PERSONALITY

PERSONALITY

Definition:

            The term personality has been derived from the Latin Word. ‘ Persona’, that was associated with mask worn by actors on their faces.

            Personality is the sum total of all the biological innate dispositions, impulses, tendencies and instincts of the individual and the acquired dispositions and tendencies.-  Morton Prince

            Personality consists of those habits and habit systems of social importance that are stable and resistance to change.-    Guthrie.

            Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those Psycho physical system that determine his unique adjustment to his environment.        -      G. W. Allport.

ASSESSMENT OF PERSONALITY:

            Only trained and experienced person should do this various Techniques of personality.  The personality assessment tests are broadly classified into 

1) Subjective Technique   (or)  Non Projective Technique

2) Objective Technique   (or)   Projective Techniques.

NON PROJECTIVE METHODS:

            Any form of self report is called subjective or non projective method.  Some of the important techniques are subjective

            1). Rating scale, Q. Sort

            2). Inventories        aptitude test

            3). Check Lists         Interest inventories

            4) Autobiography:  Objectives: Observed by order in the laboratory

PROJECTIVE METHODS:

            Any measure used to observe behaviour of a subject in a laboratory is called objective of projective method.  Some of the important techniques are

1.     Rorschach Ink Blot Test

2.     Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

3.     Children’s Apperception Test (CAT)

4.     Picture Frustration Test.

NON PROJECTIVE METHODS:

RATING SCALE:

            The rating scale is used to assess where an individual stands in terms of other peoples opinion of some of his personality traits.  It reflects the impression the subject has made upon the person who rates him.  Rating scale are constructed based on three basic factors.

a.      The specific trait to be rated.

b.     The scale on which the degree of possession or absence of the trait has to be shown.

c.      The appropriate persons or judges for rating.

            The Traits or characteristics, which have to be evaluated by the judges are to be stated and defined clearly.  Then a scale for the rating has to be constructed.  Usually three point, five point or seven point scale is used for rating. Eg:

7	6	5	4	3	2	1
Excellent	Very good	Good	Average	Below average	Poor	Very Poor

                                                                                     

Types of Rating Scales    1). Self Rating Scale 2). Expert Scale  3). Q-sorting Techniques

1. Self Rating:

v Developed by Harrison Gough in 1960.

v It consists of 300 Adjectives.

v Which are checked by Individual and rate himself.

v This helps to assess self concept of the subject.

v So clean picture about an individual can be obtained.

The list of objectives used by Harrison is given below.

·        Adventurous

·        Alert

·        Clever

·        Fair minded

·        Original

·        Quiet

·        Shy

·        Reliable

·        Inventive

·        Clear thinking

CHECKLIST:

            When we want to assess whether some traits are present in the behaviour of an individual or not we can we checklist method.  This consists a number of statements on various traits of personality.  The statement which applies to a person is checked.  The sample items of Vineland social maturity scales are given below.

1.     Gets cooperation

2.     Cooperates willingly.

INVENTORIES:

            The first objective test of personality development were inventories.

-         R.S. Woodworth was the first psychologist who invented the first inventory which he called the personal Data sheet.

-         The inventory consists of Questions about common physical and mental system.

-         The subjects are asked to mark appropriate answer. (Yes or No).

-         The total number of yes was taken as a measure of general maladjustment.

-         It is perfectly direct, obvious and straight forward.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

Ascendance Submission Reaction Study (ASR)

The Eysenck Personality Inventory. (EPI)

PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUES:

            It is a kind of X-ray into those aspects of personality which subjects either can not or will not openly reveal.  Presumably the test format allows the subject to expose core ways of organizing experience and structuring life inadvertently as meanings are imposed on and reactions made to a stimulus having relatively less structure and cultural patterning:  - Frank (1939).

Characteristics of Projective Techniques:

Ø Ambiguous material helps to interpret the test stimuli in his own way.

Ø Evoke responses from unconscious of the subject

Ø Multidimensionality of responses.

Ø Freedom to respond.

Ø Holistic approach, i.e. It tests the totality of behaviour.

Ø Answers are not right or wrong.

Ø Purpose of the test is disguised.

IMPORANT PROJECTIVE TESTS:

1.     Rorschach Ink Blot Test

2.     Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

3.     Children’s Apperception Test (CAT)

4.     B.G. Test

5.     Psychodrama

6.     Picture frustration Test

RORSCHACH INK BLOT TEST:     This test was developed by a Swiss psychiatrist Herman Rorschach in 1921.

TEST MATERIAL:

§  He conducted research on hundreds of ink blots and finally selected ten ink blots for the test.

§  The test material consists of 10 bilaterally symmetrical ink blots on a separate card of 11*9 inches.

§  Ink blots are printed on malt surfaced white cards.

§  Cards are presented in a standard order

§  Cards are multi coloured or black and white or black white and partly coloured.

DISCRIPTION ABOUT A CARD:

CARD I :    Card should be perceived as a whole.  It is Black and White and contains single picture.

CARD II :  It is Black, White and Red and commonly known as colour shock.  The card contains 2 mirror halves than single symmetrical whole.

CARD III :  Card is Black, White and Red. The card contains two human figures as 2 mirror halves.

CARD IV : It is Black and White colour, the picture is solid and heavily shaded and many subject.

CARD V :  (B+W), The picture is symmetrical whole the shading is uniform and effect is un-disturbing.

CARD VI : 1. Black and White.

                          2. The picture has very marked dark lines giving the impression of something opened out.

CARD VII :1. Black and White.

2.     The picture contains very large ‘open’ centre area of which surrounded on 

3 sides by relatively discrete shape and diffusely shaded.

CARD VIII, IX, X are fully coloured.

ADMINISTRATION:

v Before Administration of the test cards, perfect rapport with the subject is established.

v The purpose of the test is not disclosed to the subject.

v The subject is asked to sit comfortably in a chair free from external distraction.

v The cards are presented one by one along with a blank on which the subject locates his responses.

v The subject is asked to look at ink blot and to say everything that the ink blot looks like or resembles.

v After the completion of the responses on the cards the examiner generally conducts an inquiry into the details of the subject’s responses on individual cards.

v The behaviour of the subject during the test is observed and recorded.

INTERPRETATION OF THE RESPONSES:

            The actual responses are scored based on location, Determinant, Content and originality.

Location:  The responses of the subject may be

1.     W – Whole blot

2.     D – Major Details

3.      d – Small usual details

4.     Dd – Unusual details

5.     S – White space.

Determinant:  The following are called determinants.

F – Form

C – Colour

FC, CF – Combination of the two

T – Texture and shading

Movement in progress of the cards.

Content:

A – Animal

H – Human being

I – Inanimate object

Originality:

O – Original responses

P – Popular responses

o   None of the above four categories should be interpreted singly, however each must be considered in relation to the others.

o   Customarily the interpretation of a Rorschach record are expressed not concise or statistical manner but in rich descriptive prose.

o   Rorschach test can be used individually and collectively to a group of subjects.

o   The F,W,D can be interpreted as externalized emotional

o   M can be interpreted as internalized emotions.

v VALIDITY OF THE TEST

The validity of the test ranges from 0.5 to 0.8

v RELIABILITY OF THE TEST:

The reliability of the test is sufficiently high (75).

THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST (TAT)

TAT was devised by Morgan and Murray in 1935.

TEST MATERIAL:

Ø The test material consists of 31 cards.

Ø 30 cards depicting various scenes and one blank card.

Ø The pictures are marked by in such a way as to indicate four overlapping sets of 20 each, one set for boys, one for girls, one for male (above 14 years) and one for female (above 14 yrs).

Ø The TAT depicts various situations in which the individual normally moves.  It is called test of imagination.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE TEST:

·        The experimenter first establishes perfect rapport with the subject and does not disclose the purpose of the test.

·        Subject is asked to sit comfortably in a chair free from external distraction of any kind.

·        Then the subject is presented one card and the relevant instructions are given.

·        Generally the pictures are given in two sessions.

·        Numbers of pictures depends on age sex and type of the problem.

·        TAT pictures are administered individually as well as collectively to group of subjects.

·        The behaviour of the subject as regards his emotional expression, time and turning of test cards is recorded.

·        After the administration of the test cards an inquiry is made from the subject to determine the sources of the stories.

·        The Total time for each card is recorded.

INTERPRETATIONS:

o   The skilled interpreter translates the test responses as raw data into statements about aspects of personality.

o   TAT were that the attributes of the hero or main respondents own personality and the characteristics of heroes environment represents significant aspects of respondents own environment.

The stories of TAT are scored in the following manner.

1.     Hero of the story

2.     Needs and conflict of the hero

3.     Unusual responses

4.     Deletion and addition in the picture

5.     Emotional expression

VALIDITY OF TAT:

            This Test has high index of validity.

RELIABILITY:

            The reliability of this test is 0.8.

CHILDREN APPERCEPTION TEST: CAT

DESCRIPTION OF THE TEST:

            It consists of 10 cards.  The cards have pictures of animals instead of human characters since it was thought that children could identify themselves with animal figures more readily than with persons.  These animals are shown in various life situations for both sexes, all the 10 cards are needed.  The pictures are designed to evoke fantasies relating to child’s own experiences, reactions and feelings.  What ever story child makes, he projects himself.  It is a colour free test but it demands some alterations according to the child’s local conditions.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE TEST:

            All the 10 cards are presented one by one and subject is asked to make up stories out of them.  The child should be brought in confidence and he should take the story making a pleasant game to play with.

INTERPRETATION:

            Interpretation of the stories is centered around the following eleven variables.

1.     Hero: The personality traits of the hero as revealed by the story.

2.     Theme of the story: What particular theme has he selected for the story building.

3.     The end of the story: Happy ending or unhappy wishful, realistic or unrealistic.

4.     Attitude towards parental figures. Hatred, respectful devoted, grateful, dependent, aggressive and fearful etc.

5.     Family Role: With whom in the family the child identified himself.

6.     Other outside figures introduced: Objects or external elements introduced in the story but not shown in the pictures.

7.     Omitted or ignored figures.  Which figures are omitted or ignored should be noted as they may depict the wish of the subject that the figures or objects were not there.

8.     Nature of the Anxieties: Harassment, loss of love afraid of being left alone etc. should also be noted.

9.     Punishment for crime: The relationship between a crime committed in the story and severity of punishment given for it.

10.                        Defense and confidence:  The type of defenses, flight, aggression, passivity, regression etc. the child takes, nature of compliance or dependence, involvement in pleasure and achievement, sex desire etc.

11.                        Other supplementary knowledge:  The language the overall structure of the stories, time taken for completing them and the reactions of the subject at the time of making the story etc.

With all these knowledge an expert interpreter can take judgement on the various aspects of the child’s personality.

Integrated Personality:

1.     Self Actualized Personality

2.     Emotionally & Socially mature individual

3.     Well adjusted personality

4.     Realistic assessment of himself his strength and weakness

5.     Stable self concept

6.     Higher level of self esteem

7.     Fewer feelings of inadequacy.

8.     Leading himself

9.     Being acceptable by others