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After reading this chapter, you would be able to:
descrie the concept of self and learn some ays for self-regulation of ehaiour,
explain the concept of personality,
differentiate eteen arious approaches to the study of personality,
deelop insight into the deelopment of a healthy personality, and
descrie some techniues for personality assessment.
Introduction
Self and Personality
Concept of Self
Cognitive and Behavioural Aspects of Self
Self-esteem, Self-efficacy and Self-regulation
Culture and Self
Concept of Personality
Personality-related Terms (Box 2.1
Major Approaches to the Study of Personality
ype pproaches
rait pproaches
Five-Factor Model of Personality (Box 2.2
sychodynamic pproach
Behaioural pproach Key Terms
Cultural pproach Summary
umanistic pproach Review Questions
Who is a Healthy Person? (Box 2.3 Project Ideas
Assessment of Personality Weblinks
Self-report easures Pedagogical Hints
roectie echniues
Behaioural nalysis
Chapter 2 • Self and Personality 23
2022-23
Quite often you must have found yourself engaged in knowing and
evaluating your own behaviour and that of others. You must have noticed
how you react and behave in certain situations in a manner different from
others? You may have also often asked questions about your relationships
with others. To find an answer to some of these questions, psychologists
use the notion of self. Similarly when we ask questions such as why people
are different, how they make different meaning of events, and how they
feel and react differently in similar situations i.e. questions relating to
variations in behaviour, the notion of personality comes into play. oth
these concepts, i.e. self and personality are intimately related. Self, in fact,
lies at the core of personality.
The study of self and personality helps us understand not only who we
are, but also our uniqueness as well as our similarities with others. y
understanding self and personality, we can understand our own as well
as others’ behaviour in diverse settings. Several thinkers have analysed
the structure and function of self and personality. s a result, we have
different theoretical perspectives on self and personality today. This chapter
will introduce you to some basic aspects of self and personality. You will
also learn some important theoretical approaches to self and personality,
and certain methods of personality assessment.
SELF AND PERSONALITY CONCEPT OF SELF
elf and personality refer to the From your childhood days, you may have
characteristic ways in which we define our spent considerable time thinking about
e
istence. hey also refer to the ways in who you are, and how you are different
which our e
periences are organised and from others. By now, you already may have
show up in our behaviour. From common developed some ideas about yourself,
observation we know that different people although you may not be aware of it. Let
hold different ideas about themselves. us try to have some preliminary notion of
hese ideas represent the self of a person. our self i.e. who are we by completing
e also know that different people behave ctivity 2..
in different ways in a given situation, but ow easy was it for you to complete
the behaviour of a particular person from these sentences ow much time did you
one situation to another generally remains take Perhaps it was not as easy as you
fairly stable. uch a relatively stable may have thought at first. hile working
pattern of behaviour represents the on it, you were describing your ‘self’. ou
“personality” of that person. hus, different are aware of your ‘self’ in the same way as
persons seem to possess different you are aware of various obects in your
personalities. hese personalities are surrounding environment, such as a chair
reflected in the diverse behaviour of or a table in your room. newly born child
persons. has no idea of its self. s a child grows
24
Psychology
2022-23
older, the idea of self emerges and its disclosing herhis personal identity. Social
formation begins. Parents, friends, identity refers to those aspects of a person
teachers and other significant persons play that link herhim to a social or cultural
a vital role in shaping a child’s ideas about group or are derived from it. hen
self. ur interaction with other people, our someone says that she is a indu or a
e
periences, and the meaning we give to uslim, a Brahmin or an adivasi or a
them, serve as the basis of our self. he orth ndian or a outh ndian, or
structure of self is modifiable in the light something like these, she is trying to
of our own e
periences and the indicate herhis social identity. hese
e
periences we have of other people. his descriptions characterise the way people
you will notice if you e
change the list you mentally represent themselves as a person.
completed under ctivity 2. with your hus, self refers to the totality of an
other friends. individual’s conscious e periences, ideas,
thoughts and feelings with regard to herself
Understanding the Self or himself. hese e
periences and ideas
define the e
istence of an individual both
lease complete the following sentences at the personal and at social levels.
starting with “ am”.
Time
ow............. Self as Subject and Self as Object
am........................................................ f you return to your friends’ descriptions
am........................................................ in ctivity 2., you will find that they have
am........................................................ described themselves either as an entity
am........................................................ that does something e.g., am a dancer
am........................................................ or as an entity on which something is done
am........................................................
am........................................................ e.g., am one who easily gets hurt. n the
am........................................................ former case, the self is described as a
am........................................................ ‘subect’ who does something in the latter
am..................................................... case, the self is described as an ‘obect’
Time when you finished..................... which gets affected.
his means that self can be understood
otice what they have done. ou will as a subect as well as an obect. hen you
find that they have produced a fairly long say, “ know who am”, the self is being
list of attributes about how they identify described as a ‘knower’ as well as
themselves. he attributes they have used something that can be ‘known’. s a
for identification tell us about their subect actor the self actively engages in
personal as well as social or cultural the process of knowing itself. s an obect
identities. Personal identity refers to those conseuence the self gets observed and
attributes of a person that make herhim comes to be known. his dual status of self
different from others. hen a person should always be kept in mind.
describes herselfhimself by telling herhis Kinds of Self
name e.g., am anana or arim, or her
his ualities or characteristics e.g., am here are several kinds of self. hey get
honest or hardworking person, or herhis formed as a result of our interactions with
potentialities or capabilities e.g., am a our physical and sociocultural
singer or dancer, or herhis beliefs e.g., environments. he first elements of self
am a believer in od or destiny, she is may be noticed when a newborn child cries
hapter 2 • Self and ersonality 2
2022-23
for milk when it is hungry. lthough, this more specific level, a person may have a
cry is based on refle
, this later on leads very positive view of herhis athletic
to development of awareness that ‘ am bravery, but a negative view of herhis
hungry’. his biological self in the conte
t academic talents. t an even more specific
of sociocultural environment modifies level, one may have a positive selfconcept
itself. hile you may feel hungry for a about one’s reading ability but a negative
chocolate, an skimo may not. one about one’s mathematical skills.
distinction is made between ‘personal’ Finding out an individual’s selfconcept is
and ‘social’ self. he personal self leads to not easy. he most freuently used method
an orientation in which one feels primarily involves asking the person about herself
concerned with oneself. e have talked himself.
above how our biological needs lead to the
development of a ‘biological self’. But, soon Self-esteem
a child’s psychological and social needs in elfesteem is an important aspect of our
the conte
t of herhis environment lead self. s persons we always make some
other components of personal self to udgment about our own value or worth.
emerge. mphasis comes to be laid on his value udgment of a person about
those aspects of life that relate only to the herselfhimself is called self-esteem. ome
concerned person, such as personal people have high selfesteem, whereas
freedom, personal responsibility, personal others may have low selfesteem. n order
achievement, or personal comforts. he to assess selfesteem we present a variety
social self emerges in relation with others of statements to a person, and ask her
and emphasises such aspects of life as him to indicate the e
tent to which those
cooperation, unity, affiliation, sacrifice, statements are true for her or him. For
support or sharing. his self values e
ample, we may ask a child to indicate the
family and social relationships. ence, it e
tent to which statements such as “ am
is also referred to as familial or relational good at homework”, or “ am the one
self. usually chosen for the games”, or “ am
highly liked by my peers”, are true of her
COGNITIVE AND BEHAVIOURAL ASPECTS him. f a child reports these statements to
OF be true for herhim, herhis selfesteem
SELF
will be high in comparison to someone who
Psychologists from all parts of the world says “no”.
have shown interest in the study of self. tudies indicate that by the age of to
hese studies have brought out many years, children seem to have formed self
aspects of our behaviour related to self. s esteem at least in four areas academic
indicated earlier, all of us carry within us competence, social competence, physical
a sense of who we are and what makes us athletic competence, and physical
different from everyone else. e cling to appearance, which become more refined
our personal and social identities and feel with age. ur capacity to view ourselves in
safe in the knowledge that it remains terms of stable dispositions permits us to
stable in our lifetime. combine separate selfevaluations into a
he way we perceive ourselves and the general psychological image of ourselves.
ideas we hold about our competencies and his is known as an overall sense of self
attributes is also called self-concept. t a esteem.
very general level, this view of oneself is, elfesteem shows a strong relationship
overall, either positive or negative. t a with our everyday behaviour. For e
ample,
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Psychology
2022-23
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