Self and personality | Class12 | Psychology | NCERT |

     SELF AND PERSONALITY 

Self and personality refer to the

characteristic ways in which we define our

existence. They also refer to the ways in

which our experiences are organised and

show up in our behaviour.

Self- Totality of individual experiences, ideas, thoughts and feelings that a person holds about himself/herself.

Personal identity- refers to those

attributes of a person that make them different from others. When a person

describes herself/himself by telling her/his name (e.g- I am Sanjana ) or her/his qualities or characteristics etc. Is personal identity.

Social identity- refers to those aspects of a person that link her/him to a social or cultural group or are derived from it. When

someone says that s/he is a Hindu or a

Muslim, a Brahmin or an adivasi or a

North Indian or a South Indian, or

something like these, s/he is trying to

indicate her/his social identity

Self as Subject and Self as Object

• Self as a subject- The one who does something ( i am a teacher and i teach )
• Self as a object- the one who gets effected ( i am a student and i learn)

Knds of Self

1. Personal self- The personal self leads to an orientation in which one feels primarily concerned with oneself
2. Social self-The social self emerges in relation with others and emphasises such aspects of life as cooperation, unity, affiliation, sacrifice, support or sharing

Cognitive and behavioral aspects of self

• Self concept -The way we perceive ourselves and the

ideas we hold about our competencies and

attributes is also called self-concept.

• Self esteem- This value judgment of a person aboutherself/himself is called self-esteem

• Self-regulation refers to our ability to

organise and monitor our own behaviour.

Learning to delay or defer the gratification of needs is called self-control. Self-control plays a key role in the fulfilment of long-term goals. Indian cultural tradition provides us with certain effective mechanisms (e.g., fasting in vrata or roza )

Developing self-control.

1. Observation of own behaviour
2. Self instructions
3. Self reinforcement

  CULTURE AND SELF

• The Indian view of self, on the other hand, is characterised by the shifting nature of this boundary. Thus, our self at one moment of time expands to fuse with the cosmos or include the others. They belive in collectivistic.

• In the Western culture, the self and the

group exist as two different entities with

clearly defined boundaries. Individual members of the group maintain their

individuality.

They belive in individualistic,

Concept of Personality

personality- refers to our characteristic ways of responding to individuals and situations. People can easily describe the way in which they respond to various situations.

MAJOR APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF PERSONALITY

1. Type approach
2. Trait approach

1. Type Approach

•  Hippocrates divides people's in 4 typologies

1. Sanguine(+ve nature, +ve thinking)

2. Phlegmatic(Cool, calm, relax)

3. Melancholic( -ve Nature, irritated)

4. Choleric(low temperd, angry)

Sanguine	Melancholic
Phlegmatic	Choleric

• Charak Samhita, 

A famous treatise on Ayurveda, classifies

people into the categories of

1.  Tridosha

Vatta ( Energetic)

Pitta ( calm)

Kaph ( possesive)

2. Triguna

 Sattva( truthfull)

 Rajas ( greedy)

 Tamas( Angry )

• 3rd type Approach given by Sheldon divided people's in 3 typologies

1. Endomorph( Fat,round,social,relax)

2. Mesomorph -(rectangular,strong,muscular)

3. Ectomorph( thin, lean, intelligent, strong)

• 4th approach given by Carl Jung divides people's in 2 typologies

1. Introvert ( Antisocial, Not-Participating)

2. Extrovert ( Social , intelligent etc )

• 5th approach by Fruid Man & Rosen man divides people's in 2 typologies.

1. Type A ( Highly Motivated, enthusiastic, ready to work )

2. Type B ( Opposite of  Type A)

• These Typologies has been extended by Morris 

3. Type C ( Prone to Cancer )

4. Type D ( Prone to depression )

2. Trait Approach

These  are mainly concerned with the description or characterisation of basic

components of personality. They try to

discover the ‘building blocks’ of personality.

• 1st Trait Approach by  Allports Trait Theory Divided trait in 3 categories

1.  Cardinal Trait ( Possess to life Goals, Highly Generalised trait )

2. Central trait ( Less generalised, Focus Wormth, senceriaty etc )

3. Secondary Trait ( Least Generalised trait, focus on likness and preferences )

• 2nd Trait Approach by cattle Personality factor  

He applied a statistical technique, called

factor analysis, to discover the common

structures. He found 16 primary or source

traits.

1.  The source traits are stable, and are

considered as the building blocks of

personality. 

2.  Surface traits that result out

of the interaction of source traits.

 Cattell, Developed a test, called Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF), for the assessment of personality.

• 3rd Trait Approach by eyesenck's theory , described Personality in 2 broad dimensions.

1. Neuroticism vs. emotional stability. 

Neuroticism- (moody , aggressive etc)

emotional stability- ( calm, senior & stable)

2. Extraversion vs. introversion

Extraversion- ( Social, Participating etc.)

Introversion- ( anti-social, Not-Participating)

Psychodynamic Approach by Sigmund Freud

He used hypnosis to treat people with physical and emotional problems. He noted that many of his patients needed to talk about their problems, and having talked about them, they often felt better. Freud used

1.  free association (a method in which a person is asked to openly share all the thoughts, feelings and ideas that come to her/his mind), 
2. dream analysis
3. analysis of errors to understand the internal functioning of the mind

levels of consciousness

three levels of consciousness. 

1.  conscious, which includes the thoughts, feelings and actions of which people are aware. 
2. preconscious, which includes mental activity of which people may become aware only if they attend to it closely
3. unconscious, which includes

mental activity that people are unaware of.

Structure of Personality

1. Id : It is the source of a person’s

instinctual energy. It deals with immediate

gratification of primitive needs, sexual

desires and aggressive impulses. It works

on the pleasure principle, which assumes

that people seek pleasure and try to avoid

pain. Freud considered much of a person’s

instinctual energy to be sexual, and the

rest as aggressive. Id does not care for

moral values, society, or other individuals.

2. Ego : It grows out of id, and seeks to

satisfy an individual’s instinctual needs in

accordance with reality. It works by the

reality principle. 

3. Super ego : The best way to characterise the superego is to think of it as the moral branch of mental functioning. The superego tells the id and the ego whether gratification in a particular instance is ethical.

• Freud also assumed that id is

energised by two instinctual forces, called

life instinct and death instinct. He paid

less attention to the death instinct and

focused more on the life (or sexual)

instinct. The instinctual life force that

energises the id is called libido. It works

on the pleasure principle, and seeks

immediate gratification.

Ego defence mechanism

According to Freud, much of human

behaviour reflects an attempt to deal with

or escape from anxiety. 

Freud has described many different

kinds of defence mechanisms. 

• The most important is repression, in which anxiety- provoking behaviours or thoughts are totally dismissed by the unconscious.

Other major defence mechanisms are

projection, denial, reaction formation and

rationalisation. 

1. In projection, people attribute their own traits to others. Thus, a person who has strong aggressive tendencies may see other people as acting in an excessively aggressive way towards her/him.

2.  In denial, a person totally refuses

to accept reality. 

  3. In reaction formation, a person defends against anxiety by adopting behaviours opposite to her/his true 

 4.  In rationalisation, a person tries to make unreasonable feelings or behaviour seem reasonable and acceptable. 

Stages of Personality development

Stage	Age	Focus centre	Development
Oral	Infancy	Mouth(Feeding, thumb-sucking	Basic feeling about tha world are establish
Anal	2-3 Year	Anus	Learn to respond to demands of society,  Toilet training
Phallic	4-5 Year	Genital	Aware of sex relations b/w there parents
Latency	7-Puberty	None	Grows physically but sexually inactive
Genital	Puberty	Genitals	Attain maturity in psycho-sexual development

Fixation- Person is unable to pass any developmental stage and cannot move forward.

 Criticism of psychodynamic theory

1. The theories are based on selective case study and they lack scientific basis

2. Concepts are not properly defined and it is difficult to subject them to scientific testing

3. He used particular type of individuals

4. Freud use male as a prototype of human personality development . He overlooked female experience and perspective. 

Post Freudian approach

Freud	Post freud
Talked about ID important for Personality Talked about unconscious important for Personality Talked about sexual instinct	They talked about edg important for Personality. Focused on conscious aspects of Personality. Talked about social, cultural instinct Creative & problem solving

1st neo-analytical theory by : Carl jung

• Also know as analytical psychogy means 2 opposite. He talked about 2 opposite Force into Personality

Aims and aspirations over sex

• Jung claimed that there was a

collective unconscious consisting of

archetypes or primordial images

2nd : karen horney ( Optimism ) 

• Horney’s major contribution lies in her

challenge to Freud’s treatment of women

as inferior. According to her, each sex has

attributes to be admired by the other, and

neither sex can be viewed as superior or

inferior

• She argued that psychological disorders

were caused by disturbed interpersonal relationship during childhood

3rd : Alfred Adler 

• Adler’s theory is known as individual

psychology. His basic assumption is that

human behaviour is purposeful and goal-

directed

•  In Adler’s view, every individual suffers from the feelings of inadequacy and guilt, i.e. inferiority complex, which arise from childhood. Overcoming this complex is essential for optimal personality development.

4th : Erich Fromm

• He viewed human as a social bring 

•  He argued that psychological qualities such as growth and realisation of potentials resulted from a desire for freedom, and striving for justice and truth.

5th : Erik Erikson

• In his theory, development is

viewed as a lifelong process, and ego

identity is granted a central place in this

process

• His concept of identity crisis of

adolescent age has drawn considerable

attention

•  Erikson argues that young

people must generate for themselves a

central perspective and a direction that can

give them a meaningful sense of unity and

purpose.

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