Psychology Test - 19

Directions: Read the below case and answer the questions that follow:

Thematic Apperception Test

The most widely known and used story telling technique is the TAT. It was developed by Morgan and Murray (1935) in the belief that the content of imagined stories would provide clues to the underlying dynamics of a subject’s interpersonal relationships and self-attitudes. As elaborated by Murray (1943, 1971) and Bellak (1993), TAT data are expected to reveal the hierarchy of a person’s needs and the nature of his or her dominant emotions and conflicts. The TAT is a widely used projective test for the assessment of children and adults. It is designed to reveal an individual’s perception of interpersonal relationships. (i) Thirty one picture cards serve as stimuli for stories and descriptions about relationships or social situations. (ii) Cards include specific subsets for boys, girls, men, and women. (iii) The test is useful as part of a comprehensive study of personality and in the interpretation of behaviour disorders, psychosomatic illnesses, neuroses, and psychoses.

Directions: Read the below case and answer the questions that follow:

Thematic Apperception Test

The most widely known and used story telling technique is the TAT. It was developed by Morgan and Murray (1935) in the belief that the content of imagined stories would provide clues to the underlying dynamics of a subject’s interpersonal relationships and self-attitudes. As elaborated by Murray (1943, 1971) and Bellak (1993), TAT data are expected to reveal the hierarchy of a person’s needs and the nature of his or her dominant emotions and conflicts. The TAT is a widely used projective test for the assessment of children and adults. It is designed to reveal an individual’s perception of interpersonal relationships. (i) Thirty one picture cards serve as stimuli for stories and descriptions about relationships or social situations. (ii) Cards include specific subsets for boys, girls, men, and women. (iii) The test is useful as part of a comprehensive study of personality and in the interpretation of behaviour disorders, psychosomatic illnesses, neuroses, and psychoses.

Directions: Read the below case and answer the questions that follow:

Thematic Apperception Test

The most widely known and used story telling technique is the TAT. It was developed by Morgan and Murray (1935) in the belief that the content of imagined stories would provide clues to the underlying dynamics of a subject’s interpersonal relationships and self-attitudes. As elaborated by Murray (1943, 1971) and Bellak (1993), TAT data are expected to reveal the hierarchy of a person’s needs and the nature of his or her dominant emotions and conflicts. The TAT is a widely used projective test for the assessment of children and adults. It is designed to reveal an individual’s perception of interpersonal relationships. (i) Thirty one picture cards serve as stimuli for stories and descriptions about relationships or social situations. (ii) Cards include specific subsets for boys, girls, men, and women. (iii) The test is useful as part of a comprehensive study of personality and in the interpretation of behaviour disorders, psychosomatic illnesses, neuroses, and psychoses.

Directions: Read the below case and answer the questions that follow:

Trait Approaches

These theories are mainly concerned with the description or characterisation of basic components of personality. They try to discover the ‘building blocks’ of personality. Human beings display a wide range of variations in psychological attributes, yet it is possible to club them into smaller number of personality traits. Trait approach is very similar to our common experience in everyday life. For example, when we come to know that a person is sociable, we assume that s/he will not only be cooperative, friendly and helping, but also engage in behaviours that involve other social components. Thus, trait approach attempts to identify primary characteristics of people. A trait is considered as a relatively enduring attribute or quality on which one individual differs from another. They include a range of possible behaviours that are activated according to the demands of the situation.

To summarise,

(A) Traits are relatively stable over time,

(B) they are generally consistent across situations, and

(C) their strengths and combinations vary across individuals leading to individual differences in personality.

Directions: Read the below case and answer the questions that follow:

Trait Approaches

These theories are mainly concerned with the description or characterisation of basic components of personality. They try to discover the ‘building blocks’ of personality. Human beings display a wide range of variations in psychological attributes, yet it is possible to club them into smaller number of personality traits. Trait approach is very similar to our common experience in everyday life. For example, when we come to know that a person is sociable, we assume that s/he will not only be cooperative, friendly and helping, but also engage in behaviours that involve other social components. Thus, trait approach attempts to identify primary characteristics of people. A trait is considered as a relatively enduring attribute or quality on which one individual differs from another. They include a range of possible behaviours that are activated according to the demands of the situation.

To summarise,

(A) Traits are relatively stable over time,

(B) they are generally consistent across situations, and

(C) their strengths and combinations vary across individuals leading to individual differences in personality.

Directions: Read the below case and answer the questions that follow: A trait is considered as a relatively enduring attribute or quality on which one individual differs from another. They are relatively stable over time and is generally consistent across situations. Their strengths and combination vary across individuals leading to individual differences in personality.

Allport mentioned two types of traits; common traits and personal traits. Common Traits – are the traits found in the majority of persons living in a society or culture. Thus, people of a society or  culture can be compared on that trait.

For example, If X shows a trait of cooperativeness in his behaviours in various situations, and if similar behaviours are obtained in a large number of persons from that community or culture, this trait will be considered as a common Trait.

Common traits thus are those which are reflected in the behaviour of most of the persons in a society or a community or culture.
Personal Traits - This refers to the unique characteristics of a person and not shared by other members of the society or community or culture. Such a personal trait is not comparable with those of others in that culture. These traits are inculcated by a person more in the process of socialisation and thus many of the do’s and don’ts of the parents or caregivers become part of the personality and these traits are unique to this individual.

Another important aspect is that these traits are highly consistent and can be seen in almost all behaviours of this individual irrespective of the situation concerned. To give an example, the trait of parsimony is something which an individual will show in almost every aspect of his behaviour whether he is at home or office or school or anywhere. He will for example put off the lights to economise on electricity consumption whether at office or at home.

Allport further divided personal traits into three subcategories: (A) Cardinal dispositions, (B) Central dispositions, and (C) Secondary dispositions.