Lecture 34

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:20]In previous lecture we tried to understand the achievement test, meaning types and importance. Now we are going to discuss personality test meaning types and importance. As you are aware it is our lecture number four in week number seven and we are dealing uh very important course that is the guidance and counseling.

[00:00:45]First of all, we will try to understand the uh meaning of the personality or let us analyze certain aspects related to that. The term personality is derived from Latin word persona.

[00:01:02]The name given to the mask and characters portrayed by the educator.

[00:01:08]This is ethmological meaning of the personality. It means mask mask of persona. You are you are trying to present the personality of the other that is the persona.

[00:01:20]However, psychological concept of personalities goes further and deeper.

[00:01:25]It involves all the behavior patterns and underlying forces behind them.

[00:01:31]Personality is affected by a number of factors we will discuss in detail. Human behavior is a complex phenomena to analyze. The most complicated machine is the human machine. So it is very very difficult to analyze and evaluate the human behavior. It influenced by biological factors, environmental factors, social and other innumerable factors. Although there are many commonalities among all human being. All human beings are similar to many extent with each other there but there exists some peculiarities which are specific to the individual. Unique qualities in every individual that give him or her a separate identity from others. My personality is unique. No two individuals in this world are having the same personality. This is the diversity of the personality which is existing on this earth in regard to the human beings.

[00:02:40]Now let us take the help of definitions to understand exact meaning of the personality. Watson categorized or defined the defined the personality in his own words. He was supposed he is considered as the father of the behaviorism. He concluded personality is the sum total of activities that can be discovered by actual observations or a long enough period of time to give reliable information. You cannot understand the personality of any individual in 2 days, 3 days or 5 days observation of his behavior. Rather in order to understand the true personality, we have to spend a long enough period for observing the personality of the student. Even that long period also you will find certain aspects were not even clear to you about the personality of that student. This is the complicatedness of the human personality. Kle define personality as personality is that which permits a prediction of what a person will do in a given situation.

[00:03:59]If situations are given then you can predict on the basis of the personality what will be the performance or what will be the act actions of that person in that situation. That is basically the personality. Uh it it means the personality can be useful in predicting the performance and you can understand how effective is the will be the result of the personality for the counselor and for the teachers in modification of educational strategies and providing uh the assistance to select the courses and and and and the jobs.

[00:04:41]uh if we analyze all these definitions and some other definitions also then we can conclude the personality is unique and specific for the individual. Number one, it allows prediction of behavior though not perfectly but to certain extent we can we are in a position to predict the behavior of the student. It exhibits self-consciousness and a sense of personal identity. That is why babies and animals cannot be described as having a personality.

[00:05:17]Self-consciousness and sense of personal identity must be felt. That is called the personality.

[00:05:25]Includes all behavior patterns means cognitive aspect, effective aspect and psychoot domain, intellectual aspect and emotions and attitudes and as well as the skills. Everything is involved in the personality. It is not the external behavior but rather the temperament, the values, the beliefs and the principles adopted by the individual in his or personal in his or her personality.

[00:05:53]Everybody included in the personality of the student. So external and internal factors are uh uh associated to that.

[00:06:03]more than just the sum of traits. It is an organization of the psychological system and functions as a unified whole.

[00:06:10]It is not something related to the psychological aspect, social aspect, individual aspect and emotional aspect.

[00:06:16]Rather, it is the compilation or the configuration of all the characteristic features possessed by an individual. It is influenced by both heridity and environment. And the interaction of the heritity environment basically shapes the true personality. Shapes the true personality. It is influenced by both.

[00:06:37]As I said, it can become disorganized or disintegrated due to severe stress, traumatic experiences, anxiety, prolonged illness and damage to brain and nervous system. means we need to protect the personality. This point basically is highly important for the counselor. Okay. We need to provide uh the guidance to our student so that they can they can move on a right track in order to achieve their objectives and the goals and they are they are not diverted in certain areas where their interest doesn't belong or their personality characteristic features are not suited to that uh course or suited to that profession.

[00:07:30]Assessment of personality test.

[00:07:32]Personality is assessed rather than measured. We need to understand this point. It is an abstraction or and a and a construct. Not an object. It is not an object rather behavior is not an object which can be evaluated. Further there is no perfect all agreed upon concept of personality. Nobody can say perfection is present in the personality and all individual cannot be agreed on any type of the personality. There is no starting point.

[00:08:05]No, there is no concept of zero personality or even units of its measurement. You we can not measure the in personality in a unit also. Thus actual measurement objective reliable and valid is not possible in case of personality only assessment or estimation of personality is possible.

[00:08:30]Techniques of assessment of personality.

[00:08:32]There are three broader techniques of assessment of personality uh which we are presenting here. They are observation, personality inventories, projective techniques. As far as the observation is concerned, observation is concerned. The researcher counselor decides what characteristics are needed to be known. He or she then observe the relevant activities of the subject in real life or designed situations. Photographic cameras, telescope or any other method can also be used to observe. Observation is the best technique because you are able to observe the activity of the students in a natural situation and that situation can be created in the school or in any other conditions. The observation is very important technique. There can be made multiple observations in order to understand the true personality and or reliability to maintain the reliability in our assessment. This technique is particularly useful to assess the personality of children as they cannot properly respond to questions or have enough selfawwareness or so illiterate illit sorry sorry children who are not in a position to elaborate their personality their actions can be observed their behaviors and doings can be observed and on the basis of that we can evaluate the personality of the student. Another technique is personality inventories.

[00:10:13]They are basically used by the counselors and the educationists as well as the researchers who are conducting researches in the field of education and psychology. A personality inverte is a questionaire comprising a set of questions related to various aspects of individual personality like thoughts, interests, feelings and behaviors.

[00:10:39]These are basically the components. On the basis of that we can identify the or assess the personality of the student.

[00:10:49]questions are framed related to the various aspect of that and they are called the personality inventories. The purpose of personality inventories is to develop a general profile about a person's personality and lifestyle. The subject responds to the items of the questions and they are evaluated and we are basically in a position to assess the personality of the student and there are certain well-known personality inventories are there. I'm presenting these before you. Minnesota multi-physic personality inventory MMPI.

[00:11:28]This is the most widely used and research standardized psychometric test of adult personality and psychopathology.

[00:11:38]This inventory was developed by JC Mckinlay and Srave from Minutota Medical School in 1939.

[00:11:51]Oldest but very relevant. It consists of 550 items according to specific personality traits. Each item is printed on separate card and subject puts them down in yes, no or doubtful spaces.

[00:12:10]Three spaces are made. Yes, no or doubtful spaces. They are reading and keeping there. The evaluation of the personality traits is done according to these responses. Another personality inventory is California personality inventory or California personality inventory is a well-known self-report personality test created by Harrison G. Wolf in 1956 to assess personality traits individual aged 12 and older. It is above 12 age year old students particularly in normal adults at the at the workplace.

[00:12:58]Uh the purpose of this California personality infantry to assess personality traits relevant to to personal and professional life including leadership quality, responsibility uh characteristic features, self-control demonstrated by the individual and interpersonal skills which they demonstrate during their tasks, performing their tasks and engaging in tasks. application widely used in leadership development, executive coaching, success, planning, employee selection and performance improvement. Third uh type of inventory is CIS personality inventory or 16 PF questionaire highly useful and being uh utilized by the researchers. questions major 16 person personality dimensions identified by Raymond Kettle and on his name it is called the K's personality inventory these are the warmth reasoning emotional stability dominance liveless rule consciousness social boldness sensitivity vigilance abstractness privateness apprehension Openness to change, self-reliance and perfectionism and tension. These are the 16 personality traits. It it basically evaluates these 16 personality traits of the individual. Very comprehensive.

[00:14:38]Fourth is personality inventory. The Eisenic personality inventory is a psychological self-report questionnaire developed by Hans Eisenic to measure two primary dimensions of personality. It consists of 57 yes no questions and also includes life lie score to assess uh response distortion or social desiraability questions are there which are basically mentioned right or wrong and these two dimension which is which are measured by it uh is extraversion or introversion major state like sociability impulsiveness ness and activity levels.

[00:15:22]Neuroticism stability assesses emotional stability including tendencies towards emotional distress on calmness. Two categories are there. High school personality questionnaire. SD Kapoor SSASau and GNPCast translated and adapted the original high school personality questionnaire in Hindi creating a version for Indian context.

[00:15:48]It is an inventory of adolescents typically between the age of 12 to 18 years designed to assess personality traits. There are 14 personality characteristic features which are evaluated by this personality. It is basically a modified version of neine 16 personality test adapted for high school population. Techniques of assessment of personality.

[00:16:12]Now we will discuss the techniques of assessment of personality.

[00:16:17]Uh third one is a projective techniques as we have discussed. Uh number one is observation.

[00:16:29]Number two is uh personality inventories and the number third is the projective techniques.

[00:16:39]These projective techniques are also very important tools for assessing the personality. There are there are two types of the behaviors uh observable behaviors and there are certain kinds of the behaviors which are not observable and these projective techniques are basically associated to evaluate that kind of the behaviors. So understanding the conscious is essential to get clear picture of the overall personality pattern of an individual. Projective techniques are used for assessing the unconscious behavior which is not possible through any other techniques.

[00:17:17]These use the phenomena of projection.

[00:17:22]Projection means the person is projecting his or her inner feelings, inner desires, inner aspirations to get a view of unconscious of the subject. So conscious part and unconscious part both constitute the true personality. Inventory can constitute the conscious part but unconscious part is more uh easily assessed by using the projective techniques.

[00:17:53]There are indirect test of personality.

[00:17:58]These are indirect test of personality in contrast to the inventories.

[00:18:03]Rosscharge in blog test, thematic appreception test, children's app perception test, word association test, sentence compilation test are commonly used for assessing the personality and these are basically the projective techniques. I'm not explaining all these projective technique here because I have given a separate lecture to uh understand all the projective techniques in a more detailed manner. So students I am shifting my attention to the importance of personality test and when we are talking about the importance of personality test then we are talking about the their use in teaching learning processes in research processes and in guidance and counseling processes.

[00:18:58]Enhanced selfawwareness is one of the objective test can tests help individuals gain deeper insight into their personality traits, thought patterns and emotional responses leading to greater personal clarity and growth to personality traits gives the opportunity of the individual to enhanced selfawwareness better self understanding. understanding the student more serious to his own personality development. If the students are not aware about their self, it means they are not having the knowledge about the positives and the negatives and the behavior characteristic features of their personality. It will be very difficult for them to to engage in certain tasks uh in absence of this kind of the knowledge because of the lack of inferiority or low inferiority complex.

[00:20:00]Informed career and educational choices is another objective which is related to the counseling process by identifying strength, weaknesses, interests and aptitudes. Personality test help individual align their professional pursuits and educational paths with their inherent characteristics leading to greater job satisfaction to informed career and educational choices are possible. If you are aware about the personality traits of the individual, if the person is introvert, if the person is extrovert or the ambas governed by the emotions, he is emotionally unstable having low inferiority complex or high aspiration level. These are basically the personality traits. On the basis of these personality traits, we can group the personality into various aspects and based on that we can provide them informed career and educational choices and students will be able to take their informed decisions in the light of in the light of their enhanced self awareness facilitated personal development by pinpointing areas of improvement. These assessments support targeted efforts for personal growth and self-improvement. Classroom activities can be modified in accordance with the personalities of the students.

[00:21:34]So it basically associated to the personal development. Teachers can use these characteristic features in modifying their personal in their teaching learning processes plan their strategies to deal or address the type of the personal different types of the personality uh students available in the classroom. So it facilitated personal development. Then improved interpersonal relationship is another aspect.

[00:22:06]Understanding different personality types can foster better communication, enhanced empathy and promote more effective teamwork in both personal and professional relationship. If students are aware they the different types what kind of characteristic features they are having then they can better use the those characteristic features or personality type in managing their affairs. It can be used by the teachers can be used by the counselor to improve interpersonal relationship among students on the basis of their personality characteristic features. It is also helpful for the uh for the counselor in tailored counseling strategies. Different personality when we say the students are having the different personality personalities then how can we consider okay a single approach of counseling will be beneficial for all. We need to understand the personalities of personality of the different student and make tailored approach or to address their individual needs. Counselors can use the data from personality test to develop personalized therapeutic approach or the counseling approaches and strategies that address a client's specific needs and behavior. Holistic approach to guidance. Personality basically provides a holistic approach to the guidance. Personality test should be used as a supplementary tool alongside other assessments like academic performance and personal goals to provide a comprehensive understanding of an individual for more effective guidance. So these test can be used or should be used as a supplementary tool alongside other assessment like academic performance and personal goals. Uh because uh when uh we are we have analyzed the achievement of the student and we have also evaluated other aspects and we are also having the true knowledge of the personality of the student. This gives the clear picture of the individual to the counselor to the teacher and to the administrator and to the policy makers and they can use this holistic approach in providing guidance and guidance and counseling. There are certain importance of the personality testing. The results of the test are also helpful for the parents in dealing with their children in the light of their personality and respond to their needs. Sometimes parents are not aware about the type of personality possessed by their children. If these these kinds of information after evaluating the personality is furnished to the parents or provided to the parent then they will be able to deal with their children and assist their children or help their children in achieving their objectives of education and objectives of their life. and they will be more supportive and more uh informed uh in dealing the problems of the student. The results of personality test can be coordinated with the data in case studies. Take for example if you are conducting a case studies then these data can be useful in giving the real picture of the case studies or the group of learners. Case studies can be conducted on individual on a group of students also. The test results can be used in selection of educational courses on the basis of uh the uh evaluation of personality. We can uh decide or select the candidate for the courses for vocational guidance also.

[00:26:13]Then uh these tests are also used by the employer by the employer in proper selection of the personnel keeping in view its appropriateness for the position in professional uh in professional work settings. The test results can be used to assign roles and projects. So these tests are also used for employers in proper selection.

[00:26:42]We see if there is a selection of any teaching position and employment in any company. So these personality test are basically considered as the criteria and because they provide real input about the type of personality possessed by the individual and the employer can understand what kind of task is expected from the individual and what kind of personality will be suited to perform that task. So on the basis of that personality characteristic features is the employers are in a better position to select the appropriate person uh who can perform the task in a better manner and get the job satisfaction and also enhance the productivity of the work in after getting the employment in that situation. There are certain limitations of the personality test and these tests do not address the dynamic nature of the personality because we are evaluating the personality present personality characteristic features but personality is not aesthetic. It is dynamic in nature. H it is dynamic in nature also.

[00:28:00]uh limitations of the personality. Uh the subjects may be unaware of their traits, qualities and behavior. There is a possibility students are not aware of the their traits, their qualities and the behavior.

[00:28:14]The subject may give socially acceptable responses to hide his weaknesses. If you are conducting a personality inventory then there is a possibility the student may inhibit information which is personal in nature and is not in a position to give the actual responses.

[00:28:31]Definitely we will not be able to get the real data related to that limited application applicability for children because it is very difficult to evaluate the personality of the student. There are other factors too to be considered alongside personality while offering guidance and counseling services like financial constraint etc. So these personalities test cannot be utilized uh single-handedly. There are we can address in the last we can address limitations developing rapid with subject. We need to develop rapid with the subject so that he or she is in a position to provide the actual response and based on that we are in a position to evaluate the personality and ensuring confidentiality and making the subject aware of confidentiality so that he may be honest in giving the responses. We need to tell to the student their responses will be kept confidential and we will not share the personality characteristics features with any other person. So this kind of confidence will be helpful for the student to give the correct responses. For children observation and parents involvement is also crucial. Uh the test need to be administered by trained persons. No person who is not having the knowledge of the personality and the characteristic features of test should not be used. The personality assessment should be incorporated with other relevant test in order to get the actual results. Let us conclude our lecture.

[00:30:03]The personality test provide a comprehensive assessment of a person's psychological characteristic features.

[00:30:11]Like other psychological tests, these constitute an essential part of the guidance and counseling. If you are able to understand the true personality of the student, then it becomes quite easy on the part of the teacher to modify his teaching strategies and becomes easy on the part of the counselor to make plan to assist the individual to select the courses and and to enter in the job market uh by getting knowledge and the skills related to that. So with this we have completed our lecture. Thanks for your patience listening. God bless you all.