CHAPTER 2

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 show up in our behaviour.

Generally we know that different people hold different ideas about themselves. These common ideas
represent the self of a person.

Relatively stable pattern of behaviour represents the “personality” of that person. Thus, different
persons seem to possess different personalities which are reflected in the diverse behaviour of persons.

Concept of Self

Ø Self-concept is a collection of beliefs one holds about oneself and the responses of others.

Ø The structure of self is modifiable in the light of our own experiences and the experiences we
have of other people.

Ø Personal identity refers to those attributes of a person that make her/him different from others.
When a person describes him by telling his name, his qualities or characteristics or his
potentialities or capabilities, he discloses his personal identity.

Ø Social identity refers to those aspects of a person that link him to a social or cultural group or
are derived from it. When someone says that he is a Hindu or a Muslim, a North Indian or a
South Indian, he is trying to indicate his social identity.

Self refers to the totality of an individual’s conscious experiences, ideas, thoughts and
feelings with regard to herself or himself.
Kinds Of Self

Personal Self:

It is primarily concerned with oneself, such as personal freedom, personal responsibility, personal
achievement, or personal comforts.

Social/Familial/Relational Self:

It emerges in relation with others, such as co-operation, unity, affiliation, sacrifice, support or sharing.
This self-values family and social relationships.

Cognitive and Behavioural Aspects of Self

Self-concept

Ø The way we perceive ourselves and the ideas we hold about our competencies and attributes is
also called self-concept. At a very general level, this view of oneself is, overall, either positive or
negative.

Ø At an even more specific level, one may have a positive self-concept about one’s reading ability
but a negative one about one’s mathematical skills.

Self-esteem
Self-esteem is the value judgement of a person about himself/herself. It is an important aspect of
ourselves.
 Ø Some people have high self-esteem, whereas others may have low self-esteem. In order to
assess self-esteem we present a variety of statements to a person, and ask her/him to indicate the
extent to which those statements are true for her or him.

Ø Every child seems to have formed self-esteem at least in four areas: academic competence, social
competence, physical competence, and physical appearance

Ø Children with low self-esteem in all areas often display anxiety, depression, and increasing anti-
social behaviour.

Ø Children with high academic self-esteem perform better in schools and more liked by their
peers than those with low social self-esteem.

Ø Warm and positive parenting helps to develop high self-esteem among children.

Self-efficacy

It is the extent to which a person believes they themselves control their life outcomes or the outcomes
are controlled by luck or fate or other situational factors.

Ø When a person believes that he has the ability or behaviour required by a particular situation
demonstrates high self-efficacy.

Ø The idea of self-efficacy is based on Bandura’s social learning theory. He showed that children
and adults learned behaviour by observing and imitating others.

Ø Strong sense of self-efficacy allows people to select, influence, and even construct the
circumstances of their own life. They also feel less fearful.

Self-regulation

Self-regulation refers to the ability to organize and monitor one’s own behaviour. Those who are able to
change their behaviour according to the demands of the environment are high on self-monitoring.
Will power:
Ø It is the ability to resist situational pressure and control over ourselves.

Ø Many situations of life require resistance to situational pressures and control over ourselves. This
becomes possible through our ‘will power’.

Self-control:

Ø 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.

Ø Indian cultural tradition provides certain effective mechanisms (fasting in vrata or roza and non-
attachment with worldly things) for developing self-control.

Techniques of Self-Control:
Ø Observation of own behaviour: It provides necessary information that may be used to
change, modify or strengthen certain aspects of self.

Ø Self-instruction: It instructs ourselves to do something and behave the way we want to.

Ø Self-reinforcement: It rewards behaviours that have pleasant outcomes.

Culture and Self

Several aspects of self seem to be linked to the characteristic features of the culture in which an
individual lives.

Distinction between Indian and Western cultures.

Western culture:

Ø In this culture the Individual ( self) and the cultural group are two different identities
Ø The boundaries between self and group are clearly defined.
Ø Individual members of the group maintain their individuality.
Ø Western culture is Individualistic.
Indian Culture:

Ø Self is not separated from one’s own group

Ø They both (self & group) remain in state of harmonious co-existence.
Ø Lot of dependency and no clear boundaries.
Ø Indian culture is Collectivistic.

Concept of Personality

This word is derived from Latin word-Persona, which means mask used by actors in Roman
theatre to perform their roles.

Ø Personality generally refers to the physical or external appearance of an individual. For example,
when we find someone ‘good-looking’, we often assume that the person also has a charming
personality.

Ø Psychological terms, 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.
Certain catchwords (e.g., shy, sensitive, quiet, concerned, warm, etc.) are often used to describe
personalities.

Ø Once we are able to characterize someone’s personality, we can predict how that person will
probably behave in a variety of situations.

Features of Personality

Ø Personality has both physical and psychological components.

Ø Its expression in terms of behaviour is fairly unique in a given individual

Ø Its main features do not easily change with time.

Ø It is dynamic in the sense that some of its features may change due to internal or external
situational demands. Thus, it is adaptive to situations.
Approaches to Study Personality

Type approach

Hippocrates (Greek Physician)

Ø Proposed personality which is based on fluid or humour.

Ø He classified people into four types, viz. sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic and choleric.
Which are characterised by specific behavioural features.

Charak Samhita (Treatise on Ayurveda)

Classifies people into the categories of vata, pitta and kapha on the basis of three elements called
tridosha.

Each category refers to a type of temperament, called prakriti (basic nature) of a person.
Typology of personality based on trigunas:
Ø Sattva guna—cleanliness, truthfulness, dutifulness, detachment, discipline.

Ø Rajas guna—intensive activity, desire for sense gratification, dissatisfaction,envy, materialism.

Ø Tamas guna—anger, arrogance, depression, laziness, helplessness

The dominance of any of these guna leads to a particular type of behaviour.

William Sheldon
Defined body type on the basis of body built and temperament

Ø Endomorphic (fat, soft and round)—relaxed and sociable.

Ø Mesomorphic (strong musculature, rectangular, strong body build)—energetic and courageous.

Ø Ectomorphic (thin, long, fragile)—brainy, artistic and introverted.

Carl Gustav Jung

Classified personality into two types:

Ø Introverts: People who prefer to be stay alone, tend to avoid others, withdraw themselves in the
face of emotional conflicts, and are shy.

Ø Extraverts: Sociable, outgoing, drawn to occupations that allow dealing directly with people,
and react to stress by trying to lose themselves among people and social activity.

Friedman and Roesenman

Tried to identify psycho-social risk factors and discovered 2 types of personality

Ø Type-A (susceptible to hypertension and coronary heart disease): Highly motivated, impatience,
feels short of time, be in a great hurry, and feel like being always burdened with work. Such
people find it difficult to slow down and relax,
 Ø Type-B The absence of Type-A traits.

Morris continued this research and identified:

Ø Type-C (prone to cancer): Co-operative, unassertive patient, suppress negative emotion, show
compliance to authority.

Ø Type-D (prone to depression): These individuals usually suffer from high degrees of de-stress.
They have a fear of rejection or disapproval.

Trait Approach

A trait is considered as a relatively enduring attribute or quality on which one individual

differs another.

They try to discover the ‘building blocks’ of personality.

To summarise,

Ø Traits are relatively stable over time

Ø They are generally consistent across situations.

Ø Their strengths and combinations vary across individuals leading to individual differences in
personality.

Allport’s Trait Theory

Gordon Allport proposed that individuals possess a number of traits, which are dynamic in nature.
They determine behaviour in such a manner that an individual approaches different situations with
similar plans.

Ø Cardinal Traits: These traits are highly generalized, indicating the goal around. Which a
person’s entire life revolves, e.g., Hitler’s Nazism.

Ø Central Traits: These traits are often used in writing a testimonial for job recommendation for a
person, e.g., sincere, warm, diligent.

Ø Secondary trait least generalized characteristics of a person, e.g., likes mangoes or prefers
ethnic clothes.
Cattell Personality Factors

Raymond Cattell believed that there is a common structure on which people differ from each
other. This structure could be determined empirically

He identified primary traits from descriptive adjectives found in language. He applied factor analysis, a
statistical technique to discover the common structure on which people differ from each other.

Ø Source or Primary Traits: stable, building blocks of personality, which are described in
terms of opposing tendencies.

Ø Surface Traits: Result out of the interaction of source traits.

Developed Sixteen Personality Factor (16PF) Questionnaire for the assessment of personality.

Eysenck’s Theory (H.J. Eysenck)

He reduced personality into two broad dimensions which are biologically and genetically based

Ø Neuroticism (anxious, moody, touchy, restless) vs. Emotional stability (calm, even
tempered, reliable)—the degree to which people have control over their feelings.

Ø Extraversion (active, gregarious, impulsive, thrill seeking) vs. Introversion (passive, quiet,
caution, reserved)—the degree to which people are socially outgoing or socially withdrawn.

Later he proposed a third dimension

Ø Psychoticism (hostile, electric, and antisocial) vs. Sociability, considered to interact with the
other two dimensions.

He also developed Eysenck Personality Questionnaire to study dimensions of personality which is

very useful in understanding the personality profile of people across cultures
Psycho-dynamic Approach (Sigmund Freud)

Highly popular approach to study personality, by Sigmund Freud. He used

‘Free Association’ the technique (a method in which a person is asked to openly share his thoughts,
feelings and ideas that comes to his/her mind)

Dream analysis and error analysis to understand the functioning of mind and help analyse thoughts by
expression.

Levels of consciousness
Ø Conscious: Thoughts, feelings, actions people are aware of.

Ø Preconscious: The mental activity people are aware of only if they pay attention to it
closely.

Ø Unconscious: This includes mental activity people are unaware of. These are instinctive,
animalistic drives concealed and repressed away from conscious mind because they may
lead to psychological conflicts. A reservoir of instinctive or animal drives—stores all ideas
and wishes that arise from sexual desires. Cannot be expressed openly and therefore are
repressed or concealed from conscious awareness.
Freud used therapy of Psychoanalysis

Psycho-analysis is a therapeutic procedure, the basic goal which is to bring repressed unconscious
material to consciousness, thereby helping people to live in a more self-aware and integrated manner.

Structure of Personality

According to this theory there are 3 structural elements of Personality- Id, Ego and Superego.

Id

Ø Source of a person’s instinctual energy—deals with immediate gratification of primitive

needs, sexual desires and aggressive impulses.

Ø Works on the pleasure principle, which assumes that people seek pleasure and try to avoid
pain.

Ø Demanding, unrealistic and does not care for moral values, society, or other individuals.

Ø Energised by instinctual forces

Ego

Ø Seeks to satisfy an individual’s instinctual needs in accordance with reality.

Ø Works on the reality principle, and directs the id towards more appropriate ways of behaving.

Ø Patient and reasonable

Ø Eg- refer text book

Super Ego

Ø Moral branch of mental functioning.

Ø Tells the id and ego whether gratification in a particular instance is ethical

Ø Controls the id by internalizing the parental authority the process of socialization.

Ø Eg- refer text book (page no-35)

Life Instinct, Death Instinct, Libido

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 Mechanisms

Ø A defence mechanism is a way of reducing anxiety by distorting reality unconsciously.

Ø It defends the ego against the awareness of the instinctual reality.

Ø It is normal and adaptive; people who use mechanism are often unaware of doing so.

Repression: Anxiety provoking behaviours or thoughts are totally dismissed by the unconscious.

Projection: People attributes their own traits to others.

Denial: A person totally refuses to accept reality.

Reaction Formation: A person defends against anxiety by adopting behaviours opposite to his/her
true feelings.

Rationalisation: A person tries to make unreasonable feelings or behaviour seem reasonable and
acceptable.

Examples- Refer text book. (Page no-35)

Stages of Personality/Psycho-sexual Development

Ø Five Stage Theory of Personality

Ø The core aspects of personality are established early, remain stable throughout life, and can be
changed only with great difficulty.

Ø Problems encountered at any stage may arrest development, and have long-term effect on a
person’s life.
Resolution of Complex

Ø Identification with same sex parent.

Ø Giving up sexual feeling for sex parent

Failure of a child to pass successfully through a stage leads to fixation to that stage. The child’s
development gets arrested at an earlier stage.

Eg- refer text book. (Page no-37)

Regression occurs when a person’s resolution of problems at any stage of development is
less than adequate. People display behaviours typing of a less mature stage of development.

Post-Freudian Approaches

Ø Less prominent role to sexual and aggressive tendencies of the Id.

Ø Expansion of the concept ego.

Ø Emphasis on human qualities of creativity, competence, and problem solving.

Carl Jung: Aims and Aspirations

Ø Saw human being as guided by aims and aspirations.

Ø Analytical Psychology; personality consists of competing forces and structures within the
individual (that must be balanced) rather than between the individual and the demand of society,
or between the individual and reality.

Ø Collective unconscious consisting of archetypes or primordial images; not individually

acquired, but are inherited—found in myths, dreams and arts of all mankind.

Ø The self-strive for unity and oneness; for achieving which, a person must become increasingly
aware of the wisdom available in one’s personal and collective unconscious, and must learn to
live harmony with it

Karen Horney : Optimism

Ø Optimistic view of human life with emphasis on human growth and self-actualization.

Ø Challenge to Freud’s treatment of women as inferior—each sex has attributes to be admire by the
other, and neither sex can be viewed as superior or inferior; countered that women were more
likely to be affected by social and cultural factors than by biological factors.
 Ø Psychological disorders were caused by disturbed interpersonal relationship during childhood.
When parents’ behaviour toward a child is indifferent, discouraging and erratic, the child feels
insecure and a feeling called basic anxiety results—deep resentment toward parents or basic
hostility occur due to this anxiety.

Alfred Adler : Lifestyle and Social Interest

Ø Individual Psychology: human behaviour is purposeful and goal directed.

Ø Each one of us has the capacity to choose and create.

Ø Personal goals are the sources of our motivation.

Ø Goals that provide us with security and help us in overcoming the feelings of inadequacy are
important in our personality development.

Ø Every individual suffers from the feeling of inadequacy and guilt, i.e., inferiority complex,
which arise from childhood

Erich Fromm : The Human Concerns

Ø Fromm developed his theory from a social orientation. He viewed human beings as basically
social beings who could be understood in terms of their relationship with others.

Ø Psychological qualities such as growth from our experiences of potentials resulted from a desire
for freedom and striving for justice and truth.

Ø Character traits (personality) develop from our experiences with their individual.

Ø People’s dominant character traits in a given work as forces in shaping the social processes and
the culture itself
Erik Erikson : Search for Identity

Ø Rational, conscious ego processes in personality development.

Ø Development is viewed as a lifelong process, and ego identity is granted a central place in this
process.

Ø Identity crisis at the adolescent age—young people must generate for themselves a central
perspective and a direction that can give them a meaningful sense of unity and purpose.

Criticism to Psychodynamic Theories

Ø The theories are largely based on case studies; they lack a rigorous scientific basis.

Ø They use small and a typical individual as samples for advancing generalisations.

Ø The concepts are not properly defined, and it is difficult to submit them to scientific testing.

Ø Freud has used males as the prototype of all human personality development and overlooked
female experiences and perspectives.

Behavioural Approach

Ø This approach does not give importance to the internal dynamics of behaviour. The behaviourists
believe in data, which they feel are definable, observable and measurable.

Ø The theory focuses on study of stimulus – response and reinforcements.

Ø Personality can be best understood as a response of an individual to the environment.

Ø They see the development as a change in response characteristics .i.e. person learns new
behaviours in response to new environments and stimuli.

Ø Structural unit of personality is the response.

 Ø Each response is a behaviour, which is emitted to satisfy a specific need.

Ø The core tendency that organises behaviour is the reduction of biological or social needs that
energise behaviour. This is accomplished through responses (behaviours) that are reinforced.

Cultural Approach

Ø Considers personality as an adaptation of individuals or group to the demand of their ecology

and culture.

Ø A group’s economic maintenance system plays a vital role in the origin of cultural and
behavioural variations.

Ø The climatic conditions, the nature of terrain of the habitat and the availability of food (flora and
fauna) in it determine not only people’s economic activities, but also their settlement patterns,
social structures, division of labour, and other features such as child rearing practices..

Ø These elements constitute a child’s overall learning environment—skills, abilities, behavioural

styles, and value priorities are viewed as strongly linked to these features.

Ø Rituals, ceremonies, religious practices, arts, recreational activities, games and play are the
means through which people’s personality gets projected in a culture.

Humanistic Approach

Carl Rogers
Ø Fully functioning individual—fulfilment is the motivating force for personality development
(people try to express their capabilities, potentials and talents to the fullest extent possible).

Ø Assumptions about human behaviour:

(i) It is goal-oriented and worthwhile.
(ii) People (who are innately good) will almost always choose adaptive, self-actualising
behaviour.
 Ø People are constantly engaged in the process of actualising their true self.

Ø Each person also has a concept of ideal self. An ideal self is the self that a person would like to
be.

Ø Correspondence between ideal and real self = happiness.

Ø Discrepancy between ideal and real self = unhappiness and dissatisfaction.

Ø Rogers views personality development as a continuous process. It involves learning to evaluate

oneself and mastering the process of self actualization

Ø Role of social influences in the development of self-concept—

Positive social conditions lead to a high self-concept and self-esteem, generally flexible and open
to new experience
When the conditions are negative, the self-concept and self-esteem are low.

Ø Atmosphere of unconditional positive regard must be created in order to ensure enhancement

of people’s self-concept.

Ø Client-centered therapy that Rogers developed basically attempts to create this condition.

Abraham Maslow

Ø Attainment of self-actualisation, a state in which people have reached their own fullest
potential.

Ø Optimistic and positive view of man who has the potentialities for love, joy and to do creative
work.

Ø Human beings are considered free to shape their lives and to self-actualisation.

Ø Self-actualisation becomes possible by analysing the motivations that govern our life.
Characteristics of Healthy Person

Ø Healthy become aware of themselves, their feelings, and their limits; accept themselves, and
what they make of their own responsibility; have ‘the courage to be’.

Ø They experience the ‘here-and-now’; are not trapped.

Ø They do not live in the past or dwell in the future through anxious expectation and distorted
defences.

Assessment of Personality

Ø A formal effort aimed at understanding personality of an individual is termed as personality

assessment.

Ø Assessment refers to the procedures used to evaluate or differentiate people on the basis of
certain characteristics.

Ø The goal of assessment is to understand and predict behaviour with minimum error and
maximum accuracy.

Ø Besides promoting our understanding, assessment is also useful for diagnosis, training,
placement, counselling, and other purposes.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

Ø Developed by Hathaway and Mckinley

Ø Effective in identifying varieties of psychopathology

Ø Revised version is MMPI–2

Ø Consists of 567 statements. The subject has to judge each statement as ‘true’ or ‘false’.

Ø The test is divided into 10 sub scales which seek to diagnose hypochondriasis, depression,
hysteria, psychopathic deviant, masculinity-feminity, paranoia, psychasthenia, schizophrenia,
mania and social introversion.

Ø In India, Mallick and Joshi have developed Jodhpur Multiphasic Personality Inventory.
(JMPI)
Eysenck Personality Questionnaire

Ø Developed by Eysenck.

Ø Initially assessed 2 dimensions of personality: Introversion–Extraversion and emotionally

stable-emotionally unstable.

Ø These dimensions are characterised by 32 personality traits.

Ø Later on, Eysenck added a third dimension, called psychoticism. It is linked to psychopathology-
sociobility.

Ø It represents a lack of feeling for others, a tough manner of interacting with people, and a
tendency to defy social conventions. A person scoring high on this dimension tends to be hostile,
egocentric and antisocial.

Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire

Ø Developed by cattell.

Ø Test provides declarative statements, and the subject responds to a specific situation by choosing
from a set of given alternative.

Ø Can be used with high school level students as well as with adults.

Ø Found useful in career guidance, vocational exploration, and occupational testing.

Limitations/Criticisms of Self Report Measures

Ø Social Desirability: Tendency on the part of the respondent to endorse items in a socially
desirable manner.

Ø Acquiescence: tendency of the subject to agree with items/questions irrespective of their

contents. Often appears in the form of saying ‘Yes’ to items. These tendencies render the
assessment of personality less reliable.
Similarities of Projective Techniques

Ø Stimuli relatively or fully unstructured and poorly defined.

Ø Person being assessed usually not told about the purpose of assessment and the method of
scoring and interpretation.

Ø The person is informed that there are no correct or incorrect responses.

Ø Each response in considered to reveal a significant aspect of personality.

Ø Scoring and interpretation are lengthy and sometimes subjective.

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Ø Developed by Herman Rorschach.

Ø Test consists of 10 ink blots. 5 in black and White, 2 with red ink, 3 in pastel colours.

Ø Blots are symmetrical indesign with a specific shape or form. Each blot is printed in the centre of
a white cardboard of about 7" × 10" size.

Ø Cards are administered indivisually in 2 phases.

Ø Performance proper: Subjects are shown the cards and asked to tell what they see in
them.

Ø Inquiry: A detailed report of the response is prepared by asking the subject where, how, and on
what basis the response was made.

Ø Fine judgement is needed to place the responses in a meaningful context. The interpretation of
this test requires extensive training.
Thematic Apperception Test

Ø Developed by Morgan and Murray

Ø Consists of 30 black and white picture cards and one blank card.

Ø Each picture depicts one or more people in a variety of situations. Each picture is printed on a
card.

Ø Some cards are used with adult males or females. Others are used with boys or girls.

Ø 20 cards are appropriate for a subject though lesser cards have also been used.

Ø The cards are presented one at a time, the subject is asked to tell a story describing the situation
presented in the picture what led to the situation, what is happening at the moment, what will
happen in the future and what characters are feeling and thinking?

Ø Indian adaptation: Uma chaudhary

Rosenzweig’s Picture-Frustration Study

Ø Developed by Rosenzweig to assess how people express aggression in the face of a frustrating
situation.

Ø The test presents with the help of cartoon like pictures a series of situation in which one
frustrates another, or calls attention to a frustrating condition.

Ø The subject is asked to tell what the other person will say or do. The analysis of responses is
based on the type and direction of aggression.

Ø An attempt is made to examine whether the focus is on the frustrating object or on the protection
of the frustrated person or on constructive solution of the problem.

Ø The direction of aggression may be towards oneself, environment or it may be turned off as an
attempt to gloss over or made the situation.

Ø Indian Adaptation: Pareek

Sentence Completion Test
Ø This test makes use of a number of incomplete sentences. The starting part of the sentence is first
presented and the subject has to provide an ending to the sentence.

Ø It is held that the type of endings used by the subjects reflect their attitudes, motivation and
conflicts.

Ø The test provides subjects with several opportunities to reveal their underlying unconscious
motivations.

Draw-A- Person Test

Ø Subject is asked to draw a person on sheet of paper.

Ø After the completion, subject is asked to draw the figure of an opposite sex person.

Ø The subject is asked to make a story about the person as if she/he was a character in a novel or
play

Interpretations (eg)

Ø Ommission of facial features: person tries to evade a highly conflict-ridden interpersonal

relationship.

Ø Graphic emphasis on neck: Lack of control over impulses.

Ø Disproportionately large head: Organic brain disease and preoccupation with headaches

Benefits of Projective Techniques

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

Limitations

Ø Interpretation of responses requires sophisticated skills and specialised training.

Ø Problems associated with reliability of scoring and validity of interpretations.
Behavioural Analysis

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

Interview

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

Observation

Ø Requires careful training of the observer and a fairly detailed guideline about analysis of
behaviour in order to assers the personality of a given person.
Limitations of Interview and Observation Methods

Ø Professional training required.

Ø Demanding and time consuming.

Ø Maturity of psychologist is a precondition for obtaining valid data through these techniques.

Ø Mere presence of observer may contaminate the results.

Behavioural Ratings

Ø Used in educational and industrial settings.

Ø Ratings usually taken from people who know the assessee intimately and have interacted with
her/him over a period of time or have had the chance to observe him/her.

Ø They attempt to put individuals into certain categories in terms of their behavioural qualities.
There may involve different numbers or descriptive terms.

Ø In order to use ratings effectively, traits should be clearly defined in terms of carefully stated
behavioural anchors.

Limitations of Rating

Ø Halo Effect: Raters often display certain biases that colour their judgements of different traits
eg. most of us are greatly influenced by a single favourable of unfavourable trait. This often
forms the basis of a raler’s overall judgement of a person. This is known a halo effect.

Ø Raters have a tendency to place individuals either in the middle scale (Middle category bias) by
avoiding extreme positions or in extreme position (extreme response bias) by avoiding middle
categories on the scale.
Nomination
Ø Used in obtaining peer assessment

Ø Each person is asked to choose one or more persons of the group with whom she would like to
work, study, play participate etc. The person may be asked to specify the reason for his/her
choices.

Ø Nominations received can be analysed to understand the personality and behavioural

characteristics of a person.

Limitations

Ø May be affected by personal biases.

Situational Tests

Ø Most commonly used is situational stress test.

Ø Provides information about how a person behaves under stressful situations.

Ø Test requires a person to perform a given task with other persons who are instructed to be non-
cooperative and interfering.

Ø The person is instructed to play a role for which she is observed.

Ø A verbal report is also obtained on what she was asked to do.

Ø The situation may be a realistic one or may be created through a video play.