Personality testing, profiling-FAQ- 02

FAQ/02

Frequently Asked Questions about Personality Profiling, Counseling and Development Services being extended by ‘Prayas’

Question No 1: What is personality?

Answer: Personality of an individual is the current combination of his/her behavior, emotions, motivation and thought patterns that define him/her and makes him/her special in comparison to other individuals. In other words personality is combination of his/her characteristics or qualities that form his/her character or his/her unique response to various life situations. It may be also defined as the characteristic set of behavior, cognitions and emotional pattern that evolve from biological and environmental factors. As the environment around him/her is not static and keeps on changing, his/her personality also keeps on changing or evolving with time depending upon interventions it encounters from time to time. However it is more important to note that his/her core beliefs and thoughts developed during his/her life are major determinants of his response, behavior or conduct in reference to various life situations.

While there is no a generally agreed upon definition of personality, most theories of personality focus on motivation and psychological interaction of an individual with his/her environment. Therefore our personality is sum of all these traits and characteristics and is what makes us a unique person in comparison to other individuals.

If we reflect upon our traits honestly and list them, we may be able to profile our personality. We may be sensitive, caring, stubborn, determined, ambitious, hardworking and dependable. Five major traits which underline personality of an individual are extroversion, introversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness and individuals differ from each other on these five scales.

Personality psychology attempts to study similarities and differences in these patterns amongst different individuals and groups. ‘Prayas’ is engaged in not only in determination of personality (personality profiling) of individuals approaching it but also removes the deficiencies noticed in their personality through well designed personality development programs at a nominal charge. Such a change facilitates success in life of such individuals and they are also able to maintain happiness and peace.

Question No 2: What is intelligence?

Intelligence involves not only various mental abilities related to logical reasoning, problem solving and planning but also the ability to interact with others in a fruitful manner. Subject of intelligence is one of the heavily researched subjects in psychology and it is also one of the most controversial one. It is capacity of logical reasoning, self-awareness, planning, creativity, critical thinking and problem solving by an individual. In general, intelligence can be described as ability to perceive or infer information and retain it as knowledge towards adoptive behavior to solve real life problems arising from time to time. If one cannot solve practical problems of life, he or she cannot be said to be intelligent.

Intelligence can be divided into practical, creative and analytical intelligence. It can also be classified into mental, social, emotional and spiritual intelligence. Social intelligence is required and is very useful for individuals occupying leadership position. It involves understanding the intricacies of social situations and inter-personal relationships and how to behave most appropriately in a given situation. Emotional intelligence, on the other hand, is one’s ability to know or be aware of emotions in self and others and build relationships, monitor and control emotions as per demand of the situation. Spiritual or existential intelligence is fundamental to the intelligence profile of an individual as it provides moral or ethical compass to him/her in his/her day to day behavior and decipher between wrong and right, ethical and unethical.

If we can map the existing levels of different type of intelligence in an individual, we can plan suitable developmental interventions to improve specific type of intelligence other than the mental one and facilitate development of personality for success in life with peace and happiness. ‘Prayas’ is engaged in this exercise.

Question No 3: What is personality profiling?

It is the process of analyzing and evaluating the personality of an individual in reference to his/her level of intelligence, attributes, values and life skills with the help of suitable psychological instruments/tools and the information so collated into what is known as personality profile of the concerned individual. Test instruments or tools, used for this purpose, are designed to seek out information about various aspects of personality in a scientific manner. Determination of personality of an individual is essential before we can think of designing and undertaking any personality developmental intervention for him/her. However it is essential to ensure objectivity of this process both at the stage of testing and interpretation. ‘Prayas’ is engaged in personality profiling service.

Question No. 4: What are benefits of Personality Profiling?

Personality profiling is a journey of self-discovery as it enables us to identify our own strengths, weaknesses and challenges that cause us stress or trigger conflict and how we engage and respond to people around us and plan our future. An insightful profile can help us in designing fruitful personality development interventions depending upon the stage of life of the subject as it indicates strengths & weaknesses of concerned individual at a given point of time i.e. the date of test. For a working adult it can facilitate constitution of stronger teams of peoples with complementary personality attributes for better results. So the profile is helpful in designing developmental interventions for better academic and on job or occupational or professional performance.

Question No. 5: What is personality development?

Personality of an individual starts emerging early in his/her life and continue to change or develop throughout his/her lifespan. According to Paget’s’ theory of cognitive development, there are four stages of personality development which correspond with the age of child. They are sensorimoter (up to 2 years), pre-operational (2-7 years), concrete operational (7-11 Years) and formal operational (11 years and above). Therefore after 11 years of age the personality of an individual takes definite shape and before this age personality is in a fluid state and keeps on changing. However personality continues to develop through ongoing interaction of his/her temperament with environment around him/her and takes form of character. Temperament is the set of genetically determined traits that determines child’s approach to the world and how the child learns about the world. There are no genes that specify personality traits but some genes do control the development of the nervous system, which in turn controls behavior.

A second component of personality comes from adaptive patterns related to a child’s specific environment. Most psychologists agree that these two factors i.e. temperament and environment influence the pace of development of the personality of an individual the most. Sometimes, the temperament which is dependent on genetic factors is also referred as ‘nature’.

While coming to a certain age, everyone looks for personality development and searches for effective methods. Everyone has its own qualities and traits which make him/her unique. But still everyone tries to improve his persona for better results. If one thinks that good personality means looking physically good and attractive then he or she is absolutely wrong. Personality is a very broad term and takes into account both the physical as well as mental state of an individual. It is mental state which matter more than the physical state. No matter where one goes, be it his/her study, an interview or daily working place, the overall personality plays a very crucial role in determining his/her success. Now the question is that how do we develop our personality so that we can create our future according to our likings?

The response of an individual to various life situations or problems depends upon his/her past experience, perceptions and thinking developed over a period of time. It is therefore important to correct one’s perception for positive change in behavior. If this happens through the process of self-analysis, evaluation and realization then it is very effective in changing the perception and the behavior of concerned individual.

Personality development is a planned initiative to improve certain traits and qualities which contribute to an individual’s personality or his/her ability to handle situations and problems well and achieve success without stress. Personality is determined by various factors such as his/her physical appearance, behavior, attitude, education, values and some more varying characteristics. It defines who one is and how he/she responds to various situations.

Prayas Foundation Course provide the participants a group platform to brainstorm on various fundamental issues of their day to day life and increase their awareness about various dimensions of these issues and encourages the participants to decide through group consensus the right approach towards handling such issues. Once the perception of participants is corrected through self discovery out of freewill; the probability of correct and most appropriate response in a given situation brightens. Once the quality of efforts being made by an individual improves the results are bound to improve be it in the field of education, interview or jobs or self occupation.

Personality development is a lifelong process which involves periodical self assessment of one’s skills, qualities, consider aims of life and set goal to realize and maximize one’s potential. Prayas Foundation Course facilitates development of an internally driven personality which enables the participants to continue to develop their personality as per the challenge of life being encountered by them from time to time.

Question No. 6: What are benefits of personality development?

If you or other members of your family or your employees decide to participate in our special Personality Development Program titled ‘Prayas Foundation Course’, following benefits would accrue to the participants after successful completing of this course.

They would be happy and satisfied with their life without additional physical resources.
Their relations both with themselves and others will improve.
They will love and be excited to learn new things.
They will become proactive in their day to day affaires.
They would learn to enjoy life as it comes.
They are able to adapt to changes in much better manner without encountering tension etc.
They are able to make right decisions and solve problems much better and faster.
They will believe that their future or fate depends upon their own actions.
They would be healthier by adapting healthy life style.
They will be full of hope and positivity.
They are more likely to set and achieve their goals.
They are more likely to achieve success while having inner peace and happiness.
They would inspire others.
Life would become more interesting journey for them.
It would have positive effect on all aspects of their life.
They would become more aware about themselves and others.
They would start thinking in more rational manner.
They would be able to create a better society around them.
It makes them more interesting to others and they would start taking interest in them.
Their self-esteem would improve i.e. they would like themselves better or would have more confidence in their own abilities.
They would develop better resilience to face difficult times.
They would be able to find sense of direction in their life and find their success on their own.
They will have better probability of exploiting opportunities available to them to their own advantage.
They are able to overcome fear of failures and unseen. Failures would not deter them from making fresh efforts.
They are able to overcome things or problems encountered by them.
They do not settle and make efforts for continuous improvement without being complacent.
They are able to discover themselves and their hidden potential.
They become more creative.
Their personality becomes internally driven, proactive and their dependency on others reduces greatly.

Question No. 7: Which program of ‘Prayas is most important?

Answer: ‘Prayas Foundation Course’ is most important program which includes personality profiling and planned development initiative. It is an integrated personality identification and development program which brings paradigm shift in the thinking and behavior of participants. Changing behavior an individual is most challenging task which is facilitated by PFC. Therefore this is considered the flagship program of ‘Prayas’.

Question No 8: What is purpose of Prayas Foundation Course?

Answer: This program aims at developing an internally driven, proactive and self-motivating personality in participants to enable them to face all challenges of their life successfully with happiness and peace. This program does not restricts entry of applicants on the basis of their economic condition as its charges are fixed on twin principles of ‘No Profit No Loss’ and ‘cross-subsidization’. In one batch of PFC only 15 (Fifteen) candidates are allowed out which 05 (Five) candidates are from economically weaker sections of society and are give suitable discount depending upon their ability to pay. As such ‘Prayas’ is committed to development of personality of customers of economically weaker sections of society.