Practical-2: Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire

Aim: To study the personality differences among working women and home
makers using EPQ-R.

Basic Concepts:
"Personality" is a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a
person that uniquely influences their environment, cognition, emotions,
motivations, and behaviors in various situations. It also refers to the pattern of
thoughts, feelings, social adjustments, and behaviors consistently exhibited over
time that strongly influences one's expectations, self-perceptions, values, and
attitudes. Personality also predicts human reactions to other people, problems, and
stress.

There are certain theories of personality given that help to understand and
conceptualise the meaning of personality. Some such theories are:
● Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory- Sigmund Freud ‘s psychoanalytic theory
of personality argues that human behavior is the result of the interactions
among three component parts of the mind: the id, ego, and superego. The id
is responsible for needs and urges, while the superego regulates ideals and
morals. The ego, in turn, moderates the demands of the id, superego, and
reality. Conflicts among these three structures, and our efforts to find
balance among what each of them “desires,” determines how we behave and
approach the world. What balance we strike in any given situation
determines how we will resolve the conflict between two overarching
behavioral tendencies: our biological aggressive and pleasure-seeking drives
vs. our socialized internal control over those drives. He also talked about
five psycho-sexual stages of development. These stages are the oral stage,
the anal stage, the phallic stage, the latency stage, and the genital stage. All
these stages last from infancy to adulthood.
● Maslow’s Humanistic Theory Of Personality- Abraham Maslow
approached the study of personality by focusing on subjective experiences,
free will, and the innate drive toward self-actualization. He expanded the
 field of humanistic psychology to include an explanation of how human
needs change throughout an individual’s lifespan, and how these needs
influence the development of personality. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs ranks
human needs from the most basic physical needs to the most advanced needs
of self-actualization. A person must acquire and master each level of need
before proceeding to the next need. He studied the personalities of
self-actualizers and found they had many things in common; he believed
self-actualizers indicate a coherent personality syndrome and represent
optimal psychological health and functioning. But his ideas have been
criticized for their lack of scientific rigor, as well as their Western cultural
bias.
● Roger's Humanistic Theory Of Personality- Carl Rogers was an
influential humanistic psychologist who developed a personality theory that
emphasized the importance of the self-actualizing tendency in shaping
human personalities.Rogers believed that humans are constantly reacting to
stimuli with their subjective reality ( phenomenal field ), which changes
continuously. Over time, a person develops a self- concept based on the
feedback from this field of reality. In the development of self-concept,
positive regard is key. Unconditional positive regard is an environment that
is free of preconceived notions of value. Conditional positive regard is full
of conditions of worth that must be achieved to be considered successful.
Human beings develop an ideal self and a real self based on the conditional
status of positive regard. How closely one’s real self matches up with their
ideal self is called congruity. Rogers believed that fully functioning people
could achieve “the good life,” in which they constantly aim to fulfill their
potential and allow their personalities to emanate from their experiences.
● HANS J. EYSENCK’ S BIOLOGICAL THEORY OF PERSONALITY-
Eysenck's theory of personality focused on temperaments, which he believed
were largely controlled by genetic influences. He utilized a statistical
technique known as factor analysis. This technique extracts a number of
“dimensions” from large masses of data. For example, if you give long lists
of adjectives to a large number of people for them to rate themselves on, you
have prime raw material for factor analysis. Factor analysis extracts
dimensions from the mass of information. The researcher then examines the
 data and gives the factor a name such as “introversion-extraversion” and
“stability-instability”(sometimes as in the big five, called Neuroticism).
● Bandura’s And Rotter’s Social-Cognitive Theories Of Personality-
Social- cognitive theories of personality emphasize the role of cognitive
processes, such as thinking and judging, in the development of personality.
Albert Bandura is a behavioral psychologist who came up with the concept
of reciprocal determinism, in which cognitive processes, behavior, and
context all interact with and influence each other. Rotter expanded upon
Bandura's ideas and developed the term locus of control to describe our
beliefs about the power we have over our lives. A person with an internal
locus of control believes that their rewards in life are guided by their own
decisions and efforts. If they do not succeed, they believe it is due to their
own lack of effort. A person with an external locus of control believes that
rewards or outcomes are determined by luck, chance, or other people with
more power than them. If they do not succeed, they believe it is due to forces
outside of their control.
● Mischel’s Cognitive-Affective Model Of Personality- Walter Mischel is a
personality researcher whose development of the cognitive-affective
personality model has helped to shape the social-cognitive theory of
personality. Mischel suggests that an individual’s behavior is fundamentally
dependent on situational cues; this counters the trait theories’ perspective
that behavior is dependent upon traits and should be consistent across
diverse situations. The conflict of ideas between Mischel’s model and earlier
trait theories became known as the person–situation debate, or “trait vs.
state”. The topic debated is whether traits or situations are more influential
in predicting behavior. Mischel found distinctive but stable patterns of
“if-then” situation-behavior relations that form personality signatures: if x
situation occurs, then y behavior might result. One of Mischel’s most notable
contributions to personality psychology are his ideas on self-regulation, as
demonstrated in his famous Stanford marshmallow experiment on delayed
gratification.

Now, there are also certain assessments of personality available to study and
understand one’s personality. Such assessments are of two types:
1. Self-Report Measures- A Self-Report is any test, measure, or survey that
relies on an individual's own report of their symptoms, behaviors, beliefs, or
attitudes. These are fairly structured measures ,often based on theory ,that
require subjects to give verbal responses using some kind of rating scale .
The method requires the subject to objectively report his/her own feelings
with respect to various items . The responses are accepted at their face value
. They are scored in quantitative terms and interpreted on the basis of norms
developed for the test. Some examples of this type of assessment include,
● MINNESOTA MULTIPHASIC PERSONALITY INVENTORY- The
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was developed
in 1937 by clinical psychologist Hathaway and neuropsychiatrist
McKinley as a helpful tool for psychiatric diagnosis but was found
effective in identifying varieties of psychopathology . Originally
developed in the late 1930s, the test has been revised and updated
several times to improve accuracy and validity. The MMPI-2 (the
revised version) consists of 567 true-false questions having 10
clinical scales which assess 10 major categories of abnormal human
behavior which includes hypochondriasis, depression ,Hysteria,
Psychopathic Deviate, Masculinity/Femininity , Paranoia,
Psychasthenia ,Schizophrenia ,Hypomania ,Social Introversion and
four validity scales.
● SIXTEEN PERSONALITY FACTOR QUESTIONNAIRE (16PF) -
Cattell developed an assessment based on these 16 personality factors.
The test is known as the 16PF Personality Questionnaire .According
to Cattell, there is a continuum of personality traits. In other words,
each person contains all of these 16 traits to a certain degree, but they
might be high in some traits and low in others .The following
personality trait list describes some of the descriptive terms used for
each of the 16 personality dimensions described by Cattell;
1) Abstractedness: Imaginative versus practical
2) Apprehension: Worried versus confident
3) Dominance: Forceful versus submissive
4) Emotional stability: Calm versus high-strung
5) Liveliness: Spontaneous versus restrained
6) Openness to change: Flexible versus attached to the familiar
 7) Perfectionism: Controlled versus undisciplined
8) Privateness: Discreet versus open
9) Reasoning: Abstract versus concrete
10) Rule-consciousness: Conforming versus non-conforming
11) Self-reliance: Self-sufficient versus dependent
12) Sensitivity: Tender-hearted versus tough-minded
13) Social boldness: Uninhibited versus shy
14) Tension: Inpatient versus relaxed
15) Vigilance: Suspicious versus trusting
16) Warmth: Outgoing versus reserved

2. Projective techniques- Developed to assess unconscious motives and

feelings. Based on the assumption that unstructured stimulus or situation will
allow the individual to project his/her feelings, desires, and needs onto that
situation. These projections are interpreted by experts. These techniques are
useful in giving respondents opportunities to express their attitudes without
personal embarrassment. Some examples of this technique are,
● THE RORSCHACH INKBLOT TEST- Introduced in 1921 by Swiss
psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach. Consists of 10 inkblots. Five of
them are in black and white ,two with some red ink and the remaining
three in some pastel colours. The blots are symmetrical in design with
a specific shape or form and were made by dropping ink on a piece of
paper and then folding the paper in half. The cards are administered
individually in two phases. In the first phase, called performance
proper, the subjects are shown the cards and are asked to tell what
they see in each of them. In the second phase, it is called inquiry. A
detailed report of the response is prepared by asking the subject to tell
where, how and on what basis was a particular response made.
Interpretations made by the Rorschach examiners are often based on
what the responses seem to symbolize.
● THE THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST (TAT)- Developed by
Morgan and Murray. It is a little more structured than the Inkblot test.
It consists of a series of pictures derived from paintings, drawings and
magazine illustrations. Hence, popularly known as the "picture
interpretation technique”. It involves showing people a series of
 picture cards depicting a variety of ambiguous characters (that may
include men, women, and/or children), scenes, and situations.They are
then asked to tell as dramatic a story as they can for each picture
presented, including:what has led up to the event shown what is
happening in the scene, the thoughts and feelings of characters, the
outcome of the story. The complete version of the TAT includes 31
cards. Murray originally recommended using approximately 20 cards
and selecting those that depicted characters similar to the subject. A
standard procedure is available for scoring TAT responses.
● ROSENZWEIG’S PICTURE FRUSTRATION STUDY(P-F
STUDY)- Developed by Rosenzweig to assess how people express
aggression in face of a frustrating situation. Here the subject is shown
scenes depicting moderately frustrating situations and asked what the
frustrated person depicted would probably do or how the subject
would react in such situations. It consists of 24 cartoon pictures, each
portraying two persons in a frustrating situation. Each picture contains
two "speech balloons," a filled one for the "frustrator" or antagonist,
and a blank one for the frustrated person, or protagonist. The subject
is asked to fill in the blank balloon with his or her response to the
situation, and the responses are scored in relation to a number of
psychological defense mechanisms.
● SENTENCE COMPLETION TEST- These tests are presentations of
the beginning of sentences which then requests that the subjects
complete the sentence any way they would like. This method is based
on the idea that it will reveal more about thoughts, fantasies, and
emotional conflicts than testing with direct questions. The test
provides subjects with several opportunities to reveal their underlying
unconscious motivation.
● DRAW A PERSON TEST- The first Draw-A-Person test was created
by Florence Goodenough in 1926 to initially assess intelligence &
maturity level in children through a non verbal task: drawing a person.
Intended to eliminate biases by reducing language barriers (like
primary language differences, verbal skills, communication
disabilities, working under pressure, etc.). The subject is asked to
draw a person on a sheet of paper. After the completion of the drawing
 , the subject is generally asked to draw the figure of an opposite sex
person. Finally, the subject is asked to make a story about the person
as if s/he was a character in a novel or play.
3. Behavioral Analysis- An individual's behaviour in different situations can
provide us with meaningful information about his / her personality. The
observation of behaviour serves as a basis for behavioral analysis . The
report of the observer might contain data obtained from interview,
observation ,nomination, ratings and situational tests. Some such
assessments are,
● INTERVIEW– It is the most common method of judging personality.
The interviewer questions or lets the individual speak freely so as to
get a clear picture of the individual. From what he says, the
interviewer knows about his interests, problems, current psychological
status ,personal history ,assets and limitations .The aim of the
interview is to gather information, and the adequacy of the data
gathered depends in large part on the questions asked by the
interviewer. It may be structured or unstructured.
● OBSERVATION– Behavioral observation is another method which is
widely used while assessing personality. Use of observation of
personality assessment is a very sophisticated procedure that cannot
be performed by untrained individuals. A good observation is a skill.
A good observer knows what he/she is looking for ,whom he / she
wants to observe and when and where observation needs to be made
.It requires careful training of the observer and a fairly detailed
guideline about analysis of behaviours in order to assess the
personality of the given individual.
● BEHAVIOURAL RATINGS- It refers to the degree of agreement or
disagreement of the rater on a particular issue on a three or five point
scale. This method is frequently used for assessment of personality in
educational and industrial settings. Behavioural ratings are generally
taken from the people who know the assessee intimately and have
interacted with her/him over a period of time or have had a chance to
observe her/him. They attempt to put individuals into certain
categories in terms of their behavioural qualities. The categories may
 involve different numbers or descriptive terms. The method of rating
suffers from the following major limitations:
(a) Raters often display certain biases that colour their judgments of
different traits. For example, most of us are greatly influenced by a
single favourable or unfavourable trait. This often forms the basis of a
rater’s overall judgment of a person. This tendency is known as the
halo effect.
(b) Raters have a tendency to place individuals either in the middle of
the scale (called middle category bias) by avoiding extreme positions,
or in the extreme positions (called extreme response bias) by avoiding
middle categories on the scale.
● NOMINATION- This method is often used in obtaining peer
assessment. It can be used with persons who have known each other
for a long time. Each person has to choose one or more persons from
the group with whom they would like to work, interact or do a task
.The person later may be asked to specify the reason for her/his
choices. Nominations received are analyzed to understand the
personality and behavioural qualities of the person. This test is highly
dependable and can be biased.
● SITUATIONAL TESTS- Situational stress test is one of the
commonly used tests for personality assessment. It provides us with
information about how a person behaves under stressful situations.
The test requires a person to perform a given task with other persons
who are instructed to be non-cooperative and interfering. The person
is instructed to play a role for which s/he is observed. A verbal report
is also obtained on what s/he was asked to do. The situation may be a
realistic one, or it may be created through a video play.

The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) is a three dimensional personality

assessment tool that was preceded by an overlapping two-dimensional measure
called the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI). The EPI was developed by Hans
and Sybil Eysenck to measure the two broad dimensions of
Extraversion-Introversion, and Neuroticism-Stability. These two 24-item measures
were supplemented by a 9-item Lie scale in an attempt to guard against various
concerns about response style. Both of these dimensions (Extraversion and
Neuroticism) were introduced (and since emphasized) as temperamental aspects of
personality that are inherited and evident at birth (i.e., not learned). In devising a
temperament-based theory, Eysenck did not exclude the possibility that some
aspects of personality are learned but left the consideration of these to other
researchers.
The EPQ was introduced as a substantial revision to the EPI in 1975 and a further
revision (including the items) was published in 1985. The EPQ was designed to be
consistent with Hans Eysenck's theoretical model, which has since come to be
known as the P-E-N model. As suggested by this acronym, the EPQ introduced a
third dimension measuring Psychoticism.
A second important change relates to the operationalization of Extraversion. In
essence, many of the Extraversion items in the EPI were dropped from the
Extraversion scale in the EPQ (and the EPQ-R), leaving only items that relate to
Sociability. This difference is noteworthy in that it fails to assess the prominence of
arousal as a hallmark of Extraverted behavior. The EPQ and EPQ-R also differ
from many other personality questionnaires in that they use “Yes” and “No”
response options instead of a 5 or 6-point Likert-type scale. Items take the form of
questions like “If you say you will do something do you always keep your promise,
no matter how inconvenient it might be to do so?” or “Do you often need
understanding friends to cheer you up?” A reliability study conducted in 2001
reported that scores on the Neuroticism/Stability and Extraversion/Introversion
scales tended to be more reliable than the Psychoticism scale. Several researchers
have noted the need for more narrowly defined facets of the Psychoticism scale
and this is supported by the relative lack of internal consistency in Psychoticism
compared to Extraversion and Neuroticism
On the other hand, the findings have revealed that the EPQ-BV has good internal
consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity. Principal component
analysis revealed a solution with factor loadings that accurately reflected the
primary measures of the EPQR-S. Thus, EPQ measures three aspects of personality
being extraversion vs. introversion, psychoticism vs. sociability, and neuroticism
vs. emotional stability. Extraversion is characterized by being outgoing, talkative,
high on positive affect (feeling good), and in need of external stimulation.
According to Eysenck's arousal theory of extraversion, there is an optimal level of
cortical arousal, and performance deteriorates as one becomes more or less aroused
than this optimal level. At very low and very high levels of arousal, performance is
low, but at a better mid-level of arousal, performance is maximized. According to
Eysenck's theory, extraverts are chronically under-aroused and bored and are
therefore in need of external stimulation to bring them ‘Up’ to an optimal level of
performance.
Neuroticism or emotionality is characterized by high levels of negative affect such
as depression and anxiety. Neuroticism, according to Eysenck's theory, is based on
activation thresholds in the sympathetic nervous system or visceral brain. This is
the part of the brain that is responsible for the fight-or-flight response in the face of
danger. Neurotic people have low activation thresholds, and are unable to inhibit or
control their emotional reactions, thus experiencing negative effects
(fight-or-flight) in the face of very minor stressors and are easily nervous or upset.
Psychoticism is associated not only with the liability to have a psychotic episode
(or break with reality), but also with aggression. Psychotic behavior is rooted in the
characteristics of tough mindedness, non-conformity, inconsideration, recklessness,
hostility, anger and impulsiveness.

Review of Literature:
A study was conducted by Shahid, Shelina Fatema Binte & Kabir, Syed
Muhammad & Karim, Shamim (2007) titled 'Personality Between Housewives and
Working Women in Bangladesh' using Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. The
sample consists of 50 participants from each category . The age range of the
participants was between 25 to 48 years. The results indicated that there was no
significant difference between the working women and the housewives in the score
of P, E, and N but there was a significant difference in the L score.

A study was conducted by Mellinger & Erdwins (1985), titled ‘PERSONALITY

CORRELATES OF AGE AND LIFE ROLES IN ADULT WOMEN’. The sample
taken were young adult, midlife, and older women from four role
groups—homemaker, married career, single career, and student. The result
indicated that older women showed less achievement motivation and had a greater
need for affiliation than young adult and midlife women. Career women had a
more internalized locus of control than homemakers and students. When age and
role were considered together, the age-role groups were differentiated on
autonomy, femininity, and adjustment. There were no differences between either
age or role groups on measures of self-esteem, well-being, socialization, or other
personality variables.

A study was conducted by Perveen, Mosleha (2019) titled“Life stress, personality

and psychological well-being of women entrepreneurs, service holders and
homemakers” using EPQ, Life Stress Scale, Psychological Well-Being
Questionnaire and respondent’s personal information were also collected. A sample
of 300 women of Dhaka city were selected of whom 100 women were
entrepreneurs, 100 were service holders (50 teachers, 30 Bankers and 20 Doctors)
and 100 were homemakers. Results revealed that service holders have the highest
neuroticism scores and entrepreneurs have the lowest neuroticism score.
Entrepreneurs scored high in extraversion and homemakers have the lowest
extraversion scores. (b) Homemakers reported the least amount of psychological
well-being than entrepreneur and service holder women; it was also found that the
service holder reported significantly higher level of psychological well-being than
the entrepreneurs; (c) It was found that homemakers reported significantly higher
amount of life stress than entrepreneurs and service holder women, Service holder
respondents scored lowest in life stress. (d) Respondents' psychological well-being
and life stress did not differ significantly based on family type irrespective of
profession. (e) A negative correlation was found between life stress and
psychological well-being, a positive correlation was found between age and
income of the respondents and age was significantly correlated negatively to the
life stress.

A study was conducted by Sinha (2017), titled ‘Multiple roles of working women
and psychological well-being’ on a sample of 82 women working in different
professions from dual-earner families and 82 homemakers from traditional
single-earner families. The results indicated that working women scored lower on
the PGI Health Questionnaire than homemakers, which was statistically highly
significant, indicating that working women had higher psychological well-being
than homemakers.

Hypothesis: There will be differences in personality between working women

and housewives
Preliminaries:
Age range- 25-40 years
Name (pseudonym): Su98
Age: 45
Gender: Female
Occupation: Homemaker
Date and time of conduction: 14th June, 2021
Place and mode of conduction: At home, via online mode
Name (pseudonym): Mo87
Age: 37
Gender: Female
Occupation: Working woman
Date and time of conduction: 16th June, 2021
Place and mode of conduction: At home, via online mode

Method:
This study involved studying the personality of two female participants, one who is
a homemaker and another a working woman using EPQ. The participants were
asked to answer the EPQ and the scores they then obtained, as per their responses,
were evaluated and compared to the mean scores as both raw scores and sten
scores. Furthermore, the grouped scores were calculated from five other
participants’ scores for the working women and six other participants’ scores for
the homemakers to observe whether there were any personality differences present
between them.

Materials Required:
● EPQ
● EPQ manual
● Laptop.
Arrangement of materials:
The laptop was arranged in a position so as to not cause too much strain on the
back and neck and in an anti-glare location. The test was then sent to the
participants and the responses were recorded on an excel spreadsheet.

Rapport Formation: Once the participant came online, a rapport was

established by talking about general things until they appeared quite relaxed and
comfortable. They were asked to sign a consent form and informed of all their
rights. Then they were then asked if they felt ready to take the test, and upon their
agreement the test was then conducted.

Instructions: Please answer the following questions by writing either ‘yes’ or

‘no’. There are no right or wrong answers or any trick questions. Work quickly and
do not think too long about the exact meaning of the question.

Administration: The participants were first made comfortable by rapport

formation and made to sign consent forms after being made aware of their rights.
Then they were given the above mentioned instructions. Following that the test
was sent to them and they were asked to fill their response in an excel sheet,
corresponding to the question number. Once they had answered all the questions,
their scores were calculated using the EPQ manual. Finally they were made to fill
the introspective report.

Introspective report:
Homemaker- I was a bit confused about the questions and felt that they didn’t
always have an absolute answer of YES or NO. Moreover, I was not satisfied with
the observations then concluded as I know myself quite well and it didn’t match
with the observations.
Working woman- The experiment was nice and though I didn’t always have a yes
or no answer for certain questions. But otherwise it was great and I was quite
satisfied with the observations obtained.
Observer’s Report: I was unable to observe them as the practical was done
online and I couldn’t see the participants.

Result:
Individual Data (Sten Scores)
CATEGORY P N E L
Working
women 7 6 6 5
Homemaker 10 9 4 5

Group Data (Sten Scores)

CATEGORY P N E L
Working
women 7 6 6 5
Homemaker 8 7 4 5
Precautions: Rapport building was performed properly and the instructions
were read out slowly and clearly so as to ensure that there were no confusions.

Interpretation and Discussion: The aim of this study is to study the

personality differences among working women and home makers using EPQ-R.
The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) is a questionnaire to assess the
personality traits of a person. It was devised by psychologists Hans Jürgen Eysenck
and Sybil B. G. Eysenck. Hans Eysenck's theory is based primarily on physiology
and genetics. Although he was a behaviorist who considered learned habits of great
importance, he believed that personality differences are determined by genetic
inheritance. He was, therefore, primarily interested in temperament. In devising a
temperament-based theory, Eysenck did not exclude the possibility that some
aspects of personality are learned, but left the consideration of these to other
researchers. The findings have revealed that the EPQ-BV has good internal
consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity. A principal component
analysis revealed a solution with factor loadings that accurately reflected the
primary measures of the EPQR-S. The sample selected for this research were a
homemaker and a working woman both between the ages of 25 to 60. The
experiment was also conducted first on the experimenter to ensure that the
questions were well understood and then on the participants in an online mode.
Once the experiment was completed, they were analysed and further selected for
the group data only if the raw score of ‘lie score’ was less than 8. The lie scores
that had a raw score above 8 were rejected. So despite there being 12 individual
data for homemakers and working women each, only 5 from that data were
selected for working women and 6 for the homemakers.

The individual data obtained was that the working woman obtained a raw score of
4, 13, 15, 6 and a sten score of 7, 6, 6, 5 for Psychoticism, Neuroticism,
Extraversion and Lie score respectively. The homemaker on the other hand,
obtained a raw score of 10, 20, 10, 7 and a sten score of 10, 9, 4, 5 for
Psychoticism, Neuroticism, Extraversion and Lie score respectively.
Here, Extraversion is characterized by being outgoing, talkative, high on positive
affect (feeling good), and in need of external stimulation. According to Eysenck's
arousal theory of extraversion, there is an optimal level of cortical arousal, and
performance deteriorates as one becomes more or less aroused than this optimal
level. At very low and very high levels of arousal, performance is low, but at a
better mid-level of arousal, performance is maximized. According to Eysenck's
theory, extraverts are chronically under-aroused and bored and are therefore in
need of external stimulation to bring them ‘Up’ to an optimal level of performance.
Neuroticism or emotionality is characterized by high levels of negative affect such
as depression and anxiety. Neuroticism, according to Eysenck's theory, is based on
activation thresholds in the sympathetic nervous system or visceral brain. This is
the part of the brain that is responsible for the fight-or-flight response in the face of
danger. Neurotic people have low activation thresholds, and are unable to inhibit or
control their emotional reactions, thus experiencing negative effects
(fight-or-flight) in the face of very minor stressors and are easily nervous or upset.
Psychoticism is associated not only with the liability to have a psychotic episode
(or break with reality), but also with aggression. Psychotic behavior is rooted in the
characteristics of tough mindedness, non-conformity, inconsideration, recklessness,
hostility, anger and impulsiveness.

The scores obtained by the participants indicate that the homemaker has above
average level of psychoticism, is emotionally unstable as she has above average
level of neuroticism and an introvert as she has below average level of
extraversion. The working woman too has above average levels of psychoticism, is
an ambivert as she has an around average score on extraversion, and emotionally
somewhat stable as she has an around average score on neuroticism as well.

The hypothesis states that there will be differences in personality between working
women and homemakers. And the group data indicates that the working woman’s
raw scores are 4, 12.8, 14.2, 6.2 and the sten scores are 7, 6, 6, 5 for Psychoticism,
Neuroticism, Extraversion and Lie score respectively. For homemakers the raw
scores are 4.5, 16.67, 9.83, 6.67 and the sten scores are 8, 7, 4, 5 for Psychoticism,
Neuroticism, Extraversion and Lie score respectively. Therefore, the results show
that there are indeed certain differences between the personality of working women
and homemakers as the working women are relatively high on extraversion as
compared to homemakers and the homemakers are slightly higher on neuroticism
and psychoticism as compared to the working women. This result is further
supported by the following studies, a study was conducted by Perveen, Mosleha
(2019) titled “Life stress, personality and psychological well-being of women
entrepreneurs, service holders and homemakers” on a sample of 300 women of
Dhaka city of whom 100 women were entrepreneurs, 100 were service holders (50
teachers, 30 Bankers and 20 Doctors) and 100 were homemakers. And the result
indicated that entrepreneurs scored high in extraversion and homemakers have the
lowest extraversion scores. Similarly a study was conducted by Sinha (2017), titled
‘Multiple roles of working women and psychological well-being’ on a sample of
82 women working in different professions from dual-earner families and 82
homemakers from traditional single-earner families. The results indicated that
working women scored lower on the PGI Health Questionnaire than homemakers,
which was statistically highly significant, indicating that working women had
higher psychological well-being than homemakers.
But it is essential to remember that since the sample size was small and a simple
test was taken.To get accurate conclusions more holistic tests that assess
personality such as Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test, TestColor
personality test, DiSC Assessment, etc. need to be used to say that there exist
personality differences among women with different career roles.

Conclusion: We can conclude that the hypothesis has been verified as the sten
scores for the working women were 7, 6, and 6 for Psychoticism, Neuroticism, and
Extraversion respectively and for homemakers they were 8, 7, and 4 for
Psychoticism, Neuroticism, and Extraversion respectively, which indicates that
there are indeed certain personality differences between working women and
homemakers.

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