(2 SELF AND

PERSONALITY

BASICCONCEPTS
Self and personality refers to the characteristic ways in which we define our existence. Different
people hold different ideas about themselves; these ideas represents the self of a person. People behave
in different manners in a given situation but one person's behaviour from one situation to anotheris
generally stable. This pattern of behaviour represents the personality of that person.
of The of a 'self' is not inborn. A new born child has no idea of itself. it is
Concept self: idea Instead,
learnt from experiences and our interactions with others. Parents, friends, teachers and other significant
persons play a vital role in shaping a child's self. The structure of self is modifiable in the light of our
own experiences and the experiences we have of other people, we develop a Personal Identity which
is unique and which differentiates us from others like I am Rita, I am a dancer/honest/hardworking
person/believer in God'. Social Identity refers to our link with our social and cultural groups like I am an
Indian/Hindu/Adivasi, etc. Thus self refers to the totality of an individual's conscious experiences, ideas,
thoughts and feelings with regard to herself or himself. Self can also be understood as a 'knower as well
as the 'known'. The 'knower is called as the Subject and the 'known' is called as the Object.

KINDS OF SELF
1. Biological self can be noticed when a new born child cries, although it is a reflex but can be linked
with the biological need, hunger.
2. Personal Self leads to an orientation in which one feels primarily concerned with oneself.
3.
Social self emerges in relation with others and emphasizes such aspects of life
affiliation, sacrifice, support or sharing.
as cooperation, unity,

Since this self values family and social relationship, so it also referred to as familial or relational self.

COGNITIVE AND BEHAVIOURAL ASPECT OFSELE

1. Self-concept: It is our perception of our strengths and weaknesses. An individual may have a
positive self-concept or negative self-concept of himself/herself
2. Self esteem: It refers to our self-worth, i.e. the value judgement about ourselves. Studies indicate
that by the age of 6-7 years, children seem to have formed self-esteem at least in four areas:
academic competences, social competence, physical/athletic competence and physical appearance.
3.
Self-efficacy: It refers to self-confidenceor
theextent to which a person believes that he/she
controls his/her life outcomes by himself'herself. It also symbolizes an I can do it attitude. Self.
efficacy can be developed and is based on Bandura's social learning theory. People with high self-
efficacy do not believe in luck, fate or destiny.
S.
Self-Regulation: It refers to our ability to organise and monitor our own behaviour. It also means
self-control which means learning to delay or defer the gratification of need. It plays a key role in
the fulfillment of long-term goals. There are three psychological techniques of self control namely
self-observation, self-instructions and self-reinforcement.

Self and Personality 23 -

 culture, there are shifting betwee.
boundaries
4. Culture and Self: In Indian
are clear
differences between the self and otha ne selfaand oher.
whereas many Asian cultr That is
In western cultures, there
cultures are characterized
as Individualistic wh
re
charactemanyrie
western
as Collectivistie.
5. Concept of Personality: The word personality is derived from the Latins
word
mask which were used by actors of the Roman Theatre for changing their facial Petsona
na emeans
external appearance of .make up.
layperson, personality generally refers to the physical or For a
Psychological terms, personality refers to our characteristic ways of responding to ind:. ual. In
situations. and
MAJOR APPROACHES TOTHE STUDY OF PERSONALITY
1. Type Approach 2. Trait Approach
3. Psycho-dynamic Approach 4. Post-Freudian Approach
5. Behavioural Approach 6. Cultural Approach
7. Humanistic Approach

L Type Approach:
This approach examines certain broad and fixed patterns to divided personalities.
()Hippocrates: He proposed a typology of personality based on body fluids or humour and classifed
people into four types, namely, sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic and choleric.
(b) Ayurveda: Charaksamhita, a famous treatise on
Ayurveda classified into the
pitta and kapha on the basis of three humoural elements called tridosha.
categories of vata,
(c) Trigunas: On the basis of trigunas, the typology of personalities were namely, sattva, rajas and
tamas. On basis of three humoural elements called
tridosha, he categorized people, namely vata,
pitta and kapha.
(d) Sheldon: He proposed the typology of endomorphs, mesomorphs and ectomorphs on the basis ot
body built and temperament.
(e) Jung: He grouped people into two types which are widely recognized as introverts and extravers
ILTrait Approach:
This approach examined the relative
enduring way in which one individual differs from otner
(a) Allport: He analysed the words
based on this, categorized
of English language to look for traits which describe a perso
people into cardinal, central and secondary traits.
b) Cattell: He applied the statistical
on which
technique of factor analysis to discover the comiwell as a Icture

people differ from each other and discovered 16 primary or

large number of surface traits that result out of the interaction source uraoned a set
of source traits. He devc
report namely 16PFQ
(c) Eysenck: He reduced
personality into two broad dimensions, namely,
o t i o n a l

stability and extraversion v/s introversion. He neuroticis vwork

psychoticism v/s sociability which is considered proposed a third dimension in nis ensions.cal
developeda self report namely EPQ. to interact with the other two
ILPeychodynamic approach bySigmund Freud: ness, namely the
Freud's dheory visualized the
human mind in terms of three
conscious, the subconscious and the types of consco
He
unconscious.
proposed the primary structural elements and the
superego
of personality as the id, the ego
ego a
Healso dexcribed different
kinds of
he
rationalisato

formation. Freuddefence mechanisms

which

denial and reaction such as

repression,
projection,

proposed a five-stage theory of

On,
prolity developmen

24Psychology-XII (Term-1) persona

 involved the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, the latency stage and the genital stage. It there

is problem in a stage, then it leads to fixation or

regression.
IV Post-Freudian approach:
own 1ews
Following Preud a number of theorists further developed their ideas and added their ve
related to personality.
(a) Jung: He proposed the theory of a collective unconscious consisting of archetypes or prino
images which were not individually acquired but were inherited. His theory of personality 15 Ccaue

as Analytical Psychology
(b) Karen Horney: She had a more optimistic view of human life and argued that psychological
disorder were caused by disturbed interpersonal relationships during childhood leading to a

feeling called basic anxiety.

(c)Adler: He proposed the theories ofindividualpsychology and inferiority complex.
a) Fromm: He developed his theory from social orientation and views humans as social beings and

did not differentiate them just on their biological basis.

the concept ot
(e)Erikson: He viewed personality development as a lifelong process and developed
identity crises.
boe
V. Behavioural approach: e Loilin (0 e fsnoinslol (o)
This approach focuses on the learning of stimulus-response connection and their reinforcement.
For most behaviourists, the structural unit of personality is the response.
noiorrid (o
VI Cultural approach: bur Josando-lb2.6
This theory proposes that personality is also influenced by cultural variations. This approach
considers personality as an adaption of individuals or groups to the demands of their ecology and culture.

VIL. Humanisticapproach: ( bos ( do lenor

This approach was developed in response to Freud's theory. hli
(a) Roger: He proposed the ideas of a fully functional person and unconditional positive regard.
qge loteydl (o
(b) Maslow: He developed the theory of self-actualisation.

ASSESSMENT OFPERSONALITY vibet orfal mquong 2rl lo rednsen do (

(a) Selt-Report measures: Some famous self-report measures are the MMPI, the EPQ and the 16PFQ
Its limitations are social desirability and acquiescence.
(b) Projective techniques: These were developed to access unconscious motives and felings. They
have vague and unstructured stimuli and there are no right or wrong answers to these tests. Thev
provide a qualitative interpretation which can generally be analysed by trained psychologists.
Some famous projective techniques are the Rorschach inkblot test, Thematic Apperception Test,
Rosenzweig's picture - frustration study, sentence completion test and Draw-a-person test.
(o) Behavioural Analysis: This requires data obtained from interviews, observations, behavioural

ratings, nominations and situational tests.

Behavioural rating have some limitations like halo-effect, middle category bias and extreme
response bias.

Self and Personality 25n=

 MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. Aspects of a person that link him to social or cultural group are referred to as
(a) Personal identity (6) Social identity

)Group identity (d) All of the above

2. Learning to delay or defer the gratification of needs is called.
(a) Self-regulation (b) Self-efficacy i
c) Self-control (d) Self-esteem
3. A refers to the characteristics in which one individual differs from another in.
in a
relatively permanent and consistent way.
(a) Personality (b) Traitdaunib vd boru 1w T
()Values (d) Habit
Rohit lacks patience, exhibits high motivation, feels burdened with work and always seems to
be in a hurry. He needs to take care of himself as such people are prone to ailments like:
(a) Cancer (b) Depression
c) Coronary heart diseases (d) None of the above
5. The leads to an orientation in which one feels primarily concerned with oneself.
(a) Personal self (6) Social self
c) Relational self (d) Familial self gsisotradsgy
6. Checking one's own impulses and managing oneselfis
(a) Discretion 6) Caution
() Self-control (d) Prudence
7. Social self values family and social relationship hence, it is also referred to as
self.
(a) Familial (6) Relational
(c) Personal (d) Both (a) and (b)
8. Children with high self-esteem are more liked by their peers.b
(a) Academic
dorge i t
(b) Athletic
c) Physical appearance d) Social
9. Cultures are characterised as collectivistic when:
(a) Each member of the group maintains his/her individuality
(6) There is a clear dichotomy between self and others
)Self and group remains at a distance
(d) Self and group have a harmonious co-existence
10. Sanjana loves to have pizzas everyday. Being aware of its ill effects on her body, She prond
ed
herself that she would buy a book of her choice if she
pizzas for a month. This is an example of:
managed to restrain herself from ea
(a) Self reinforcement (6) Self instruction
() Self-esteem (d) Observation of own behaviour
11. those
A concern with personal goals and a self-focused orientation are most characteristc
from
_culture,
(a) Humanistic
(6) Behavourist
c) Individualistic
(d) Socialistic
12. Which statement is not true
about people with low self-efficacy?
(a) They persist in their efforts. 6) They lack confidence.
C)They expect failure. (d) They avoid challenge.

26 Psychology-XIl (Term-1)
 18. Astudent who believes that he has the ability to excel in
sports demonstrates high
(a) Self-regulation (6) Self-eflicacy
c) Self-esteem
(d) Self-confidence
14 is the tendency of the
their content:
subject to agree with items of any self-report irrespective of

(a) Social desirability (6) Halo effect

c) Acquiescence nabt quro0 () d) Middle category biasbianoe (ol
15. Rohan exhibits strong tendencies but often
aggressive way. Identify the defence mechanism.
complains of other people acting in an excessively
(a) Rationalization (6) Reaction formation
(c) Denial n o l () (d) Projection
16. Sunita has recently decided to leave medical school and pursue a career as an artist, however
her parents are deeply disappointed with her decision. Sunita is
her parents.
experiencing from

(a) Positive regard sds (al

(6) Conditional positive regard
() Unconditional positive regard d) Negative regard id
17. Reshma regularly abstrain from food for religious reasons. Which aspect of the self is she
displaying?
(a) Self-esteem (6) Self-confidenceon efaobioiboi n es
(C)Self-control (d) Selfefficacy
18. Radhika is suffering from a rare disease but her mother is refusing to accept the reality. She
insists on taking Radhika from one doctor to another hoping to hear that nothing is wrong
with her daughter. This is a example of
(a) Projection (6) Reaction formation
) Denial (d) Rationalization

19. According to Cattell, traits are the building blocks of the personality.
(a) Surface traits 6) Source traits

() Cardinal traits (d) Secondary traitsobaa.usu be to

20. Life instincts and death instincts are two instinctual forces that energises the
ibeo
(a) Id ()Ego
(d) Libido
) Superego
result in
21. Rita's mother takes all decisions for her, it will
(6) Low self-esteem
(a) Low self-efficacy
(d) High self-esteem
() High self-efficacy
22 For most t h e structural unit of personality is the response. oenosal
(6) Culturalist
(a) Neo-Freudians
(d) Humanists
() Behaviourists unda ouaso i
23. The are soft, round and fat.

(a) Endomorphs (6) Ectomorphs

(d) Introverts
) Mesomorphs
24. A be antisocial and egocentric.
person tends to
() Introvert
(a) Neurotic
)Extrovert d) Psychotic
nooes
Selt and Personality 27Ir
 of her choice. She told her frienda
25. Sania didn't get acdmission in the college
.
hat she never
a defence mechanism called:
really wanted to go there. She is using
(6) Denial
(a) Projection
d) Rationalization
c)Reaction formation
26. Nita describes herself that she belongs to a Brahmin family and is a resident of Mum
is referring to .
umbai. She
(a) Personal identity (6) Group identity
d) Both (b) and (o)
c)Social identity
27. Freud used method in which a person is asked to openly share all the thoughts . .
ideas that comes to his/her mind.
(a) Free dissociation (6) Dream analysis
)Free association d) Repression
28. According to Karen Horney, the origin of maladjustment can be traced to,
(a) the inferiory feelings of childhood
) basic anxiety resulting from disturbed interpersonal relations
c) overindulges of the child at early stages of developments
(d) failure to deal with intrapsychic conflicts
29 An individual's sole concern with the satisfaction of needs would reduce him/
has to the level of animals.
(a) Survival (6) Esteem
() Security (d) Belongingness
30. Sneha was given a personality test to assess how he expresses aggression in the face of a
frustrating situation. Identity the test most suitable for this.
(a) 16PFQ (b) TAT
)EPQ (d) P-F Study
31. Discrepancy between the real self and the ideal self often results in
(a) Self-actualisation (6) Self-regulation
C)Unhappiness and Dissatisfaction
Leibi
(d) Intrapsychic conflicts
32. According to the Indian approach, personality is a combination of Gunas.
(a) Sattva and Rajas (6) Rajas and Tamas
) Sattva, Rajas and Vata (d) Satva, Rajas and Tamas
33. Jung, the collective unconscious exists in the form of "'symbolic
According to Carl
These synmbolic images are called
images
(a) Dreams (6) Archetypes
() Unconscious (d) None of the above
34. Self report is a form of clinical observation involving which of the following?
(a) Clients measure their own
galvanic skin responses
(6) Clients measuring their own heart rate
c) Clients observing their own behavior and recording it
(d) Clients record their dreams
e p a r a t e

35,
Our capacity view ourselves in terms of stable dispositions allows
to
self-evaluations into what kind of image of ourselves?
us to
comb
(a) Mental (6) Behavioural
(c) Emotional d) Psychological
28 Psychology-XIl (Term-1)
 $6. The ego obeys the principle
(a) Moral (6) Reality
C) Pleasure (d) Both (b) and (c)
$7. According to Preud, which part of our personality are we born with, that allow basic needs to
be met?
(a) ld
) Ego
c) Superego d d ) All of the above
38. A person's resolution of problem at any stage of development less than the adequate
demonstrate

(a) Repression (6) Projection

(C)Regression d) Fixation etil
39. This stage of development usually occurs at the age of 1-3 years. The Ego starts to develop and
the ID is somewhat controlled.
a) Oral (6) Phallic
c) Latency dur(d) Anal
40. If 16PFQ is used for vocational exploration then is a self report measure used to
identify variety of psychopathology.
(a) P-F study (6) MMPI

)EPQ d) DAPT
41. Which of the following lists presents Freud's psycho-sexual stages in the order in which they
occur?
(a) anal, oral, genital, phallic and latency (6) genital, latency, anal, oral and phallic
) oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital (d) oral, anal, latency, phallic and genital
which stage conflict
42 According Freud five-stage theory of personality development, in
to
for babyish pleasure and demand for adult
results between id, ego and between the desire
behaviour?
(a) Oral (6) Anal
(d) Genital
) Phallic
based on.
3. Hippocrates proposed a typology of personality
(6) Humour
(a) Triguna
(c) Tridosha (d) Temperament
analysis provides us information about how a
44. Which of following method of behavioural
stressful situation?
person behaves under
(b) Observation
a) Nomination
c) Situational tests
(d) Interview
45, Anil is describing himself as 'I am the one who easily gets hurt', In this case, Anil is describing

himself as
(a) Subject (6) Object
(d) Intellectual being
C)Emotional
46. A teacher is infuenced by a well-behaved student in his class, and assumes that this student is
also bright and motivated before she has objectively evaluated the student's capacity in these
areas. Identify this phenomenon.
(a) Extreme response bias (b) Halo effect
c) Middle category bias (d) Social desirability

Self and Personality 29

 functioning person, an individual must
that in order to became fully
47. Carl Roger believed in their lives.
receive from the important people
(6) Positive support
(a) Emotional support
(d) Conditional positive
c)Unconditional positive regard
Question no. 48 to 56
mechanism in the
Tdentify the Ego defense able to do because of strong revolt
desire cheat in the exams, is not
to
48. A student having a strong be cheating.
that the other classmates might
the conscious within. So he suspects
by
to themselves that smoking
is bad for their health.
49. Smokers may refuse to admit
disaster as "God's will".
50. A person may explain a natural
criticize other people for
do things for her, is quick to
51. Ruby who actually likes to have others
being dependent and lazy.
him.
52. An angry child thinks his parents
shout at him and do not listen to

blames the teacher for being unfair

or the fate being bad.
53. A student failing in an examination

54. Ramit dislikes Sunil but goes out of his way to be overly kind
college of his choice. He told his friends that
he never really
55. Samir didn't get admission in the
wanted to go there.
complains of other people acting in an excessively
56. Rohan exhibits strong tendencies but often
aggressive way.
statements and
Two statements are given in the questions below as Assertion (4) and Reason (R). Read the
choose the appropriate options.
Options
(a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A.
(6) Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A. pod
d
c) A is true, R is false

(d) A is false, R is true

57. Assertion (A) A strong sense of self-efficacy allows people to select, influence and construct
the circumstances of their own life.
: People's expectations of mastery or achievement and their convictions abou
Reason (R)
their own effectiveness determine the types of behaviours they engage in.
58. Assertion (A) Neurotic people have control over their feelings.
Reason (RR
Neurotic people are anxious, moody, touchy, restless and are quick tolox
control.
59. Assertion (A) A person who has strong aggressive tendencies may see other people as De bei
excessively aggressive towards him/her.
Reason (R) People adopt an ego defence mechanism called projection
in which the
attribute their own traits to others. y
60. Assertion (A) : Women are more likely to be affected by social and cultural factors ua

biological factors.

61.
Reason (R) Neither sex can be viewed as superior or inferior
How many areas ofself-esteem do children sen to have formed by the age of 6 to
ears?
ye

(a) Six (6) Four

(c) Three (d) Five

30 Psychology-XI (Term-1)
 work recognizes the value of positive qualities, such as tenderness and love in
62 Personality Development.
(a) Erik Erikson (b) Erich Fromm
() Alfred Adler (d) Carl Jung
63. According to personality can be best understood as response of an individual to
the environment.
(a) Humanists (b) Behaviorists
(c) Neo Freudians (d) None of the above
64. approach considers personality as an adaptation of individuals or groups to the
demands of their ecology and culture
(a) Humanist (6) Behaviorist
C)Trait (d) Cultural
Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
According to Freud, much of human behaviour relects an attempt to deal with or escape from
anxiety. Thus, how the ego deals with anxiety largely determine how people behave. Freud
believed that people avoid anxiety mainly by developing defense mechanisms that try to defend
the ego against the awareness of the instinctual needs. Thus, defense mechanism is a way of
reducing anxiety by distorting reality.
Freud has described many different kinds of defense mechanisms. The most important is
repression, in which anxiety-provoking behaviors or thoughts are totally dismissed by the
unconscious. When people repress a feeling or desire, they become totally unaware of that
wish or desire. Other major defense mechanisms are projection, denial, reaction formation and
rationalization. In projection, people attribute their own traits to others. Thus, a person who
has strong aggressive tendencies may see other people as acting in an excessively aggressive way
towards her/him. In denial, a person totally refuses to accept reality. Thus, someone suffering
from HIV/AIDS may altogether deny her/his illness. In reaction formation, a person defends
against anxiety by adopting behaviours opposite to her/his true feeling. A person with strong
sexual urges, who channels her/his energy into religious fervor, presents a cassical example of
formation. In rationalization, a person tries to make unreasonable feelings or behaviour seem
reasonable and acceptable.
65. Which of the following matches the defence mechanism DENIAL?
(a) A man who is angry with his neighbor goes deer hunting.
(6) A smoker insists there is no convincing evidence that smoking impairs health.
) A man who beats his wife, writes a book arguing that people have an instinctive need for
aggressive behaviour
d) None of the above
66. All defense mechanisms identified by Freud distort reality and all are:

(a) Conscious (b) Unconscious

() Sub-conscious (d) Preconscious
67. With which defence mechanism, a repressed desire finds an opposite and exaggerated
expression?
(a) Denial (6) Projection
c) Reaction formation d) Rationalization
03. I did
When a person says "I do not know, why that , while expressing some feeling or desire
tself, it is an example of:
(a) Projection (6) Repression
c)Denial (d) Reaction formation

Self and Personality 31

 the questions
Refer to the following figure and
answer

por n o d l

Individual

Aet Individual Group

Group

to be relatively between, self and other, man

1an
69. In the western view, the boundary appears
and nature, subjective and objective
( (6) Shifting
(a) Moving from individual to group b bsg
None of the above
g
() Fixed of (d)
70. Western cultures are characterised as od wov
(6) Collectistic
b ( a ) Individualistic
None of the above Pa
Relational sb d z b t lsuttu(d)
lo vow ) i o l o vd
Answers bnu 5. (a) b 6. (c) tor7. (d) 8.()
1. 6) 2. (C) 3. 6) 4. ()
14. () 15. () 16. (¢)
10. (a) 11. (c) 12. (a) 13. (c)
9. (d) 23. (a) 24. ()
19. (6) 20. () 21. (6) 22. ()
17. C) 18. (c)
29. (a) 30. (d) 31. () 32.(4)
25. (d) 26. (c) 27. () 28. (6)
34. (c) 35. (d) 36. (6) 37. (a) 38. (c) 39. (d) 40.(6)
33. (6)
44. () 45. (6) 46. (6) 47. (0)
41. () 42. (b) 43. (6)
49. Denial 50. Rationalizatiom 51. Projection
48. Projection 54. Reaction Formation
52. Projection 53. Rationalizationer qo 60. (6)
55. Rationalization 56. Projection 57. (a) 58. (d) od59. (a)
66. (6) 67. (6) 68.(0)
62. (6) 63. (6) 64. (d) 65. (6)
61. (6)
69. () 70. (a)