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Section III

Personality Development
Chapter 9
Personality Formation

9.1 Meaning of Personality:

The word personality is derived from the word PERSONA which refers to a theatrical
mask work by performers in order to project different roles. According to dictionary meaning, personality
is the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual distinctive character. An
individuals personality refers to ones appearance, characteristics, attitude, mindset and behavior with
others. Thus personality is made up pattern of thoughts, feelings and behaviours that make a person
unique. It arises from within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout the life. Personality is
reflected by the behavior of a person in different scenarios. It gets affected by genetic and environmental
factors. According to psychologists, personality of a human being depends upon following factors:

Hereditary aspects: One might say or do things to others that parents say or do.
Ego: Which provides a sense of identity or Self.
Biological: According to which one possesses a unique physical appearance.
Environment: One gets affected by the surrounding.
Cognitive: According to which one develops mental faculties and abilities.
Values and Skills: Imbibed from various sources.
Spirituality: Enables one to ponder meaning and purpose of Life.

Personality gets built up by the values inculcated (input), the thoughts (process) and actions (output). It
centers around following domains:

Values that are inculcated.


Attitude which may be positive, negative or neutral
Behaviour Linked with life skills.
Character Reflected by integrity, discipline, dedication etc.

Whenever someones personality is being talked about, it is in respect that how the person is different
than others, perhaps unique. This aspect of personality is called individual identity. The personality of an
individual consists of multiple layers and stages of formation. We come across a wide variation in the
level of personality. Some persons are of good personality, others are bad. Some behave in a very decent
manner, others in an offending way. Some people are good looking, impressive, happy go type and
optimistic; others with worried look, unimpressive and pessimistic. It is generally said that personality is
formed by genes and environment. However, the psychologists believe that the environment plays a much
greater role than genes in forming the personality. The net result is that there are certain commonalities
and differences among individuals.

Every human being is in some respect:

Unique
Like some people
Like all other people

The personality is said to be formed in stages. With changes in age, one is subjected to transitions in
behavior to adapt to the newer roles in the form of marital and social status, career moves etc. Hall, a
famous psychologist says that primarily the formation of personality occurs in following four stages:

Exploration During this stage, one seeks his own identity by trial and error, but is unstable.
Establishment it is the stage of settling down. During this period, the productivity increases
and stability occurs.
Maintenance it is the period of making some contributions to society. At this stage a person
becomes mature and wise and maintains high productivity.
Decline During this stage the productivity declines and self-evaluation begins. It is the last
stage of human life during old age.

9.2 Indian Scriptures Views on Personality (Inserted to personality development)

Indian sages, saints and philosophers down the ages have thought, discussed and experimented
the development of human personality. The Indian scriptures speak of it as a spiritual identity. They say
that the Spiritual Self or Jivatma which represents consciousness is the master of body, mind and
intellect. Without the conception of Spiritual Self or Jivatman there cannot be any personality.
According to Swami Vivekanand, the divinity which manifests in man is responsible for his personality.
The Indian approach to personality holds consciousness as the fundamental basis of personality, with
body and mind as its instruments. One who has attained the conscious state of mind has a complete
control over his personality and is an ideal person.

According to the spiritual classic the Bhagvad Gita which originated in India about
5000 years ago, the human personality is a composite of three qualities (gunas) The qualities are :
Tamas (dullness, heaviness), rajas (activity, restlessness) and sattva (serenity, purity). Every human being
is a combination of these three qualities in varying proportions. Gita says that ultimate purpose of
personality development is in discovering ones spiritual nature or the Spiritual Self.

The person behind the activities of body senses and mind is the Spiritual Self or
Jivatman. Gita speaks of Jivatman as part and parcel of Parmatman - the supreme soul or supreme
consciousness or God. An individual identifies oneself with body, sense, intellect, emotions and desires
and thus goes on changing his identity until he discovers his true nature, the nature of Spiritual Self. It is
then that one becomes calm and stable, free from all limitations and miseries. This is because there is no
change in Spiritual self and that changelessness is the full joy, bliss and peace.

When it is said that one should try to develop the personality it actually means that the
physical and mental limitations are to be overcomed. Describing the goal of all the endeavours in the
context of personality development, the Gita states in chapter 6, verse 29 states:
Sarva bhuta stattam atmanam, sarva bhutani chatmani,

Ikshsate yoga-yuktatma, sarvatra sama darshanah

Which means The perfect person sees himself in all beings and all beings in himself. Thus he sees
the Sameness (Of Jivatman) everywhere. This embodies in itself the essence of entire personality
which integrates all virtues, values and life skills. Such a person will be truthful to himself as well to
others, have the same degree of love, compassion, empathy and kindness, for all.

According to another great Indian scripture Taithiriya Upanishad human personality


consists of five different dimensions.

i) Annamaya Kosh (Physical Self dimension)

It refers to the physical body consisting of flesh, bones, blood, and other physical matters. It is like the
house in which a person lives or a horse that one rides. The development of personality at this level
amounts to maintaining a healthy body.

ii) Pranmaya Kosh (Energy Self dimension)

It is about the energy that is responsible for digesting food, circulation of blood, respiration and other
activities in the body. By conserving, regulating and channeling this vital energy, one can develop his
personality in the form an energetic person.

iii) Manomaya Kosh ( Mental Dimension)

It is characterized by the activities of mind- thinking, feeling and emotions. The mind perceives objects of
enjoyment and sorrowfulness and the entire world. By cultivating good thoughts one can develop various
competencies of mind.

iv) Vigyanmaya Kosh ( Intellectual dimension)


The power of discrimination is provided by intellect. One experiences the sense of good and bad, just and
unjust, truth or false through this dimension. Thus one can build up a well groomed personality using
discrimination.

v) Anandmaya Kosh (Blissful dimensions)

It is the ultimate state which is experienced by blissfulness. After achieving this state, one can face any
situation in the world with a smile. Failures or success, bouquets or brickbats, joys or sorrows do not
distract a person from carrying on his path.

The Upanishad tells that each succeeding dimension is subtler than the preceding one and
pervades it. Personality development takes place progressively from one to another dimension. If a person
remains confined to one dimension for instance in the physical dimension (Annamaya Kosh), he will not
live a life much different from animals whose pleasure and pains are restricted to the sensory system.
Personality development means inner development, mental as well as intellectual. It involves winning
over the lower desires, wrong tendencies, impulses and bad impressions. The more one exercises the
power of discrimination or right thinking, the more developed the personality becomes.

The Katho Upanishad describes human personality with the help of an allegory of a
chariot. The person is represented by the Master of the Chariot. The body is chariot and intellect the
charioteer. The mind is represented by the reins to which are yoked the five horses representing the sense
organs ears, eyes, tongue, nose and skin- (the organs in a human being that give him the knowledge of
worldly objects). If the horses (five sense organs) are kept under control by the reins (mind) and the
charioteer (body) is fully aware, the master of the chariot (The Person) can reach the destination i.e.
achieve the goal of life. So it is the human mind which is responsible for success in life. The mind needs
to control the sense organs to perform their duties in a disciplined manner.

All the Indian Scripture advocate and suggest an ideal personality which is achievable by
following the directions provided in them. Swami Vivekanand has said What we want to see the man
who is harmoniously developed great in heart, great in mind, great indeed. We want the man
whose heart feels intensely the miseries and sorrows of the world And we want the man who not
only can feel but can find meaning of things, who delves deeply into the heart of nature and
understanding. We want the man who will not even stop there but who wants to work out the
feelings and meaning by actual deeds. Such combination of head, heart and hand is what we want.
This statement of Swami Ji in nutshell covers all the aspects of human personality development.

9.3 Western Views on Personality:


Many western psychologists have studied and observed different type of people over a long period of
time. Broadly they have considered three factors namely behaviourism, psychoanalysis, and humanism
asthe basis of a particular type of personality.

It is also our common experience that when we meet different people, it is easy to communicate
and deal with some while with others, and it becomes quite difficult. The reason is that they are having
different type of personality. The type of personality refers to a psychological classification of individuals,
the qualitative difference amongst people. Psychologists from time to time have described various
types of the personalities. Earliest description of the types of personality was on the basis of following
Four Temperaments:

Optimistic and Social (Sanguine)


Short tempered or irritable (Choleric)
Analytical and quiet (Melancholic)
Relaxed and peaceful (Phlegmatic )

Then came the Type A and Type B personality classification described by Mayer Friedman. Accordingly,
there are two types of people that may be called Type A or Type B.

Type A- individuals are ambitious, highly status conscious, sensitive, impatient and organized. They are
usually Workaholics and push themselves with deadlines. The achievement driven mentality causes
stress in such individuals-

Type-B in contrast to the Type-A people, Type B are often of steady nature and work without
bothering for achievement or success. They have a tendency to disregard physical or mental stress when
success is not met. Such people are more attracted towards creative jobs such as writing, counseling,
thinking etc. They enjoy exploring ideas and concepts.

Psychologist William Martson describes four types of personality in which people can be grouped. They
are as follows:
Dominating Such type of people are of dominating nature. They control, exercise power and
are assertive.
Influential They influence the other person by way of communication.
Steady Such people are having lot of patience, they possess persistence and are of thoughtful
nature.
Cautious They are careful, systematic, accurate and diplomatic in dealing with other person.

9.4 Combinational Personality:


Another classical approach about the types of personality dates back to early 20 th century
when the founder of analytical psychology, Carl Gustav Jung, developed the concept of Introversion and
Extroversion. He theorized that each person falls into one of the two types: Either focusing more on the
internal world (Introvert) or the outside world (Extrovert). Nowadays these terms have become
synonymous with shyness and socialization respectively. However, original Jungian concepts of
introversion and extroversion were based on the premise of the energy drawn from either within or
outside. Besides introversion and extroversion, Jung also gave some concepts about the personality
including Thinking, Feeling, Sensing and Intuitioning. He called thinking and feeling as judging
function and sensing and intuition as perceiving function. Based on judging and perceiving he
developed methodology for further categorization of personality. According to Jungs theory, the people
can be categorized on the basis of their inclination for the following combinational areas:

Introversion (I) vs Extroversion (E)- General attitude


Intuition (N) vs Sensing (S)- General perception
Feeling (F) vs Thinking (T) Judging pattern
Perceiving (P) vs Judging (J) Relationship between perceiving and judging

All the above four areas of combination are bipolar i.e. each of the two pole (word) in a particular
combination represents a different preference.

The first combination- Introversion (I) vs Extroversion (E) represents a persons energy source
namely internal and external respectively.

The second combination- Intuition (N) vs Sensing (S) represents the method by which a person
perceives information. Intuition amounts to believing that the information received is from internal world.
Sensing means that the information is received from external world.

The third combination -Feeling (F) vs Thinking (T) represents the way how a person processes the
information received. Feeling means that the processing is on the basis of emotion. Thinking means that
the processing is on the basis of logic.

The fourth combination perceiving (P) vs Judging (J) reflects how a person implements the
information processed and takes the decision. Perceiving amounts to using the alternate options and
making opinion accordingly. Judging amounts to sticking to plans and organization.

The above four bipolar combinations or dichotomies yield 16 permutations representing which of the
two poles in each of the dichotomies dominates a person , thus defining 16 different personality types.
Each personality can be assigned a 4 letter acronym of corresponding combination of preferences.. The
Table 9.1 shows the 16 types of personality.
Table -9.1
Jungs Personality Type

INTJ ENTJ ISTJ ESTJ


INTP ENTP ISTP ESTP
INFJ ENFJ ISFJ ESFJ
INFP ENFP ISFP ESFP

As seen in the table, the first letter of each of the acronym corresponds to the first letter
of preference of general attitude i.e. I for Introversion and E for extroversion. The second letter
corresponds to preference for intuition or sensing i.e. N for Intuition and S for Sensing. The third letter
corresponds to preference for thinking or feeling i.e. T for Thinking and F for Feeling. The fourth letter
in the acronym stands for persons preference for judging or perceiving. J for judging and P for
Perceiving.

For example, acronym ISTJ represents the Introvert, Sensing, Thinking and judging type of personality.
Similarly, ENFP represents Extrovert, Intuitive, Feeling and Perceiving type of personality. It will be
quite interesting to test the personality of a person in terms of any one of the 16 types.

9.5 Tests for Personality Type:

Personality Test is a type of questionnaire designed to know the various aspects of an individuals
personality. The personality tests were developed as early as in 1920s and were intended to ease the
process of selection of candidates in the armed forces. Since then, a wide variety of personality tests have
been developed. The most common amongst them are Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Minnesota
Multiphasic Personal Inventory (MMPI) and Five Factor Model (FFM). Brief outline of each of these is
given below:

9.5.1 Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Test:

It is an introspective self-report questionnaire designed by Katharine Briggs and her daughter


Isabel Myers to show the psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and take decisions.
It is based on typological theory proposed by Carl Jung whose 16 types of personality categorization have
been dealt earlier. The underlying assumption of MBTI is that persons have specific preferences in the
way they interpret their experiences. Such preferences underlie the interests, needs, values and
motivations. The test is quite popular in the business sector. However, it has the limitations of lack of
precision and validity in other fields. The complete questionnaire of MBTI test consists of 72 questions,
each having two options, Yes or No. One has to tick the option which he feels applies to him the most. In
the following are shown some of the sample questions out of the total of 72:
1. You enjoy having a wide circle of acquaintances

Yes No

2. You feel that the world is founded on compassion

Yes No

3. You trust reason rather than feelings

Yes No

4. You find difficult to speak loudly

Yes No

5. You get bored if you have to read theoretical books

Yes No

6. You value justice higher than mercy

Yes No

7. You are more inclined to experiment than to follow familiar approaches

Yes No
8. You feel at ease in a crowd

Yes No

9. You are easily affected by strong emotions

Yes No

10. You rarely deviate from your habits

Yes No

To take the test one may go to the URL http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JtTypes2.asp

Based on the MBTI assessment, the personality of a candidate is classified into one of the 16 type
of personality proposed by Carl Jung.

9.5.2. Minnesota Muttiphasic Personal Inventory (MMPI) Test:


This test is invariably used in the field of clinical psychology for treatment of patients
suffering from psychological disorder. There are many updated versions of MMPI. The MMPI is
copyrighted by the University of Minnesota. The latest version is MMPI-2-RF where RF refers to
Restructured Form of clinical scale. The clinical scales measure a persons perception and preoccupation
with his health and health issues respectively. Originally, 10 scales were identified each of them
representing a particular symptom of psychological disorder. Now the MMPI-2-RF test includes 338
items across 51 scales. The tests are conducted by optical scanning and processed through
computerization.

9.5.3 Five Factor Model (FFM) Test:

The five factor model (FFM) was proposed by J.M. Digman in 1990 and further extended
by Goldman in 1993. The test is based on the five traits of personality. It is believed that these traits
constitute the overall personality of an individual. The five traits are

Openness
Conscientiousness
Extroversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism

The acronym for these traits is OCEAN. The meaning of each of the traits is as follows:

Openness: It refers to being open to learn new things, have new experiences, imaginative and insightful.
Such types of people are open minded and receptive in nature. The people possessing high openness are
said to pursue self-actualization. With low openness the people are found to be close minded.

Conscientiousness: The people possessing this trait have a careful approach and are vigilant. They are
usually methodic and organized. High conscientiousness people are found to be stubborn and obsessive.
Low conscientiousness people are usually unreliable.

Extroversion: Extroverts get their energy by interacting with others. Such types of people are assertive
and talkative. High extroversion people are perceived as attention seeking. Low extroversion people are
reserved, self-absorbed.

Agreeableness- This trait is found in the people who are friendly, co-operative and compassionate. They
do not resist the new ideas and are usually affectionate. High agreeable people are found to be submissive
where as low agreeable are often argumentative and untrustworthy.
Neuroticism: Neuroticism means being overly anxious. Such type of people often experience emotional
instability. They are moody and become tense with the situation. This trait is related to stress, pessimism
and depression.

The Five Factor Model personality test tells about the strengths and weaknesses of the
person. This test measures scientifically each of the five traits and is considered a reliable test for career
options and employee psychometric evaluation. It is also known as Big 5 Test. statistical study of
responses to various factors concerning personality is made by using factor analysis. The test usually
consists of 50 or more statements. Each statement is rated on how much one agrees on a five point scale.
The Five Factor Personality tests can be conducted online commercially by psychologists, career
counselors and other professionals. Many websites allow a person to take these tests free. Most studies of
Five Factor Model have been restricted to literate, urban populations only. For further details about the
test one may go to the URL http://ipi.ori.org/NEW_IPIP-50-item-scale.html.

Questions for Learners


1. What is personality and how can it be formed?
2. What do the Indian scriptures say about personality?
3. What are the five dimensions of personality?
4. What are the western views about personality?
5. Describe the various types of personality.
6. What is meant by combinational personality?
7. Explain the difference between extrovert and introvert.
8. Discuss the Jungs procedure for formation of personality.
9. Describe Meyer Briggs test for personality.
10. Describe Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Test.
11. Describe Five Factor Model Test for personality.

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