Mpc 003 - Personality.docx

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PERSONALITY: THEORIES AND ASSESSMENT (MPC 003) - TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT (TMA) SECTION - A Answer the following question in about 1000 words each.

Discuss the structural model of personality. STRUCTURAL MODEL OF PERSONALITY. According to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, personality is composed of three elements. These three elements of personality are known as the id, the ego and the superego. They work together to create complex human behaviors. Each component not only adds its own unique contribution to personality, but all three elements interact in ways that have a powerful influence on each individual. Each of these three elements of personality emerges at different points in life. According to Freud's theory, certain aspects of your personality are more primal and might pressure you to act upon your most basic urges. Other parts of your personality work to counteract these urges and strive to make you conform to the demands of reality. The Id The id is the only component of personality that is present from birth. This aspect of personality is entirely unconscious and includes of the instinctive and primitive behaviors. According to Freud, the id is the source of all psychic energy, making it the primary component of personality. The id is driven by the pleasure principle, which strives for immediate gratification of all desires, wants, and needs. If these needs are not satisfied immediately, the result is a state anxiety or tension. For example, an increase in hunger or thirst should produce an immediate attempt to eat or drink. The id is very important early in life, because it ensures

that an infant's needs are met. If the infant is hungry or uncomfortable, he or she will cry until the demands of the id are met. However, immediately satisfying these needs is not always realistic or even possible. If we were ruled entirely by the pleasure principle, we might find ourselves grabbing things we want out of other people's hands to satisfy our own cravings. This sort of behavior would be both disruptive and socially unacceptable. According to Freud, the id tries to resolve the tension created by the pleasure principle through the primary process, which involves forming a mental image of the desired object as a way of satisfying the need. The Ego The ego is the component of personality that is responsible for dealing with reality. According to Freud, the ego develops from the id and ensures that the impulses of the id can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the real world. The ego functions in both the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind. The ego operates based on the reality principle, which strives to satisfy the id's desires in realistic and socially appropriate ways. The reality principle weighs the costs and benefits of an action before deciding to act upon or abandon impulses. In many cases, the id's impulses can be satisfied through a process of delayed gratification--the ego will eventually allow the behavior, but only in the appropriate time and place. The ego also discharges tension created by unmet impulses through the secondary process, in which the ego tries to find an object in the real world that matches the mental image created by the id's primary process. The Superego The last component of personality to develop is the superego. The superego is the aspect of personality that holds all of our internalized moral standards and ideals that we acquire from both parents and society--our sense of right and wrong. The superego provides guidelines for making judgments. According to Freud, the superego begins to emerge at around age five. There are two parts of the superego: 1. The ego ideal includes the rules and standards for good behaviors. These behaviors include those which are approved of by parental and other authority figures. Obeying these rules leads to feelings of pride, value and accomplishment. 2. The conscience includes information about things that are viewed as bad by parents and society. These behaviors are often forbidden and lead to bad consequences, punishments or feelings of guilt and remorse.

The superego acts to perfect and civilize our behavior. It works to suppress all unacceptable urges of the id and struggles to make the ego act upon idealistic standards rather that upon realistic principles. The superego is present in the conscious, preconscious and unconscious. The Interaction of the Id, Ego and Superego With so many competing forces, it is easy to see how conflict might arise between the id, ego and superego. Freud used the term ego strength to refer to the ego's ability to function despite these dueling forces. A person with good ego strength is able to effectively manage these pressures, while those with too much or too little ego strength can become too unyielding or too disrupting. According to Freud, the key to a healthy personality is a balance between the id, the ego, and the superego.

People have long struggled to understand personality and numerous theories have been developed to explain how personality develops and how it influences behavior. One such theory was proposed by a psychologist named Raymond Cattell. He created taxonomy of 16 different personality traits that could be used to describe and explain individual differences between people's personalities. Cattell's personality factors have been included in the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) that is widely used today. It is used for career counseling in education and vocational guidance. In business, it is used in personnel selection, especially for choosing managers. It is also used in clinical diagnosis and to plan therapy by assessing anxiety, adjustment, and behavioral problems. Raymond Cattell Born in 1905, Cattell witnessed the advent of many 20th-century inventions such as electricity, telephones, cars, and airplanes. He was inspired by these innovations and was eager to apply the scientific methods used to make such discoveries to the human mind and personality. Personality, he believed, was not just some unknowable and untestable mystery. It was something that could be studied and organized. Through scientific study, human characteristics and behaviors could then be predicted based on underlying personality traits. Cattell had worked with psychologist Charles Spearman, who was known for his pioneering work in statistics. Cattell would later use the factor analysis techniques developed by Spearman to create his own personality taxonomy. The Trait Approach to Personality

Psychologists have long debated exactly how personality should be defined and described. One of these key ideas is known as the trait theory of personality. According to trait theory, human personality is composed of a number of broad traits or dispositions. Some of the earliest of these trait theories attempted to describe every single trait that might possibly exist. For example, psychologist Gordon Allport identified more than 4,000 words in the English language that could be used to describe personality traits. While this approach was good at identifying different types of traits, it is unwieldy and difficult to infer meaning. Many of these traits, for example, are highly similar, making it difficult to distinguish some traits from others. Such ambiguity also makes it difficult to study these personality traits. The 16 Personality Factors In an effort to make Allport’s list of 4,500 traits more manageable, Raymond Cattell took the list and removed all the synonyms, reducing the number down to 171. However, saying that a trait is either present or absent does not accurately reflect a person’s uniqueness, because (according to trait theorists) all of our personalities are actually made up of the same traits; we differ only in the degree to which each trait is expressed. As with all of his work, Cattell took a statistical, measurable approach to studying personality rather than utilizing observational and qualitative data. He wanted to apply factor analysis to personality. To do this, he categorized data into three parts to achieve a large, comprehensive method of sampling. The three data types were:

 Life Data (L-data): Information about an individual's everyday behaviors and their behavioral patterns. This included things such as the grades they received in school, their marital status, social interactions, and more.  Experimental Data (T-data): Recorded reactions to standardized experiments in a lab setting, designed to test study participant's response to certain situations.  Questionnaire Data (Q-data): Responses to questions about the participant's behavior and feelings. This data was introspection based and provided a deeper look at the person's personality that is not always clear through behavioral data. The goal of Cattell's personality theory was to establish a "common taxonomy" of personality traits. He refined previously established lists of personality traits and narrow it to simplify the descriptions of personality even further than his predecessors. The previously established taxonomy, created by psychologists Gordon Allport and Henry Odbert in 1936, contained thousands of personality traits divided into four categories. But, this taxonomy contained some "ambiguous category boundaries," that reduced the significance of the work. Raymond Cattell's personality theory sought to both refine the previous taxonomy and create more rigid boundaries that added to the significance of the theory.

Cattell believed it necessary to sample a wide range of variables to capture a full understanding of personality. The first type of data was life data, which involves collecting information from an individual’s natural everyday life behaviors. Experimental data involves measuring reactions to standardized experimental situations, and questionnaire data involves gathering responses based on introspection by an individual about his or her own behavior and feelings. Using this data, Cattell performed factor analysis to generated sixteen dimensions of human personality traits: abstractedness, warmth, apprehension, emotional stability, liveliness, openness to change, perfectionism, privateness, intelligence , rule consciousness , tension, sensitivity, social boldness, selfreliance, vigilance, and dominance. Based on these 16 factors, he developed a personality assessment called the 16PF. Instead of a trait being present or absent, each dimension is scored over a continuum, from high to low. For example, your level of warmth describes how warm, caring, and nice to others you are. If you score low on this index, you tend to be more distant and cold. A high score on this index signifies you are supportive and comforting. Despite cutting down significantly on Allport’s list of traits, Cattell’s 16PF theory has still been criticized for being too broad. The following personality trait list describes some of the descriptive terms used for each of the 16 personality dimensions described by Cattell. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.

Abstractedness: Imaginative versus practical Apprehension: Worried versus confident Dominance: Forceful versus submissive Emotional Stability: Calm versus high-strung Liveliness: Spontaneous versus restrained Openness to Change: Flexible versus attached to the familiar Perfectionism: Controlled versus undisciplined Privateness: Discreet versus open Reasoning: Abstract versus concrete Rule-Consciousness: Conforming versus non-conforming Self-Reliance: Self-sufficient versus dependent Sensitivity: Tender-hearted versus tough-minded. Social Boldness: Uninhibited versus shy Tension: Impatient versus relaxed Vigilance: Suspicious versus trusting Warmth: Outgoing versus reserved

The 16PF Personality Questionnaire Cattell also developed an assessment based on these 16 personality factors. The test is known as the 16 PF Personality Questionnaire and is still frequently used today, especially in career counseling, marital counseling, and in business for employee testing and selection.

The test is composed of forced-choice questions in which the respondent must choose one of three different alternatives. Personality traits are then represented by a range and the individual's score falls somewhere on the continuum between highest and lowest extremes. The pencil and paper version of the test takes around 35 to 50 minutes to complete, while the computer version of the questionnaire takes around 30 minutes. Once complete, the scores can be interpreted using a number of different systems, depending upon why the test is being used. Some interpretive reports take a clinical approach looking at personality, while others are more focused on topics such as career selection, teamwork development, and leadership potential.

Discuss the various debates in personality research. Nature versus Nurture The nature versus nurture debate basically relates to the relative importance of an individual’s inherent traits versus the personal experiences that lead to individual differences in physical and behavioural traits. Some scientists are of the view that genetic predispositions or even animal instincts are the push factors behind people’s behaviour. Others believe that the way one behaves is directly dependent upon the manner in which the person has been taught to behave. The former is known as the “nature” theory of human behaviour whereas the latter is termed as the “nurture” theory of human behaviour. It has been stated that at the time of birth the child has no specific traits except that it functions through its reflexes. As the child grows day by day, and in the process of socialisation it learns many things in regard to the environment. It is said that the child thus at birth is in a blank state of mind or ‘tabula rasa’, and whatever one wants to put into it, the same would be absorbed and the child’s behaviour accordingly will change. This view which holds that “nurture” yields all or almost all the behavioural traits in the individual child. Thus the environment (nurture) plays a significant role in the development of the child’s personality. However, the fast growing understanding of the human genome has come up with the information that both the sides are right in their own part. Whereas nature provides us with inherent abilities and traits, nurture reshapes these genetic tendencies and molds them with progressive learning and maturity. This view point which agrees that both nature and nurture play crucial roles in human personality development has come to be known as interactionism. The person situation debate

The person situation debate was sparked off by a prominent book by Mischel in 1968, in which the trait approach to personality was targeted. According to Mischel, the traits when rated, do not predict the actual behaviour. Opposed to Mischel’s view, Epstein, in 1983, argued that although traits do not predict single behaviour, they are good at predicting aggregates of such behaviours. Broady and Ehrlichman (1998) devised the following hypothetical study to test whether traits are good at predicting behaviour across not only in the same situation, but also across different situations. For this, the following steps were taken: Step 1: Obtained measures of behaviour for a group of individuals in each of twenty situations that were assumed to be relevant to the trait of conscientiousness. Step 2: Assumed further that each individual has been observed several times in a situation and that the measure of behaviour in a situation for each individual is based on an aggregate index of behaviour. Step 3: The set of situations was divided into two arbitrary groups of ten each. Step 4: Obtained two aggregated indices of conscientiousness for each individual by averaging the person’s score for each of the two groups of ten situations. Step 5: Obtained a correlation between the two indices. Step 6: Obtained an overall index of conscientiousness for each individual by averaging the aggregated behavioural measures for each of the twenty situations studied. The findings showed that the person situation debate was an extended disagreement, originally between social psychologists and personality psychologists, on whether the “situation” or the personality traits are more predictive of people’s behaviour. Mischel argued that (1) literature review shows that personality traits only have a correlation of about .30 with how people behave in a given situation, and (2) the crosssituational consistency of behaviour is also just .20-.30. So, he concluded that situations, rather than personality traits are better predictors of behaviour. These arguments further generated a lot of response from personality psychologists using trait questionnaires for several decades. Those on the side of personality argued that the low personalitybehaviour correlations do not prove that situational variables are more valuable. The actual relationship between personality and behaviour was found to be higher than .40. Personality is a stronger predictor of behaviour across all situations but not a strong predictor of an individual’s behaviour at a specific time in a specific situation. Personality traits are the most useful psychological tools that predict behaviour most strongly. Nomothetic approach versus Idiographic approach to personality Nomethetic approaches are based on the tendency to see one’s personality as constant, hereditary and resistant to change, whereas the influence of the environment is minimal. This way, nomothetic approaches state that the way in which a person will act under

certain circumstances can be calculated and anticipated, foreseen. Gordon Allport (1934) identified this approach to personality testing. The nomothetic approach relies on quantitative research methods such as self report and questionnaires to establish universal behaviours. He understood that scientific progress for trait psychology was rooted in a nomothetic approach. Thus, nomothetically derived traits were employed by Allport to describe people. Allport (1937, 1961) employed traits as the primary basis which can be used to describe people. Accordingly, he descriebd a trait as a “neuropsychic structure that possesses the capacity to render many stimuli functionally equivalent. Allport also assumed that traits are real. He formulated that traits are distinct and particular to each person and their assessment shall be done uniquely. Allport also promoted another approach named as idiographic approach to the study of personality. Here every individual is regarded as a combined system that can be independently analysed scientifically. It means that each individual is examined deeply and no general laws are considered important that are beyond the individual to be studied. Under the idiographic process, he believed that a person’s traits can be put into various compartments according to their pervasiveness in an individual’s personality. The most pervasive traits were referred to as “cardinal” dispositions by Allport. If present, cardinal traits dominate the behaviour of an individual aggressiveness, calmness etc. may be taken as examples. Another set of traits, known as “central dispositions” comprise those that are pervasive for a given individual. For example, the traits talked about while writing a letter of recommendation. More situational specific traits are termed as “Secondary dispositions”. Allport argued that each person possesses a unique pattern of cardinal, central and secondary traits and to understand a person, the unique pattern examination is required. Thus, the above discussion explains that the differences between a nomothetic and an idiographic approach is not just a question of discovering on the part of the psychologist, but also the methods employed are considered useful. The nomothetic point of view has experiments, correlation, psychometric testing and other quantitative methods as its examples. On the other hand, the idiographic methods include case studies, informal interviews, unstructured observation and other qualitative methods. SECTION - B Answer the following question in about 400 words each. In light of Horney’s theory of personality, discuss the concept of neurotic needs. Psychoanalytic theorist Karen Horney developed one of the best-known theories of neurosis. She believed that neurosis resulted from basic anxiety caused by interpersonal relationships. Her theory proposes that strategies used to cope with anxiety can be overused, causing them to take on the appearance of needs.

According to Horney, basic anxiety (and therefore neurosis) could result from a variety of things including, " . . . direct or indirect domination, indifference, erratic behavior, lack of respect for the child's individual needs, lack of real guidance, disparaging attitudes, too much admiration or the absence of it, lack of reliable warmth, having to take sides in parental disagreements, too much or too little responsibility, over-protection, isolation from other children, injustice, discrimination, unkept promises, hostile atmosphere, and so on and so on" (Horney, 1945). These 10 neurotic needs can be classed into three broad categories: 1. Needs that move you towards others. These neurotic needs cause individuals to seek affirmation and acceptance from others and are often described as needy or clingy as they seek out approval and love. 2. Needs that move you away from others. These neurotic needs create hostility and antisocial behavior. These individuals are often described as cold, indifferent, and aloof. 3. Needs that move you against others. These neurotic needs result in hostility and a need to control other people. These individuals are often described as difficult, domineering, and unkind. Well-adjusted individuals utilize all three of these strategies, shifting focus depending on internal and external factors. So what is it that makes these coping strategies neurotic? According to Horney, it is the overuse of one or more of these interpersonal styles. Neurotic people tend to utilize two or more of these ways of coping, creating conflict, turmoil, and confusion. In her book Self-Analysis (1942), Horney outlined the 10 neurotic needs she had identified: 1. The Neurotic Need for Affection and Approval 2. The Neurotic Need for a Partner Who Will Take Over One’s Life 3. The Neurotic Need to Restrict One’s Life Within Narrow Borders 4. The Neurotic Need for Power 5. The Neurotic Need to Exploit Others 6. The Neurotic Need for Prestige 7. The Neurotic Need for Personal Admiration 8. The Neurotic Need for Personal Achievement 9. The Neurotic Need for Self-Sufficiency and Independence

10. The Neurotic Need for Perfection and Unassailability

Define self-efficacy. Discuss the role and sources of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is the belief in one’s capabilities to organize information and execute a course of action to navigate a prospective situation. According to social psychologist Albert Bandura, self-efficacy is a key component of the self-system, which consists of an individual’s attitudes, abilities, and cognitive resources. High self-efficacy increases the likelihood of successfully achieving a given task. Simply said, if you have strong self-efficacy, you strongly believe in yourself and your ability to accomplish goals successfully. Research shows having high self-efficacy really affects your ability to successfully perform a task. In other words, you have a better chance of conquering that math problem if you simply believe you can do it! Self-efficacy is not an entirely innate characteristic, it can develop as you experience the world and form judgments about your abilities. That means you don’t necessarily have to be born with a strong sense of self-confidence or belief in your abilities-you can acquire this trait! According to staples et al. (1998), self-efficacy theory suggests that there are four major sources of information used by individuals when forming self-efficacy judgments. In order of strength: Sources of Self-Efficacy Beliefs 4 sources of self-efficacy are;

Performance Accomplishments Personal assessment information that is based on an individual’s personal accomplishments. Previous successes raise mastery expectations, while repeated failures lower them. Vicarious Experience Gained by observing others perform activities successfully. This is often referred to as modeling, and it can generate expectations in observers that they can improve their own performance by learning from what they have observed.

Social Persuasion Activities where people are led, through suggestion, into believing that they can cope successfully with specific tasks. Coaching and giving evaluative feedback on performance are common types of social persuasion. Physiological and Emotional States The individual’s physiological or emotional states influence self-efficacy judgments with respect to specific tasks. Emotional reactions to such tasks (e.g., anxiety) can lead to negative judgments of one’s ability to complete the tasks.

Elucidate the concept of values proposed by Allport. The unifying philosophy of a mature person is founded upon values, that is, basic convictions about what is and is not of real importance in life. Believing that a person’s efforts to find order and meaning in life are governed by values. Allport identified and measured basic value dimensions. He helped to develop a personality test, the Study of Values. Allport’s model is based on the work of Eduard Spranger, a European psychologist. In his book Types of Men, Spranger outlined six major value types. These values are found in varying degrees in all people. People construct the unity of their lives around them (Allport,1961). Thus, no person falls exclusively under any one value category. Rather, different value combinations are more or less salient in the lives of different people. For Allport, these values are best described as deep level traits. They are described as: i) The Theoretical ii) The economic iii) The aesthetic

iv) The social v) The political vi) The religious. Let us consider each of these in some detail i) The Theoretical: The person is primarily concerned with the discovery of truth. Such a person is characterised by a rational, critical, and empirical approach to life. The person is highly intellectual and tends to pursue a career in science or philosophy. ii) The Economic: The economic person places highest value on whatever is useful or pragmatic. Such a person is highly ‘practical’ and is keenly interested in making money. iii) The Aesthetic: This person places the highest value on form and harmony. Every single experience is given importance from the point of view of grace, symmetry, or fitness. iv) The Social: The highest value of the social type is love of people. Such a person is likely to view the theoretical, economic, and aesthetic attitudes as cold and inhuman, and thus would regard love as the only suitable form of relationship. v) The Political: The main interest of the political person is power. Such people look out for personal power, influence, and renowned above all else. vi) The Religious: This person is mainly concerned with understanding the world as a unified whole. The religious person seeks unity and higher meaning in the cosmos. Allport assessed individual differences in the relative strength of these six values by means of the Study of Values scale. Developed and standardised with college students, the test consists of 45 questions and requires 20 minutes to complete. The reliability and validity data support the utility of the test. Average scores on the six values differ in the expected directions for different occupational groups, as for example, in the case of business students they score poorly on the aesthetic value, and theology students score poorly on the religious value.(Allport et al.,1960).The test reflects Allport’s belief that values are an essential part of an individual’s personality.

Discuss the neurophysiological basis of traits and types. Human behaviors and experiences are generated by biological processes, primarily within the brain. The regularities in these behaviors and experiences that constitute personality are, therefore, associated with regularities in the biological functions of the brain. The neuro-psychological base of various personality theories is discussed below: Eysenck's Three Factor Model of Personality

Eysenck (1967; Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985) relied on the functions of the brain’s ascending reticular activating system, associating Extraversion with the reticulo-cortical circuit and Neuroticism with the reticulo-limbic circuit. He hypothesized: (a) Extraverts have lower baseline levels of cortical arousal than introverts and and they may have higher preferred or optimal levels of arousal. (b) Neurotics are more easily aroused by emotion-inducing stimuli than are emotionally stable people. (c) Psychoticism was negatively associated with serotonergic function (Eysenck, 1992) and positively associated with dopaminergic function (Eysenck, 1997).

Gray's Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory Jeffrey Gray developed a “conceptual nervous system”(CNS) describing functional systems that could be mapped onto brain systems. The main components of CNS are: 1. Behavioral Approach System (BAS): responds to cues for reward and is linked to the dopaminergic system, 2. Fight-Flight-Freezing System (FFFS) is linked to the amygdala, hypothalamus, and periaqueductal gray. 3. Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS): responds to two distinct classes of threatening stimuli (Gray & McNaughton, 2000; Pickering & Gray, 1999) and is linked to the septohippocampal system but also to the amygdala. Cloninger Model of Personality It is based on the idea that different responses to punishing, rewarding, and novel stimuli is caused by an interaction of the three dimensions: 1. Novelty Seeking (NS) – degree of impulsiveness. Correlated with low dopamine activity and increased grey matter volume in regions of the cingulate cortex. 2. Harm Avoidance (HA) - degree of anxiety. Correlated with high serotonin activity and decreased grey matter volume in the orbitofrontal, occipital, and parietal cortex. 3. Reward Dependence (RD) – Degree of approval seeking behaviour. Correlated with low norepinephrine activity and decreased grey matter volume in the caudate nucleus. Five Factor Model of Personality Four of the traits are found to be correlated with volumes of specific brain areas as discussed below:

1. Openness: acquisition of broad verbal intellectual skills and knowledge not localized to a specific brain region or neurotransmitter system. 2. Conscientiousness: increased volume in lateral prefrontal cortex, region involved in planning and the voluntary control of behavior. 3. Extraversion: increased volume of medial orbitofrontal cortex, region involved in processing reward information. 4. Agreeableness: increased volume in regions that process information about the intentions and mental states of other individuals. 5. Neuroticism: increased volume of brain regions associated with threat, punishment, and negative emotions. The behaviors and experiences of humans are generated by biological processes that happen in the brain and related parts of the body. Psychologists seek to identify the various areas and physiological reactions that drive these. An attempt has accordingly been made by various personality theorists and researchers to identify the neuropsychological bases of the various traits and types of personality.

Discuss the measures to overcome weaknesses of self-report tests.

Distortions in the actual responses of self-report measures of personality are major problems for users of personality tests. Thus, it is essential that attempts be made to overcome these distortions and make the self-report responses more representatives of the true responses. The following methods may be adopted for the purpose: Method 1. Establishment of rapport Distortions occur when the testees feel discomfort and find themselves in an unfriendly environment. It is essential that before actual administration of an inventory, the tester should make every effort to establish a warm and cooperative relationship called “rapport” with the testees. This relationship is dependent upon the skill of the testers skill and their ability to bring about a subtle modification of the testing situation. This will help in expressing the truth in an unhesitant way and thereby reducing the major proportion of distortion. Method 2. Use of forced-choice technique This technique has been used in controlling faking good or socially desirable response sets. In forced-choice items the subject is forced to choose between two or more than two equally desirable or undesirable terms or phrases or statements. The subject who wants

to give socially desirable responses is outwitted by the forced choice between equally desirable statements. Method 3. Concealing the main purpose of the test: When the subjects do not know the real purpose of the test it becomes difficult for them to fake although in such a situation they may be more suspicious and defensive in their responses. Subjects may guess from the nature of the items, but they may be not definite that some inferences about their tendencies or traits are to be made and this will lessen the probability to fake. There can be two ways to conceal the purpose. One method is to state such a plausible purpose of the test which is not the real purpose. For instance a personality test may be described as a test of ability, and if it appears so to the subject the faking is likely to be reduced to a great extent. Another method of concealment is to insert information which is actually false among items of information which are actually true. For instance the subjects may be asked to endorse those titles of the book in the booklist which they have gone through. This list of titles will also contain some fictitious titles. The greater the number of endorsements of such fictitious titles, the higher the deceit. Method 4. Use of verification and correction keys Use of various kinds of correction and verification keys gives an indication whether or not the subject is projecting the true picture of the self. For instance MMPI uses four validity scores which aims at checking carelessness, evasiveness, misunderstanding and operation of other response sets.