Self and Personality
Self-concept is the descriptive set of beliefs about oneself; self-esteem is its evaluative tone; self-efficacy (Bandura) is belief in one’s capability for a specific task. Personality is a relatively stable pattern of behaviour, thought, and emotion. The exam tests definitions, type and trait theories, and the logic of assessment.
Types and traits
- Hippocrates’ four temperaments: sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, melancholic.
- Sheldon’s somatotypes: endomorph, mesomorph, ectomorph.
- Jung: introversion and extraversion.
- Allport: cardinal, central, and secondary dispositions.
- Cattell: 16PF source traits.
- Eysenck: extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism.
- Big Five (OCEAN): openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism.
Assessment
Interviews, observation, rating scales, self-report inventories (MMPI, 16PF, NEO-PI), and projective tests (Rorschach, TAT). A good tool needs reliability (consistency) and validity (measuring the intended construct).
Worked example
A student is talkative, organised, and frequently anxious. Map this to the Big Five: high extraversion, high conscientiousness, high neuroticism. This is a trait description, not a diagnosis; calling the student “neurotic” as a disorder confuses a dimension with pathology.
Traps
Do not confuse type (categories) with trait (dimensions), treat projective tests as perfectly valid, or ignore social desirability in self-reports. “Personality is fixed” is false; traits show stability but can change with experience.