SPIRITUAL PERSONALITY INVENTORY

 Introduction:
 Personality means the constitution of mental as well as the physical health of an
individual. Personality may be defined as the characteristic pattern of behaviour that determines
an individual’s adjustment to the environment or situation.

 Personality – Introduction
 In modern organisations, personality attributes of a manager are considered important, since they
affect the entire behavioural pattern of the person. In common parlance, personality refers to the
impression, which an individual forms on others through his personal attributes making attractive
or unattractive view.

 It is a fact that psychological factors of an individual are rarely known to others. An individual’s
personality is not a superficial fact or occurrence that can be easily understood, merely on his
personal appearance. Personality is the whole aspect of an individual from general point of view.
It includes a person’s physical, psychological and emotional aspects.

 Personality has come from a Latin word ‘Persona’ meaning to speak through (mask). As in the
ancient days masks were worn in Greece and Rome by actors, while enacting plays. Thus,
personality is used for influencing others through external appearance. However, personality is
not the external appearance alone.

 Personality, which makes an individual to stand apart, is the impression of characteristic

attributes. It is an aggregate of an individual’s physical, psychological and behavioural aspects
contributing to his ‘good personality’ or no personality, according to the presence or absence of
the characteristic attributes. Some of these, which are of significant nature, are worth mentioning.

i. Omnibus – This personality view is the aggregate of recognizable pattern of properties-of

qualities.

ii. Integration and configuration – Under this view of personality, the organisation of personal
attributes is stressed.

iii. Hierarchical – This aspect mainly deals with adaptation, survival and evolution of the person to
the environment.

iv. Distinctiveness – the definition of this category speaks the uniqueness of each personality.

 From the above areas, G.W. Allport has drawn his definition on personality as “Personality is the
dynamic organisation within the individual of those psychological systems that determine his
unique adjustment to his environment”.

 In his definition, Allport has touched upon the dynamic aspect of individual’s psychological
system, which makes the adjustment with the environment.

1
 Personality – Meaning
 Personality has a long history. It dates from the time of Greek physician Hippocrates (460-377
BC). In order to understand the behaviour of people in the organisational setting, we need to
know the basic nature of personality. It is a psycho-social phenomenon, which analyses the
cognitive features and presentation of individual in the society.

 Personality is made up of the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviour of an

individual. These attributes make a person unique. Personality originates within the individual
and remains fairly consistent throughout life. Personality exhibits distinctive qualities of a
person, especially those distinguishing personal characteristics that make one socially appealing.
If a person wins an election on his own, society may say that he/she has won “more on
personality than on capability”.

 Personality reveals distinctive traits of mind and behaviour of a person. It is a pattern of

collective character which includes behavioural, mental, temperamental, and emotional traits of a
person that makes one socially appealing. It exhibits the quality of a person, which is visible and
impresses or disturbs others. For example, the statements such as “He has a pleasing personality
Raju is a Crude persona” reveal the collective characters of a person which exhibits positive or
negative personality.

 “Personality is the supreme realisation of the innate idiosyncrasy, of a living being. It is an act of
courage thing in the face of life, the absolute affirmation of all that constitute the individual, the
most successful adaptation to the universal, conditions of existence, coupled with the greatest
possible freedom of self-determination.” — C.G. Jung

 “Personality is the relatively stable set of psychological attributes that distinguish one “person
from another.” — Lawerence Ervin

 “Personality refers to the relatively stable pattern of behaviours and consistent internal states that
explain a person’s behaviour tendencies.” — RT Hogan.

 “Personality is the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and interacts with others.” —
Stephen P. Robbins

 The basic components of personality refer to the personality trait. Many researchers have shown
interest to know about individual’s personality as it is linked with behaviour. If one can predict
the behaviour of individuals, modification of behaviour can be done in a smoother way towards
achieving the organisational goals. Each personality factor represents a collection of related or
cluster of traits. These clusters of traits determine whether the individual is achievement-oriented,
dominating, responsible, etc.

 Personality – Definitions
 A number of definitions are given in respect of personality in order to give meaningful one. Let
us extract some standard definitions.

2
 According to Gordon Allport, personality is “the dynamic organization within the individual of
those psychological systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment.”

 Fred Luthans defines the term personality as, “how people affect others and how they understand
and view themselves, as well as their pattern of inner and outer measurable traits and the person-
situation intervention.”

 Robbins defines personality as, “the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and
interacts until others.”

 Thus, personality devotes for the methods of affecting others, reacting to others’ actions and
interacting with others. These methods are chosen by individuals based on several factors.
Important one among these is their traits.

 Spiritual personality

 Developing a definition of spiritual personality that can be accepted by everyone studying

personality seems to be difficult, but the test developers have made an attempt to define spiritual
personality. The spiritual personality may be defined as “An individual who knows how to
anchor his lifestyles around his noble attitude towards others and follow the path of moral
rectitude.”

 Spiritual person keeps his thoughts anchored, focused and disciplined. The essential
characteristics of spiritual people are love, peace and unity. A spiritual person’s behaviour is
governed by the fundamental attributes of the divine character.

 A spiritual person is like the mariner in a storm, he slackens sail, waits, hopes, and the storms do
not prevent him loving the sea. Person who loves God shall get the essence of spiritual quality;
and those who desires spiritual life with his full faith, wisdom and whole heart shall find it. If a
person is truly spiritual, he would believe the unity in diversity and the oneness of all life on
earth.

 Consider the individual of superior inheritance like Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W), Hazrat Ali,
Gautam Buddha, Lord Ram, Mahavira, Kabir, Amir Khusro and Grur Nanak; they are considered
as admirable personalities. Was spirituality willy-nilly, forced upon them? Certainly it was due to
heredity and environment that spirituality was too familiar phenomenon for them. The common
phrase, “building a personality”, is a misnomer. Personality is, not much like a river that
continuously flows to be a person is to be engaged in a perpetual process of becoming. A
spiritual lifestyle is not similar when applied to human relation in different situations.

 A spiritual person achieves a high degree of unity within himself. The often conflicting elements
of personal experiences, such as impulses, desires and emotions must be coordinated. The
general pattern of spiritual lives may involve well-being, honesty, truthfulness, unity,
brotherhood and similar qualities.

3
 For a man with spiritual personality, the response to life are, in their quality, established and
well-organized; one can count in him. He has positive emotions, desires, and idea. He is a whole
person with a unifying pattern of thought and feeling that gives coherence to everything that he
does. His “well-integrated” life does not mean a placid life, with all conflicts resolved. Many
great souls have been inwardly tortured. In all strong characters, when one listens behind scenes,
one hears echoes of strife and contentions. Nevertheless, far from being at loose ends within
themselves, such persons have organized their lives around some supreme values and achieved a
powerful concentration of purpose and drive.

 Spiritual personalities do not hold high ideals and ambitions in their glory, and in the
development of personality. Building the spiritual personality is impossible if the individual finds
outside himself, in devotion to which he forgets himself. To be a spiritual person you must get
yourselves off the hands.

 A spiritual person constantly runs upon self -focused life and lives miserably striving to find
happiness through “self-expression”. Popularly self-expression has meant: “Let yourself go;
knock the being from your emotional barrels and let them gurgle!” As a protest against moralists
this is easily explicable and as a means of release to some individuals.

 A spiritual person who has genuinely identified himself with other persons has done something
of first rate importance for himself without intending it. Hitherto he has lived, let us say, in a
mind like room surrounded by mirrors. Every side that he turned to, he saw himself. Now,
however, some of the mirrors change to windows.

 Purpose:

To assess the Spiritual Personality of the individual using Spiritual Personality Inventory by
Akbar Husain, Nadeem Luqman and Musaddiq Jahan.

 Methodology

 Participant's Introduction:
 Name: Swati
 Age: 22
 Gender: Female
 Education: BSc.

 Material required: Spiritual Personality Inventory Manual and Consumable booklet,

Pen/Pencil etc.

 Description of the Test: Spiritual Personality Inventory was developed by Akbar Husain,
Nadeem Luqman and Musaddiq Jahan to measure the spiritual personality of an individual.
The inventory consists of 2 factors namely: noble attitude towards others and moral rectitude
and 32 items falls into these 2 factors.

4
  Reliability: The cronbach’s alpha for the two factors, namely, noble attitude towards
others and morals rectitude were found to be 0.84 and 0.74 respectively.

 Validity: The factorial construct validity of SPI reveal high loadings of each item i.e.
more than 0.40.

 Norms: As per the manual.

 Procedure:

 Pre- arrangement:
All the required material for the test was collected and kept together. Testee was called in the
laboratory for the test and rapport was established with the testee to make them feel
comfortable. Sitting arrangement was done with proper light and ventilation in the lab. Proper
instructions were given to the testee.

 Instructions:
Subject was instructed that “Few statements are given in the consumable booklet that describe
your behaviour. Rate on a given scale that best describes the degree to which you agree or
disagree with each statement. There is no time limit for the test but try to do it as soon as
possible. Read each statement carefully and rate each statement. Your responses will be kept
confidential.”

 Administration:
This is a self-administered questionnaire. The instructions were given to the testee to read
each statement carefully and rate them. The testee was asked not to omit any statement from
the questionnaire. It was made clear to the testee that the results will be kept confidential. The
testee was asked if everything was comfortable and how the test was. After completion of the
test, results were taken out.

 Precautions:

1. Sitting arrangement must done with proper light and ventilation.

2. Rapport must be established with the testee before the test started.
3. Proper instructions must be given to the testee.

 Raw data: Consumable booklet attached.

 Scoring: As per the manual.

 Result table:

Sr. No. Factors Raw Score Interpretation

5
 1. Noble attitude towards others 80
2. Moral Rectitude 50 Highly Spiritual
TOTAL 130
 Interpretation:

Personality means the constitution of mental as well as the physical health of an

individual. Personality may be defined as the characteristic pattern of behaviour that determines
an individual’s adjustment to the environment or situation. The spiritual personality may be
defined as “An individual who knows how to anchor his lifestyles around his noble attitude
towards others and follow the path of moral rectitude.” Spiritual person keeps his thoughts
anchored, focused and disciplined. The essential characteristics of spiritual people are love, peace
and unity. A spiritual person’s behaviour is governed by the fundamental attributes of the divine
character. A spiritual person is like the mariner in a storm, he slackens sail, waits, hopes, and the
storms do not prevent him loving the sea. Person who loves God shall get the essence of spiritual
quality; and those who desires spiritual life with his full faith, wisdom and whole heart shall find
it. If a person is truly spiritual, he would believe the unity in diversity and the oneness of all life
on earth.

The purpose of this test was to assess the Spiritual Personality if an individual using the Spiritual
Personality Inventory. As per the results, the testee obtained a raw score of 80 in factor noble
attitude towards others which is a high score. It means that the testee has high morals and ideals
and behave ideally with others Spiritual person keeps his thoughts anchored, focused and
disciplined. In the second factor i.e. moral rectitude, testee scored 50 which is also a high score.
It indicates that the testee has a quality or attitude to behave honestly and morally according to
accepted standards.

Overall, the testee scored 130 which indicated that the testee is a highly spiritual person. The
testee has essential characteristics like love, peace and unity. Testee’s behaviour is governed by
the fundamental attributes of the divine character. Testee believe in the unity in diversity and the
oneness of all life on earth. For testee, the response to life is, in their quality, established and
well-organized; one can count in him. Testee has positive emotions, desires, and idea. Testee is a
whole person with a unifying pattern of thought and feeling that gives coherence to everything
that the testee does. Testee constantly runs upon self -focused life and lives miserably striving to
find happiness through “self-expression”.

 Conclusion:

From the above test of assessing Spiritual Personality it can be concluded that the testee has a
high spiritual personality and Collect Experiences. Testee is highly positive, love immersing in
nature, testee’s life encompass synchronicity and actively try to make the world a better place.

 References:

6
Husain, A. Luqman, N., & Jahan, M. (2012) Spiritual Personality Inventory. New Delhi: Prasad
Psycho Corporation