Please read the case-study and answer the following question.
Four friends Tina, Pallavi, Vinay and Malini went on a trip. They got lost on a deserted island. They lost their boat and it was cold. Pallavi started panicking, got anxious and started worrying. She was thinking the worst that could happen to them. Tina tried to help Pallavi and took care of her. She kept assuring Pallavi that all will be well. Pallavi immediately looked out for Vinay as he was the most responsible among them. He was calm and started looking for wood and food to get through the night.
Malini was excited and wanted everyone to explore the island. She was curious if there were any inhabitants or wild animals. It was like the perfect plot for her next adventure story.
The given case study is based on which approach to study personality?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Trait Approach
Option (1) Type Approach — Incorrect. The type approach places people in broad categories by the similarity of their behaviour to a pattern, such as Hippocrates’ four types or Sheldon’s body types. The case does not sort the four friends into types; it describes each on specific qualities.
Option (2) Behaviour Approach — Incorrect. The behavioural approach explains personality through learning: the response a person learns to a stimulus because it is reinforced. The case says nothing about how the friends learnt their behaviour.
Option (3) Trait Approach — Correct. The trait approach focuses on specific psychological attributes along which individuals differ in consistent and stable ways. The case is built on the Five-Factor Model, a trait theory: Pallavi’s neuroticism, Tina’s agreeableness, Vinay’s conscientiousness and Malini’s openness to experience.
Option (4) Interactional Approach — Incorrect. This approach holds that situational characteristics play an important role in determining behaviour: people may act in a certain way because of rewards or threats in a situation, not because of an inner trait. The case explains the friends’ reactions by their own qualities, not by the situation.
NCERT (2025-26): “Major Approaches to the Study of Personality … Psychologists distinguish between type and trait approaches to personality. The type approaches attempts to comprehend human personality by examining certain broad patterns in the observed behavioural characteristics of individuals. Each behavioural pattern refers to one type in which individuals are placed in terms of the similarity of their behavioural characteristics with that pattern. In contrast, the trait approach focuses on the specific psychological attributes along which individuals tend to differ in consistent and stable ways. For example, one person may be less shy, whereas another may be more; or one person may be less friendly, whereas another may be more. Here ‘shyness’ and ‘friendliness’ represent traits along which individuals can be rated in terms of the degree of presence or absence of the concerned behavioural quality or a trait. The interactional approach holds that situational characteristics play an important role in determining our behaviour. People may behave as dependent or independent not because of their internal personality trait, but because of external rewards or threats available in a particular situation. The cross-situational consistency of traits is found to be quite low. The compelling influence of situations can be noted by observing people’s behaviour in places like a market, a courtroom, or a place of worship.…” |