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In this essay we will discuss about the Personality of an Individual. After reading this essay you will learn about: 1. Definition of Personality 2. Determinants of Personality 3. The Dynamic Aspect of Mind or the Structure 4. Stages of Development 5. Dimensions 6. Assessment.
Contents:
- Essay on the Definition of Personality
- Essay on the Determinants of Personality
- Essay on the Dynamic Aspect of Mind or the Structure of Personality
- Essay on the Stages of Personality Development
- Essay on the Dimensions of Personality
- Essay on the Assessment of Personality
Essay # 1. Definition of Personality:
Though personality has no standard meaning, fifty different current definitions have been advanced to explain the concept of personality. G.W. Allport’s definition of personality seems to be most appropriate in explaining fully the concept of personality. According to him Personality is the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment.
In other words, personality is the sum total of the physical and mental traits of an individual which remain in dynamic whole and are liable to change. These traits help one to adjust with his environment. Every personality has many traits and many aspects like physical, mental, intellectual, emotional and social. But these traits are not isolated components of personality.
There is a patterning of these traits. They are interrelated with each other. All traits function as a whole, as a totality. In simple terms personality may be defined as the combination of the relative enduring traits that influence behaviour in a variety of situations.
Personality expresses itself in three different ways:
(1) The overt action which involves the gross bodily muscles and habits that is, the activities which are controlled by the muscles.
(2) The verbal and communicative activities, which are possible only in case of human beings.
(3) The thought and other internal subjective processes like emotions and impulses which are expressed along with language.
Individuals in a society adjust themselves through these processes. The social interaction takes place either between two persons or one person and a group through these ways.
Different aspects of human personality depend upon an interplay between the biological and social factors, otherwise called heredity and environment. Thus the interaction between heredity and environment is responsible for the development of personality. The biological factors like glandular secretions, physique and temperament, neural influences and genes help in the physical development of a person.
The situational factors are determined by the society. They are the natural environment, the cultural environment and the social environment. While the natural environment refers to the physical or geographical environment in which the baby is born and reared like a child becomes fair complexioned in a cold climate.
The cultural environment refers to the culture in which the child grows. Cultural environment has tremendous influence upon personality development.
Socio-cultural influences are focussed upon a child from the moment of birth and they continue to influence him all the while. The favourable effects of enriched environment and early stimulation have been observed in many studies. On the contrary, the effects of an impoverished and restricted environment inhibit the overall development of personality.
Due to want of proper exposure, the spontaneous inherited qualities do not get scope for proper development since the development of different traits of personality are backed by the interaction between the factors of environment coming from family structure and one’s own inner tempo of life.
Thirdly, the social environment responsible for determining the personality includes the role of home, school and neighbourhood, peers, community, gang and socioeconomic status of the individual.
Early family life, attachment, child rearing practices and behaviour parents are significant determinants of personality development. Particularly experiences during the first five to six years of life play a vital role in shaping one’s personality qualities.
The child’s social and emotional development is greatly influenced by the home environment and the parents during infancy which is the most critical period from the point of view of personality development.
According to Bowlby (1952) what is believed to be essential for mental health is that the infant and the young child should experience a warm, intimate and continuous relationship with his mother or permanent mother substitute in which both find satisfaction and enjoyment.
Rigid and restricted home environment, inflexible discipline, nagging and over protection, excessive love and affection, doing everything for the child instead of giving him scope to do certain works spoil the smooth personality development of human being.
As the child grows and joins school, he becomes more independent of parental control. School, peers, neighbourhood and socioeconomic status become important. Relationship of the child with his teachers, classmates, how he solves the curriculums, determine his personality. If the child cannot cope with the schools situation, there is an identity crisis which severely affects his personality development.
The socioeconomic status of the child’s family has considerable influence on the child rearing patterns and personality development. Families with financial securities put less pressure on the child’s personality.
But poor health, lack of education, illiteracy, inadequate good and clothing etc. and occupational instability have adverse effects upon normal personality development. Thus poverty and sociocultural deprivation have detrimental effect on early personality development. The children of the low socioeconomic families are burning examples of this.
Trait and Situation Approach of Personality:
There has been a controversy during the last several decades on whether personality is inherited through traits or it is developed by the environment, the surrounding, the situation. Taking stock of these controversies including several findings and observations it is said that both sides are positively correct.
The best prediction of behaviour would be expected to occur when we pay attention to both the influences and their interaction simultaneously. The less powerful is the situational influences the role played by the personality traits are greater and vice versa.
Essay # 2. Determinants of Personality:
All aspects of human personality depend upon an organic inter-play between the biological and social factors, between the heredity and the environment. Thus, an interplay of heredity and environment is mostly responsible for the development of personality. It is now believed, that by and large, the foundation of personality comes from the maturation of heredity traits.
But these traits are influenced by direct social contacts and partly by other influences of the environment.
According to Iandit (1954) “Personality is a dynamic or a growing entity. Psychologically it is vested with the capacity for maturation. Except as mutilated by the environment physical traits follow their predestined course from childhood to maturity. Psychologically, it is capable of infinite number of modifications by external stimuli. Sociologically it is dependant on the group to provide, the patterns of development, for human nature is a group project.”
Munn (1953) classifies determinants of personality under two heads:
(i) Biological.
(ii) Situational.
(i) Biological Determinants:
(a) Secretions from the endocrine glands.
(b) Physique, which is mostly determined by glandular constitution.
(c) Neural constitution.
(a) Secretion from the Endocrine Glands:
It is the endocrine glands which provide the necessary background for proper growth of personality. The secretion from the endocrine glands, known as hormones are poured directly into the blood stream in appropriate amounts. This helps in maintaining the body metabolism. If there is over secretion or under secretion of these glands, the homeostatic balance of the body is disturbed.
Consequently, the general appearance, physique, temperament, intelligence and other characters of personality are affected adversely. These changes ultimately influence the social life, making it difficult for the person to adjust with his own social surroundings. His social habits and attitudes also change.
The thyroid glands help in the regulation of physical growth, mental attainment and sexual maturity. Over secretion from the thyroid gland leads to an excitable, irritable nervous personality. Under secretion leads to fat, clumsy and dull personality like criticism.
Over all mental development is retarded; the skeleton remains small, the adrenal medulla, secrets adrenaline. It is released in intense emotional state. The adrenal cortex plays a vital role in adapting with various stress situations.
It secrets cortin responsible to maintain the normal blood pressure. Serious deficiency leads to lower blood pressure and finally to death. Over secretion of cortin leads to nervousness, depression, aggression, premature sexual development, masculanity in woman. Under secretion leads to dark skin, loss of sex desire,’ irritability of behaviour.
Pituitary:
Under secretion of pituitary gland leads to childhood dwarlism. It also leads to dullness in mental life, morosness, disobedience and lack of ambition. Excessive secretion of anterior pituitary makes the person intellectually active, emotionally cold and leads to rugged personality like a giant.
Sex glands:
The sex glands have also their respective function in determining the growth of sexual characteristics. Under secretion or over secretion of the sex glands also affect and influence the sexual life of the organism. This, in turn, has far-reaching influence upon the development of personality.
As endocrine glands form an interlocking system, if the function of one gland is disturbed it disturbs the functions of other glands as well. It is because of this interlocking system that it becomes difficult to say definitely about the particular function of different glands.
However, it is clear that the endocrine glands play a significant role in the growth and development of human personality. That is why an endocrinologist has said that we are terribly at the mercy of our endocrine glands.
(b) Physique and Temperament:
The physique of a person is important from the point of view how others react to it than for one’s own sake. Even personality is usually described on the basis of physique, by common people. If you have a good physique, you have a fine personality and the vice versa. From this point of view, the importance of physique in this development of personality is significant.
That is why psychologists have tried to relate physique with temperament. Each physical type is characterized by a certain type of personality. In view of the controversial findings in certain cases with regard to the relation between physique and temperament further research is essential to establish definite relationship between the two.
(c) Neural Influences:
The plasticity of human nervous system enables one to adjust with changing situations; to make new type of responses and to have insight into various types of social situations. Munn state “injury to the brain is often followed by very extensive personality changes, partly through its obliteration of the traces of what we have learned and partly through interference with memory and thinking.”
The relationship between temperament and functioning of Autonomic nervous system has also been hinted by some.
It is the biology of the individual upon which the various situational factors operate. Before the various situational factors come to operate, biological determinants play a tremendous role. The hereditary traits are determined by birth and any amount of training cannot change them to a great extent.
(ii) Situational Determinants:
Allport, the outstanding social psychologist, on the basis of the findings from continuous research on personality has stated that “Personality defined as the distinctive mode of adjustment, adopted by each individual in his efforts to live, is not formed at birth, but it may be said to begin at birth.”
Personality is undoubtedly a by-product of the society. From the moment of the birth till death, the human organism lives in a social situation, in an environment where he has to interact with other people in order to fulfil the basic necessities of life.
His personality develops out of special interaction. Therefore, situational determinants have tremendous impact upon the growth of personality. It has been found that personality of people varies with varying cultures, social conditions and other situational factors.
The situational determinants mainly refer to the influence of environmental variables upon the personality development of the human organism.
The environment in which the human organism is born and lives can be classified into three broad areas, such as natural, cultural and social environment:
(a) Natural environment:
It refers to the physical or geographical environment in which the child is born and where he grows. The physique of a person is influenced by the geographical environment. The climate makes some men dark, some fair, some large and some small.
In the hot climate people become dark while in cold climate the complexion is fair. The geographical environment also imposes different ways of meeting various needs, which has an influence upon his personality pattern.
(b) Cultural environment:
The cultural environment has tremendous influence upon personality development and it is the culture which has by far the maximum influence.
That is why Kluckhonn and Murray (1948) state that cultural anthropologists have rightly placed much emphasis upon the socio cultural matrix in which personalities develop. People acquire different ways of life, develop different traits and qualities when they are reared in a typical culture.
Thus, personality varies with varying cultures and social conditions. The personality of two twins will vary when one is reared in an urban area and the other in a rural area, or when one is reared in rich and affluent family and the other in poverty.
Munn in this connection states “Such socio-cultural influences are focussed upon a child from the moment of birth and they continue to influence him all the days or his life. Some are most influential in the early years and some not until the upper levels of maturity are reached.” Hereditary potentialities can unfold only when the environment is favourable.
Several studies indicate the favourable effects of enriched environment upon personality development. The effects of early stimulation and effects of opportunity for practice have invariable demonstrated their favourable effects upon personality development.
Studies on the effects of early stimulation on rats by Weininger, McClelland and Arimal (1954) shows that early handling makes rats more active, they grow faster, become heavier than similar rats who do not get any stimulation.
Mice handled in infancy demonstrate much less emotion when presented with novel stimuli than do mice not handled in infancy. Levine (1959), studies also indicate that the ability to solve maze problems is heightened by an enriched early environment.
A comparative study by Geber (1958) on 308 East African children below the age of two years were found to be superior for strength and motor coordination in comparison to some western children.
The Uganda babies were found to be noticeable superior to western babies of the same ages, because their environment was favourable before as well as after birth. This shows how early practice is necessary to make any skill proficient. If opportunity for practice is provided from an early age, growth of personality is accelerated.
Anastasi (1934) found that all subjects improved with practice and there was also a tendency to maintain the same relative standing in the group throughout the practice period. This has been confirmed by the findings of Noble (1959).
It is, therefore, clear that enriched home environment has got a very significant influence upon healthy personality development. In sharp contrast to this, the effects of an impoverished and restricted environment has got inhibitory effect upon the overall development of personality.
Children, who have grown in institutions when were compared with children growing at home showed remarkable differences in personality make up and I.Q. Members of the institutionalized group scored below average in I.Q. tests.
They showed further apathy, lack of ambition, lack of personal identity, less responsive to approval, less thoughtful in problem-solving, less mature socially, less stimulated by competition and less capable of sustained effort. They were retarded in language and speech development and unable to form satisfactory relationship with other people. They suffered from feelings of personal insecurity.
Effects of visual deprivation had also impairing effect upon personality development. Several studies have shown that early social contact may be necessary for the development of normal sexual patterns in adulthood.
The personality is moulded and developed through the values and social codes. The cultural norms and variations are based on economic and material organisations of life. When a man becomes suddenly rich, his status is elevated to the upper socioeconomic status.
This change in economic life brings about social and political changes within the group. The development of different traits of personality depends to a large extent on the interaction between the factors of environment coming from family structure and one’s own inner tempo of life.
(c) Social environment:
It is said that “behaviour is a function of the person and his environment.” Personality is formed by interaction between a person’s biological factors and parents and other social stimuli.
(a) Role of Home:
Early family life, attachment, child rearing practices, behaviour of parents are some of the important factors responsible for personality development. If parents neglect and reject the child he feels helpless, miserable, develops a sense of insecurity and lack of trust. The opposite of its brings security, develops an attitude of basic trust. He perceives all people to be fundamentally good.
Since the rudiments of personality are formed at about 18-20 months of life, it is a very critical period from the point of view of personality development. Due to unfavourable parental treatment, lack of love and affection, restricted home environment, faulty child rearing practices, feeling of insecurity, mistrust and pessimism develop at an early age. This has permanent damaging influence upon the growing personality.
Studies by Harlow, Rheingold and Eckerman show that when placed alone in a room with strange objects, infants appear insecured and frightened. But mother’s presence and attachment bring emotional security, create trust and encourage exploratory behaviour.
Ainsworth’s studies show that a child’s degree of independence and exploration are related to the quality of mother-child attachment. The child’s social and emotional development is greatly influenced by parents and home environment during infancy.
The role of father in determining the personality of his child is also important. But very little study has been done in this area; except the studies of Sheldon, Glueck (1950), who found that more than 40 per cent of the adolescent delinquent boys they studied came from father absent homes.
Biller (1970) found that boys from father absent homes have been found to be less well adjusted than whose father’s were regularly at home. Rigid, strict, inflexible discipline, nagging and over-protection, doing everything for the child, excessive love and affection spoil, the smooth personality development of the human organism.
Diana Baumvird (1975) found from a longitudinal study of three types of parents: Authoritarian, Permissive and Authoritative. The authoritative parents were found to be more effective. Their children are more socially responsible, independent, oriented towards success.
The authoritative parents attempt to direct the activities of the child in a rational, issue-oriented manner. For the healthy development of personality, too much protection must be avoided.
Thus, it is said that children who have not learned to love in their homes find it almost impossible fully to trust other persons. Broken homes and undesirable influence of parental behaviour leads to the development of maladjusted personality. If the parents are ignorant and emphasize on the development of contradictory values, it leads to conflict and frustration.
Rejective home environment leads to submissive, aggressive, insecured and sadistic personality, over protection leads to submissive, insecured, jealous and aggressive traits. Dominant parents produce dependable, shy, disobedient, cooperative, quarrelsome, bold personality traits.
Submissive parents produce aggressive, disobedient, independent and non-complaint children. Oppression, lack of overt affection and rigid discipline lead to introvert tendency, over indulgent and over affectionate parents lead to extroverted personality development.
How the parents react to curiosity about sex, their attitude towards relatives, friends, neighbours, teachers, all these have effect upon the child’s personality. The attitude of the child towards himself and his parents also determine his personality qualities.
(b) Effect of school and education:
Relationship of the child with fellow mates, peers, the part he takes in extracurricular activities determine his personality. Thus, Kimble and Garmezy state “As the child grows older and becomes more independent of parental control, many other environmental factors such as peers, school, and socio-economic status also become important. Because these variables can interact in extremely complex ways, psychologists are still many years away from a satisfying explanation of personality differences.”
As the child grows, he learns to face problems which gradually become more and more complex. When the child enters school, relationship of the child with his teachers, classmates and how he solves the curriculums etc., determine his personality. Physical education has also its role.
If he cannot solve problems in this class, answer to questions made by the teachers, he develops terrible inferiority complex and lowered self image. There is also an identity crisis which severely affects his personality development. School situation has therefore tremendous impact upon the child’s personality development.
(c) Socio-economic status:
A study conducted of Barry, Child and Bacon (1959) in which more than a hundred societies around the world were classified into categories based on their accumulation of food shows how the basic economy affects child rearing.
Societies with large accumulation of food were found to put strong pressure on their children to be responsible, complaint and obedient. Reversely societies with small accumulations of food emphasized achievement, self-reliance, independence and assertiveness.
Thus, the S.E.S. of the family has considerable influence on the child rearing patterns are personality development of the child. Families with financial securities put less pressure on the child’s personality.
But poor health, limited or no education, inadequate food and occupational instability have adverse effects upon normal personality development. Studies by Pavenstedt (1963) show such factors lead to disorganization in adjusting to school situation.
Thus poverty and socio-cultural deprivations may have detrimental effect upon personality. Economic insecurity and financial deprivation make the parents anxious and worried and they fail to treat the children with care, and affection. The child growing in the atmosphere with economic security has a better personality than one growing under poverty and financial hardship other factors remaining same.
(d) Sibling rivalry:
The child who does not learn to adjust with his sibling is likely to have difficulty in adjusting to persons of his own age. Besides these factors, other social situations like the influence of peers, neighbourhood, community, gang etc. also help in the formation of personality.
Though the situational factors have maximum influence upon the personality development, heredity and biological factors set a limit to the development of intelligence, physique and temperament. The biological and situational factors interact with each other to determine one’s personality.
Essay # 3. The Dynamic Aspect of Mind or the Structure of Personality:
The psychodynamic approach divides personality into three structure, i.e., Id, Ego and Superego. These three structures should not be considered like three distinct entities. They are interrelated and overlap each other at times. Id, Ego and Super ego are used as strong psychological forces and they are not physically located in the brain, but can be inferred from the activities, responses and behaviour of a person.
(i) ID (Desire):
The ‘Id’ refers to the pleasure principle. It is that aspect of personality which deals with immediate satisfaction of all primitive instincts, needs, sexual, antisocial and aggressive desires and impulses. According to Freud, the Id stands for untamed passions and is a store house of seething excitement. It is fully unconscious and its desires are largely repressed. The main concern of Id is need gratification by hook or crook.
The main purpose of Id is to discharge tension arising out of biological drives. The Id corresponds roughly to the popular conception of beast in man. It is the main reservoir of life and death instincts and receptacle of unorganised desires and excitements, according to Freud. It is devoid of morality, conscience and social value. The baby at birth is said to be fully ‘Id’.
(ii) Ego (Reason):
The ego according to Freud is the self, the I or the conscious intelligence. It is the executive division of personality. It develops out of Id and deals with all the psychological processes of mind. The ego works on reality principle and reason. It controls the satisfaction of illegal and antisocial desires and the ego tries to maintain a balance between the Id desires and super ego desires keeping in view the social rules and regulations.
As the administrative officer of the personality, the ego is mainly conscious and partly unconscious and it can function at any of the three levels of consciousness. The ego distinguishes between the rights and wrongs, dos and donts and tries to satisfy the Id desires within the social boundary.
Thus it is said to be socialized portion of the personality. It stands for sanity, reason and judgement while the Id stands for passion and pleasure. The ego is the reality principle of personality and always keeps in touch with the reality.
Super Ego (Conscience):
It is said to be the conscience or moral principle of the individual. Super ego is the further development of Ego. It is partly conscious and mainly unconscious. It deals with the ideals and values of the society and is regulated by conscience. The super ego represents perfection and strives to achieve all good, acceptable things in life.
It is the introjection or representatives of parents and is even said as internal parent. It is the embodiment of all social restrictions, moral and ethical values. A child’s super ego is built up on the model of parent’s super ego.
By internalizing the restrictions of the society through the process of socialization the child develops his super ego gradually. The superego acts as the chief force in the socialization of an individual. It is through the superego that the child learns what is good and acceptable and what is bad and unacceptable. The superego gives warnings to the ego in the form of anxiety which produces guilty and controls the ego’s activities.
In the earlier stage it is rigid and a hard task master, a dictator over the child. The superego guides and threatens the ego just as the parents act when the child becomes disobedient. The superego punishes the person if he does not act according to the social norms and ideals.
Freud has compared the Id with the horse, the ego with the driver and the superego with the back seat driver and the ego has the most complex task of serving three masters i.e., the Id, the super ego and the external reality.
Describing the functions and roles of Id, Ego and Superego Freud has remarked The Id is primarily basically conditioned, the ego in primarily conditioned to the physical environment and the superego is primarily sociologically and culturally conditioned.
There is a constant struggle between the forces of Id desiring the satisfaction of the sexual and aggressive urges and the super ego which is the representative of the conscience and social regulations.
Essay # 4. Stages of Personality Development:
Freud believed that every person ordinarily goes through five stages of psychosexual development between birth to puberty.
They are the:
(i) The oral stage
(ii) The anal stage
(iii) The phallic stage
(iv) The latency period and
(v) The genital stage.
Freud advocated that during the first 5 years of life pleasure is concentrated in three zones of the body i.e., the mouth, the anus and the genitals represented in the oral, anal and phallic stages. The latency period occurs at about 5-6 years of age where there is very little overt concern about sex and sexual pleasure.
In this stage the child represses his sexual wishes and sexual activity. Finally in the genital stage the individual attains maturity in psychosexual development:
(i) The Oral Stage:
which continues from birth to two years is divided to oral sucking and oral biting period. The oral sucking starts from birth and continues upto eight months. Sucking is regarded as the initial expression of sexual impulses though it also serves the purpose of self preservation.
At this stage the pleasure is located in the mother the oral zone and sucking produces the first important experience of pleasure in the baby. At this stage the baby is fully passive and dependent. Towards the end of the oral sucking period the ego starts emerging.
Oral biting period:
The oral biting period starts from the age of six months and continues up to the 18th month. The baby gets satisfaction from eating and biting in course of feeding. The chief area of pleasure of this stage is teeth and jaws. In this stage the child shows symptoms of love and aggression towards the mother which is a sign of ambi valiant tendency. According to Glover the super ego is formed at this time.
Fixation in the oral stage may lead to various personality characteristics like acquisitiveness, tenacity, determination, various types of direct, displaced and disguised aggressions. The manifestations of various types of oral activities may be seen in interpersonal relations and attachments in one’s economic social, cultural and religious attitudes, in athletic and vocational interests and professions.
(ii) Anal Stage:
The anal stage is divided into two parts:
(a) Anal explosive and
(b) Anal retentive.
The anal explosive stage continues from 8 months to 3 years and hence overlap with oral biting period. The anal expulsive period is characterized by a shift in pleasure from the mouth to the anus the child gets pleasure in passing stoods and urine here and there. Expulsion brings relief to the person by reducing tension.
At this stage pleasure principle is more or less adjusted with reality principle. According to British School of Psychoanalysis super ego starts developing at this stage and the child is able to discriminate between two sexes.
During toilet training various frustrations and conflicts are experienced. If the toilet training is very rigid and interference by parents is too much, the child may react by intentionally soiling himself or urinating here and there. Such a child in his adulthood may be messy, clumsy, irresponsible, disorderly, wasteful and extravagant.
Other frustrations during this stage lead to several traumatic experiences which have their repercussion upon later personality.
Anal retentive period:
This stage starts from the 12th month and continues upto the fourth year when the child gets pleasure by retaining and controlling faces and urine. In this stage the pleasure is obtained by retaining stools.
The child learns and realizes the social value of retaining, possessing and controlling them. Proper toilet habits is developed in the child by praise and various verbal rewards. Personal cleanliness is highly rewarded at this stage.
If a child is subjected to harsh and repressive kind of training during the anal stage during adulthood he may give excessive emphasis on cleanliness.
(iii) Phallic Stage:
Between the age of 3 to 7 years sex energy is localized in the genital organs which play a central part in adult sexual life. The child’s sexual longing is intensified and many of the normal sexual behaviour develop during the phallic stage. The child observes the physical difference between males and females and experiences at about 5 years age oedipuse complex (for boys) and Electra complex (for girls).
At this stage according to Freud children develop a desire for the opposite sex parent and a wish to displace the same sex parent. The oedipuse complex in case of boys and Electra complex in case of girls are the outcome of serious conflicts caused by attraction of opposite sex.
King oedipus, a Greek character unknowingly killed his father and married his mother and Electra persuaded her brother to kill their mother. Oedipus and Electra complex are named after these two characters.
The fear of punishment from the parents and close family members lead to the resolution of the complexes and identification with the same sex parents. Thus, boys give up sexual feelings for their mother and girls for their fathers. Boys begin to see their fathers as model than as rivals and girls identify with their mothers giving up their sexual feeling for their fathers.
The home environment and the attitude of the parents shape the personality pattern of the child in the phallic stage. Parents having normal and healthy personality are able to help the boy to establish his masculine identity and the girl to establish her feminine identify before the oedipal stage starts.
Excessive fixation in the oedipus stage affects normal adult sex life. The persistance of oedipus complex after a certain age is pathological. If it is not resolved successfully homosexuality may be observed in later life. Impotencies, frigidities and unhappiness in marital life are the common outcomes.
In the phallic stage of psychosexual development when the repression of oedipus complex leads to the latency period, the super ego develops. The development of super ego helps in the repression of the childish and abnormal attachment of the children towards parents. Freud therefore rightly remarked that the superego is the heir to oedipus complex.”
Letency period:
At the age of 6-7 years when the infantile sexuality repressed for the fear of castration, the period of latency onsets and to continues upto the puberty i.e., 12th or 13th year. During this gap of 5-6 years the sexual energy of the child remains in a subdued state.
He is not consciously concerned with sexual matters. Infantile sexuality is repressed. The libidinal urges are usually sublimated in the process of education. Most children undergo rapid schooling. The superego is established during this period.
Studies of social anthropologists suggest that the latency period is not inherent in the biological nature, it is rather an artefact of our particular patriarchal civilization. Studies also indicate that in some culture there is no latency period.
(iv) The Genital Stage:
The three stages of psychosexual development, the oral, anal and the phallic stages are called the ‘pregenital period. The sexual instinct during the pregenital period is not directed towards reproduction.
In the genital state the sexual instincts start to develop with the aim of reproduction. The adolescents begin to be attractive to the members of the opposite sex. The person is now capable of genuine love for other people and can get adult sexual satisfaction, through heterosexual relations. At this stage the society allows the real outlets of the sexual urge.
The genital stage is greatly characterized by object choices rather than by narcissism. It is a period of socialization, group activities, marriage, establishing a home and raising a family, developing interests in vocational advancement and other adult responsibilities.
Essay # 5. Dimensions of Personality:
Personality is a combination of the relative enduring and stable traits that influence human behaviour in different circumstances. While the personality traits indicate what the concerned individual brings to the situation, the social variables are contained in the situation itself. However, Burke, Krant and Dwerkin (1983) and Hyiand (1985) argued that the trait model needs to be replaced by a totally new conceptualisation.
It was found by many social psychologists that the situation alone is no more powerful in predicting behaviour than are traits alone. Therefore others tried to develop an integrated approach taking the help of the two approaches.
Molley and Kenny (1986) bring a compromise by saying that the best prediction of behaviour would be expected when attention is given to both the influence and their interaction simultaneously. The more specific the traits, the more consistent the behaviour in different situations. Secondly, if the situational influences are less powerful, personality traits play a relatively greater role.
Essay # 6. Assessment of Personality:
Assessment of personality refers to the measurement and evaluation of individual personalities by the help of tests. According to Cronbach (1970) while aptitude and achievement tests are of maximum performance (since people try to do their best in them), personality tests are tests of typical performance, the responses to the personality tests are typical to each person.
There is no wrong or right or best answer on personality tests.
Personality testing is an area which concerns every one interested in the selection of people for different jobs, for assessment and diagnosis of behaviour disorders of children and adults and to measure anxiety, worry, depression and complexes before starting an experiment on any psychological process.
Even today, would be couples show interest in the assessment of each others personality before they proceed to matrimony. Finally, assessment of personality helps in modifying it if necessary.
Currently, more than 500 personality tests of different types are in use. These techniques of personality tests have now become more scientific, refined and comprehensive compared to the earlier tests. Donald Campbell (1957) has classified the personality tests into structured and unstructured category.
Commonly, all the personality tests are classified under two broad classes:
(i) Psychometrics tests.
(ii) Projective techniques.
While the psychometric tests, detect the surface traits, the projective techniques measure the source traits.
(i) Psychometric Tests:
(a) Case history
(b) Paper pencil tests
(c) Rating scale
(d) Behaviour tests
(e) Interview.
(a) Case History:
Case history method is used to gather information about the person’s home environment, relatives, friends, parents, past illness, relation with parents, siblings and classmates, friends and teachers, his school performance. Thus the case history method seeks to obtain all informations about the person which can throw light on his personality factors.
Although case history is a valuable assert to study personality special training is required to collect case histories.
(b) Paper Pencil Tests:
The traditional paper pencil tests of the self-rating or inventory type are structured and undisguished tests. These are most convenient to administer, less time consuming, less costly and can be used to measure the surface traits of personality. These tests can also be applied in groups. There are different kinds of paper pencil tests.
Questionnaires:
A questionnaire contains a set of standard questions or simple statement (to be marked as yes, no or doubtful) regarding a particular issue or particular trait to be measured. Suppose you intend to measure honesty. A statement may be like this: A lady left her hand bag in a hurry, you found the bag containing enough money, would you like to keep the money, YES, NO, DOUBTFUL.
The questionnaire test was widely used for the first time during Second World War to avoid the emotionally unstable draftees. Thus, through such questions or statements the S is required to give information about himself. A questionnaire may contain any number of questions from 50 to 100 or 150, centering around the trait intended to be measured.
A uniform key is used for scoring and the numerical results are tabulated. The questionnaire systematically identifies certain personality characteristics of the individual which are compared with the score of other individuals of the same sex, age or social and occupational background.
Questionnaires are often used to obtain information about the personal difficulties, attitude towards marriage, divorce, political parties, dowry system, conception about good husband, good wife. It also throws light on the prejudices, stereotypes and interests of the person.
Also known as self report inventories, questionnaires prove useful in clinical guidance situations where the individual answers questions more honestly. Questionnaires and self report inventories lack validity.
The person whose personality is being measured does not fully understand himself and hence cannot give a correct assessment about himself. If he wishes, he can also tell lies to give a better picture of himself which often happens.
However, if it is carefully used, it works successfully for selecting candidates for employment and promotion. The questionnaire technique is most common, simple and is extensively used.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (M.M.P.I.):
The M.M.P.I. is an objective type of test with empirical validity. It is a practical tests of personality measurement. It consists of 550 verbal items, to which the person has to respond in ‘true’; ‘false’ or ‘cannot say’; W. Grant Dahlstorm holds that the M.M.P.I, scales have been useful in measuring anxiety, hostility, hallucinations, phobias and suicidal impulses. It also differentiates various types neurotic and psychotic behaviour.
The criticisms against M.M.P.I, are:
(i) Subjects make responses which are acceptable to others which may not be actually true.
(ii) This reduces the validity of the scores obtained.
(iii) Since the test items may not provide uniform meaning to all persons, it may produce different from time to time.
In spite of these criticisms M.M.P.I, is a widely used paper pencil test. Its clinical value deserves commendation. The scores to provide many valuable informations as the overall response scores are used for comparisons. As Morgan and King (1978) point out, In recent years it has been discovered that computers are capable of arriving at better M.M.P.I, assessment than clinicians.
In this light the M.M.P.I. still appears to be one of the most useful personality assessment devices around. The 10 personality scales that are normally scored on the M.M.P.I. are as follows : Hypochondriasis, Depression, Hysteria, Psychopathic deviation, Musculanity-Femininity, Paranoia, Psychosthenia, Schizophrenia, Hypomania and Social introversion.
Besides, there are other paper pencil tests like Allport Vernon-Lindzey Scale, Edwards Personal preference schedule, Adjective check list. The California Psychological Inventory etc. which are also used for the assessment of personality.
(c) Rating Scale:
The rating scale is used with infants and adults. The various problems of children, their behaviour like temper-tantrum, thumb sucking, bed wetting etc. are rated in a 5 point or 7 point scale. Infants may also be rated as overactive, active, underactive. The adult or the child is rated by his teachers, supervisors, friends or others who know him well over a period of time.
They are asked to record their impressions about the person in a rating scale like a particular trait absent, slightly absent, average, marked, very marked and extreme. The rating scale is particularly useful in assessing social stimulus value. It is used in assessing many personality traits in adults.
Rating scales are of two types: Relative and Absolute. These scales are usually used in connection with an interview or to record subjective impressions based on a longer period of contact. The data obtained from both these types can be quantified.
A relative rating scale is used when several subjects are being considered. The order of merit method is applied here. The judge ranks the subjects in order.
In the absolute rating scale, the judge assigns a score to each individual, on each trait being rated. He compares each one to some standard or norm established independently of the particular group of individuals being considered. He may rate each candidate on a five point, seven point or eleven point scale.
This is undoubtedly a quicker method than the first one but subject to more errors arising out of personal equation of judges. That is, some judges give too many high scores, some too many low scores. The standard of the individual judge may also fluctuate.
Rating scales in comparison to interview techniques are subject to relatively less errors of judgement. But it is definitely inferior to psychological tests. Its success also depends upon the judges ability to evaluate others. Recent studies have shown that with a skillfully constructed scale, both of these difficulties can be minimised.
To avoid the ‘leniency’ error that is, to rate mostly all persons near the top of the scale of ‘FORCED CHOICE RATING SCALE’ has been developed. In this scale, the rater has to choose between two equally favourable descriptive statements. Ruch points out that in actual practice the forced choice method has not reduced leniency in rating. Secondly, most raters do not like to use forced choice scale as experience shows.
(d) Behaviour Tests:
In this technique the behaviour of the person is observed in a typical situation. The S is exposed to certain standard situations and the tester records his reactions in these situations. By this technique Introversion-Extraversion dimension of personality of children was studied by Marston (1925).
Children were taken into a natural science museum. The path followed by each child was traced and the time that he spent in each exhibit was recorded.
Slowness in moving from one exhibit to the other and poor attention to exhibits were considered as indications of introversion. On the other hand, spontaneous interest in the exhibits, rapid movement from one exhibit to the other, were rated as characteristics of extraversion.
Honesty is also tested by this method. Hartshorne and May have studied the character trait of honesty. They made use of a large number of tests on honesty. One of these tests was the Duplicating techniques, in which students were given an examination of the usual school type.
After the examination their papers were taken away and the answers noted. The original paper were then returned to students who were told the correct answers and allowed to mark their own papers. Amount of cheating was noted by comparing with the duplicates.
A high correlation between honesty and socioeconomic status was found from this study. This study further indicated that honesty is not a unitary trait. That is, one who is honest in one situation may be dishonest in another or vice versa.
The present author attempted to assess the honesty of her newly recruited servant by using behaviour test. She kept some sweets in the fridge after counting them without the knowledge of the servant and left for college leaving the servant alone at home.
On return she again counted the sweets and found them intact. On other occasions she used to keep some money here and there, behind the pillow, so that the servant can notice them. But she found that he did not touch a single paise.
Besides honesty, leadership ability has been assessed by this technique by Bass (1954) and Fortune (1946). Other personality traits measured by behaviour tests are persistence, caution, cooperation, speed of decision and recklessness.
Behaviour tests may be useful as a supplement to more conventional testing procedures. The main problem with the behaviour tests is that they are highly limited in scope. They can be only used in children successfully.
In case of adults it may be a failure as adults can guess or suspect the intention of such tests. Lastly, one or two behaviour tests may not be the representative of all situations and hence cannot be generalized. A person who is honest in one situation may not necessarily be honest in another situation because there are so many factors which determine it.
A boy may not take away a one rupee coin but he may steal a hundred rupee note if he finds the chances of being caught are less. Similarly an otherwise honest person may steal a few things if he is in urgent need of the same. Generalization, hence, becomes invalid due to such factors.
(e) Interviews:
It is true that there are certain aspects of personality which cannot be assessed objectively by questionnaire technique or rating scale. For instance, how much a person loves his wife, hates his mother or how much soft corner he has for the other woman, things of this sort can be found out by face to face interview between the interviewer and interviewee.
An interview is a face to face conversation between the two on some specific problems. For the selection to different jobs largely interview technique is used. Its purpose is to estimate the personality of the interviewee through face to face conversation.
Interview technique is also used for the diagnosis and treatment of behaviour problems. The interviewer makes his client talk about his personal problems, difficulties, worries, anxieties and so on. In course of his conversation, he not only records the reports of his client, but also keenly observes his behaviour.
The way he talks, expresses his emotions and sentiments, whether he becomes tensed or emotional at certain place, everything is marked. From the reports given by the client and the observations of his behaviour, a general picture of the person’s motives, sources of conflict, frustration, his needs and aspirations, various complexes and his overall adjustment is made.
Thus, it is clear that interview technique is used for the selection of persons to different vocations as well as for the purpose of diagnosis. In case of interviews of the first category, unless the questions of the interviews are standardized they prove to be unreliable.
In a standardized interview a set of questions are prepared earlier to be asked to the interviewer. The order of asking the questions is also fixed. This gives equal scope to every person to be compared on the same basis. Rating scale can also be used here.
However, the judgement of the interviewer plays a major role in assessing the interviewee’s personality. There is an equal chance for projection. This is the main difficulty of interview technique. It is more subjective compares to rating scales, inventories and behaviour tests. Besides, the judgements of the interviewer cannot be standardized. But never-the-less, interviews, have therapeutic and clinical value.
They supply information particularly in the non-directive and client centred interviews. In this connection Munn (1953) states “In the so balled non-directive and client centred interviews the client or patient not only reveals certain of his personality traits, but also at times gets insight in to his own difficulties and how to solve them.”
Over and above these methods some psychoanalytical approaches are there for the assessment of personality. They are: FREE ASSOCIATION AND DREAM ANALYSIS. These techniques can be used as a means of collecting information about personality. Freud and his followers used these methods particularly to assess the depth aspect of the personality of neurotics.
Through free association the person expresses his underlying supressed and repressed desires, wishes and urges from which the areas of complexes and sensitive spots are marked.
Dream is said to be ‘royal road to unconsciousness’. By analysing and interpreting the dreams of a person a lot about his personality can be sensed and interpreted.
(ii) Projective Techniques:
The projective techniques were developed to eliminate the defects and shortcomings of the interview method. Kimble and Gramezy (1980) state “Some of the potentially most powerful techniques for measuring personality come from the evaluation of imaginative productions of various kinds. Collectively, these methods are called the projective techniques.”
The projective tests measure the source or depth aspect of personality. That is why they are also called the depth methods. They are also called unstructured tests as in such tests the S had to make a story from a picture, draw a picture or interpret an ambiguous, vague figure or complete an incomplete sentence.
The methods are also said to be disguised because the purpose of the test is not known to the subject taking the test. These are called projective tests because the person throws his feelings, desires, urges, wishes, anxieties, conflicts etc. into the test situation without his conscious knowledge. By this technique such traits of personality and emotional complexes are unfolded which the person himself is not aware.
The term projective was first used by Frank. It implies that as a person expresses himself in any kind of constructive or interpretive activity he is acting out or vomiting his inner fantasy, wishes, urges which are unconscious.
If he is telling a story it is believed that he is projecting to the characters of the story, his own impulses, desires, feelings, thoughts, urges and motives, attitudes and apprehensions and other personality factors, without of course knowing that he is doing so.
Thy primary idea behind this technique is that when the person hardly knows what he is supposed to do, he must do something. He projects his own personality into his performance which he himself would be unwilling and unable to report.
Projective techniques according to Symonds may be divided into two main groups:
Impressive:
Here the S takes unconstructed and plastic materials and shapes them in accordance with his own fancy and inner impulses, like painting, drawing, modelling etc. Stone has experimented with balloons which would give a child opportunity for throwing out his hostile impulses by pricking them, causing them to burst.
Even dolls are supplied to children during play therapy sessions to express their repressed urges through these dolls.
Interpretive:
Materials which have already been formed are used here. Among them the following techniques are most widely used to measure the underlying depth aspect of personality. They are:
(a) Rorschach Test.
(b) Thematic Apperception Test.
(c) Rosenzweig Picture Frustration Test for children and adults.
(d) The Kahn Test of symbol arrangrment.
(e) Word Association Test.
(a) Rorschach Test:
It is one of the oldest and widely used projective techniques. It is also called the Rorschach ink blot test. It consists of 10 standard symmetrical ink blots. 5 of the 10 ink blots are in black and grey, two of them are in black and red, and the other three are entirely in colours. They are presented to the individual one at a time in a specific order and instructed to say what he sees in the blot and of what it makes him to think.
He is allowed to turn the blot and look at it from different angles and positions. It is found that different people see different things from the same card.
Responses are scored on the basis of total number of items seen, whether they involve the whole ink blots or parts, colour, form and movement perceived or not and the kind of things reported like animals, human beings and their anatomical parts, plants, birds and whether they are perceived as living or dead.
The responses made by the subjects reveal the structure of his perceptual life and organisational ability with a minimum attention to content.
It also reveals as reported by Beck (1938) the illogical procedure and peculiarity of thinking, ability to grasp relationships, creative and imaginative capacity, intellectual level, breadth of interest, relatively few emotional experiences that come to expression special fantasies, resistiveness, introversive personality, anxiety, conflict, inferiority, inadequacy, conscious control, respect for reality and stability of personality, sensitiveness, negativism and self- will, neurotic trends, hypochondria, reactive depression etc.
A general picture of the personality can be obtained only by considering together all the measures of normality, intelligence, emotionality, attitude to external world. Both the content of the response as well as the formal determinant are important in interpreting a Rorschach record.
Scoring and interpretation of Rorschach data are complex. For complete and detailed interpretation, enough experience with Rorschach test and a wide knowledge of Rorschach literature, specialized training etc. are essential.
Though scoring a Rorschach data has been standardized quite scientifically, interpretation of the scores is not standardized. The interpretation is subjective based on experience, insight common sense and ingenuity.
Thus, Hertz (1942) states Prolonged and extensive experience is necessary not only with human personality but with all kinds of clinical problems. This last step, by definition, therefore, is personal to the examiner and subjective to him. It permits no norms, and it eludes all standardization.
In spite of its subjective element, the Rorschach test is widely used for clinical and diagnosis purpose, from differentiating the normals from the insanes and also in distinguishing between different kinds of psychotics, in terms of Rorschach findings alone.
It is also used in certain cases for prediction of job success. However as Kurtz (1948) reports, it has failed in predicting the vocational success in the case of Life Insurance Managers. In many other industrial and military settings it has also failed to predict job success. As the study of Newton (1954) indicates, it has not been successful in classifying mental patients.
Cronbach (1949) gives a very valuable criticism. He reports on the basis of extensive examination of studies dealing with Rorschach test that errors and unsound statistical procedures used in validating the Rorschach were so wide spread that perhaps 90 per cent of the conclusions published are unsubstantiated.
For these criticisms subsequent psychologists have improved their methods of using the Rorschach Test and the results have been quite encouraging as Howard (1962), Lindzey (1961) point out.
As pointed out by Haggard (1978) recent advocates have suggested that the subjective judgements of the test data can be minimized and a variety of carefully defined scales developed that can provide basic quantitative measures of perceptual cognitive and personality functioning.
(b) Thematic Apperception Test:
Credit goes to Murray and Morgan (1935) for this more direct and most widely used method than the Rorschach test. It consists of a set of 20 standard pictures, each picture representing a different situation. There is also a blank card among these 20 cards to give free reign to one’s imagination. The pictures are ambiguous enough to allow different types of interpretations by different personalities.
The ‘S’ is presented with a series of such pictures one at a time and is asked to make up a story describing the situation, the events led up to it, how the characters felt and its outcome.
The instructions particularly indicate the events that led up to the picture, what the characters in the story are thinking and feeling, what is happening at the moment and how the story will end. The ‘S’ is told that this is a test of imagination so that the purpose of the test is not disclosed.
The most outstanding aspect of the test is that most people, when they make up stories from these pictures identity themselves with one of the characters in the picture. Thus, these stories more or less, become their own biography. In this way through several characters, they reveal their feelings, desires, motives, attitudes, frustrations and conflicts that they would otherwise hesitate to discuss or unwilling to admit.
Murray has revised a method of scoring, the stories described. By an analysis of the stories in to themes, some aspects of their personality traits are known. The ideas troubling the person, of suicide, of love, of death and various other problems recur again and again to the interpretations of a particular subject.
Psychologists hold that analysis of the stories made by the subject reveals some of his innermost fantasies is without being aware that he is doing so. By using a test of this type, adolescent fantasy has been revealed by Symbonds (1949).
As Symonds reports, from a particular study it was found that those pictures are most satisfactory which satisfy two criterions:
(1) That they may be simple, somewhat vague,
(2) That they should contain figures which S can identify preferable of the same age and sex.
It has been found that the stories bring the feelings and the emotions of a subject in to strong relief so that his underlying moods were revealed. It also indicates the major conflicts of the individual which are troubling him all the while.
There are possibilities that some stories might be charged emotionally with strong aggressive, erotic content. By and large well adjusted persons describe larger and fearful stories although the relationship is not at all close and cannot be dependent upon for diagnosis.
In a study by Kagan and Mussen (1956) it was found that dependent persons seeking the help of others in making decisions and who fear loneliness describe T.A.T. stories in different from those described by independent individuals. In another study of Mussen (1953) the individuals constructed stories from their own experiences. Difference in cultural pressures along bring variation in response to T.A.T. cards.
Symonds has reported that Masserman and Balkmen had used the T.A.T. extensively with mental patients and have found that different psychiatric groups narrate different stories.
For instance, in conversion hysteria, the stories become flippant and full of sexual fantasies and erotic scenes. Patients with various forms of anxiety make stories which are slow moving and cautious indicating strong identifications and filled with climatic situations.
Obsessional characters give long detailed indecisive stories, indicating their conflicts. Paranoid characters give evasive and guarded stories coloured with guilt and self-depreciation. The mentally defectives make stories with dearth of imagery. Some have attempted to use T.A.T. for predicting vocational success, in student pilots and creativity with disappointing results.
T.A.T. lacks objectivity and scientific validity. The interpretations are not quantified and hence unscientific.
McClelland, Clark, Atkinson and Lowell (1953) of the Harvard university have used a modified T.A.T. to measure achievement motivation. In this test the subjects are asked to write out story answers to questions about special tests of pictures.
These stories were analysed to find out the amount of achievement motivation like success in competition or adequate handling of a job. From such imagery a need achievement score was obtained for each subject. This score was considered as a measure of the strength of his motivation to achieve.
As a concluding remark on the suitability of T.A.T. Ruch states. The “Thematic Apperception Test has the potentiality of being a valuable aid in studying personality although it is as yet a dull tool.”
Besides these two widely applied projective tests there are several other projective techniques like Rosenzweig picture Frustration Test, Kahn Test of symbol arrangement, World Association Test, Children’s Apperception Test which are discussed here briefly.
(c) Rosenzweig Picture Frustration Test:
Rosenzweig (1935) made his famous P.F. test for evaluating a person’s characteristic modes of reactions in every situations of frustration. This study consists of 24 cartoons which represent incidents of everyday life. The character of each picture is shown saying something of frustrating significance to another. The subjects are instructed to write down or speak out the reply made by the second person.
Responses were classified into different types of aggressive reactions such a extra punitive, intrapunitive and impunitive. As far as the direction of aggression was concerned, extrapunitive responses were found to be most frequent both in adults and in children of various age groups whereas intrapunitive responses were the least observed. Extrapunitive responses became less and less as children grew older.
(d) Kahn Test of Symbol Digit Arrangement:
It involves projection of personal needs into symbols which have meanings in all cultures such as, dogs, cats, stars, sky etc. Formulated by Kahn (1955) and Kahn and Giffen (1960), the ‘S’ in this test is instructed to say what these symbols mean to him, and to arrange them according to different sets of directions.
This test measures traits like creativeness and estimates loss of function arising out of emotional and organic stress.
This projective test can be administered in 15 minutes and scored in about three minutes. Unlike the Rorschach test, it does not require extensive training to interpret the data. The KTSA has contributed to psychotherapy. The Air Force has used this technique to evaluate group therapy sessions. It has also proved effective in categorizing patients into broad psychiatric classes (Murphy, Boliger and Ferrman, 1958).
(e) The Word Association Test:
The Word Association Test (W.A.T.) is one of the projective techniques devised first by Galton who made use of this method in a systematic way. After Galton, Wundlt, Cattel and Breugunt studied mental processes by this method. Jung used this method for clinical and diagnostic purposes.
In the W.A.T., the subject is instructed to respond with the first word that comes to his mind, after hearing the stimulus word without any resistance or apparent relevance or propriety to the response word.
The W.A.T., is usually used for four purpose:
(i) Clinical diagnosis differentiating a normal from psychotic.
(ii) Determination of areas of complexes.
(iii) Detection of guilt.
(iv) To investigate into the internal patterns and attitude of the individual.
The materials of W.A.T. consist of a list of 100 words prepared by Jung and subsequently by Kent Rossoneff, out of which 80 per cent are normal, matter of fact words and 20 per cent are emotional words scattered randomly in the list.
While responding to a stimulus word if the ‘S’ takes unduly long reaction, makes hesitation and correction of barely uttered word, repetition of the stimulus word, physical signs of embarrassment, blushing expressive gesture, increase of pulse rate, misunderstanding of the stimulus word, very short reaction time, complete failure to respond due to emotional blocking, asking about the stimulus word, inability to hear the stimulus, reaction with several words, it is considered as having some significance for the subjects personality. The critical words are selected on the basis of the index.
After the selection of the critical words, free association of the ‘S’ for these words are taken and interpreted. However, it is extensively used as a technique to diagnose complexes and centres of emotional loading in the subject’s personality.
The use of this technique was further extended to the detection of guilt, lie and insanity. Disturbances in the personality and various other complexes of emotional value are revealed by analysing the critical response words of the subject from various stand points.
C.A.T. (Children’s Appreception Test):
The C.A.T. was devised by Ballack and Ballack to measure the personality of children between the age group 3 and 11 years. It is a modification of the T.A.T. In this technique the figures mostly deal with childrens and animals. The set consists of 10 standard pictures showing situations of family relationship, toilet training and other such incidents related to the child’s life.