CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 2 Self and Personality Notes

FACTS THAT MATTER

• Self refers to the totality of an individuals conscious experiences, ideas thoughts and feelings with regard to her self or him self.
• The study of self and personality help us to understand ourselves as well as others.
• The structure of self can be understood in terms of identity of the intended and the devlopment of personal and social self.
• Personal identity refers to those attributes of a person that make him/her different from others.
• Social identity refers to those aspects of a person that link him/her to a social or cultural group or are derived from it.
Self refers to the totality of an individual’s conscious experiences, ideas, thoughts and feelings with regard to himself or herself.

Kinds of Self
(i) Formed as a result of the interaction of the biological self with the physical and sociocultural environment.
(ii) Biological self developed as a result of our biological needs.

• Self-concept is the way perceive ourselves and the ideas we hold about our competencies and attributes. A person’s self-concept can be found out by asking the person about himself/herself.
• Self-esteem is the value judgment of a person about himself/herself.

1. Assessment present a variety of statements to a person, and ask him/her to indicate the extent to which those statements are true for him or her.
2. By 6 to 7 years, children have formed self-esteem in four areas—academic, social and physical/athletic competence, and physical appearance become more refined with age.
3. Overall self-esteem: It is the capacity to view oneself in terms of stable disposition and combine separate self-evaluations into a general psychological image of oneself.
4. Self-esteem has a strong relationship with our everyday behaviour. Children with low self-esteem in all areas often display anxiety, depression, and increasing anti social behaviour.
5. Warm and positive parenting helps in development of high self-esteem among children– allows them to know they are accepted as competent and worthwhile.
• Self-efficacy is the extent to which a person believes they themselves control their life outcomes or the outcomes are controlled by luck or fate or other situational factors.
1. A person who believes that he/she has the ability or behaviour required by a particular situation demonstrates high self-efficacy.
2. The notion of self-efficacy is based on Bandura’s social learning theory. He showed that children and adults learned behaviour by observing and imitating others.
3. People’s expectations of achievement also determine the type of behaviour in which they would engage, as also the amount of risk they would undertake.
4. Strong sense of self-efficacy allows people to select, influence, and even construct the circumstances of their own life; also feel less fearful.
5. Society, parents and own positive experiences can help in the development of a strong sense of self-efficacy by presenting positive models during the formative years of children.
• Self-regulation refers to the ability to organize and monitor one’s own behaviour.
1. People who are able to change their behaviour according to the demands of the environment are high on self-monitoring.
2. Self-control is learning to delay or refer the gratification of needs.
3. Will-power is the ability to respond to situational pressure with resistance and control over ourselves.
4. Self-control plays a key role in the fulfilment of a long-term goal.
5. Indian culture tradition provides certain effective mechanisms (fasting in vrata or roza and non-attachment with worldly things) for developing self-control.

• Techniques of self-control:
1. Observation of own behaviour: provides necessary information that may be used to change, modify or strengthen certain aspects of self.
2. Self-instruction: instructs ourselves to do something and behave the way we want to.
3. Self-reinforcement: rewards behaviours that have pleasant outcomes.

CULTURE AND SELF:

CONCEPT OF PERSONALITY
• Personality refers to unique and relatively stable qualities that characterized an individual’s behaviour across different situation over a period of time.
1. Derived from persona (Latin), the mask used by actors in Roman theatre for changing their facial make-up.
2. Once we are able to characterize someone’s personality, we can predict how that person will probably behave in a variety of circumstances.
3. An understanding of personality allows us to deal with people in realistic and acceptable ways.
Features of Personality:
1. Personality has both physical and psychological components.
2. Its expression in terms of behaviour is fairly unique in a given individual.
3. Its main features do not easily change with time.
4. It is dynamic in the sense that some of its features may change due to internal or external situational demands; adaptive to situations.

APPROACHES TO STUDY PERSONALITY

• TYPE APPROACHES

1. Hippocrates (Greek Physician)
(i) Proposed a typology of personality based on fluid or humour.
(ii) Classified people into four types (i.e., sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic and choleric); characterised by specific behavioural features.

2. Charak Samhita (Treatise on Ayurveda)
(i) Classifies people into the categories of vata, pitta and kapha on the basis of three humoural elements called tridosha.
(ii) Each refers to a type of temperament, called prakriti (basic nature) of a person.

3. Typology of personality based on the trigunas, i.e., sattva, rajas, and tamas.
— Sattva guna—cleaniness, truthfulness, dutifulness, detachment, discipline.
— Rajas guna—intensive activity, desire for sense gratification, dissatisfaction, envy, materialism.
— Tamas guna—anger, arrogance, depression, laziness, helplessness
All the three gunas are present in every person in different degrees—the dominance of any guna leads to a particular type of behaviour

4. Sheldon
Using body built and temperament as the main basis for classification:
(i) Endomorphic (fat, soft and round)—relaxed and sociable.
(ii) Mesomorphic (strong musculature, rectangular, strong body build)—energetic and courageous.
(iii) Ectomorphic (thin, long, fragile)—brainy, artistic and introverted.
— Limited use in predicting behaviour—simple and similar to stereotypes.

5. Jung
Grouped people into two types, widely recognized.
(i) Introverts: People who prefer to be alone, tend to avoid others, withdraw themselves in the face of emotional conflicts, and are shy.
(ii) Extraverts: 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.

6. Friedman and Roesenman
Tried to identify psycho-social risk factors and discovered types.
(i) Type-A (susceptible to hypertension and coronary heart disease): Highly motivated, impatience, feel short of time, be in a great hurry, and feel like being always burdened with work. Such people find it difficult to slow down and relax.
(ii) Type-B The absence of Type–A traits.

Moris continued this research and identified:
(iii) Type-C (prone to cancer): Co-operative, unassertive patient, suppress negative emotion, show compliance to authority.
(iv) Type-D (prone to depression).
Personality typologies are usually too simplistic as human behaviour is highly complex and variable. Assigning people to a particular personality type is difficult. People do not fit into such simple categorization schemes so neatly.

TRAIT APPROACHES
A trait is considered as a relatively enduring attribute or quality on which one individual differ another. They are:
Relatively Stable over Time
— Generally consistent across situations.
— Their strengths and combination vary across individuals leading to individual differences in personality.

1. Allport’s Trait Theory (Gordon Allport)
(i) Individuals possess a number of traits—dynamic in nature and determine behaviour.
(ii) Analysed words people use to describe themselves—provided a basic for understanding human personality—and categorized them into—
— Cardinal Traits: highly generalized disposition, indicates the goal around which a person’s entire life revolves. e.g., Hitler’s Nazism.
— Central Traits: less pervasive in effect, but still quite generalized disposition. e.g., sincere.
— Secondary traits: least generalized characteristics of a person. e.g., likes mangoes
(iii) The way an individual reacts to a situation depends on his/her traits.
(iv) People sharing the same traits might express them in different ways.

2. Personality Factors (Raymond Cattell)
(i) Identified primary traits from descriptive adjectives found in language.
(ii) Applied factor analysis, a statistical technique to discover the common structure on which people differ from each other.
— Source or Primary Traits (16): stable, building blocks of personality— described in terms of opposing tendencies.
— Surface Traits: result out of the interaction of source traits.
(iii) Developed Sixteen Personality Factor (16PF) Questionnaire for the assessment of personality.

3. Eysenck’s Theory (H.J. Eysenck)
(i) Reduced personality into two broad dimensions which are biologically and genetically based and subsume a number of specific traits.
— Neuroticism (anxious, moody, touchy, restless) vs. Emotional stability (calm, even tempered, reliable)—the degree to which people have control over their feelings.
— Extraversion (active, gregarious, impulsive, thrill seeking) vs. Introversion (passive, quiet, caution, reserved)—the degree to which people are socially outgoing or socially withdrawn.
(ii) Later proposed a third dimension, Psychoticism (hostile, egocentric, and antisocial) vs. Sociability, considered to interact with the other two dimensions.
(iii) Developed Eysenck Personality Questionnaires to study these dimensions of personality.

Five-Factor Model of Personality (Paul Costa and Robert McCrae)

(iv) Useful in understanding the personality profile of people across cultures
(v) Consistent with the analysis of personality traits found in different languages and methods

• Psycho-dynamic Approach (Sigmund Freud)

A Levels of Conciousness
1. Conscious—thoughts, feelings and action of which people are aware.
2. Preconscious—mental activity which people may become aware only if they attend to it closely.
3. Unconscious—mental activity that people are aware of.
(i) A reservoir of instinctive or animal drives—stores all ideas and wishes that arise from sexual desires.
(ii) Cannot be expressed openly and therefore are repressed or concealed from conscious awareness.
(iii) Constant struggle to find a socially acceptable way to express unconscious awareness.
(iv) Unsuccessful resolution of conflicts results in abnormal behaviour

Means to Approach the Unconscious
1. Free Association—a method in which a person is asked to openly share all the thoughts, feelings and ideas that come to his/her mind.
2. Dream Analysis.
3. Analysis of Errors—mispronunciations, forgetting.
Psycho-analysis is a therapeutic procedure, the basic goal which is to bring repressed unconscious material to consciousness, thereby helping people to live in a more self-aware and integrated manner.

B Structure of Personality

1. Freud gave an imaginary division of mind it believed in internal dynamics which can be inferred from the ways people behave.
2. Three competing forces—i.e. id, ego and superego influence behaviour relative strength of each structure determines a person’s stability.
• Id:
1. Source of a person’s instinctual energy—deals with immediate gratification of primitive needs, sexual desires and aggressive impulses.
2. Works on the pleasure principle, which assumes that people seek pleasure and try to avoid pain.
3. Demanding, unrealistic and does not care for moral values, society, or other individuals.
4. Energised by instinctual forces, life (sexual) instinct (libido) and death instinct.
• Ego:
1. Seeks to satisfy an individual’s instinctual needs in accordance with reality.
2. Works on the reality principle, and directs the id towards more appropriate ways of behaving.
3. Patient and reasonable.
• Superego:
1. Moral branch of mental functioning.
2. Tells the id and ego whether gratification in a particular instance is ethical
3. Controls the id by internalizing the parental authority the process of socialization.
According to Freud personality is Biological determined. It is instinctive. Life instinct and death instinct determine behaviour.
• Life instinct is dominant in human behaviour.
C Ego Defence Mechanisms
1. A defence mechanism is a way of reducing anxiety by distorting reality unconsciously.
2. It defends the ego against the awareness of the instinctual reality.
3. It is normal and adaptive; people who use mechanism are often unaware of doing so.
(i) Repression: Anxiety provoking behaviours or thoughts are totally dismissed by the unconscious.
(ii) Projection: People attributes their own traits to others.
(iii) Denial: A person totally refuses to accept reality.
(iv) Reaction Formation: A person defends against anxiety by adopting behaviours opposite to his/her true feelings.
(v) Rationalisation: A person tries to make unreasonable feelings or behaviour seem reasonable and acceptable.
D Stages of Personality/Psycho-sexual Development (Five Stage Theory of Personality)
1. The core aspects of personality are established early, remain stable throughout life, and can be changed only with great difficulty.
2. Problems encountered at any stage may arrest development, and have long-term effect on a person’s life.

Resolution of Complex
1. Identification with same sex parent.
2. Giving up sexual feeling for sex parent.
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.
Regression occurs when a person’s resolution of problems at any stage of development is less than adequate. People display behaviours typing of a less mature stage of development.
• Post-Freudian Approach
Neo-analytic or Post-Freudian View
(i) Less prominent role to sexual and aggressive tendencies of the Id.
(ii) Expansion of the concept ego.
(iii) Emphasis on human qualities of creativity, competence, and problem solving.

1. Carl Jung: Aims and Aspirations are the source of energy
(i) Saw human being as guided by aims and aspirations.
(ii) Analytical Psychology; personality consists of competing forces and structures within the individual (that must be balanced) rather than between the individual and the demand of society, or between the individual and reality.
(iii) Collective unconscious consisting of archetypes or primordial images; not individually acquired, but are inherited—found in myths, dreams and arts of all mankind.
(iv) The self-strive for unity and oneness; for achieving which, a person must become increasingly aware of the wisdom available in one’s personal and collective unconscious, and must learn to live harmony with it.

2. Karen Horney: Optimism
(i) Optimistic view of human life with emphasis on human growth and self actualisation
(ii) Challenge to Freud’s treatment of women as inferior—each sex has attributes to be admire by the other, and neither sex can be viewed as superior or inferior; countered that women were more likely to be affected by social and cultural factors than by biological factors.
(iii) Psychological disorders were caused by disturbed interpersonal relationship during childhood.
(iv) When parents’ behaviour toward a child is indifferent, discouraging and erratic, the child feels insecure and a feeling called basic anxiety results—deep resentment toward parents or basic hostility occur due to this anxiety.

3. Alfred Adler: Lifestyle and Social Interest source of energy–attainment of personal goals.
(i) Individual Psychology: human behaviour is purposeful and goal directed.
(ii) Each one of us has the capacity to choose and create.
(iii) Personal goals, goals that provide us with security and help us in overcoming the feelings of inadequacy, are the sources of our motivation.
(iv) Every individual suffers from the feeling of inadequacy and guilt, i.e., inferiority complex, which arise from childhood.

4. Erich Fromm: The Human Concerns
(i) Social orientation viewed human beings as social beings who could be understood in terms of their relationship with others.
(ii) Character traits (personality) develop from our experiences with their individuals.
(iii) Psychological qualities such as growth from our experiences of potentials resulted from a desire for freedom. And striving for justice and truth.
(iv) People’s dominant character traits in a given work as forces in shaping the social processes and the culture itself

5. Erik Erikson: Search for Identity
(i) Rational, conscious ego processes in personality development.
(ii) Development is viewed as a lifelong process, and ego identity is granted a central place in this process.
(iii) Identity crisis at the adolescent age—young people must generate for themselves a central perspective and a direction that can give them a meaningful sense of unity and purpose.

• Criticism to Psychodynamic Theories
1. The theories are largely based on case studies; they lack a rigorous scientific basis.
2. They use small and a typical individual as samples for advancing generalisations.
3. The concepts are not properly defined, and it is difficult to submit them to scientific testing.
4. Freud has used males as the prototype of all human personality development and overlooked female experiences and perspectives.

• Behavioural Approach
1. Focus on learning of stimulus—response connection and their reinforcement.
2. Personality is the response of an individual as sample for advancing generalization.
3. The concepts are not properly defined, and it is difficult to submit them to scientific testing.
4. Freud has used males as the prototype of all human personality development and overlooked females experiences and perspective.

• Cultural Approach
1. Considers personality as an adaptation of individuals or group to the demand of their ecology and culture.
2. A group’s economic maintenance system plays a vital role in the origin of cultural and behavioural variations.
3. The climatic conditions, the nature of terrain of the habitat and the availability of food determine people’s settlement patterns, social structures, division of labour, and other features such as child-rearing practices. Economic maintanence system.
4. These elements constitute a child’s overall learning environment—skills, abilities,behavioural styles, and value priorities are viewed as strongly linked to these features.

• Humanistic Approach
Carl Rogers
1. Fully functioning individual—fulfilment is the motivating force for personality development (people try to express their capabilities, potentials and talents to the fullest extent possible).
2. Assumptions about human behaviour:
(i) It is goal-oriented and worthwhile.
(ii) People (who are innately good) will almost always choose adaptive, self-actualising behaviour.
3. People are constantly engaged in the process of actualising their true self.
4. Ideal self is the self that a person would like to be—correspondence between ideal and real self = happiness, discrepancy = dissatisfaction.
5. People have tendency to maximize self-concept through self-actualisation.
6. Personality development is a continuous process.
7. Role of social influences in the development of self-concept—positive social conditions lead to a high self-concept and self-esteem, generally flexible and open to new experiences.
8. An atmosphere of unconditional positive regard must be created in order to ensure enhancement of people’s self-concept.
9. Client-centered therapy that Rogers developed basically attempts to create this condition.

• Abraham Maslow
1. Attainment of self-actualisation, a state in which people have reached their own fullest potential.
2. Optimistic and positive view of man who has the potentialities for love, joy and to do creative work.
3. Human beings are considered free to shape their lives and to self-actualisation.
4. Self-actualisation becomes possible by analysing the motivations that govern our life.

• Characteristics of Healthy Person
1. Healthy become aware of themselves, their feelings, and their limits; accept themselves, and what they make of their own responsibility; have ‘the courage to be’.
2. They experience the ‘here-and-now’; are not trapped.
3. They do not live in the past or dwell in the future through anxious expectation and distorted defences.

• Assessment of Personality
A formal effort aimed at understanding personality of an individual is termed as personality assessment.
Assessment refers to the procedures used to evaluate or differentiate people on the basis of certain characteristics.
The goal of assessment is to understand and predict behaviour with minimum error and maximum accuracy.
Besides promoting our understanding, assessment is also useful for diagnosis, training,placement, counselling, and other purposes.

Besides promoting our understanding assessment is also useful for diagnosis, training,placement, counselling and other purposes.

MINNESOTA MULTIPHASIC PERSONALITY INVENTORY

- Developed by HATHAWAY and McKINLEY
- Effective in identifying varieties of psychopathology
- Revised version is MMPI–2
- Consists of 567 statements. The subject has to judge each statement as ‘true’ or ‘false’.
- The test is divided into 10 sub scales which seek to diagnose hypochondriasis, depression,hysteria, psychopathic deviant, masculinity-feminity, paranoia, psychasthenia, schizophrenia, mania and social introversion.
- In India, Mallick and Joshi have developed Jodhpur Multiphasic Personality Inventory. (JMPI)

EYSENCK PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE

- Developed by Eysenck
- Initially assessed 2 dimensions of personality: hitroversion–Extraversion and emotionally stable-emotionally unstable. Emotional stability instability.
- These dimensions are characterised by 32 personality traits.
- Later on, Eysenck added a third dimension, called psychoticism. It is linked to psychopathology-sociobility.
- It represents a lack of feeling for others, a tough manner of interacting with people, and a tendency to defy social conventions. A person scoring high on this dimension tends to be hostile, egocentric and antisocial.

SIXTEEN PERSONALITY FACTOR QUESTIONNAIRE

- Developed by cattell
- Test provides declarative statements, and the subject responds to a specific situation by choosing from a set of given alternative.
- Can be used with high school level students as well as with adults.
- Found useful in career guidance, vocational exploration, and occupational testing.

LIMITATIONS/CRITICISMS OF SELF REPORT MEASURES

- Social Desirability: Tendency on the part of the respondent to endorse items in a socially desirable manner.
- Acquiescence: tendency of the subject to agree with items/questions irrespective of their contents. Often appears in the form of saying ‘Yes’ to items. These tendencies render the assessment of personality less reliable.

SIMILARITIES OF PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUES

- Stimuli relatively or fully unstructured and poorly defined.
- Person being assessed usually not told about the purpose of assessment and the method of scoring and interpretation.
- The person is informed that there are no correct or incorrect responses.
- Each response in considered to reveal a significant aspect of personality.
- Scoring and interpretation are lengthy and sometimes subjective.

RORSCHACH INKBLOT TEST

- Developed by Herman Rorschach.
- Test consists of 10 ink blots. 5 in black and White, 2 with red ink, 3 in pastel colours.
- Blots are symmetrical indesign with a specific shape or form. Each blot is printed in the centre of a white cardboard of about 7" × 10" size.
- Cards are administered indivisually in 2 phases.
- Performance proper: Subjects are shown the cards and asked to tell what they see in them.
- Enquiry: A detailed report of the response is prepared by asking the subject where, how, and on what basis the response was made.
- Fine judgement is needed to place the responses in a meaningful context. The interpretation of this test requires extensive training.

THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST

- Developed by Morgan and Murray
- Consists of 30 black and white picture cards and one blank card.
- Each picture depicts one or more people in a variety of situations. Each picture is printed on a card.
- Some cards are used with adult males or females. Others are used with boys or girls.
- 20 cards are appropriate for a subject though lesser cards have also been used.
- The cards are presented one at a time, the subject is asked to tell a story describing the situation presented in the picture what led to the situation, what is happening at the moment, what will happen in the future and what characters are feeling and thinking?
- Indian adaptation: Uma chaudhary

ROSENZWEIG’S PICTURE-FRUSTRATION STUDY

- Developed by Rosenzweig to assess how people express aggression in the face of a frustrating situation.
- The test presents with the help of cartoon like pictures a series of situation in which one frustrates another, or calls attention to a frustrating condition.
- The subject is asked to tell what the other person will say or do. The analysis of responses is based on the type and direction of aggression.
- An attempt is made to examine whether the focus is on the frustrating object or on the protection of the frustrated person or on constructive solution of the problem.
- The direction of aggression may be towards oneself, environment or it may be turned off as an attempt to gloss over or made the situation.
- Indian Adaptation: Pareek

DRAW-A- PERSON TEST

- Subject is asked to draw a person on sheet of paper.
- After the completion, subject is asked to draw the figure of an opposite sex person.
- The subject is asked to make a story about the person as if she/he was a character in a novel or play.

INTERPRETATIONS

Ommission of facial features: person tries to evade a highly conflict-ridden interpersonal relationship.
Graphic emphasis on neck: Lack of control over impulses.
Disproportionately large head: Organic brain disease and preoccupation with headaches.

BENIFITS OF PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUES

- Helps us to understand unconscious motives, deep rooted conflicts and emotional complexes of an individual.

LIMITATIONS

- Interpretation of responses requires sophisticated skills and specialised training.
- Problems associated with reliability of scoring and validity of interpretations.

BEHAVIOURAL ANALYSIS

A person’s behaviour in a variety of situations can provide us with meaningful information about her/his personality

INTERVIEW

- Involves talking to the person being assessed and asking specific questions.
- Interviews may be structured or unstructured.

OBSERVATION

- Requires careful training of the observer and a fairly detailed guideline about analysis of behaviour in order to assers the personality of a given person.

LIMITATIONS OF INTERVIEW AND OBSERVATION METHODS

- Professional training required.
- Demanding and time consuming.
- Maturity of psychologist is a precondition for obtaining valid data through these techniques.
- Mere presence of observer may contaminate the results.

BEHAVIOURAL RATINGS

- Used in educational and industrial settings.
- Ratings usually taken from people who know the assessee intimately and have interacted with her/him over a period of time or have had the chance to observe him/her.
- They attempt to put individuals into certain categories in terms of their behavioural qualities. There may involve different numbers or descriptive terms.
- In order to use ratings effectively, traits should be clearly defined in terms of carefully stated behavioural anchors.

LIMITATIONS OF RATING

- Halo Effect: Raters often display certain biases that colour their judgements of different traits eg. most of us are greatly influenced by a single favourable of unfavourable trait. This often forms the basis of a raler’s overall judgement of a person. This is known a halo effect.
- Raters have a tendency to place individuals either in the middle scale (Middle category bias) by avoiding extreme positions or in extreme position (extreme response bias) by avoiding middle categories on the scale.

NOMINATION

- Used in obtaining peer assessment
- Each person is asked to choose one or more persons of the group with whom she would like to work, study, play participate etc. The person may be asked to specify the reason for his/ her choices.
- Nominations received can be analysed to understand the personality and behavioural characteristics of a person.

LIMITATIONS OF NOMINATION

- May be affected by personal biases.

SITUATIONAL TESTS

- Most commonly used is situational stress test.
- Provides information about how a person behaves under stressful situations.
- Test requires a person to perform a given task with other persons who are instructed to be non-cooperative and interfering.
- The person is instructed to play a role for which she is observed.
- A verbal report is also obtained on what she was asked to do.
- The situation may be a realistic one or may be created through a video play.

WORDS THAT MATTER

• Alienation: The feeling of not being part of society or a group.
• Anal stage: The second of Freud’s psycho-sexual stages, which occurs during the child’s second year. Pleasure is focused on the anus and on retention and expulsion of faeces.
• Antisocial Personality: A behavioural disorder characteristics by truancy, delinquency, promiscuity, theft, vandalism, fighting, violation of common social rules, poor work record, impulsiveness, irrationality, aggressiveness, reckless behaviour, and inability to plan ahead. The particular pattern of behaviour varies from individual to individual.
• Archetypes: Jung’s term for the contents of the collective unconscious; images or symbols expressing the inherited patterns for the organization of experience.
• Cardinal Trait: According to All port, a single trait that dominates an individual’s entire personality.
• Central Traits: The major trait considered in forming an impression of others.
• Client centred therapy: The theraphentic approach developed by Carl Rogers in which therapist helps clients to clarify their true feelings and come to value who they are.
• Collective Unconscious: Inherited portion of the unconscious, as postulated by Carl Jung. The unconscious shared by all human beings.
• Defence Mechanisms: According to Freud, ways in which the ego unconsciously tries to cope with unacceptable id impulses, as in repression, projection, reaction formation, sublimation, rationalisation, etc.
• Deinstitutionalisation: The transfer of former mental patients from institution into the community.
• Ego: The part of the personality that provides a buffer between the id and the outside.
• Evolution apprehension: The fear of being evaluated negatively by others who are present (an audience).
• Extraversion: One of the dimensions of personality in which interests are directed outward to nature and other people rather than inwards to the thoughts and feelings of self (introvert).
• Humanistic Approach: The theory that people are basically good and tend to grow to higher levels of functioning.
• Id: According to Freud, the impulsive and unconscious part of the psyche that operates through the pleasure principle toward the gratification of instinctual drives. The Id is conceived as the true unconscious, or the deepest part of the psyche.
• Ideal Self: The kind of person we would like to be. Also called ego-ideal/idealized selfimage.
• Identity: The distinguishing character of the individual—who each of us is, what our roles are, and what we are capable of. 
• Inferiority Complex: According to Adler, a complex developed by adults who have not been able to overcome the feelings of inferiority they developed as children, when they were
small and limited in their knowledge about the world.
• Interview: Verbal interaction between a respondent and a researcher to gather information about the respondent.
• Introversion: One of the dimensions of personality in which interests are directed inwards rather than outwards (extrovert).
• Latency Period: In Freud’s theory of psycho-sexual stages, the period between the phallic stage and the mature genital stage (period from age 4 to 5 to about 12) during which interest in sex is sublimated.
• Libido: Freud introduced this term. In Freud’s treatment, libido was quite simply a direct or indirect sexual expression.
• Meta needs: In the hierarchy of needs, those at the top, such as self-actualisation, selfesteem, aesthetic needs, and the like, which can only be satisfied when lower order needs are satisfied.
• Observational Method: A method in which researcher observes phenomenon that occurs naturally without being able to manipulate.
• Oedipus Complex: The Freudian concept in which the young child develops an intense desire to replace the parent of the same sex and enjoy that affection of the opposite sex parent.
• Personal Identity: Awareness of oneself as a separate, distinct being.
• Phallic Stage: Third of Freud’s psycho-sexual stages (at about age five) when pleasure is focused on the genitals and both males and females experience the ‘Oedipus complex’.
• Projection: A defence mechanism; the process of unwittingly attributing one’s own traits, attitudes, or subjective processes to others.
• Projective Techniques: The utilization of vague, ambiguous, unstructured stimulus objects or situation in order to elicit the individual’s characteristic modes of perceiving his/ her world or of behaving in it.
• Psycho-dynamic Approach: Approach that strives for explanation in terms of motives, or drives.
• Psycho-dynamic Therapy: First suggested by Freud; therapy based on the premise that the primary sources of abnormal behaviour are resolved past conflicts and the possibility that unacceptable unconscious impulses will enter consciousness.
• Rationalisation: A defence mechanism that occurs when one attempts to explain failure or shortcoming by attributing them to more acceptable causes.
• Reaction Formation: A defence mechanism in which a person denies a disapproved motive through giving strong expression to its opposite.
• Regression: A defence mechanism that involves a return to behaviours characterized of an earlier stage in life. The term is also used in statistics, in which with the help of correlation prediction is made.
• Repression: A defence mechanism by which people push unacceptable, anxiety provoking thoughts and impulses into the unconscious to avoid confronting them directly. In short it is unconscious forgetting.
• Repression: A defense mechanism by which people push unacceptable, anxiety provoking thoughts and impulses into the unconscious to avoid confronting them directly. [Unconscious forgetting]
• Self-actualization: A state of self-fulfilment in which people realize their highest potential in their own unique way.
• Self-efficacy: Bandura’s term for the individual’s beliefs about his or her own effectiveness; the exception that one can master a situation and produce positive outcomes.
• Self-esteem: The individual’s personal judgment of his or her own worth; one’s attitude toward oneself along a positive-negative dimension.
• Self-regulation: It refers to our ability to organize and monitor our own behaviour.
• Social Identity: A person’s definition of who he or she is; includes personal attributes (selfconcept) along with membership in various groups.
• Super Ego: According to Freud, super ego is the final personality structure to develop; it represents society’s standards of right and wrong as handed down by person’s parents, teachers, and other important figures.
• Surface Traits: R.B. Cattell’s term for clusters of observable trait elements (response) that seems to go together. Factor analysis of the correlations reveals source traits.
• Trait: A relatively persistent and consistent behaviour pattern manifested in a wide range of circumstances.
• Trait Approach: An approach to personality that seeks to identify the basic traits necessary to describe personality.
• Type Approach: Explanation of personality based on broad categoires which are mostly determined by body constitution and temperament.
• Typology: Ways of categorizing individuals into discrete categories or types e.g., Type-A personality.
• Unconscious: In psycho-analytic theory, characterizing any activity or mental structure which a person is not aware of.
• Values: Enduring beliefs about ideal modes of behaviour or end-state of existence; attitudes that have a strong evaluative and ‘ought’ aspect.

Question. What is self? How does the Indian notion of self differ from the Western notion?
Answer. Self is an organized cognitive structure. It can be understood in terms of subject and object or I and Me. It refers to the totality of one’s conscious thoughts, and feelings which pertain to one’s own self.

Indian Concept of Self
• Self is characterized by the shifting nature of the boundaries.
• The Indian view does not make rigid dichotomies.
• It is based on collectivistic Indian society.
Western Concept of Self
• The boundaries between self and the group are rigid.
• It holds clear dichotomies between self and group.
• It is based on individualistic society of the West.

Question. What is meant by delay of gratification? Why is it considered important for adult development? 
Answer. (i) Learning to delay or defer from gratification of needs is called self-control. It emerges from self-regulation.
(ii) Self-regulation is behavioural component of self.
(iii) It refers to an ability to organize and monitor ones own behaviour. People who can change their behaviour according to the demands of the external environment are high on self-monitoring.
(iv) Self-regulation leads to self-control.
(v) It plays a key role in fulfilment of long-term goals.
(vi) Indian culture provides us effective mechanisms like fasting (vrata or roza) and nonattachment with worldly things to develop self-control.
(vii) It is ones ability to say ‘No’.
Psychological techniques to develop self-control are:
(a) Observation of Own Behaviour: it provides us with necessary information that may be used to change, modify, or strengthen certain concepts of self.
(b) Self-instruction: We often instruct ourselves to do something and behave the way we want.
(c) Self-reinforcement: It involves rewarding behaviours that have pleasant outcomes (like going to see a movie with friends if we do well in exams).
— Self-control is important for the development of mature personality. This is the reason that all cultures emphasise the self-control. It helps in the fulfilment of long-term goals. Indian cultural tradition provide us with certain effective mechanisms. e.g., fasting in varta or roja and know attachment with worldly things for developing self-control.
— Self-control is also important for effective functioning of social network.

Question. How do you define personality? What are the main approaches to the study of personality?
Answer. The word ‘personality’ is derived from the Latin word ‘persona’, which means a mask or false face which Greek actors used to wear when acting on stage. According to Gordon Allport “Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychological systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment.” One of the major approaches to understanding personality was to develop theories on what it was. There are many broad personality theories, which can be grouped into four categories:
(i) Dynamic approaches, which emphasize on-going interaction among motives, impulses and psychological processes.
(ii) Type and train approaches, which focus on people’s characteristics, stubbornness, shyness and so forth and how these characteristics are organized into systems.
(iii) Humanistic approaches, which emphasize the self and the importance of the individual’s subjective view of the world.
(iv) Learning and behavioural approaches, which emphasize the way habits are acquired through basic learning process.

Question. What is trait approach to personality? How does it differ from type approach?
Answer. Trait approach psychologists explain personality on the basis of specific psychological characteristics.
Type approach psychologists believe that personality can be classified into broad categories.
Traits are relatively stable, persistent and characteristic patterns of behaviour which makes the individual different from others.
(i) These are overlapping, i.e., inclusive in nature.
(ii) Traits are specific psychological characteristics. e.g., shy or timid.
Types are cluster of similar traits.
(i) These are broad categories.
(ii) These do not overlap, i.e., exclusive in nature. e.g., extrovert or introvert.

Question. How does Freud explain the structure of personality?
Answer. The Id:
(i) The Id is the original source of personality, present in the newborn infant, from which the ego and super ego later develop.
(ii) It consists of everything that is inherited, including the instinctual drives—sex and aggression.
(iii) It is closely linked to the biological processes and provides the energy source—the libido for the operation of all three systems.
(iv) It is totally unconscious and works on pleasure principles regardless of any external potential costs of seeking the gratification of impulses.
The Ego:
(i) The ego develops out of Id because of the necessity for dealing with the real world. The ego’s task is to hold the Id in check until conditions allows for satisfaction of its impulses.
(ii) It operates on reality principles. For example, a hungry man would want to have food at any cost due to id impulses, but it is the ego which delays this hunger impulse until the appropriate conditions are found.
(iii) The ego is essentially the executive of the personality. It keeps a person working for a living, getting along with people and generally adjusting to the realities of life.
(iv) Ego mediates between the demands of id, the realities of the world and the demands of the super ego.
The Super Ego:
(i) It is related to the values and morals of the society as taught to us by our parents and others. It works according to social norms.
(ii) It is concerned with morality—whether various ways that could satisfy id impulses are right or wrong.
The main functions of the super ego are:
(i) To inhibit the unacceptable impulses of Id such as sex and aggression.
(ii) Freud assumed that Id is energised by two instinctual forces, called life instinct and death instinct. Life instinct is individuals, tendency to construct whereas death instinct is for the destruction. According to Freud, life instinct is more dominant among human beings.
According to Freud, the instinctual life force that energises the Id is called Libido.
It works on the pleasure principle, and seeks immediate gratification. It is source of energy.

Question. How would Horney’s explanation of depression be different from that of Alfred Adler?
Answer. While Karen Horney focuses more on interpersonal relationships during childhood,Alfred gives greater importance to personal goals of an individual.
There are, in my opinion, Horney would attribute the cause of depression to parental relations with children which are characterized by excessive interference or indifference. Deep anxiety would result from the behaviour rewards the child which, if is erratic, indifferent and discouraging feelings of isolation and helplessness will also emerge. Alfred Adler would, on the other hand, attribute depression to the feeling of inadequacy and guilt arising within the individual, due to the inability to achieve his/her personal goals. These goals provide an individual with security and are important in overcoming feelings of inadequacy. If individual is not able to attain the goals and could not overcome inferiority appropriately then it leads to depression.

Question. What is the main proposition of humanistic approach to personality? What did Maslow mean by self-actualization? 
Answer. Humanistic theories emphasise personal responsibility and innovate tendencies toward personal growth. They focus on the importance of people’s subjective attitudes, feelings and beliefs especially with regard to the self.
• According to humanistic approach, we human beings are most creative, growing, fully functioning and self-actualizing people.
• Fully functioning persons, according to Rogers theory, psychologically healthy persons who live life to the fullest.
• They live in the here and now and trust their own feelings. They are sensitive to the needs of others but they do not allow society’s standards to shape their feelings or actions to an excessive degree.
• Rogers suggests that each individual has a concept of ideal self. If there is discrepancy between real self and ideal self then individual develops maladjustment.
• Rogers proposed two basic assumptions:
(a) Human behaviour is goal-directed and worthwhile.
(b) People always choose adaptive and self-actualizing behaviour.
• Rogers believed that many individuals fail to become fully functioning persons because they grow up in an atmosphere of conditional positive regard and develop distorted self-concepts which interferes with personal growth. Such people fail to self-actualise.
• All human beings desire unconditional positive regard, freedom of choice and feeling of fulfilment for attainment of self-actualization.
• Humanistic theories don’t deny the importance of past experience but they generally focus on the present.
Maslow’s Contribution to Humanistic Approach
Maslow’s Self-Actualization
• It is a state which people have reached their own fullest potential.
• He had an optimistic view of man who has potentialities for love, joy and creative work.
• According to him, human beings are free to shape their lives and to self-actualise.

Question. Discuss the main observational methods used in personality assessment. What problems do we face in using these methods?
Answer.
• Observational method is a very powerful tool of psychological enquiry. It is an effective method of describing behaviour.
• A scientific observation differs from day-to-day observation in many respects.
(i) Selection: Psychologists do not observe all the behaviour that they encounter.Rather, they select a particular behaviour for observation.
(ii) Recording: While observing, a researcher records the selected behaviour usingdifferent means, such as marking tallies for the already identified behaviour whenever they occur, taking notes describing each activity in greater detail using short hand or symbols, photographs, video recording, etc.
(iii) After the observations have been made, psychologists analyse whatever they have recorded with a view to derive some meaning out of it.
(iv) Observation is a skill. A good observation is a skill. A good observer knows what he/she is looking for, whom he/she wants to observe, when and where the observation needs to be made.
• Observation can be of the following types :
(a) Non-Participant vs. Participant Observation:
1. Non-participant observation
(i) To observe the person or event from a distance.
(ii) The observer may become part of the group being observed.
(iii) In the first case, the person being observed may not be aware that he/she is being observed. For example, you want to observe the pattern of interaction between teachers and students in a particular class.
(iv) Install a video camera to record the classroom activities, which you can see later and analyse. Alternatively, you may decide to sit in a corner of the class without interfering or participating in their everyday activities. This type of observation is called non-participant observation.
2. Participant observation
(i) In participant observation, the observer becomes a part of the school or the group of people being observed.
(ii) the observer takes some time to establish a rapport with the group so that they start accepting him/her as one of the group members.
(iii) the degree of involvement of the observer with the group being observed would vary depending upon the focus of the study.
The advantage of the observation method is that it enables the researcher to study people and their behaviour in a naturalistic situation, as it occurs. However, the observation method is labour-intensive, time-consuming, and is susceptible to the observer’s bias. Our observation is influenced by our values and beliefs about the person or the event.

Question. What is meant by structured personality tests? Which are the two most widely used structured personality tests? 
Answer. Structured personality tests are self-report measures that have the following features:
• Questions are direct and structured.
• They are called self-report because the examinee has to respond objectively to the items of the measure and his/her response are accepted as they are.
• They are objective in nature and they deal with the present state of mind.
— Self-report measures use inventories and questionnaires to assess conscious part of personality.
— Goal of the test may be revealed.
— These tests assess only conscious part of personality
• Their results depend on motivation and emotional state of the examinee; they are non-projective and direct inferences are made.

Some of the self-report measures are:
1. Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ): This test was developed by Eysenck to assess two basic dimensions of personality namely introverted—extroversion and emotionally stable—emotionally unstable (Neuroticism).
2. MMPI: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. This test was developed by Hathaway and Mckinely.
• It has been found very effective in detecting psycho-pathology like hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria etc.
• The test is divided into 10 sub scales. This test helps in clinical diagnosis of various mental disorders like hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, etc.
• It has two sets MMPI–I and MMPI–II. Now-a-days, MMPI–II is being used.
• It has 567 items in the form of affirmative statements. The subject judges each item ‘statements’ as true or false.
• MMPI is one of the very good tests for clinical purposes (diagnosis).
• Indian version of MMPI is also available named as Jodhpur Multiphasic Personality Inventory (JMPI) by Malik and Joshi.

16-PF Questionnaire
• It is developed by Cattell.
• It identifies large set of personality descriptions—subjected to factor analysis to identify basic personality structure.
• Subject responds to situation by choosing from alternatives.
• This test is being used with high school level students in India for career guidance and counselling.

Problems Faced by self-report Measures
• Social Desirability: It is a tendency on part of the respondent to endorse items in a socially desirable manner.
• Acquiescence: It is a tendency of the subject to agree with items/questions irrespective of contents.
• Testing and understanding personality require great skill and training.
• People become self-aware and conscious, hesitate to share thoughts and feelings and motivation. If they do it, it is done in a socially desirable manner. So, the real personality characteristics are not manifested.

Question. State in common features of projective techniques. Describe anyone projective technique.
Or
Explain how projective techniques assess personality. Which projective tests of personality are widely used by psychologists? 
Answer. • Projective tests of personality are widely used by psychologists. 
• Projective techniques are most indirect method to assess personality.
• Psycho analytic theory proposed that behaviour is also determined by unconscious forces.
• The projective techniques were developed to assess unconscious motives and feelings.
— The stimulus material is relatively or fully unstructured and poorly defined.
— The person being assessed is usually not told the purpose and the method of scoring and interpretation before the administration of test.
— The person is informed that there are no right or wrong responses.
— Each response is considered to reveal a true and significant aspect of personality.
— The scoring and interpretation in projective assessment are lengthy and subjective.
Projective Techniques
— Developed to assess unconscious motives, feelings and conflicts.
— A less structured or unstructured stimulus or situation will allow the individual to project his/her feelings, desires and needs on to that situation.
— Projections are interpreted by experts.
— Cannot be scored objectively, require qualitative analysis for which a rigorous training is needed.

1. The Rorschach Inkblot Test (Hermann Rorschach)
• Consists of 10 inkblots—5 black and white, 2 with red ink, 3 in pastel colours.
• Blots are symmetrical in design with a specific shape or form, made by dropping ink on a piece of paper and then folding the paper in half (hence called inkblot test).
• The cards are administered individually in two phases:
— Performance proper: The subjects are shown the cards and are asked to tell what they see in each of them.
— Inquiry: A detailed report of the response is prepared by asking the subject to tell where, how, and on what basis was a particular response made.
• Fine judgment is necessary to place the subject’s responses in a meaningful context.Use and interpretation of this test requires extensive training

2. The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) Morgan and Murray
• This test consists of 30 black and white picture cards and one blank card—each picture card depicts one or more people in a variety of situations.
• Some cards are used specifically with adult males or females, boys or girls—have been modified for the children and the aged.
• The cards are presented one at a time and the subject is asked to tell a story describing the situation presented in the picture—what led up to the situation, what is happening at the moment, what will happen in the future, what the characters are feeling and thinking?
• Uma Chaudhury’s Indian adaptation of TAT is also available.

3. Rosenzweig’s Picture-Frustration Study (P-F Study)
• This study assesses how people express aggression in the face of a frustrating situation.
• Presents with the help of cartoon-like pictures a series of situations in which one person frustrates another, or calls attention to a frustrating condition.
• The subject is asked to tell what the other (frustrated) person will say or do.
• The analysis of responses is based on the type and direction of aggression—examine whether the focus is on the frustrating object (environment), or on protection of the frustrated person (oneself), or on constructive solution of the problem.
• Pareek has adapted this test for the Indian population

4. Sentence Completion Test
• This test makes use of a number of incomplete sentences—the starting part of the sentence is first presented and the subject has to provide an ending to the sentence.
• The type of endings used by the subjects reflect their attitudes, motivation and conflicts.
• The test provides subjects with several opportunities to reveal their underlying unconscious motivations.

5. Draw-a-Person Test
• In this test, the subject is asked to draw a person on a sheet of paper and then a figure of an opposite sex person.
• Finally, the subject is asked to make a story about the person as if he/she was a character in a novel or play.
• Some examples of interpretations are as follows:
— Omission of facial features suggests that the person tries to evade a highly conflict-ridden interpersonal relationships.
— Graphic emphasis on the neck suggests lack of control over impulses.
— Disproportionately large head suggests organic brain disease and preoccupation with headaches.

Limitations
• Interpretation of the responses requires sophisticated skills and specialized training.
• There are problems associated with the reliability of scoring and validity of interpretations.

Question. Arihant wants to become a singer even though he belongs to a family of doctors. Though his family members claim to love him but strongly disapprove his choice of career. Using Carl Rogers’ terminology, describe the attitudes shown by Arihant’s family.
Answer. Arihant wants to become a singer even though he belongs to a family of doctors. His family ‘claims’ to love him, but disapproves of his choice of career.
This fact warrants my attention towards an important terminology given by Carl Rogers, i.e., unconditional positive regard.
As the desire of Arihant to become a singer is contradicted by his family, it results in a situation of negative social conditions which will reduce his level of self-concept and selfesteem. His inability to fulfil his goal will prevent him from becoming a ‘fully functioning person’. Moreover, his conception of an ‘ideal self’ involves him being a singer, while his ‘real self’ is not one due to familial pressure. This discrepancy between the real and ideal self results in dissatisfaction and unhappiness.
The provision of unconditional positive regard which includes empathy, love and warmth irrespective of other factors is necessary for Arihant.
According to Rogers, a person attains self-actualization only when people have reached their own fullest potential.
His inability to pursue singing will not allow self-actualization to occur which will prevent his psychological health and well-being.

CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 2 Self and Personality Multiple Choice Question

Question. Who among the following psychologists divided all personalities into introverts and extraverts?
(a) Freud
(b) Carl Jung
(c) Adler
(d) Erikson
Answer. B

Question. Which of the following personality types is described as noisy, callous and fond of physical activity?
(a) Endomorph
(b) Ectomorph
(c) Mesomorph
(d) None of the above
Answer. C

Question. A __________ refers to any characteristics in which one individual differs from another in a relatively permanent and consistent way.
(a) Personality
(b) Trait
(c) Humanistic
(d) Concept
Answer. B

Question. Who among the following saw personality as composed of three major systems, the Id, the ego and the super ego?
(a) Carl Jung
(b) Erik Erikson
(c) Sigmund Freud
(d) Erik Fromm
Answer. C

Question. The ___________ is the original source of personality, present in the newborn infant.
(a) Id
(b) Ego
(c) Super ego
(d) None of the above
Answer. A

Question. The ego obeys the ______ principle.
(a) Pleasure
(b) Reality
(c) Moral
(d) Perfection
Answer. B

Question. Which of the following systems is the internalized representation of the values and morals of society as taught to the child by the parents and others?
(a) Id
(b) Ego
(c) Super ego
(d) Libido
Answer. C

Question. The method of reducing anxiety called __________ is to push the impulse out of awareness into the unconscious.
(a) Regression
(b) Repression
(c) Suppression
(d) Ration
Answer. B

Question. In which of the following psycho-sexual stage of the development pleasure is obtained through stimulation of the mouth?
(a) The oral stage
(b) The anal stage
(c) The phallic stage
(d) The genital stage
Answer. A

Question. ___________ have been devised as one method for uncovering unconscious motives.
(a) Inventory
(b) Projective tests
(c) Behavioural assessment
(d) Situational tests.
Answer. B

Question. Which of the following is most widely used projective technique?
(a) The Rorschach test
(b) The thematic apperception test
(c) 16 personality factor
(d) Both (a) and (b)
Answer. D

Question.  ___________ refers to the characteristic patterns of behaviour and way of thinking that determine a person’s adjustment to his environment.
(a) Motivation
(b) Personality
(c) Development
(d) Thinking
Answer. B

Question.  _______ defined personality as “the dynamic organization within the individual of those psycho-physical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment.”
(a) Sheldon
(b) G.W. Allport
(c) Kwarren
(d) Freud
Answer. B

Question. Who among the following psychologists has tried to describe personality in terms to traits?
(a) Cattell
(b) G.W. Allport
(c) Eyesenck
(d) All of the above
Answer. D

Question. Which of the following scales has been useful in measuring anxiety, hostility, and hallucination, phobias and suicidal impulses?
(a) 16 PF
(b) MMPI
(c) TAT
(d) Adjective check list
Answer. B

Question. Which of the following approaches of personality emphasizes on-going inter-actions among motives, impulses and psychological processes?
(a) Type and trait approaches
(b) Dynamic approach
(c) Learning and behavioural approaches
(d) None of these
Answer. B

Question. According to psycho-analytic theory, the sexual energy that underlines the biologically based urges is called the
(a) Ego
(b) Defense mechanisms
(c) Libido
(d) Oedipus
Answer. C

Question. The ___________ consists of elaborate ways of behaving and thinking which constitute the ‘executive function’ of the person.
(a) Id
(b) Ego
(c) Super ego
(d) Dream
Answer. B

Question. Which of the following levels of consciousness or awareness is proposed by Freud?
(a) The conscious
(b) The preconscious
(c) The unconscious
(d) All of the above
Answer. D

Question. Freud described ____________ as “the royal road to the unconscious.”
(a) Id
(b) Dreams
(c) Sex
(d) Aggressions
Answer. B

Question. Which of the following parts of body Freud referred as erogenous zones?
(a) The mouth
(b) The anus
(c) The genitals
(d) All of the above
Answer. D

Question. Freud believed that if a child’s needs at one of the psycho-sexual stages were either unsatisfied or over satisfied. ________ would take place.
(a) Identification
(b) Fixation
(c) Repression
(d) Pleasure
Answer. B

Question. Which of the following periods of psycho-sexual development was not considered by Freud to be very important to the development of personality?
(a) Oral stage
(b) Phallic
(c) Latency
(d) Genital
Answer. C

Question. According to Jung ________ are inherited ways of organizing, or reacting to our experience with the world.
(a) Collective unconscious
(b) Archetypes
(c) Personal unconscious
(d) Complex
Answer. A

Question. According to dynamic theorists, people use ________ to reduce their anxiety and guilt.
(a) Unconscious
(b) Defense mechanism
(c) Dreams
(d) Traits
Answer. B

Question. The five-factor model of personality was given by—
(a) H.J. Eysenck
(b) Morgan and Murray
(c) Paul Costa and Robert McCrae
(d) Hathaway and McKinley
Answer. C

Question. The MMPI inventory was devised by—
(a) Hathaway and McKinley
(b) Allport
(c) Eysenck
(d) Morgan and Murray
Answer. A

Question. 16 Personality factor questionnaire was developed by—
(a) Cattell
(b) Allport
(c) McKinley
(d) Morgan
Answer. A

Question. The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) was developed by:
(a) Morgan and Murray
(b) McKinley
(c) Allport
(d) Hathaway
Answer. A

Question. The Trigunas are—
(a) Vata, Pitta, Kaph
(b) Sattva, Rajas, Tamas
(c) Pitta, Rajas, Sattva
(d) Kapha, Mastva, Pitta
Answer. A

Question. The ___________ are fat, soft and round.
(a) Endomorphs
(b) Ectomorphs
(c) Mesomorphs
(d) Metamorphs
Answer. C

Question.  ________ refers to our ability to organize and monitor our own behaviour.
(a) Self-efficiency
(b) Self-esteem
(c) Self-regulation
(d) Self-concept
Answer. C

Question. As persons we always make some judgment about our own self is known as—
(a) Self –regulation
(b) Self-esteem
(c) Self-concept
(d) Self-efficacy
Answer. B

Question.  _______ emerges in relationship with others and emphasises such aspects of life as unity and co-operation is known as
(a) Personal self
(b) Social self
(c) Social identity
(d) Personal identity
Answer. B

Question.  _______ refers to those attributes of a person that make him/her different from others.
(a) Social identity
(b) Personal identity
(c) Social control
(d) Social self
Answer. B

Question. Self-efficacy is based on social learning theory of
(a) Carl Jung
(b) Erikson
(c) Freud
(d) Bandura
Answer. D

Question.  _______ refers to the totality of an individual’s conscious experiences, ideas, thoughtsand feelings with regard to himself/herself.
(a) Personality
(b) Trait
(c) Self
(d) Repression
Answer. C

Question. Carl Jung’s theory is known as—
(a) Five Stage theory
(b) Analytical Psychology
(c) Cardinal theory
(d) One-factor theory
Answer. B

Question. Optimistic view of human life with emphasis on human growth and self-actualization, in the post-Freudian era was given by—
(a) Erik Erikson
(b) Erich Fromm
(c) Karen Horney
(d) Alfred Alder
Answer. C

Question. ‘Personal Goals’ and ‘Inferiority Complex’ are a part of which theory?
(a) Individual Psychology
(B) Pro-social theory
(c) Five stage theory
(d) Analytical Psychology
Answer. A

Question. Social beings desire for freedom, striving for justice and truth are a part of whose theory?
(a) Erich Fromm
(b) Erick Erikson
(c) Carl Rogers
(d) J.P. Guilford
Answer. A

Question. What is the structural unit of personality for behaviourists?
(a) Response
(b) Fixation
(c) Stimulus
(d) Repression
Answer. A

Question. Which approach attempts to understand personality in relation to the features ofenvironmental and cultural environment?
(a) Humanistic Approach
(b) Behavioural Approach
(c) Cognitive Approach
(d) Cultural Approach
Answer. D

Question. Name one person who has contributed to the development of humanistic perspective of personality.
(a) J.P. Guilford
(b) Alfred Adler
(c) Carl Rogers
(d) Karen Horney
Answer. C

Question. What is the idea proposed by Carl Rogers?
(a) Adaptation
(b) Fully functioning person
(c) Socialisation
(d) Self-actualisation
Answer. B

Question. The theory of self-actualization was given by—
(a) Carl Rogers
(b) Karen Horney
(c) Erik Erikson
(d) Abraham Maslow
Answer. D

Question. Situation tests are:
(a) Those which provide us with information about how a person behaves under stressfulsituation.
(b) Those used for assessment of personality in educational and industrial settings.
(c) Those used for the assessment of personality of a person.
(d) Those which involve talking to the person being assessed and asking specific questions.
Answer. A

CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 2 Self and Personality Very Short Answer Type Questions  

Question. How is personal identity different from social identity?
Answer. Personal Identity: It refers to those attributes of a person that make him different from others. e.g., name, qualities, characteristics, beliefs, etc.
Social Identity: It refers to those aspects of a person that link him to a social or cultural group or are derived from it. e.g., when someone says that he is a Hindu or a Muslim he is trying to indicate his social identity.

Question. Why social self is called familial or relational self?
Answer. Social self values family and social relationships. Hence, it is referred as familial or relational self.

Question. Define personality assessment.
Answer. Personality assessment is formal way of understanding human behaviour.
The goal of personality assessment is to understand, modify and predict human behaviour with minimum error and maximum accuracy.

Question. What is Libido?
Answer. Libido refers to instinctual life force that energises the Id. It works on the pleasure principal and seeks immediate gratification.
The concept of Libido was given by Dr. Sigmund Freud. According to him, Libido is the source of energy.

Question. What are Traits?
Answer. Traits are :
(a) Traits are relatively stable over time.
(b) They are generally consistent across situations.
(c) Their strength and combination vary across individuals leading to individuals differences and personality.

Question. Explain interactional approach of personality. 
Answer. This approach holds that situational characterises play an important role in determining our behaviour. People may behave as dependent or independent of their internal personality traits but because of external rewards or threats available in a particular situation.

CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 2 Self and Personality Short Answer Type Questions 

Question. Define personality.
Or
Explain the concept of Personality. 
Answer.
 • Personality refers to our characteristic ways of responding to individuals and situations.
• Personality is a dynamic organisation within the individual of those psycho-physical systems which determine individual’s characteristic pattern of behaviour and thought.
In simple words it is enduring characteristic of an individual which makes him different from others.
Personality is characterised by the following features:
• It has both physical and psychological components each personality is unique.
• Main features of personality do not easily change with time.
• Personality is a dynamic organization in the sense that some of its features may change due to internal and external situational demands.

Question. Differentiate between Personal Self and Social Self. 
Answer. Personal Self:
• Personal self leads to an orientation in which one feels primarily concerned with oneself.
• After fulfilling biological needs other components like personal freedom, personal responsibility, personal achievement or personal comfort, emerges as a part of personal self.
• It is different from personal identity. e.g., “I am A.K. Bhatnagar.” This is my personal identity. “I desire to teach in university.” This is my personal self.
Social Self:
• Social self emerges in relation with others
• It emphasizes on aspects of life as co-operation, unity, affiliation, sharing and sacrifice etc. It focuses on family and relationship, therefore it is also called relational or familial self.
• Social self is different from social identity. e.g., “I am a psychology teacher in a school” is my social identity. “I am an understanding and empathetic teacher” is my social self.

Question. What is self-esteem?
Answer.
• Self-esteem is cognitive component of self.
• The 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 atleast four areas by the age of 6-7, i.e., academic competence, social competence, physical/athletic competence, and physical appearance.

Question. What is self-efficacy?
Answer. • Self-efficacy is cognitive component of self.
• Self-efficacy refers to ones own effectiveness in achieving ones life outcomes.
• It is an individual’s belief about his/her own capabilities to get success in specific situation.
• The notion of self-efficacy is based on Bandura’s social learning theory. His initial studies showed that children and adults learn 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.
• A strong sense of self-efficacy allows us to select, influence, and construct the circumstances of our life.

Question. What is social learning?
Answer. Learning by observing others is referred as social learning.
• The concept was developed by Bandura.
• It is based on observation without any direct reward or reinforcement administratedto the learner.
• This kind of learning is also called modelling or observational learning.
• The social learning approach does not propose traits or dispositions.
• It uses the present conditions of learning and the case in the situation for determining the pattern of behaviour.
• The emphasis is on the current situation rather than other’s desire or conflicts in personality.

Question. Explain concept of defense mechanism. 
Or
Explain interactional approach of personality. 
Answer. Ego Defense Mechanisms
• A defense mechanism is a way of reducing anxiety by distorting reality unconsciously which are regulated by the ego.
• It defends the ego against the awareness of the instinctual needs.
• It is normal and adaptive; people who use defence mechanisms are often unaware of doing so.
1. Repression: Anxiety provoking behaviours or thoughts are totally dismissed by the unconscious. It is unconscious forgetting.
2. Projection: People attribute their own traits to others.
3. Denial: A person totally refuses to accept reality.
4. Reaction Formation: A person defends against anxiety by adopting behaviours opposite to his/her true feelings.
5. Rationalization: A person tries to make unreasonable feelings or behaviour seem reasonable and acceptable.

Question. How does Erich Fromm differ from Freud’s approach to personality?
Answer. 
• According to Freud, approach personality is biologically oriented whereas Erich Fromm’s theory of personality has a social orientation.
• He viewed human beings basically as social beings.
• For him, personality traits develop due to social interaction whereas, according to Freud, roots of personality development lies in innate tendencies and unconscious desires.

Question. What functions do dream serve according to Freud?
Answer. Dreams are considered as the royal road to unconscious. Mainly they serve following purposes:
— They work as safeguards of sleep.
— They work as wish fulfilment device. We can give expression to impulses and desires we find unacceptable during our waking hours.
— Dreams release unconscious tension arising out of conflicts between Id and Ego.

Question. How Oedipus and Electra complex are different?
Answer. In the phallic stage, Freud speculated that at this time the child fraternizes sexual relation with parents of the opposite sex which Freud termed as the Oedipus complex for boys and Electra complex for girls.
A male child experiencing Oedipus complex tends to get sexually attracted toward his mother and has a hostility toward his father. They come to know this is unlikely, boys give up their sexual feelings for their mother and start to see their fathers as role models.
A female child experiencing Electra complex tries to act as his mother in order to get that love from his father. They have a feeling of hostility toward their mother. Later on girls when realise that this is highly unlikely then they give up their sexual desire and start seeing their mother as a role model.

Question. Discuss Behavioural Rating to assess personality.
Answer. 
• Behavioural rating refers to degree of agreement or disagreement of the rater on a particular issue on three or five point scale.
• Ratings are used in education and industrial setting.
• These are taken from people who know each other intimately and have interacted with them.
• It attempts to put individuals into categories in terms of their behavioural qualities.

Limitations of Behavioural Rating:
(i) Raters display bias that influence their judgments of different traits.
Example: The single favourable or unfavourable trait forms the basis of a rater’s over all judgment of a person. This process is called the Halo Effect.
(ii) Raters have a tendency to put individuals in the middle of the scale, i.e., Middle
Category Bias or in the extreme position, i.e., Extreme category bias.
The limitations can be overcome by either
• Appropriate training of the rater, or
• Developing scales with minimum biases.

Question. Define observation. Explain the limitations of observation as a method to evaluate personality.
Answer.
• Observation refers to systematic, organised and objective gathering and recording relevant information by a trained observer from natural setting.
• It is careful perception.
• It is a sophisticated method and cannot be carried out by untrained people. It requires careful training of the observer.
Limitations of Observational Method:
1. Professional training is required for collection of useful data though these methods are quite demanding and time consuming.
2. Maturity of the psychologist is a precondition for obtaining valid data through these techniques.
3. Mere presence of the observer may contaminate the results.

Question. What is an interview? Explain its limitations.
Answer. Interview refers to purposeful conversation between two or more than two people in a face-to-face situation.
Interviews involve interacting with the person being assessed and asking questions. It is of two types. Unstructured and Structured.

Limitations of Interviews
Its limitations are as follows:
(a) Time consuming and demanding.
(b) Maturity of psychologist is a precondition for getting valid data.

Question. How personality can be assessed through DAPT?
Answer. DAPT—Draw-A-Person-Test. It is a simple test based on the psycho-dynamic approach,where the subject is asked to draw a person on a sheet of paper. After that he/she is asked to draw a person of the opposite sex. Finally the subject is asked to make a story about the person assuming that he/she is one of them.
Some examples of interpretation are as follows:
• Missing of facial features suggests that person tries to evade a highly conflict ridden interpersonal relationship.
• If there is a graphic emphasis on the neck that suggests lack of control over impulses.
• Disproportionally large head suggests organic brain disease and a pre-occupation with headaches.

Question. Who is a healthy person?
Answer. According to humanistic theorists, healthy people share the following characteristics:
• Healthy people enjoy self-awareness and self-acceptance.
• They believe that their life outcomes are their own responsibility.
• They live in present.
• They do not live in the past and dwell in anxious future.

CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 2 Self and Personality Short Answer Type Questions 

Question. Differentiate between self and personality.
Answer.
• Self is awareness of our being, i.e., our existence. It is the awareness of one’s individuality and uniqueness.
• Self is the core whereas personality is its manifestation.
• Personality is the expression of this notion of self, i.e., how do I behave across the situation based on my awareness of my being in the world.
Let’s take an example—when I say ”I am one who easily gets hurt”. This description of my ‘self’ leads to me being a very emotional, sensitive and touchy person. All my interactions and relations with the world and vice-versa are related to traits-described above what is called my ‘personality’.

Question. Explain the concept of self.
Answer.
• Self is an organized cognitive structure.
• It refers to the totality of one’s conscious experiences, ideas, thoughts and feelings with regard to himself or herself.
• It is acquired and can be changed by the external environment.
• It involves mental representation of one’s personal experiences and thought processes.
• The self can be understood in terms of ‘I’ i.e., The subject and ‘Me’ i.e., the object.
The ‘I’ aspect of self is the lower ‘Knower’ whereas the ‘Me’ aspect is the ‘Known’.
e.g. “I am a teacher” is my ‘I’ whereas getting knowledge from any source gives me pleasure, is my ‘Me’.
• Self has two components one real self and another ideal self. Real or possible self is what we might become or should become an ideal self is what we aspire or want to achieve.
• We are not born with the notion of our ‘self’. It starts developing at the age of two years, due to social interaction with parents, peers, teachers, relatives, etc.

Question. Distinguish between source traits and surface traits. Give suitable examples.
Answer.
• Raymond Cattell applied a statistical technique called factor analysis.
• He emphasized that each individual has a common structure of personality, which is unique to each individual.
• He found 16 primary/source traits.
Source Traits:
• Source traits are the more basic traits with opposing tendencies.
• They are the building blocks of personality and are largely stable because they develop step by step.
Example – Aggression – source trait.
Surface Traits: Surface traits are caused by the interaction of source traits. These traits are somewhat unstable and observable. Raymond B. Cattell described them in terms of opposing tendencies, such as cool verses warm, dominant verses passive, etc. According to Cattell, ways of expressing aggression differ among different individuals and its root lies in source trait of aggression.

Question. Distinguish between cardinal, central and secondary traits proposed by Allport using suitable examples. 
Answer. All port distinguished between cardinal, central and secondary traits – all these traits form a hierarchy.
Cardinal Traits: These are the traits which are so dominant that nearly all of the individual’s actions can be traced back to them.
• These are highly generalized dispositions. If a person’s whole life seems to be organized around the goal of achievement, it becomes a cardinal trait of his or her personality. Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violence, Mother Teressa’s humanitarianism are examples of cardinal traits.
Central Traits: All port described them as characterizing an individual’s behaviour to some extent but not in a complete way as cardinal traits.
• These are less generalized disposition in comparison to cardinal traits.
• He described central traits as those that might be mentioned in a letter of recommendations or certification.
For Example: Honest, calm, talkative, touchy, etc.
Secondary Traits: These are the traits that exert relatively weak and limited effects on the behaviour. These are least generalized characteristics of the person like ‘likes chocolates’ or ‘prefer foreign cars’. These traits can be changed over time.
All port proposed that the way a person reacts in situations depends on his traits.
However, people sharing the same trait may express it in different ways.

Question. What are the broad dimensions of personality proposed by H.J. Eysenck? 
Answer.
• H.J. Eysenck proposed that personality could be reduced to two dimensions.
• These dimensions are presumed to be biologically and genetically based.
• They are opposed to each other. These dimensions include numerous specific traits.
These dimensions are as follows:
— Neuroticism vs. Emotional Stability:
• It refers to the degree to which people have control over their feelings.
• At one extreme of this dimension are highly neurotic people.
• They are anxious, moody, touchy, restless and quickly loose control.
• People, who are calm, even-tempered, reliable and remain under control, occupy the other extreme.
— Extroversion vs. Introversion:
• It refers to the extent to which people are socially outgoing or socially withdrawn.
• At one extreme are those who are active, gregarious, impulsive and thrill-seeking.
• At other extremes are the people who are passive, quiet, cautious and reserved.
— Psychotism vs. Sociability: A third dimension was developed by Eysenck later. This dimension results due to interaction with the above-mentioned two dimensions. A person who scores high on psychotism dimension tends to be hostile, ego-centric and anti-social.
Sociability refers to tendency of individual to follow social norms.

Question. Discuss five-factor model of personality.
Answer. Paul Costa and Robert MacCrae have done extensive research on all the possible personality traits. They found that all the findings indicate a set of five-factors. They are often called ‘Big Five’. These factors are described below:
1. Openness to Experience: Those who score high on this factor are imaginative,curious, open to new ideas and interested in cultural pursuits. In contrast, low scoring persons are rigid.
2. Extroversion: It characterizes people who are socially active, assertive, outgoing, talkative, and fun a loving. It is the opposite of shy, timid and socially withdrawn.
3. Agreeableness: This factor represents the traits of people who are helpful, cooperative, friendly, caring and nurturing. It is the opposite of hostile and being selfcentered.
4. Neuroticism: People scouring high on this factor are emotionally unstable, anxious, worried, fearful, distressed, irritable and hypertensive. Its opposite is well adjusted.
5. Conscientiousness: Those who display a high degree of this factor are achievementoriented, dependable, responsible, prudent, hardworking, self-controlled. Its opposite is impulsivity.

Question. What is self-actualization?
Answer. Maslow proposed the concept of self-actualization. He proposed that human needs exist in a hierarchy, ascending from the basic biological and safety needs to the more complex psychological motivations to the final highest need at the top self-actualization.
By self-actualization he meant:
(i) The development of full individuality, with all parts of the personality in harmony.
(ii) It is a state in which individuals have attained their fullest true potential.
(iii) It is the basic motivating force.
(iv) It is a tendency towards fulfilment, towards actualization, towards the maintenance and enhancement of the organism. As the organism grows it seeks to fulfil its potential within the limits of its heredity.

Question. What are the three levels of consciousness as proposed by Freud? How unconscious is important?
Answer. Freud proposed three levels of consciousness or awareness:
Conscious: This includes our current thoughts whatever we are thinking about or experiencing at a given moment.
Preconscious: Beneath the conscious is the much larger preconscious. This contains memories that are not the part of current thoughts but can be easily accessible with a moment’s reflection. For example, what we had for breakfast or our parents, first names.
Unconscious: Beneath the preconscious and forming the bulk of human mind is the unconscious.
(i) It includes thoughts, desires and impulses of which we remain largely unaware.
(ii) Freud believed that much of it was once conscious but has been actively repressed— driven from consciousness because it was too anxiety-provoking. For example,
Freud contended that shameful experiences or unacceptable sexual or aggressive urges are often driven deep within the unconscious.
(iii) The process of repression is itself unconscious and automatic. We do not choose to repress an idea or impulses, it just happens.
(iv) The fact that we are not aware of them, however in no way prevents them from affecting our behaviour. They continue to operate underground, often converting the repressed conflict into anxiety or even psychological disorders.
(v) It is storehouse of repressed libidinal energy.

Question. What are defense mechanisms? Discuss few defense mechanisms.
Answer.
• According to Dr. Sigmund Freud defense mechanisms are ways in which the ego unconsciously tries to cope with unacceptable libidinal desires and resolves conflicts.
• In simple words, Ego defense mechanism are ways of resolving the conflict by distorting the reality unconsciously.
• It distorts reality to resolve conflicts and therefore provides temporary relief.
• Its optimum use is healthy but excessive usage lead to maladjustment.
• Defense mechanisms are regulated by the ego. It is different from lying because lying is intentional but use of defense mechanism is unconscious.
Some important defense mechanisms are as follows:
1. Repression: In this type of defence mechanism, anxiety-provoking behaviours or thoughts are totally dismissed by the unconscious.
• People become totally unaware of that wish or desire when they have repressed it.
When a person says, “I do not know why I did that.”
• Repression may be referred as unconscious forgetting. It is the basic defence mechanism.
• It is unconscious forgetting.
2. Regression: It occurs when a person’s resolutions of problems at any stage of development is less than adequate.
• It is going back to good old golden days of childhood.
3. Displacement: Redirective an impulse towards a less threatening or safer target.
4. Projection: People attribute their own traits, attitudes or subjective processes to others.
A person who has strong aggressive tendencies may see other people as acting in an excessively aggressive way towards him.
• It is blaming others for ones own conflicts, anxieties and guilt.
5. Denial: A person totally refuses to accept the reality. Someone suffering from HIV/AIDS may altogether deny his/her illness.
6. Reaction Formation: Person denies a disapproved motive through giving strong expression to its opposite. e.g., a person with strong sexual urges, who channels his/her energy into religious activities, presents a classical example of reaction formation.
7. Rationalization: A person tries to make unreasonable feelings or behaviour seem reasonable and acceptable. When a student buys a set of new pens after doing poorly in an examination, he/she may try to rationalize his/her behaviour by asserting, “I will do much better with these pens.”
• It is giving good excuses and basically using ‘sour grape phenomena’.

Question. How do the post Freudians differ from Freud?
Answer. Many brilliant students and colleague of Freud disagree with Freud on several issues like biological determination of human behaviour and Freud but too much emphasis on libido as a source of energy. According to these scholars, human personality is basically socially determined. On such issues they separated themselves from Freud and
proposed their own theories although they believed in other postulates of Freud. These psychologists were known as post FreudiAnswer.
They disagreed with Freud particularly on the following views:
— They have given attention to social determinants of personality and conscious reality instead of Freud’s biological determinism.
— They put less emphasis on the importance of general sexual urges or libidinal energy.
— They have extended personality development beyond childhood to include the entire life-span.
— The ego is viewed as the seat of creativity, planning and the formation of selffulfilling goals.

Question. Explain behaviouristic approach of personality development.
Answer. Behaviourists Approach of Personality:
• This theory of personality was originally developed by J.B. Watson, an American psychologist.
• This approach does not give importance to the internal dynamics, i.e., intrapsychic conflicts of behaviour.
• Behaviourist believed in data which is definable, observable and measurable.
They studied only the overt manifestation of behaviour.
• They focus on learning of stimulus-response connections and their reinforcement.
• According to behaviourists, response is the structural unit of personality.
• The response which is positively reinforced, i.e., satisfies the needs is repeated again and again and thus becomes a habit.
• Personality is simply a bundle of habits.
• Personality is not biologically determined, it is learnt and acquired through experience.
• This learning occurs through Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning, Skinner’s Operant Conditioning and Bandura’s Observational Learning.

Question. Explain cultural approach of personality.
Answer. Cultural Approach of Personality:
• This approach explains personality in terms of individual ecology and cultural environment.
• Individual personality is determined by Group Economic Maintenance System.
• Personality is very much influenced by climatic conditions, availability of food,availability of employment and nature of terrain etc.
• The Economic Maintenance System determines people’s economic activities, settlement patterns, social structures, division of labour and other features like child-rearing practices.
• Individual psycho-physical system, skills, behavioural styles and value priorities are determined by the rituals, ceremonies, religious practices, art, games, etc.
• People develop various personality qualities in an attempt to adapt to the ecological and cultural features of a group’s life.
There may be two groups belonging to two different types of cultures:
1. Birhor Society: Children of this society are allowed from an early age to move into the forest and learn hunting and gathering skills independently. Thus children from this society get freedom, autonomy and achievement oriented from childhood.
2. Agricultural Societies: Children are socialized to be obedient to elders, nurturing to youngsters and responsible to their duties.

CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 2 Self and Personality Long Answer Type Questions 

Question. Describe the type approach to personality.
Answer. Type theories assume that people can be classified into a few categories or types on the basis of certain characteristics they possess. These categories do not overlap and
represent a class of individuals said to share a common collection of characteristics.
Following are the main type theories:
1. Theory of Tridoshas: Charak Samhita of Ayurveda or the Indian science of medicine classifies people on the basis of three elements called ‘Dashas’ i.e., vata, pitta and kapha each of these refer to a type of temperament of the person.
(a) Kapha (Water) Element: It is produced by the joint action of Jala (water) and Prithvi (earth).
(b) Vata (Air) Element: Vata is produced by an interaction of Akasha (ether) and Vayu (air).
(c) Pitta (Fire) Element: Pitta emerges out of an interaction of Vayu and Agni.

2. Theory of Trigunas: According to Upnishad there are three types of personalities based on virtues (gunas)
(a) Sattva: Sattva Guna includes virtues like truthfulness, detachment, discipline,sharp intelligence, self-control and spirituality.
(b) Rajas: Rajas Guna includes some worldly attributes, like desire for sense gratification, and materialistic mentality etc. They are creative and jealous.
(c) Tamas: Tamas Guna consists of all the vices of the world, mental imbalance, anger, arrogance, lazyness, etc.

3. Hippocrates, a Greek physician known as ‘father of modern medicine’ classified personality on the basis of humours, fluids, temperament which are as follows:
(a) Sanguine: cheerful, active and optimistic.
(b) Phlegmatic: touchy, sluggish, calm and apathetic.
(c) Melancholic: sad, brooding and morose.
(d) Choleric: irritable, hot-tempered and excitable.

4. Sheldon has classified personality on the basis of body constitution.
(a) Endomorphic: They are fat, soft and round and are relaxed and sociable, fond of eating and pleasure-loving.
(b) Mesomorphic: They have strong muscular structure, have rectangular and strong body built. They are energetic and courageous, outgoing, assertive and dominating.
(c) Ectomorphic: They are thin, long and fragile in body built. They are brainy, artistic, introvert and are fond of solitude and inward-looking.

5. Carl Jung grouped all people into:
(a) Introverts: They are socially withdrawn, passive, quiet cautious and reserved.
(b) Extroverts: Socially outgoing, talkative, impulsive and thrill-seeking.

6. Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman (1974) identified psychological variables related to heart disease and suggested that individuals can be grouped into two personality types:
(a) Type–A: Type–A, coronary-prone behaviour pattern, is characterized by high motivation, impatience and hyperactivity. They are always in hurry, over burdened with work, competitive and never satisfied.
(b) Type–B: Type B, neutral behaviour pattern, is characterized by an easy-going, non-competitive and relaxed life-style.
7. More recently researches by Moris have suggested ‘Type–C’ and ‘Type–D’ personality.
(a) Type–C personalities are cancer-prone and characterized by unassertiveness, suppression of anger and compliance with external authorities just to avoid confrontation.
(b) Type–D personalities are mostly pessimist and prone to develop depression.

Question. Discuss Freud’s psycho-analytic theory of personality.
Answer.
• One of the most comprehensive approaches to personality and its development was formulated by Sigmund Freud.
• According to him behaviour is determined by the interplay of events and conflicts within the inner life of the individual is central to his approach.
Following are the postulates of psycho-analytic theory:
(i) Levels of Consciousness: Freud compared the human mind to an iceberg.
— The small part that shows above the surface of the water is conscious. It is individuals awareness. Beneath this conscious realm is the much larger Preconscious which contains information that is not currently on our mind but we could bring into consciousness if called upon to do so.
— Finally beneath the preconscious and forming the bulk of the iceberg below the water is the Unconscious which is a storehouse of desires, impulses and inaccessible memories which affect our thoughts and behaviour.
(ii) Structure of Personality: Freud divided personality into three major systems –
Id, Ego and Super ego—that interact to govern human behaviour.
ID: Id is the most primitive part of the personality, it is the storehouse of all basic primitive needs. Id works on pleasure principle and seeks immediate gratification of the impulses.
Ego: Ego is the reality based aspect of self. It develops out of Id. It is governed by the reality principle – the gratification of impulses must be delayed until the situation is appropriate.
SUPER EGO: It is the inner voice of thoughts and should nots. It is the values and morals of society and comprises the individual’s conscience.
(iii) Ego-defense Mechanism: When conflicts among Id, ego and the super ego is not resolved then the ego experiences anxiety, intense feeling of nervousness, tension and worry. According to Freud the ego uses defence mechanism for the maintenance of the self.

Question. Discuss psycho-sexual stages of development.
Answer. Stages of Personality/Psycho-sexual Development (Five Stage Theory of Personality)
• The core aspects of personality are established early, remain stable throughout life,and can be changed only with great difficulty.
• Problems encountered at any stage may arrest development, and have long-term effect on a person’s life

Question. Evaluate psycho-analytical theory of personality critically.
Answer. 
• Many psycho-analytical concepts are vague and not operationally defined and the hypotheses derived from them can not be tested. Thus, much of the theory is difficult to evaluate scientifically.
• Several of Freud’s postulates are not consistent with the findings of modern research—for instance his ideas about the meaning of dreams.
 • The theory is based on a small number of clinical case studies especially of upper class women, which cannot be considered as representative of human beings generally.
• This theory is criticized for having male-centered perspective and it views women as more sensitive and dependent on men.
• The theory has been criticized for over-emphasis on sexual desires of Id because social and cultural factors also influence personality development.
However some aspects of Freud’s theory continue to gain acceptance as they are modified and improved through empirical scrutiny. e.g., role of childhood experience in personality development is being recognized.

Question. Discuss post Freudian approach to personality.
Answer. Post Freudian Approach: Post Freudians are those psychologists who separated themselves from Freud on two basic issues:
• Biological determinism, i.e., life instinct and death instinct regulate human behaviour.
• Freud’s too much emphasis on libido as a source of energy.
1. Carl Jung:
• He developed his own theory, i.e., analytical psychology.
• Basic assumption—personality consists of competing forces within the individual rather than between the individuals.
— According to Jung, individual’s aims and aspiration are the source of energy.
• Jung proposed a concept of Collective Unconsciousness, i.e., inherited part of the unconscious.
• It contains archetypes, i.e., Premordial Images. These images are not individually acquired but are inherited. e.g., the concept of God or fear of darkness.
• They gave a less prominent role to sexual and aggressive tendencies of the ID and expansion of the concept of EGO. They emphasized human qualities like creativity. Libido is not the source of energy.
2. Alfred Adler:
• His theory is known as Individual Psychology.
• Basic assumption–human behaviour is purposeful and goal directed.
• Personal goals are the source of our motivation like dominance and status.
• These goals provide us security and help us in overcoming feelings of inadequacy/ inferiority.
• According to Adler, every individual suffers from the feeling of inferiority which arises during the childhood.
• Overcoming this inferiority is essential for optimum personality development.
3. Karen Horney:
• She said we are social beings.
• She adopted the optimistic view of human life with emphasis on human growth and self-actualization.
• She was opposed to Freud’s gender discrimination.
• According to her, each sex has equal attributes and gender differences are socially determined not biologically.
• She argued that psychological disorders were caused by disturbed interpersonal relationships during childhood.
• Due to faulty rearing practices, the child develops basic anxiety which leads to feeling of isolation and helplessness among children and interferes with their healthy development.
4. Erich Fromm:
• He viewed human beings as basically socially beings who could be understood in terms of their relationship with others.
• He argued that psychological qualities such as growth and self-actualization occur from a desire of freedom and striving for justice and truth.
• According to him, personality develops from our experiences with other individuals.
5. Erik Erikson:
• He believed that personality development is a continuous social process.
• He gave the concept of identity during adolescence.
• His theory lays stress on rational, conscious ego processes in personality development.
• He proposed eight stages of development on the basis of pshycho-social development.
• Development starts at the process of conception till death.

Question. Discuss various projective techniques to assess personality.
Answer. The projective techniques were developed to assess personality based on the psychoanalytic theory of personality. Some of the projective techniques are:
1. The Rorschach Inkblot Test:
• A German psychiatrist, Herman Rorschach developed this technique.
• This test consists of 10 symmetrical unstructured Inkblots. Five of them are black and white and five are coloured.
• The cards are individually administered.
• The test is divided into two phases:
(a) Performance proper: In this phase, the person is asked what can he make out of the card and in the second phase.
(b) Inquiry: In this phase the person is asked to explain his responses. The interpretation requires training.
2. The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT):
• The test was developed by Morgan and Murray in 1935.
• It consists of a series of 30 unstructured picture cards and one blank card. Some cards are for males (M), some for females (F), and some for boys (B) and girls or combination.
• The cards are presented one at a time.
• The person is asked to write a story involving whatever is shown on the cards including why this is occurred, who are these people, what are they doing end will be the and of this story.
3. Rosenzweig Picture Frustration Study (The P-F Study):
• This test was developed by Rosenzweig.
• This test uses frustration and aggression as the main focus.
• It presents a series of cartoons in which one cartoon frustrates another.
• The analysis of response is based on type and direction of aggression. They are obstacle dominance (emphasis on the frustrating object), ego defence (emphasis on protection of the frustrated person) and need persistence (emphasis on the constructive solution of the problem).
• Its Indian adaptation developed by Pareek is also available.
• Sentence Completion Test: In this test a number of stems consisting of a few words are presented. The task is to complete the sentence, e.g. my father…. It is expected that the type of ending used reflects the motivation, conflicts and attitudes of the person.
• Draw-A-Person Test: The examinee in this test is asked to draw a person, and then he/she is asked to draw the figure of another person of opposite sex.
• Finally the examinee is required to make up a story about the person as if he/she were a character in a novel or a play.
‘Machover’ has used it for personality assessment using psycho-dynamic approach to analyse the drawings.

Question. How personality can be assessed through behavioural analysis? 
Answer. Personality of a person can be assessed though behavioural analysis by using observational report which contains data from the following.
1. Interview:
• It involves interacting with the person being assessed and asking certain questions.
It is of two types—unstructured interview and structure interview.
• The interviewer asks certain amount of questions and develops an impression.
• The answers given by the person are assessed and tell quite a lot about the personality of the person.
• The interviewer asks certain specific questions and it is done in a set procedure.
• This is done to make objective comparison of the people being interviewed.
2. Observation:
It is a sophisticated method and cannot be carried out by untrained people. It requires careful training of the observer. Even though the technique is frequently used but has its own limitations.
Limitations of Observation
• It is professional training is required for collection of data.
• It is a time-consuming method.
• Maturity of the psychologist is required for obtaining valid data.
• Presence of the observer may contaminate results thus leading to manipulation of information.
3. Behavioural Ratings:
• Behavioural rating are used to assess personality in educational and industrial settings.
• They put people in categories in terms of their behavioural qualities which may involve different numbers or descriptive terms.
• These are device by which a rater can record his judgment of another person or of himself on the traits defined by the scale.
• The statements rating scales may create confusion therefore traits should be clearly defined.
For the success of raters familiarity of the event is important.
4. Nomination:
• Nomination is used to obtain peer assessment.
• Here each person is asked to choose one or more persons of the group with whom he/she likes to work, study, play, etc.
• The choosers are asked reasons for his/her choice.
• This is highly reliable method and thus tells us about the behavioural qualities of the person.
5. Situational Tests:
• Most common is the situational stress test which provides information about how a person behaves in a particular situation in stressful situation.
• This test involves role playing.
• The situation given may be a realistic or a created one through a video play.