Psychology: Personality and Self-Esteem

Personal Identity

• Refers to the attributes that make a person different from others
• Includes name, qualities, characteristics, potentialities, and beliefs
• Example: "I am Sanjana, I am honest, I am a singer"

Self-Concept

• Refers to the way we perceive ourselves
• Includes ideas about our competencies and attributes
• Can be positive or negative
• Examples: positive self-concept about athletic bravery, negative self-concept about academic talents

Self-Esteem

• Refers to the value judgment we make about ourselves
• Can be high or low
• Influences our behavior and relationships
• Examples: children with high academic self-esteem perform better, children with high social self-esteem are more liked by peers

Self-Efficacy

• Refers to the belief in our ability to control life outcomes
• Can be high or low
• Example: people with high self-efficacy can stop smoking when they decide to do so

Personality

• Refers to our characteristic ways of responding to individuals and situations
• Includes physical and psychological components
• Is relatively stable over time
• Example: shy, sensitive, quiet, concerned, warm

Personality Types

• Sheldon's typology: Endomorphic, Mesomorphic, and Ectomorphic
• Jung's typology: Introverts and Extraverts
• Allport's trait theory: cardinal, central, and secondary traits

Psychodynamic Approach

• Developed by Sigmund Freud
• Focuses on the internal functioning of the mind
• Includes three levels of consciousness: conscious, preconscious, and unconscious
• Uses techniques such as free association, dream analysis, and analysis of errors

Structure of Personality

• According to Freud, the primary structural elements of personality are:
  • Id: source of instinctual energy, seeks immediate gratification
  • Ego: seeks to satisfy instinctual needs in accordance with reality
  • Superego: moral branch of mental functioning, internalises parental authority

Ego Defence Mechanisms

• Developed by Freud
• Include repression, projection, reaction formation, and rationalisation
• Examples: repression of anxiety-provoking behaviors, projection of own traits onto others

Stages of Personality Development

• Developed by Freud
• Includes five stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital
• Each stage is associated with a particular conflict or crisis

Alfred Adler's Theory

• Focuses on the purposeful and goal-directed nature of human behavior
• Emphasizes the role of social interest and lifestyle in personality development
• Includes the concept of inferiority complex

Erik Erikson's Theory

• Focuses on the role of rational, conscious ego processes in personality development
• Emphasizes the concept of identity crisis in adolescence
• Includes eight stages of psychosocial development

Personality Assessment

• Includes techniques such as self-report measures, projective techniques, and behavioral analysis

• Examples: MMPI, 16 PF, Rorschach Inkblot Test, Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), and Sentence Completion Test### Methods of Assessing Personality

• Sentence completion tests are used to assess personality, where an individual completes a sentence to reveal their thoughts and feelings.

• Examples of sentence completion tests include: "My father ___________________.", "My greatest fear is ___________________.", etc.

Interview Method

• The interview method is commonly used to assess personality, involving talking to the person and asking specific questions.
• There are two types of interviews: structured and unstructured.
• Unstructured interviews aim to develop an impression about a person by asking a range of questions.
• Structured interviews address specific questions and follow a set procedure to make objective comparisons.
• Rating scales may be used to enhance the objectivity of evaluations.

Observation Method

• Observation requires careful training of the observer and a detailed guideline for analyzing behaviors.
• A clinical psychologist may observe a client's interaction with family members and home visitors to gain insight into their personality.
• Limitations of observation and interview methods include:
  • Professional training required for data collection is demanding and time-consuming.
  • Maturity of the psychologist is necessary for obtaining valid data.
  • The presence of the observer may influence the behavior of the person being observed.

Behavioural Ratings

• Behavioural ratings are used to assess personality in educational and industrial settings.
• Ratings are taken from people who know the individual intimately and have interacted with them over time.
• The method of rating suffers from limitations such as:
  • Raters may display biases that influence their judgments (halo effect).
  • Raters may place individuals in the middle or extreme categories on the scale (middle category bias or extreme response bias).

Nomination Method

• The nomination method is used to obtain peer assessment and is often used with persons who have been in long-term interaction.
• Each person is asked to choose one or more persons they would like to work with and specify the reason for their choices.
• Nominations are analyzed to understand personality and behavioral qualities.

Situational Tests

• Situational tests provide information about how a person behaves under stressful situations.
• The most commonly used test is the situational stress test, which involves a role-playing scenario where the person is instructed to perform a task with non-cooperative and interfering individuals.
• The test involves a verbal report and may be a realistic or video-based scenario.