Chapter 2 — Self and Personality

Self refers to the totality of an individual's conscious experiences, ideas, thoughts, and feelings with regard to herself or himself. It includes both personal identity (attributes that make a person unique, such as name, qualities, and beliefs) and social identity (aspects derived from membership in a social or cultural group). A newly born child has no idea of self; the idea of self emerges and its formation begins as the child grows older through interactions with parents, friends, teachers, and other significant persons.

The most important distinction is the way the boundary is drawn between self and other. In the Western view, this boundary is relatively fixed and clear; Western cultures are characterised as individualistic with clear dichotomies between self and other, man and nature, and subjective and objective. The Indian view is characterised by the shifting nature of this boundary — at one moment the self expands to fuse with the cosmos or include others, and at the next it withdraws and focuses fully on individual needs or goals. The Indian self does not make such clear dichotomies; the self and the group remain in a state of harmonious co-existence, making many Asian cultures collectivistic.

Self-esteem is the value judgment a person makes about her or his own worth. People with high self-esteem evaluate themselves positively, while those with low self-esteem evaluate themselves negatively. Studies indicate that by age 6 to 7, children form self-esteem in at least four areas: academic competence, social competence, physical/athletic competence, and physical appearance. These become more refined with age. Warm and positive parenting helps develop high self-esteem, while children whose parents make decisions for them even when unnecessary often suffer from low self-esteem. Low self-esteem in all areas is linked to anxiety, depression, and antisocial behaviour.

Self-efficacy is a person's belief that she or he has the ability or behaviours required by a particular situation to control life outcomes. A person who believes s/he can succeed demonstrates high self-efficacy. The notion of self-efficacy is based on Bandura's social learning theory. Bandura's studies showed that people's expectations of mastery and their convictions about their own effectiveness determine the types of behaviour in which they engage and the amount of risk they undertake. A strong sense of self-efficacy allows people to select, influence, and even construct the circumstances of their own life.

Three psychological techniques of self-regulation are described in the chapter: (1) Observation of one's own behaviour — this provides information that can be used to change, modify, or strengthen aspects of self; (2) Self-instruction — instructing oneself to behave in a desired way, which is quite effective in self-regulation; (3) Self-reinforcement — rewarding behaviours that have pleasant outcomes (for example, going to see a movie with friends after doing well in an examination). These techniques have been tried out and found effective for self-regulation and self-control.

The word 'personality' is derived from the Latin word 'persona', the mask used by actors in Roman theatre for changing their facial make-up. For a layperson, personality often refers to physical or external appearance, but this notion is superficial. In psychological terms, personality refers to unique and relatively stable qualities that characterise an individual's behaviour across different situations over a period of time. It has both physical and psychological components, and while its main features do not easily change with time, it is dynamic in the sense that some features may change due to internal or external situational demands.

Type approaches attempt to comprehend human personality by examining broad patterns in observed behavioural characteristics and placing individuals into categories based on similarities. For example, Hippocrates classified people into four types (sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic, choleric) and Jung classified people as introverts or extraverts. In contrast, trait approaches focus on specific psychological attributes along which individuals tend to differ in consistent and stable ways. Traits are relatively stable over time, generally consistent across situations, and vary in strength and combination across individuals. Allport, Cattell, and Eysenck advocated the trait approach.

According to Freud's psychodynamic theory, the three primary structural elements of personality reside in the unconscious as forces. The id is the source of instinctual energy; it deals with immediate gratification of primitive needs, sexual desires, and aggressive impulses, and works on the pleasure principle. The ego grows out of id and seeks to satisfy instinctual needs in accordance with reality; it works on the reality principle and directs the id towards more appropriate behaviours. The superego is the moral branch of mental functioning; it internalises parental authority through socialisation and tells the id and ego whether gratification is ethical. The relative strength of these three determines a person's stability.

Freud proposed a five-stage theory of psychosexual development: (1) Oral stage — newborn's instincts are focused on the mouth as the primary pleasure-seeking centre; (2) Anal stage — around ages two and three, the anal area becomes the focus of pleasure as the child learns bodily control; (3) Phallic stage — around ages four and five, the child becomes aware of sexuality; males experience the Oedipus Complex (love for mother, hostility towards father) and females the Electra Complex; (4) Latency stage — from about age seven until puberty, sexual urges are relatively inactive and energy is channelled into social and achievement activities; (5) Genital stage — sexual maturity is attained. Failure to pass successfully through any stage leads to fixation.

The Five-Factor Model was examined by Paul Costa and Robert McCrae. The five factors, often called Big Five Factors, are: (1) Openness to experience — high scorers are imaginative, curious, open to new ideas; low scorers are rigid; (2) Extraversion — high scorers are socially active, assertive, outgoing, talkative; low scorers are shy; (3) Agreeableness — high scorers are helpful, cooperative, friendly, caring; low scorers are hostile and self-centred; (4) Neuroticism — high scorers are emotionally unstable, anxious, worried, fearful, irritable; low scorers are well-adjusted; (5) Conscientiousness — high scorers are achievement-oriented, dependable, responsible, hardworking; low scorers are impulsive. It is considered the most promising empirical approach to the study of personality.

The Rorschach Inkblot Test was developed by Hermann Rorschach. It consists of 10 inkblots: five in black and white, two with some red ink, and the remaining three in some pastel colours. The blots are symmetrical in design, each printed in the centre of a white cardboard of about 7 by 10 inches. The cards are administered individually in two phases — the performance proper phase (subjects are shown the cards and asked to tell what they see) and the inquiry phase (a detailed report is prepared about where, how, and on what basis the response was made). It is a projective technique designed to assess unconscious motives and feelings; scoring and interpretation require extensive training.

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was developed by Hathaway and McKinley as a tool for psychiatric diagnosis but has been found very effective in identifying varieties of psychopathology. Its revised version is available as MMPI-2 and consists of 567 statements; the subject judges each statement as 'true' or 'false'. The test is divided into 10 subscales that seek to diagnose hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, psychopathic deviate, masculinity-femininity, paranoia, psychasthenia, schizophrenia, mania, and social introversion. In India, Mallick and Joshi developed the Jodhpur Multiphasic Personality Inventory (JMPI) along the lines of MMPI.

Carl Rogers proposed that each person has both a real self and a concept of ideal self. The real self is what the person actually is, while the ideal self is the self that a person would like to be. Rogers' basic principle is that people have a tendency to maximise self-concept through self-actualisation. When there is correspondence between the real self and ideal self, a person is generally happy. Discrepancy between the real self and ideal self often results in unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Rogers believed that an atmosphere of unconditional positive regard must be created in order to enhance people's self-concept; this forms the basis of client-centred therapy that he developed.

Alfred Adler's theory, known as individual psychology, holds that every individual suffers from feelings of inadequacy and guilt arising from childhood — this is the inferiority complex. Adler's basic assumption is that human behaviour is purposeful and goal-directed and that each person has the capacity to choose and create. Personal goals are the sources of motivation; goals that provide security and help in overcoming feelings of inadequacy are important in personality development. Overcoming the inferiority complex is essential for optimal personality development. In Adler's view, the feelings of inferiority that arise from childhood experiences drive individuals to strive for superiority and achievement.

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