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PERSONALITY
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Overview of the lecture

 Definition of personality
 What isn’t personality
 Types of personality
 Components of personality
 Various theories of personality
 Various tools and measurements of personality
 Normal and abnormal personality
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Definition

 The term personality is derived from the Latin word persona meaning a
mask.
 Those relatively stable and enduring aspects of individuals which
distinguish them from other people, making them unique, but which at
the same time allow people to be compared with each other. (Gross,
1996).
 American Psychological Association (APA), defines personality as:
“Individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling,
and behaving” (APA, 2017).
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‘’Thinking”: Personality includes differences between people in how they

typically think. Example: Do people tend to focus on the positive (optimists) or
the negative (pessimists)?
“Feeling”: Personality includes differences between people in how they
typically feel. Examples: Do people tend to be happy or unhappy? Do they
experience intense emotions or not? Do they get angry easily? Are they
especially sensitive to rejection?
 “Behaving”: Personality includes differences between people in how they
typically behave. Examples: Do they tend to talk a lot? Do they usually go along
with what other people want or insist on doing things their way? Are they neat
and tidy or sloppy and disorderly? Do they like to try new things, or do they
always order the same thing when they go out to eat?
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WHAT DOESN’T COME UNDER
PERSONALITY?

Personality does not refer to physical characteristics, abilities, or temporary

states. Personality refers to differences between people in their psychological
characteristics, not physical or biological differences (e.g., height or age).
Example: A person’s level of testosterone can influence his or her typical pattern
of behavior. However, level of testosterone itself isn’t considered a personality
characteristic, though it may be related to personality characteristics.
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Personality doesn’t include many skills or abilities. Personality is about what people are
typically like, not what they are capable of at their best. Example: Just because someone
can be an excellent negotiator or a skilled chess player, that doesn’t mean it is part of his/
her personality.
Personality doesn’t include fleeting states like hunger, arousal, or mood. Just because a
person happens to be happy at a given moment doesn’t mean it is part of his/her
personality; that is why the “characteristic patterns” part of the definition is so important.
Personality includes prominent consideration of diversity because the theories and the
tests that arise out of diversity have been primarily based on the observations of a specific
group (European American males). Examples: Do the theories apply to all ethnic groups?
Do East Asians or Westerners think the same way (Nisbett, 2003)? Can the test be
generalized for groups? Can the theories be generalized for more than one group of
people?
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Types of Personality
The Big Five Personality traits are five broad factors or traits which are used to
describe and explain the human personality. Each of the trait are independent of
each other and have unique aspects of human personality. According to Costa &
McCrae (1992) five traits are as followed:
1. Extraversion:
Extraversion is a personality trait or characteristic that describe the things like, a
person is social, warm, loving and excitement seeking. People who are extraverted
are energetic, have positive emotions, assertiveness and like to go out with friends.
2. Neuroticism:
Neuroticism is a personality trait that individual exhibit like, anxiety, anger, and
depression. These are unpleasant emotions easily experienced by people who have
neuroticism. People feel self-conscious, act impulsively and experience sense of
vulnerability.
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Types of Personality
3. Agreeableness:
People who have high agreeableness are cooperative, kind, trusting, and helpful. They
have compliance, altruistic behavior and sympathetic attitude (Costa & McCrae, 1992).
4. Conscientiousness:
Conscientiousness is another personality trait or characteristic that people have
tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifulness, motivated to achieve goals and prefer
things in order.
5. Openness to experience:
Openness to experience is final trait or characteristic that people are open to fantasies,
emotion and experience. They have new novel ideas, values and try to do new things.
People have openness prefer new, diverse and complex experiences.
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PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

 Biological factors
 Psychological factors
 Environmental factors
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Biological factors

 Biological determinants also called as physical determinants

emphasize that physique and body functioning are directly
responsible for personality development. Some of these factors
are: (i) Body build (ii) Physical attractiveness (iii) Homeostasis
(iv) Physical defects (v) Health conditions.
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 Body build: Body build influences

personality directly by determining what an
individual can and cannot do, as well as
what the individual’s reaction will be to all
those whose body builds are superior or
inferior. Some of the known body builds are
(i) ectomorph (ii) endomorph, and (iii)
mesomorph.
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Physical attractiveness

 Physical attractiveness is another physical component that

affects the development of personality. An attractive person of
any age is more appealing than a person who is unattractive.
Brislin & Lewis (1968) have commented that it is very much
rewarding to be with someone who is physically attractive.
Generally, it has been found that the people tend to be more
tolerant in their attitudes and judgements of an attractive person.
That is the reason why a pretty child is less likely to be punished
or criticized for troublesome behaviour than a simple looking
homely child.
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Homeostasis

 Homeostasis is another important determinant. It refers to the

maintenance of a stable internal environment through relatively
having normal temperature, normal level of blood sugar, normal
level of blood pressure, proper water balance, etc. When any of
these conditions is upset, disequilibrium starts and disturbances
in homeostasis results. Homeostasis or disturbances in it, has a
significant impact upon personality both directly or indirectly.
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 Directly, the effect of homeostasis is seen in relaxed, controlled

and socially acceptable behaviour patterns of the person who is
feeling well both physically and psychologically. When the level
of homeostasis is disturbed, behaviours like irritability,
indigestion, insomnia and other uncomfortable states often
result.
 Disturbances in hemostasis also affects personality indirectly. It
affects personality through the way the person reacts to what he
thinks and believes to be the attitudes of some significant
people in his life.
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Physical defects

 Physical defects are another determiners. The first scientific

study showing the impact of physical defect upon personality
has come from Alfred Adler’s theory of organ inferiority. Today
several studies have been conducted to examine the direct and
indirect impact of physical defects upon personality.
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Health conditions

 Health conditions also affect the development of personality. At

all ages and in both sexes good health is considered as a
personality asset and poor health is a liability. There are ample
evidences to support it. Many personality changes result from
poor health conditions and tend to continue even after the
illness has been cured or its severity has been lessened. This is
especially true during childhood when the personality is in the
formative stages. Many personality changes and disturbances in
adolescents and adults have their root in illnesses during the
early years of childhood (Martin & Vincent, 1960).
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 It has also been found that persons having illness like diabetes,
etc., experience tension and anxiety which causes frustration in
dealing with the demands of social environments
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Psychological factors

 Several psychological factors tend to determine the

development of personality. Among those factors the following
can be specially discussed because of their importance. These
include:
 Intellectual determinants
 Emotional determinants
 Self disclosure
 Aspiration and achievements
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Intellectual determinants

 These are one of the important factors which influence the

development of personality. Researchers are of view that
intellectual capacities influence personality through various
kinds of adjustments in life and indirectly through the judgments
other persons make of the individual on the basis of the
person’s intellectual achievements.
 Intellectually bright men and women make better personal and
social adjustments than those of average or below average
intelligence.
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Emotional Determinants

 important personality determinants because they affect personal

and social adjustment.
 Research has shown that several aspects of emotions like
dominant emotions, emotional balance, emotional deprivation,
excessive love and affection, emotional expressions, emotional
catharsis and emotional stress directly and indirectly affect the
development of personality.
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 Some people experience a predominance of pleasant emotions

while others experience a predominance of unpleasant emotions.
This predominance affect the development of personality. The
cheerful persons are usually happy and even when they are in a
depressive mood they can see the brighter side of things.
Likewise, since apprehensive persons are full of fear, they even
when there is ja happy or enjoyable situation, feel depressed and
remain afraid. Emotional balance which is a condition in which
pleasant emotions outweigh the unpleasant emotion, is
considered essential to good social and personal adjustment.
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.

 Faces obstacles then –ve emotions arise person’s adjustments

are adversely affected

 emotional deprivation of pleasant emotions like love, happiness and

curiosity also has an impact, which gradually leads to poor personal and
social adjustment.

 Much of adolescent and adult rebellion against authority stems from

emotional insecurity which has its origin in unstable affectional relationship
with parents and other members of family during early childhood years.
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Self disclosure

 Self disclosure is considered basic to mental health and such

disclosure helps to bring about a healthy personality pattern
which is a guarantee for a socially desirable and favourable
reactions from others
 Emotional stress expressed in the form of anxiety, frustration,
jealousy and envy also affect the development of personality. A
person who suffers from emotional stress makes good personal
and social adjustments.
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Aspiration and achievements

 These also have an effect on the development of personality. Aspiration

means a longing for and striving for something higher than one’s present
status. Thus aspirations are the ego-involved goals that persons set for
themselves. The more ego-involved the aspirations are, the more will be
the impact upon behaviour and therefore, greater will be the impact upon
personality.
 There may be various forms of aspirations such as positive aspiration (to
achieve success), negative aspiration (to avoid failure), realistic aspiration
(within the range of the person’s capacity), unrealistic aspirations (beyond
the capacity of the person), remote aspirations (to achieve a goal in the
remote future) or immediate aspirations (to achieve a goal in the near
future).
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Achievement

 Achievement can be evaluated objectively by comparing one’s performance with

those of one’s peers and subjectively, by comparing the person’s achievement with
the level of aspiration. Success and failure are the two different attitudes of the
person towards achievement.
 If the person is pleased with own achievement, the achievement will be considered
a success and this has a favourable impact upon the self-concept. However if the
person’s attitude towards achievement is negative, then the achievement will not be
considered a success but a failure. Such persons will feel dissatisfied and miserable
and in turn their self concept will be adversely affected. Persons who feel that they
have been successful remain satisfied with themselves and appear to be happy.
 Besides building a favourable self-concept, achievement also raises the person’s
self-esteem and increases the level of self-confidence
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Environmental factors

Besides physical and psychological factors, some environmental

factors have been isolated and shown to have a significant impact
upon the development of personality. Under environmental
determinants, the following four sets of factors have been primarily
emphasized :
 Social Acceptance
 Social Deprivation
 Educational Factors
 Family Determinants
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Social Acceptance

 These are one of the major environmental determinants. Every

person lives in a social group, which judges the person’s
behaviour in terms of the person’s conformity to group
expectations regarding proper performance behaviour and
appropriate role playing. Thus social judgement serve as basis
for self-evaluation. In this way, the social group tends to
influence the development of self-concept.
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 Persons whose social acceptance is very high, they are generally more
outgoing, more flexible, more active and daring than those who are only
moderately socially accepted or moderately popular.
 One extreme opposite of social acceptance is social isolation. If a person
develops the feelings of rejection due to social isolation when in fact they want
to be accepted, would develop the feeling of resentment against those who
have rejected them. Such people are often depressed, sad and unhappy. They
may develop sour-grapes attitude towards social activities. Such social rejection
may lead the persons to become juvenile delinquents or criminals in the long
run. Researchers have further shown that if early social experiences of the
persons are favourable, they are likely to become social and if their experiences
are unfavourable, they are likely to develop an unsocial or antisocial personality
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Social Deprivation

 y. Social deprivation means being deprived of opportunities for

various types of social contacts including love and affection.
Social deprivation causes social isolation which has an adverse
effect on personality. Social deprivation has proved most
damaging for two age groups— the very young and the elderly.
 The young children who are deprived of contacts with parents /
guardians fail to develop healthy and normal personality. Their
behaviour is socially disapproved and they are also
unfavourably judged by others.
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 Social deprivation in elderly people make them self-bound and

selfish, which gradually lead to unfavourable social and self
judgements. It has also been observed that social deprivation is
far more damaging to people who want and also need social
contacts for happiness than those who are self-sufficient or who
voluntarily withdraw
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Educational Factors

 Another important factor, which influences the development of

personality is the educational factors. Schools, colleges and
teachers have significant impact upon the individual’s development
of personality. The impact of educational institution upon personality
development is largely determined by the students’ attitude towards
school and colleges, towards peers, towards teachers and also
toward the value of education. When these attitudes are favourable,
the students usually enjoy their academic activities and have a
warm and friendly relationship with teachers and their peers. This
has a very favourable impact upon the development of personality
by producing stronger sense of self-confidence and self-esteem.
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Family Determinants

 The influence of family on personality development is maximal at all ages.

The family affects the development of personality both directly or indirectly.
 Direct influence of family upon personality comes chiefly through different
child-training methods which are used to mould the personality pattern,
and the communication of interest, attitude and values between members
of the family.
 Strict, demanding, punitive and inhibiting parents / guardians tend to
encourage their children for depending upon external controls to guide
their behaviour. As a result, when the children are outside the direct
control of their parents/guardian, they tend to show impulsiveness in their
behaviour.
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 Indirectly, through identification with parents, children develop a

personality pattern similar to that of their parents. Experimental
studies reveal that through imitation also, a certain personality
pattern develops. For example, living with parents who are
anxious, nervous and lacking the sense of humor produces in
the children a sense of nervousness and frequent outburst of
temper.
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Theories Of Personality
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Theories Of Personality

 Psychodynamic theory
 Biological Theory
 Trait Theory
 Behaviorism
 Social-cognitive Theory
 Humanistic
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THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
 PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES
Attempt to explain human behaviour in terms of the interaction of various components of personality.
 TRAIT THEORIES
Attempt to learn what traits make up personality and how they relate to actual behavior
 HUMANISTIC THEORIES
Focus on private, subjective experience and personal growth.
 SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORIES
Attribute difference in personality to socialization, expectations, and mental processes
 BEHAVIORIST PERSONALITY THEORY
An adaptation to the environment. Aggressive people are aggressive because their environments have shaped their behaviors
and, by extension, personalities
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Psychoanalytical Theories Of Personality

 Psychoanalytic theories explain human behaviour in terms

of the interaction of various components of personality.
 Sigmund Freud was the founder of this school.

 Based on the idea of converting heat into mechanical

energy, he proposed psychic energy could be converted
into behaviour.
 Freud's theory places central importance on dynamic,
unconscious psychological conflicts
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Basic Assumptions

 Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory of personality is somewhat

controversial and is based on three main assumptions:
1. Personality is governed by unconscious forces that we
cannot control.
2. Childhood experiences play a significant role in
determining adult personality.
3. Personality is shaped by the manner in which children
cope with sexual urges. 
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Components of Personality

1. Unconscious: The unconscious is understood to be the large part of the mind, which is
hidden from view.
2. Pre-conscious: The pre-conscious is represented by the waterline - but it is the zone in
which there are fleeting glimpses of the unconscious, "flickering" across the screen of
consciousness.
3. Conscious: The relatively small part which sticks out of the water is seen as equivalent to
the small amount of conscious awareness that the human experiences.
 Elements Of Personality (Freud’s View):
1. The Id: Primary component of personality (Pleasure principle)
2. The Ego: Responsible for dealing with reality (Reality Principle)
3. The Superego (Moral standards) 
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The ID
 Basic biological urges (e.g., hunger, self-protection). The id operates on the Pleasure
Principle.
 The id operates completely at an unconscious level.
 No direct contact with reality
 The id has 2 major instincts:
Eros: life instinct = motivates people to focus on pleasure- seeking tendencies (e.g.,
sexual urges).
Thanatos: death instinct = motivates people to use aggressive urges to destroy.
 The energy for the id’s instincts comes from the libido, (the libido energy storehouse).
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“The Ego”
 The ego consists of a conscious faculty for
perceiving and dealing intelligently with
reality.
 The ego acts as a mediator between the id
and the superego.
 The ego is partly conscious.
 Deals with the demands of reality
 Makes rational decisions.
 The ego controls higher mental processes.
 The ego uses these higher mental processes
to help satisfy the urges of the ID.
“The Superego”
 Superego: Superego the moral part of
personality.
 Internalized rules of parents and society. 
Superego consists of two parts:
 Conscience: “notions of right/wrong.”
 Ego Ideal: “how we ideally like to be.”
 Superego: constrains us from gratifying
every impulse (e.g., murder) because they
are immoral, and not because we might get
caught.
 Superego: Superego partly conscious,
partly unconscious.
 According to Freud, an individual’s feelings, thoughts,
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and behaviors are the result of the interaction of the id, the
superego, and the ego.
 The id, the ego, and the superego are continually in
conflict with one another.This conflict generates anxiety.
 If the ego did not effectively handle the resulting anxiety,
people would be so overwhelmed with anxiety that they
would not be able to carry on with the tasks of everyday
living.
 The ego tries to control anxiety (i.e., to reduce anxiety)
through the use of ego defense mechanisms.
 A defense mechanism is a tactic developed by the ego
to protect against anxiety. Defense mechanisms are
thought to safeguard the mind against feelings and
thoughts that are too difficult for the conscious mind to
cope with.
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Freud’s Stages
z of Personality Development

 personality develops through a series of stages, each of which is associated

with a major biological function.
 At each level, there is a conflict between pleasure and reality. The resolution
of this conflict determines personality
 At any stage, “a fixation” can occur: If needs are either under-gratified or
over-gratified, we become fixated at a particular stage.
 Each stage also involves an erogenous zone. (Parts of the body that involve
sexual pleasure)
 personality forms during the first few years of life, rooted in unresolved
conflicts of early childhood
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Psychosexual Stages

1. Oral (Birth- 1 ½ Yr.)

2. Anal (1 ½ - 3 Yr.)

3. Phallic (3-6 Yr.)

4. Latency (6 – Puberty)

5. Genital (Puberty – Adulthood)

Oral stage of development:
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 Erogenous zone is mouth.
 Gratification through sucking and
swallowing.
 Oral fixation has two possible outcomes.
 Oral receptive personality:
 Preoccupied with eating/drinking.
 Reduce tension through oral activity.
 eating, drinking, smoking, biting nails
 Passive and needy; sensitive to
rejection.
 Oral aggressive personality: Hostile and
verbally abusive to others.
Anal stage of development:
 Erogenous zone is the anus.
 Conflict surrounds toilet training.
 Anal fixation has two possible
outcomes.
 Anal retentive personality.
personality :
 Stingy, compulsive orderliness,
stubborn, perfectionistic.
 Anal expulsive personality.
personality :
 Lack of self control, messy,
careless.
Phallic stage ofzdevelopment: Latency Period:
 Erogenous zone is the genitals: self-  During the latency period, little girls
stimulation of the genitals produces
and little boys try to socialize only
pleasure.
with members of their own gender.
 At age 5 or 6, near the end of the phallic
stage, children experience the Oedipal  Freud suggests that children do this
conflict (boys)/the Electra conflict (girls)-- so as to help minimize the awareness
a process through which they learn to of “sexuality.”
identify with the same gender parent by
 Thus, they continue the process of
acting as much like that parent as possible.
sexual repression that began in the
 Oedipus complex (boys) vs Electra
previous stage (for those who
complex (girls)
successfully made it through the
 Child is sexually attracted to the other sex
Oedipal Complex/Electra Complex).
parent and wishes to replace the same sex
parent.
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Genital Stage:
 When adolescence begin puberty, they enter the 5th stage of
psychosexual development.
 They develop secondary sexual characteristics (e.g., pubic hair).

 The onset of the physical sexual characteristics “re-awakens”

people sexual urges, and thus they are no longer able to
successfully repress their sexual desires, impulses, and urges.
 They begin searching for a marital mate, with whom they can
share sex and intimacy.
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(Psychoanalytic) Theories:

Many are called Neo-Freudians. All place less emphasis on sex.

 Carl Jung: Swiss psychiatrist who was a Freudian disciple,
believed that all of us belong to one of two personality types:
1. Introvert: Shy, self-centered person whose attention is focused inward.

2. Extrovert: Bold, outgoing person whose attention is directed outward

 Alfred Adler: Adler stressed a positive view of human nature.

 He believed that individuals can control their fate. They can do this in part by trying to help others
(social interest).
 How they do this can be understood through analyzing their lifestyle.

 Early interactions with family members, peers, and teachers help to determine the role of inferiority
and superiority in their lives.
 -Striving for superiority = motivation to master environment.

 -Notion of an Inferiority Complex.

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2. Trait Personality Theories

Personality traits are "enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and

thinking about the environment and oneself that are exhibited in a wide range
of social and personal contexts."
A trait is what we call a characteristic way in which an individual perceives,
feels, believes, or acts.
Assumptions:

1. Traits are relatively stable over time,

2. Traits differ among individuals

3. Traits influence behavior
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GORDON ALLPORT

Most important personality traits are those that reflect our values.
suggested that there are 3 kinds of traits:
• cardinal: a single personality trait that directs most of a cardinal person’s
activities, and person becomes known for those traits (e.g., greed, lust, kindness).
• central: a set of major characteristics that make up the central core of a
person’s personality. Terms such as intelligent, honest, shy and anxious are
considered central traits.
• secondary: less important personality traits that do not secondary affect
behavior as much as central and cardinal traits do.
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Eysenck three factor theory
Hans Eysenck:
believed that there are three fundamental factors in
personality:
1. introversion versus extroversion (quiet versus
sociable).
2.Neuroticism versus emotional stability (moody
versus calm).
3.Impulse Control versus Psychotic
The first two factors create 4 combinations, related to the
four basic temperaments recognized by ancient Greeks:
1. Melancholic (introverted + unstable): sad, gloomy.
2. Choleric (extroverted + unstable): hot-tempered,
irritable.
3. Phlegmatic (introverted + stable): sluggish, calm.
4. Sanguine (extroverted + stable): cheerful, hopeful .
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 Cattell’s Trait Theory: believed that there were two basic categories of traits

- Surface Traits:  Features that make up the visible areas of personality

- Source Traits: More important basic underlying traits.
 Cattell identified 16 basic traits by means of a statistical technique called Factor
analysis.
He developed the 16PF to measure these traits.

Big five model

The "Big Five" theory of personality represents five core traits that interact to form human
personality. Lewis Goldberg proposed a five-dimension personality model, nicknamed the
Big five
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The Big Five
1: emotional stability versus neuroticism:
- calm, secure, self-satisfied VS anxious, insecure, self-pitying
2: extraversion versus introversion:
- sociable, fun-loving, affectionate VS retiring, sober, reserved
3: openness versus close-mindedness:
- imaginative, independent VS practical, conforming.
4: agreeableness versus disagreeableness:
- kind, trusting, helpful VS ruthless, suspicious, uncooperative.
5: conscientiousness versus undependable:
- organized, careful, disciplined VS disorganized, careless, impulsive.
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3.Humanistic Personality Theories: 
Maslow and Rogers
Humanistic approach (Third Force):
 Rejected Freud’s pessimistic view of personality.
 Rejected Behaviorist’s mechanistic view.
 More optimistic/positive about human nature.
 Humans are free and basically good.
 Humans are inner-directed
. Everyone has the potential for healthy growth.
 Health growth involves Self actualization:
 “Be all you can be.”
 Given the right environmental conditions, we can reach our full potential.
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Roger’s Person-Centered Perspective
  Maslow’s
z Hierarchy of human motives:
one must satisfy lower needs before one
satisfies higher needs.
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 Self-actualization is the culmination of a lifetime of inner- directed growth and

improvement:
• Challenging ourselves to the fullest.
• Can you identify a self-actualized individual?
• Characteristics of the self-actualized person:
 Creative and open to new experiences.
 Committed to a cause or a higher goal.
 Trusting and caring of others, yet not dependent.
 Have the courage to act on their convictions
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  4.Social-Cognitive Personality
Theories
 Bandura: Theoretical origins in behaviorism.

 Emphasizes the role of learning in personality.

 Instead of studying what’s going on inside the person (traits), study what is going on outside
the person (environment).
 How does the environment shape personality?
1. Self-system: The set of cognitive processes by which a person observes, evaluates, and
regulates his/her behavior.
2. Bandura proposed that what we think of personality is a product of this self- system.
3. Children observe behavior of models (such as parents) in their social environment.
Particularly if they are reinforced, children will imitate these behaviors, incorporating them
into personality.
4. Bandura also proposed that people observe their own behavior and judge its effectiveness.
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Social-Cognitive Personality Theories:
Social Learning Theory

 Bandura also emphasized the importance of cognition in personality

development.
 People develop a sense of self-efficacy: self-efficacy
 Our beliefs about our ability to achieve goals.
 Individuals with higher self-efficacy:
- accept greater challenges.
- try harder to meet challenges.
 Bandura also discusses the notion of Reciprocal Determinism:
 The individual and the environment continually influence one another.
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 Social-Cognitive Personality Theories:
Reciprocal Determination
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5.Behaviourist Personality Theories

 Advocated by famous psychologists such as John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner,

behavioural theories dominated psychology during the early half of the
twentieth century.
 Today, behavioural techniques are still widely used in therapeutic settings to
help clients learn new skills and behaviours.
 Suggest that personality is a result of interaction between the individual and
the environment. Behavioral theorists study observable and measurable
behaviors, rejecting theories that take internal thoughts and feelings into
account.
  Social-Cognitive Personality Theories:
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Julian Rotter
His personality theory combines learning
principles, modeling, cognition, and the effects of
social relationships.
Internal Locus of Control:
You pretty much control your own destiny
External Locus of Control:
Luck, fate and/or powerful others control your
destiny.
Learned Helplessness:
a sense of hopelessness in which a person thinks
that he/she is unable to prevent aversive events
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Operant Conditioning: B.F. Skinner.
 As a behaviorist, Skinner believed that
internal thoughts and motivations could not
be used to explain behavior. Instead, he
suggested, we should look only at the
external, observable causes of human
behavior.
 Skinner's theory is based on operant
conditioning, which means when the
organism is operating on the environments,
the organism will encounter a special kind of
reinforcing stimulus or simply a
reinforcement. Reinforcement increases a
behavior and punishment decreases or ends
it.
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Personality assessment and tools
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Personality Assessment

 Personality assessment: involves the techniques for systematically

gathering information about a person in order to understand and predict
behavior.

 Goal of personality assessment: to obtain reliable, assessment valid

measures of individual differences that will permit the accurate prediction of
behavior. Workplace and school suitability, forensic purposes, diagnosis,
research...
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How do we measure “Personality”?

 Subjective:
Case study, interview,, autobiographies

Behavior observation:
 Watch the individual’s behavior in an actual or simulated situation.

Personality Tests:
 Objective tests (questionnaire tests).
 Projective tests.
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  How do we measure personality?
Objective Test Assessment
 Objective personality tests (self-report questionnaires) present the test
taker with a number of specific items to which she is asked to respond, either
on paper or on a computer screen.

 Self-report measures ask people about a sample range of their

behaviors.

 These reports are used to infer the presence of particular personality

characteristics
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How do we measure personality?
(3) Objective Test Assessment

  Examples of objective personality measures:

- the MMPI (the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory).

- the 16 PF (the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire).

- The big five personality test

- the NEO-PI (the NEO Personality Inventory).

 The most commonly used self-report measure is the Minnesota Multiphasic

Personality Inventory (MMPI- 2), designed to differentiate people with specific 2) sorts
of psychological difficulties from normal individuals.
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 Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory (MMPI-2)
 Mostwidely used personality instrument.
- Used in clinical and employment settings.
- MMPI-2 Has several different scales (multiphasic).
 MMPI sample items:
- ‘I usually feel that life is worthwhile and interesting
(FALSE) = Depression.
- ‘I seem to hear things that other people can’t hear’
(TRUE) = Schizophrenia.
 Measures aspects of personality that, if extreme, suggest a problem:
- Extreme suspiciousness may indicate paranoia
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How do we measure personality?
Projective Test Assessment
 A projective personality test is one in which the subject is given an
ambiguous stimulus and asked to respond spontaneously.

- pictures or inkblots.

- No clear answer.

 The ambiguous stimulus allows test takers to project their own needs,
dreams, feelings into their response.

 The observer’s responses to the stimulus are then used to infer information
about the observer’s personality
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 How do we measure personality?
Projective Test Assessment (continued)

 All projective tests are based on the projective hypothesis which states
that the individuals response to an ambiguous stimulus represents a
projection of his or her own inner, often unconscious, feelings and needs.

 Indirect method of personality assessment:

 Based on psychoanalytic assumptions:

- Personality is mostly unconscious.

- People are unaware of contents of unconscious

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How do we measure personality?
Projective Test Assessment (continued):

 The 2 most frequently used projective tests are:

• The Rorschach : reactions to inkblots are employed to Rorschach

classify personality types.

• The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): stories about (TAT) ambiguous

pictures are used to draw inferences about the storyteller’s personality

Other projective techniques include sentence completion, word association,

and dream analysis.
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]
 Respond to inkblot: “What could this be? TAT card
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Assignment

 State the differences b/w normal and abnormal personality with

help of examples. ( 10 marks)