject as well as object. As a subject (actor)
the self actively engages in the process of knowing itself. As an object (consequence) the
self gets observed and comes to be known.

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 Kinds of Self:

Several kind of self are formed as a result of our interactions with our
physical and socio cultural environments.

A distinction is made between „personal‟ and „social self‟

 The personal self leads to an orientation in which one feels primarily concerned with
oneself.
Our biological needs (like hunger) lead to the development of a „biological self‟.
But, soon a child‟s psychological and social needs in the context of her/his
environment lead other components of personal self to emerge.
 The social self emerges in relation with others and emphasizes such aspects of life as
cooperation, unity, affiliation, sacrifice, support or sharing. This self values family
and social relationships. Hence, it is also called familial or relational self.

Cognitive and Behavioural Aspects of Self :

 We perceive ourselves (as either positive or negative) and the ideas we hold about our
competencies and attributes is called self –concept.
 At a more specific level, a person may have positive view of his athletic bravery but a
negative view of academic talents. At an even more specific level, one may have a
negative view of academic talents. At an even more specific level, one may have a
positive view about one‟s reading ability but a negative one about one‟s mathematical
skills.

Self esteem :

 As persons, we always make some judgment about our own value or worth.
 This value judgment of a person about herself/himself is called self-esteem.
 It can be high or low.
 To assess it, we present a variety of statements to a person and ask him to indicate the
extent to which they are true for him.
 E.g. we may ask a child to what extent the statement “I am good at homework” or “I
am highly liked by my peers” is true.
 If he responds as them to be true, he will have a high self-esteem than someone who
says “no”.
 Studies show that children seem to have formed self-esteem in at least 4 areas by the
age of 6-7 :
 academic competence,

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  social competence,
 physical/athletic competence, and
 physical appearance.
 Children with high academic self-esteem perform better in school than those with low
academic self-esteem.
 Children with low self esteem in all areas are often found to display anxiety,
depression and increasing anti-social behaviour.
 Warm and positive parenting helps in development of high self-esteem among
children as they then feel competent and worthwhile.
 Children whose parents make decisions for them even when they do not need assistance
may suffer from low self-esteem.

Self Efficacy :

 People differ in the extent to which they believe they themselves control their life
outcomes or the outcomes are controlled by luck, fate or other situational factors
(like passing an exam).
 A person who believes that she/he has the ability or behaviours required by a
particular situation demonstrates high self-efficacy.
 The notion of self efficacy is based on Bandura‟s social learning theory. His initial
studies showed that children and adults learned behaviour by observing and imitating
others. People‟s expectations of mastery or achievement and their convictions about
their own effectiveness determine the type of behaviour they would engage in. The
amount of risk they would undertake also determines this.
 Strong self-efficacy people are less fearful.
 Self efficacy can be developed with the help of society, parents and our own positive
experiences as they present positive models during formative years of childhood.

Self Regulation :

 It refers to our ability to organize and monitor our own behaviours. People who can
change their behaviour according to demands of the external environment are high on
self-monitoring.
 Resistance to situational pressures and control over ourselves is possible through will-
power.
 Learning to delay or defer the gratification of needs is called self-control. It plays a
key role in fulfillment of long term goals. Indian culture provides us effective
mechanisms like fasting in vrata or roza and non-attachment with worldly things to
develop self-control.
 Psychological techniques of self control are :

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  Observation of own behaviour: It provides us with necessary information that
may be used to change, modify or strengthen certain self aspects.
 Self Instructions : We often instruct ourselves to do something and behave the
way we want.
 Self-reinforcement : It involves rewarding behaviours that have pleasant
outcomes (like going to see a movie with friends if we do well in exams)

Culture and Self :

 Analysis of self in Indian culture context shows many features that are distinct from
those found in the Western Culture context.
1. The most important distinction is the way the boundary is drawn between the self and
the other. In the western view, boundary is relatively fixed, while the Indian view
is characterized by the shifting nature of this boundary.
2. The western view holds clear dichotomies between self and other, man and nature,
subjective and objective. The Indian view does not make such clear dichotomies.
3. In the western culture, the self and the group exist as 2 different entities with
clearly defined boundaries. Individual members of the group maintain their
individuality.
In the Indian culture, the self is generally not separated from one‟s own group;
rather both remain in a state of harmonious co-existence. On the other hand, they
often remain at distance in the Western Culture.
4. That is why many Western Cultures are characterized as individualistic, whereas many
Asian Cultures are characterized as Collectivistic.

CONCEPT OF PERSONALITY :

 The literal meaning of personality is derived from the Latin Word „persona‟, the
mask used by actors in the Roman theatre for changing their facial make upAfter
putting on the mask the audience expects the person to perform a role in a particular

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 manner. It does not mean that the person enacting the given role necessarily
possessed those quality.
 Personality refers to our characteristic ways of responding to individuals and
situations. Certain catchwords (shy, sensitive, quiet, warm, etc) are often used to
describe personality. They refer to different components of personality.
 DEFINITION OF PERSONALITY:Personality refers to unique and relatively
stable qualities that characterize an individual‟s behaviour across different situations
over a period of time.

 Consistency in behaviour thought and emotion of an individual across

situations and time periods characterizes her/his personality.
 E.g. an honest person is more likely to remain honest irrespective of time or
situation.

 Personality can be categorized by the following features :

 It has both physical and psychological components. It‟s expression in terms of
behaviour is fairly unique in a given individual.
 It‟s main feature do not easily change with time. It is dynamic in the sense that
some of its features may change due to internal or external situation demand.
Thus personality is adaptive to situation.
 Once we are able to characterize someone‟s personality, we can predict how
that person will probably behave in a variety of circumstances.
 Understanding of personality allows us to deal with people in realistic and
acceptable ways.

MAJOR APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF PERSONALITY :

TRAIT TYPE PSYCHODYNAMIC

POST-FREUDIAN BEHAVIOURISTIC CULTURAL

HUMANISTIC

Many approaches have been developed to understand and explain behavioural differences
among individuals. Each throws light on some, but not all aspects of personality.

Psychologists distinguish between type and trait approaches to personality.

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 The type approach attempt to comprehend human personality by examining certain
broad patterns in the observed behavioural characteristics of individuals.

The trait Approach focuses on the specific psychological attributes along which
individuals tend to differ in consistent and stable ways. The interactional approach holds
that situational characteristics play an important role in determining our behaviour.

Type Approaches :
 The Greek physician Hippocrate s had proposed a typology of personality based on
fluid or humour. He classified people into four types
 Sanguine : pleasure-seeking and sociable
 Phlegmatic : relaxed and quiet
 Melancholic : introverted and thoughtful
 Choleric : ambitious and leader-like
Each Characterized by specific behavioural features.

 In India, Charak Samhita, a famour treatise on Ayurveda, classified people into the
category of
Vata : moody, enthusiastic, imaginative, and impulsive, quick to grasp ideas and good at
initiating things but poor at finishing them.
Pitta : quick, articulate, biting intelligence, and can be critical or passionate with short,
explosive tempers.
Kapha : relaxed, slow to anger, slow to eat, slow to act. They sleep long and heavily.

These were categories on the basis of three humoural elements called Tridosha. Each
refers to a type of temperament, called Prakriti (basic nature) of a person.

 Apart from this, there is also a typology of personality based on the Trigunas, i.e.
Sattva, Rajas and Tamas.

Sattva gunas includes attributes like cleanliness, truthfulness, dutifulness,

detachment, discipline, etc.

Rajas guna includes intense activity, desire for sense gratification, dissatisfaction,
envy for others, and a materialistic mentality, etc.

Tamas Guna characterizes anger, arrogance, depression, laziness, feeling of

helplessness etc.

All the three gunas are present in each and every person in different degrees.

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 Sheldon proposed the Endomorphic, Mesomorphic and Ectomorphic typology

The endomorphs are fat, soft and round. By temperament they are relaxed and
sociable.

The mesomorphs have strong musculature, are rectangular with a strong body build.
They are energetic and courageous.

The ectomorphs are thin, long and fragile in body build. They are brainy, artistic and
introvert. However, these body types have limited use in predicting behaviour of
individuals.

 Jung proposed another important typology by grouping people into Introverts and
Extroverts
Introverts are people who prefer to be alone, tend to avoid others, withdraw themselves
in the face of emotional conflicts, and are shy.

Extroverts, on the other hand, are sociable, outgoing, drawn to occupations that allow
dealing directly with people, and react to stress by trying to lose themselves among
people and social activity.

 Friedman and Rosenman have classified individuals into Type-A and Type-B
personalities.
Type A personality seem to possess high motivation, lack patience, feel short of time, be
in a great hurry, and feel like always being burdened with work. Such people find it
difficult to slow down and relax. They are susceptible to problems like hypertension
and coronary heart disease or CHD.

Type –B personality, which can be understood as the absence of type-A traits. Live at a
lower stress level and typically work steadily, are relaxed,enjoying achievements but not
becoming stressed when they are not achieved. Type B can delay work and do it in the
last moment, some of them can turn into procrastinators which is something that a type
A can never do.

Morris has suggested :

Type C Personality which is prone to cancer. Individuals characterized by this

personality are cooperative, unassertive and patient. They suppress their negative
emotions such as anger and show compliance to authority.

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Type D personality has been suggested, which is characterized by proneness to
depression. D stands for distressed, Type D's have a negative outlook towards life and are
pessimistic.

Evaluation of Type Approach

Personality typologies are appealing but very simplistic for the complex and variable
human behaviour. People don‟t fit into such simple categorization schemes so neatly.

TRAIT APPROACHES

These theories are mainly concerned with the description or characterization of basic
components of personality. Trait approach attempts to identify primary characteristics
of people.

A trait is considered as a relatively enduring attribute or quality on which one

individual differs from another.

Traits are generally stable over time, consistent across situations and their strengths
and combinations vary across individuals leading to individual differences.

1.Allports‟ Trait Theory -

Gordon Allport proposed that individuals possess a number of traits, which are dynamic
in nature.

They determine behaviour in such a manner that an individual approaches different

situations with similar plans.

The traits integrate stimuli and responses which otherwise look dissimilar.

Allport categorized traits into cardinal, central, and secondary.

 Cardinal Traits are highly generalized dispositions. They indicate the goal
around which a person‟s entire life seems to resolve. Mahatma Gandhi‟s non-
violence and Hitler‟s Nazism are examples of cardinal traits. Such traits often get
associated with the name of the person so strongly that they derive such identities
as the “Gandhian” or “Hitlerian” trait.
 Central Traits are less pervasive in effect, but still quite generalized dispositions.
These traits such as warm, sincere, diligent, etc. are often used in writing a
testimonial or job recommendation for a person.
 Secondary Traits are characteristics of a person are called secondary traits, such
as “likes mangoes” or “prefers ethnic clothes”.
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Allport Acknowledged the influence of situations on behavior. He held that the way a
person reacts to given situations depends on her/his traits, although people sharing the
same traits might express them in different ways. He considered traits more like
intervening variables that occur between the stimulus situation and response of the
person.

2. Cattell : Personality Factors :

Allport and Odbert had worked through two comprehensive dictionaries of their time and
extracted 18000 personality describing words. Out of these 18000 they extracted 4500
personally describing objectives.

In 1946 Cattel used a computer software to analyse Allport and Odbert‟s list and
organized a list of 181 clusters and asked the subjects to rate people whom they knew by
adjectives on the list.

Using Factor analysis Cattell generated 12 factors and then he further included 4 factors
which he thought ought to appear. The result was the hypothesis that : Individuals
described themselves and each other according to 16 different independent factors.

Sixteen Personality Factors are :

Warmth Social Boldness Openness to change

Reasoning Sensitivity Self Reliance
Emotional Stability Vigilance Perfectionism
Dominance Abstractedness Tension
Liveliness Privateness
Rule – Consciousness Apprehension

Cattell described these 16 factors as source traits in terms of opposing tendencies.

Source Trait are stable and are considered as the building block of personality. Besides
Source Trait there are a number of surface trait which result out of interaction of source
trait.

Cattell described the Source Trait in terms of opposing tendencies

He developed a test called Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF), to be

used for selection of research personnel by Universities and Business Houses.

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3. Eysenck‟s model of Personality (P-E-N) :

In 1947 Eysenck proposed that personality could be reduced into two broad dimensions :
Neuroticism vs. Emotional Stability And Extraversion vs. Introversion

These personality dimensions are biologically and genetically based.

Each dimension subsumes (includes) a number of specific traits.

It is a common practice in personality psychology to refer to the dimensions by the first

letters E and N.

These dimensions are :

Neuroticism vs. emotional stability:

 It refers to the degree to which people have control over their feelings.
 At one extreme of the dimension, we find people who are neurotic. They are
anxious, moody, touchy, restless and quickly lose control.
 At the other extreme we find people who are calm, even-tempered, reliable and
remain under control.

Extraversion vs. Introversion:

 It refers to the degree to which people are socially outgoing socially withdrawn.
 At one extreme are those who are active, gregarious, impulsive and thrill
seeking.
 At the other extreme are people who are passive, quiet, cautious and reserved.

Eysench in 1970 proposed a third dimension, called Psychoticism vs. sociability, which
is considered to interact with the other two dimensions mentioned above.

 A person who scores high on Psychoticism tends to be hostile, egocentric and

anti-social.

Eysenck Personality Questionnaire is the test which is used for studying these
dimensions of personality.

5. FIVE FACTOR MODEL OF INTELLIGENCE ( SEE BOX 2.2 IN THE

TEXTBOOK)

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Evaluation of the trait approach

The trait approach is very popular and many advances in this respect are taking place.

PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH (SIGMUND FREUD) :

This view owes largely to the contributions of Freud who was a physician and developed this
theory in the course of his clinical practice.

Early in his career he used to hypnotize people to treat people with physical and emotional
problems.

He used free association (a method in which a person is asked to openly share all the
thoughts, feelings and ideas that come to her/his mind), dream analysis, and analysis of
errors to understand the internal functioning of the mind.

Level of Consciousness :

Freud‟s theory considers the sources and consequences of emotional conflicts and the
way people deal with these. In doing so, it visualizes the human mind in terms of three
levels of consciousness.

 The first level is conscious, which includes the thoughts, feelings and action of
which people are aware.
 The second level is preconscious, which includes mental activity of which people
may become aware only if they attend to it closely.
 The third level is unconscious, which includes mental activity that people are
aware of.
 According to Freud, the unconscious is a reservoir of instinctive or animal drives,
which also stores all ideas and wishes that are concealed from conscious
awareness, perhaps because they lead to psychological conflicts. Most of these
arise from sexual desires which cannot be expressed openly and therefore are
repressed.
 People constantly struggle to find either some socially acceptable ways to express
unconscious impulses, or to keep those impulses away from being expressed.
Unsuccessful resolution of conflicts results in abnormal behaviour.

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  Analysis of forgetting mispronunciations, jokes and dreams provide us with a
means to approach the unconscious. Freud developed a therapeutic procedure,
called psychoanalysis, whose basic goal is to bring the repressed unconscious
materials to consciousness, helping people live in a more self aware and
integrated manner.

Structure of Personality:

According to Freud‟s theory, consists of concepts which are the primary

structural elements of personality are 3, i.e. Id, Ego, Superego

They reside in the unconscious as forces and can be inferred from the ways people
behave.

Id : It is the source of a person‟s instinctual energy and deals with immediate

gratification of primitive needs, sexual desires and aggressive impulses. It works on the
pleasure principle, which assumes that people seek pleasure and try to avoid pain. Id
does not care for moral values, society, or other individuals.

Ego : It grows out of id, and seeks to satisfy an individual‟s instinctual needs in
accordance with reality, working by the reality principle, and often directs the id
towards more appropriate ways of behaving. E.g. id of a boy who wants an ice-cream,
tells him to grab it and eat it.

His ego tells him that if he grabs it without asking, he may be punished. Working on the
reality principle, the boy knows that the best way to achieve gratification is to ask for
permission to eat the ice-cream. Thus, while the id is demanding, unrealistic and works
according to pleasure principle, the ego is patient, reasonable, and works by the reality
principle.

Superego : The best way to characterize the superego is to think of it as the moral
branch of mental functioning. The superego tells the id and ego whether gratification
in a particular instance is ethical. It helps control the id by internalizing the parental
authority through the process of socialization. E.g. if a boy sees and want an ice-crème
and ask his mother for it, his superego will indicate that his behaviour is morally correct.
This approach will not create guilt, fear or anxiety in the boy.

 Thus in terms of individual functioning Freud thought of the unconscious as

being composed of three competing forces. In some people, the id is stronger
than the superego; in others, it is the superego. The relative strength the id, ego
and superego determine each person‟s stability.

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  Freud also assumed that id is energized by two instinctual forces, called life
instinct and death instinct. He paid less attention to death instinct and focused
more on life (or sexual) instinct. The instinctual life force that energizes the id
is called libido. It works on the pleasure principle, and seeks immediate
gratification.

Ego Defence Mechanisms

According to Freud, much of human behavior reflects an attempt to deal with or escape
anxiety. Thus, how the ego deals with anxiety largely determines how people behave.

He believed that people avoid anxiety mainly by developing defence mechanisms that try
to defend the ego against the awareness of instinctual needs.

Thus, defence mechanism is a way of reducing anxiety by distorting reality. Although

some defence against anxiety is normal and adaptive, people who use these to such an
extent that reality is truly distorted develop various forms of maladjustment.

The defence mechanisms described by Freud are:

Repression: In this anxiety-provoking behaviours or thoughts are totally dismissed by

the unconscious. People become totally unaware of that wish or desire when they have

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repressed it. When a person says, “I do not know why I did that”, some repressed feeling
or desire is expressing itself.

Projection: Here people attribute their own traits to others. A person who has strong
aggressive tendencies may see other people as acting in an excessively aggressive way
towards him.

Denial: A person totally refuses to accept the reality. Someone suffering from HIV/AIDS
may altogether deny her/his illness.

Reaction formation: In this a person defends against anxiety by adopting behaviours

opposite to her/his true feelings. A person with strong sexual urges, who channels her/his
energy into religious fervor, presents a classical example of reaction formation.

Rationalization: Here a person tries to make unreasonable feelings or behavior seem

reasonable and acceptable. When a student buys a set of new pens after doing poorly in
an examination, she/he may try to rationalize her/his behavior by asserting, “I will do
much better with these pens”.

People who use defence mechanisms and often unaware of doing so. Freud‟s ideas about
the role of defence mechanisms have been questioned. For example, his claim that
projection reduces anxiety and stress has not found support in several studies.

Stages of Personality Development

Freud proposed five-stage theory of personality (also called psychosexual) development.

Oral Stage Anal Stage Phallic Stage Latency Stage Genital Stage

Oral Stage : A newborn‟s instincts are focused on the mouth as it is the infant‟s
pleasure seeking centre. It is through the mouth that the baby obtains food that
reduces hunger.
The infant achieves oral gratification through feedings, thumb sucking, biting and
babbling.
It is during these early months that people‟s basic feelings about the world are
established. Thus, for Freud, an adult who considers the world a bitter place probably had
difficulty during the oral stage of development.

Anal Stage : Around the ages two and three the child learns to respond to some of the
demands of society.
One of the principle demands made by the parents is that the child learns to control the
bodily functions of urination and defecation

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Most children at this stage experience pleasure in moving their bowels. The anal area of
the body becomes the focus of certain pleasurable feelings.

Phallic Stage : It focuses on the genitals. At around ages 4 and 5, children begin to
realize the differences between males and females and become aware of their sexuality
and the sexual relationship between their parents.

The male child experiences the Oedipus complex during this stage, which involves love
for the mother, hostility towards the father, and the consequent fear of punishment or
castration by the father. Resolution of this complex is a major development achievement
of this stage.

This takes place by accepting his father‟s relationship with his mother and modeling his
own behavior after his father.

For girls, the Electra complex is present. By attaching her love to the father, a girl tries
to symbolically marry him and raise a family. When she realizes that this is unlikely, she
begins to identify with her mother and copy her behavior as a means of getting her
father‟s affection. When this complex is resolved, girls give up their sexual desires for
their father and identify with the mother.

Latency Stage: It lasts from 7 years until puberty. The child continues to grow
physically but sexual urges are relatively inactive. Much of a child‟s energy is
channeled into social or achievement-related activities.

Genital Stage: The person attains maturity in psychosexual development. The

sexuality, fears and repressed feelings of earlier stages are again exhibited. People learn
to deal with the opposite sex in a socially and sexually mature way.

The failure of a child to pass successfully through a stage leads to fixation to that stage
the child‟s development gets arrested at an earlier stage. E.g., a child who fails to resolve
the Oedipus complex may still feel hostile toward the same sex parent. He may consider
that men are generally hostile and may want to relate to females in a dependable
relationship.
Regression is also a likely outcome - it takes a person back to an earlier stage. It occurs
when a person‟s resolution of problems at any stage of development is less than adequate.

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EVALUATION OF THE THEORY
 Freud‟s psychoanalytic theory has provoked a number of criticisms.
• a lack of supportive scientific data;
• the theory‟s inadequacy in making predictions; and
• its limitations owing to the restricted population on which it is based.
 Still, the theory remains popular.

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