Exhaustive Notes on Self and Personality

Introduction to Self and Personality

• Definition: Self and personality refer to the characteristic ways in which individuals define their existence and how their experiences are organised and reflected in their behaviour.
• Concept of Self: This represents the ideas people hold about themselves. Different people have different ideas regarding their own nature.
• Concept of Personality: This refers to relatively stable patterns of behaviour that a particular person exhibits across different situations.
• Relationship: Self and personality are intimately related, with the self lying at the core of personality.
• Utility of Study: Understanding these concepts helps in grasping our own uniqueness, our similarities with others, and predicting behaviour in diverse settings.

Concept of Self

• Formation of Self: A newly born child has no idea of self. The idea of self emerges as the child grows older. Signficant roles are played by parents, friends, teachers, and other significant persons.
• The Basis of Self: The basis of self is formed by our interaction with other people, our experiences, and the meanings we assign to them. The structure of self is modifiable in light of new experiences.
• Formal Definition of Self: Self refers to the totality of an individual’s conscious experiences, ideas, thoughts, and feelings with regard to herself or himself.
• Personal Identity: Refers to attributes that make a person different from others. Examples include one's name (e.g., Sanjana or Karim), qualities (honest, hardworking), potentialities (singer, dancer), or beliefs (believer in God or destiny).
• Social Identity: Refers to aspects of a person that link her/him to a social or cultural group. Examples include being Hindu, Muslim, Brahmin, adivasi, North Indian, or South Indian.

Self as Subject and Self as Object

• Self as Subject (Actor): The self is described as an entity that does something (e.g., "I am a dancer"). The self is the 'knower' actively engaged in the process of knowing itself.
• Self as Object (Consequence): The self is described as an entity on which something is done (e.g., "I am one who easily gets hurt"). The self is something that can be 'known' or observed.
• Dual Status: The self maintains a dual status as both the subject (the one who perceives) and the object (the one who is perceived).

Kinds of Self

• Biological Self: Formed as a result of physical requirements and biological needs. For example, a newborn's cry for milk eventually leads to the awareness "I am hungry."
• Personal Self: Leads to an orientation primarily concerned with oneself. It emphasises aspects like personal freedom, personal responsibility, personal achievement, or personal comforts.
• Social Self (Familial or Relational Self): Emerges in relation to others. It emphasises cooperation, unity, affiliation, sacrifice, support, and sharing. This self values family and social relationships over individual ones.

Cognitive and Behavioural Aspects of Self

• Self-concept: The way we perceive ourselves and the ideas we hold about our competencies and attributes. It can be general (positive or negative overall) or specific (e.g., positive about athletic bravery but negative about mathematical skills).
• Self-esteem: The value judgment of a person about herself or himself (their own value or worth).     * Assessment: Measured by asking individuals to indicate the truth of statements like "I am good at homework."     * Developmental Areas: By age $6$ to $7$ years, children form self-esteem in four areas:         1. Academic competence         2. Social competence         3. Physical/athletic competence         4. Physical appearance     * Impact: High academic self-esteem correlates with better school performance. Low self-esteem in all areas correlates with anxiety, depression, and antisocial behaviour.     * Parenting: Warm and positive parenting helps develop high self-esteem. Over-helping parents who make all decisions for children can lead to low self-esteem.
• Self-efficacy: Based on Bandura’s social learning theory. It is the extent to which people believe they control their life outcomes or possess the abilities required by a situation.     * Determination: People’s expectations of mastery determine the types of behaviour they engage in and the amount of risk they undertake.     * Control: A strong sense of self-efficacy allows people to select, influence, and construct their life circumstances.
• Self-regulation: The ability to organise and monitor our own behaviour.     * Self-monitoring: High self-monitors change behaviour according to the external environment.     * Self-control: Learning to delay or defer the gratification of needs for long-term goals (e.g., fasting in vrata or roza).

Psychological Techniques of Self-Control

1. Observation of own behaviour: Provides information to change, modify, or strengthen aspects of self.
2. Self-instruction: Instructing ourselves to behave the way we want.
3. Self-reinforcement: Rewarding behaviours that have pleasant outcomes (e.g., going to a movie after doing well on an exam).

Culture and Self

• Western Perspective:     * Boundary between self and others is relatively fixed.     * Clear dichotomies between self and other, man and nature, subjective and objective.     * Individualistic: The self and group exist as two different entities; individual member maintains individuality.
• Indian Perspective:     * Boundary between self and others is shifting.     * The self can expand to fuse with the cosmos or withdraw to focus on personal needs.     * Collectivistic: The self is not separated from the group; both exist in harmonious co-existence.

Concept of Personality

• Etymology: Derived from the Latin word persona, meaning the mask used by Roman actors to change facial makeup for a role.
• Psychological Definition: Unique and relatively stable qualities that characterise an individual’s behaviour across different situations over a period of time.
• Key Features:     1. Includes both physical and psychological components.     2. Expression is unique for every individual.     3. Main features do not easily change with time.     4. It is dynamic and adaptive to situational demands.
• Personality-Related Terms (Box 2.1):     * Temperament: Biologically based characteristic way of reacting.     * Trait: Stable, persistent, and specific way of behaving.     * Disposition: Tendency of a person to react to a situation in a particular way.     * Character: The overall pattern of regularly occurring behaviour.     * Habit: Over-learned modes of behaving.     * Values: Goals and ideals considered important and worthwhile.

Type Approaches to Personality

• Definition: Categorising people into broad patterns of observed behavioural characteristics.
• Hippocrates (Greco-Roman): Typology based on fluid or humour. Types: Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Melancholic, and Choleric.
• Charak Samhita (Indian/Ayurveda): Classification based on Tridosha: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Each refers to a temperament called prakriti.
• Trigunas (Indian):     1. Sattva guna: Cleanliness, truthfulness, dutifulness, detachment, discipline.     2. Rajas guna: Intensive activity, desire for gratification, envy, materialistic mentality.     3. Tamas guna: Anger, arrogance, depression, laziness, helplessness.
• Sheldon’s Typology:     1. Endomorphic: Fat, soft, round. Temperament: Relaxed and sociable.     2. Mesomorphic: Strong musculature, rectangular body build. Temperament: Energetic and courageous.     3. Ectomorphic: Thin, long, fragile. Temperament: Brainy, artistic, and introvert.
• Jung’s Typology:     1. Introverts: Prefer being alone, shy, avoid others, withdraw in emotional conflict.     2. Extraverts: Sociable, outgoing, drawn to occupations dealing with people.
• Friedman and Rosenman Typology:     1. Type-A: High motivation, lack of patience, feels short of time, always in a hurry. Prone to hypertension and coronary heart disease (CHD).     2. Type-B: Absence of Type-A traits.     3. Type-C (Morris): Prone to cancer; cooperative, unassertive, patient, suppresses negative emotions.     4. Type-D: Prone to depression.

Trait Approaches to Personality

• Definition: Focus on specific psychological attributes that differ in consistent and stable ways across individuals.
• Allport’s Trait Theory: Pioneer of trait approach. Traits integrate stimuli and responses.     * Cardinal traits: Highly generalised; life revolves around these (e.g., Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violence).     * Central traits: Less pervasive but generalised; used in testimonials (e.g., warm, sincere).     * Secondary traits: Least generalised; specific preferences (e.g., likes mangoes).
• Cattell: Personality Factors: Used factor analysis to identify $16$ primary or source traits.     * Source traits: Stable building blocks.     * Surface traits: Result from the interaction of source traits.     * Assessment: Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF).
• Eysenck’s Theory: Dimensions based on biology and genetics.     1. Neuroticism vs. Emotional Stability: Control over feelings.     2. Extraversion vs. Introversion: Outgoing vs. withdrawn.     3. Psychoticism vs. Sociability: Hostile, egocentric vs. conforming.

Five-Factor Model of Personality (The Big Five)

• Developers: Paul Costa and Robert McCrae.
• Factors:     1. Openness to experience: Imaginative vs. rigid.     2. Extraversion: Socially active vs. shy.     3. Agreeableness: Helpful/friendly vs. hostile/self-centered.     4. Neuroticism: Emotionally unstable/anxious vs. well-adjusted.     5. Conscientiousness: Achievement-oriented/responsible vs. impulsive.

Psychodynamic Approach (Sigmund Freud)

• Methodology: Free association, dream analysis, and analysis of errors.
• Levels of Consciousness:     1. Conscious: Thoughts/feelings of which people are aware.     2. Preconscious: Mental activity people become aware of if they attend to it closely.     3. Unconscious: Reservoir of instinctive drives and repressed sexual desires.
• Structure of Personality:     1. Id: Source of instinctual energy; works on the Pleasure Principle; demands immediate gratification.     2. Ego: Works on the Reality Principle; patient and reasonable; mediates between Id and reality.     3. Superego: Moral branch of functioning; internalises parental authority via socialisation; judges actions as ethical/unethical.
• Instincts: Id is energised by Life Instincts (libido) and Death Instincts.
• Ego Defence Mechanisms: Distort reality to reduce anxiety.     * Repression: Anxiety-provoking thoughts dismissed into the unconscious.     * Projection: Attributing own traits to others.     * Denial: Refusal to accept reality.     * Reaction Formation: Adopting behaviour opposite to true feelings.     * Rationalisation: Making unreasonable behaviour seem reasonable.
• Stages of Psychosexual Development:     1. Oral Stage: Pleasure from the mouth (feeding, thumb-sucking).     2. Anal Stage: Focus on urination and defecation; conflict between id and ego (control).     3. Phallic Stage: Focus on genitals; Oedipus Complex (boys) and Electra Complex (girls) involving attraction to opposite-sex parent and identification with same-sex parent.     4. Latency Stage: (Age $7$ to puberty); sexual urges inactive; energy directed to social/achievement activities.     5. Genital Stage: Maturity in psychosexual development.
• Fixation: Failure to pass through a stage successfully, arresting development.
• Regression: Returning to an earlier, less mature stage of development.

Post-Freudian Approaches

• Carl Jung: Analytical Psychology; Collective Unconscious consisting of archetypes (primordial images like God/Mother Earth). Aim: Unity and wholeness.
• Karen Horney: Optimistic view; challenged Freud’s view on women. "Basic Anxiety" caused by disturbed childhood interpersonal relationships.
• Alfred Adler: Individual Psychology; behaviour is goal-directed; "Inferiority Complex" must be overcome for optimal development.
• Erich Fromm: Social orientation; growth results from a desire for freedom, truth, and justice.
• Erik Erikson: Search for Identity; development is a lifelong process; focused on the "Identity Crisis" in adolescence.

Behavioural, Cultural, and Humanistic Approaches

• Behavioural Approach: Views personality as learned stimulus-response connections reinforced by the environment. Key figures: Pavlov, Skinner, Bandura.
• Cultural Approach: Personality as adaptation to ecology and culture.     * Example: Birhor of Jharkhand: Nomadic hunting-gathering lifestyle socialises children to be independent and autonomous.     * Agricultural Societies: Socialise children to be obedient and nurturant.
• Humanistic Approach:     * Carl Rogers: "Fully functioning person"; innate tendency to actualise nature. Real Self vs. Ideal Self. Discrepancy causes unhappiness. Unconditional Positive Regard is necessary for growth.     * Abraham Maslow: Hierarchy of needs leading to Self-actualisation. Positive view of human potential for joy and love.

Assessment of Personality

• Self-Report Measures:     * MMPI: Revised as MMPI-2 ($567$ statements); $10$ subscales (e.g., Depression, Schizophrenia). India: JMPI.     * EPQ: Assesses Introversion-Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Psychoticism.     * 16PF: Based on Cattell’s factors; used in career guidance.     * Limitations: Social desirability bias and Acquiescence (saying 'yes' to everything).
• Projective Techniques: Indirect assessment of unconscious motives using unstructured stimuli.     * Rorschach Inkblot Test: $10$ inkblots ($5$ B&W, $2$ red/black, $3$ pastel). Performance proper phase and Inquiry phase.     * TAT (Thematic Apperception Test): $30$ cards plus one blank. Storytelling about the past, present, and future of a depicted scene.     * Rosenzweig’s P-F Study: Cartoon pictures illustrating frustration; assesses direction of aggression.     * Sentence Completion & Draw-a-Person Test.
• Behavioural Analysis:     1. Interview: Structured or unstructured.     2. Observation: Formal records by trained observers.     3. Ratings: Obtained from peers/supervisors; prone to Halo Effect and response biases.     4. Nomination: Choosing group members for tasks.     5. Situational Tests: Stress tests involving role-playing.

Review Questions & Discussion

1. What is self? How does the Indian notion differ from the Western?
2. What is meant by delay of gratification?
3. How does Freud explain the structure of personality?
4. Contrast Horney and Adler on depression.
5. What are the Big Five Factors?
6. Identify the limitations of observational methods in assessment.
7. Arihant wants to be a singer despite his family of doctors. Describe the family's attitude using Rogers' terminology (Disapproval vs. Unconditional Positive Regard).