DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY MODEL BASED ON TRIGUNA CONCEPT OF SAMKHYA PHILOSOPHY.

Abstract

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND The term personality is derived from the Greek word ‘persona’ which means mask or outward appearance of a person. Personality is generally understood as how people influence others through their external appearances. Personality is a set of qualities that make a person distinct from another. Personality comprises of all the attributes– behavioural, temperamental, emotional and mental– that which makes him or her unique individual. Personality is totality of person’s attitudes, interests, behavioural patterns, emotional responses, social roles, and other individual traits that endure over long periods of time. Gorden Allport (1961) defines “Personality is the dynamic organisation within an individual of those psychological systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment”. Personality is a complex, multi-dimensional construct and there is no simple definition of what personality is. Maddi (1980) defines personality as, “A stable set of characteristics and tendencies that determine those commonalities and differences in the psychological behaviour and that may not be easily understood as the sole result of the social and biological pressures of the moment". Both the definition suggests that personality is a dynamic aspect of human behaviour. With the increasing realization that many of the western psychological concepts and methods lack relevance to different cultural systems the need for developing indigenous psychologies was recognized all over the world (Kim & Berry, 1973). In India, attempts have been made for almost a century to develop indigenous models and theories from the rich source of knowledge viz., the Vedas, Upaniṣads, the Bhagavad-Gīta and other philosophical texts.In recent times more and more researchers have taken active interest in indigenizing and developing indigenous psychology (Kumar, Misra & Mohanty, 2000; Paranjpe, 1999; Srivastava, 2002). The structure, nature and evolution of human personality are elaborated in these sources with special reference to the concept Triguṇa. The theoretical expositions on Triguṇa and their manifestations in human nature have attracted the attention of Indian psychologists. From the above discussion, Personality is a very complex and multidimensional construct of a human being. There is no common definition of personality has been coined. Every individual defines personality in different ways which includes trait, genetic factors, environmental factors and physical appearance. This research focuses on development of personality model using Triguṇa concept of Sāṁkhya philosophy. Psychometric measurement tool (Questionnaire) which can answer the questions related to the objectives and hypotheses of the study were administered to the target population. This instrument had 36 questions to measure Triguṇa. 1.1 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The review of relevant literature on Triguṇa showed that even though, many studies have been undertaken in this area of personality by both eastern and western countries, few studies still exhibit gaps. Hence there is a need to develop a comprehensive model including both Eastern concept and Western concepts of personality. Thus, the broader objective of this research is to study the holistic model satisfying the fusion of both eastern and western theories.