PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS AND VALUES OF NUCLEAR, JOINT AND EXTENDED FAMILIES

In our school education set-up it is mainly concerned with equipping the aspiring as well as practicing teachers with the necessary knowledge and skills, interests and attitude helpful in playing their roles effectively, a course and text in educational Psychology must be capable of providing the teachers and other personnel concerned with the development progress and welfare of the children all the essentials that are helpful to them in understanding their wards in terms of their varying individual differences, particularly related to their abilities and potentialities, growth and development, habits, interests, attitudes and aptitudes, need and motives and others likewise Personality Characteristics. Teachers can help their students through needed guidance and counseling in the task of their proper learning and behavior modification for achieving maximum balanced development of their personality helpful in enjoying desired and physical and mental health and overall adjustment to their self value system and the environment.  As a result, the coverage of the topics related to a particular course in educational psychology is bound to be extensive, wide and enormous to meet the challenge of providing better teacher education. An attempt is made here to present and subtle thoughts of great educational Psychologists in a simple and easy-to-understand concept of Personality Characteristics and values of adolescents and what impact it leads on the whole life of adolescents.

The present book begins with a discussion on the introduction, need and importance of the study, Review of the related literature. Methodology and procedure, Analysis and interpretation of the data which is further followed by discussion of the results, summary, conclusions, suggestions, educational implications, bibliography and Appendices. The utility of the book is further enhanced by the provision of summary and references and appendices. The publication incorporates very informative material.

 A personality trait is a durable disposition to behave in a particular way in a variety of situations. Adjectives such as honest, dependable, moody, impulsive, suspicious, anxious and friendly describe dispositions that represent finally personality traits. Different traits are peculiar to different stages of life of an individual including infancy, childhood and adolescent period but adolescent are persons with specific qualities and characteristics, who have a participatory and responsible role to play, task to perform, skill to develop at that particular period of life.

 Adolescents need to experiment with their own strength and value systems in order to lead a group, try out intimate relationship and engage in some form of adventure. Some elements and characteristics of adolescent™s personality tend to make the individual unstable in nature. Concept of values is recent development in the field of social Psychology. Man through his value experiences, develops complex and elaborate system  of social and Psychological habits, skills, techniques, commitments and imperatives that lead him to an intricate system of future oriented and symbolic interpersonal strivings. Values are acquired by the child which becomes part of his personality, as he grows up. A child develops the values of the society of which he is a member, all the time striving to maintain the positive values and discarding the negative ones from his personality pattern. As he steps into adolescence, he faces various changes in his environment and has to face a turbulent phase.

The importance of the knowledge of student personality for the educator can hardly be exaggerated. In fact it is now held a part of his duty to assess the personality of each of the pupils and to enter his testimony in the school records. But it is still more important for him to know, as precisely as possible, the exact nature of the relationship between personality and value system of adolescents. Such knowledge will enable the educator to locate more easily the specific factors that go into the formation of various traits and to map out the situations through which to reform particular traits. The identification of these factors will also enable him to determine the educational objectives in a manner which is contributive to the development of the traits that are more approved. 

The knowledge of the nature of relationship between personality and value system can help us to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the young people and establish diagnostic descriptions of more successful personality in cause effect terms and chalk out behavioral changes needed for better adjustment and development. The most significant field, which by and large has been neglected by the researchers, is the value system. Human beings everywhere in the present age are passing through difficult times and India is no exception to this. Crises are going on not only in education but also in all other aspects of life. The young generation is constantly being influenced by the changes that occur here and there. Young adolescents in the institutions of higher learning are influenced, and they are the persons who set patterns through their interest, pleasures, performance, duties, desires, aversions and many other modalities of selective orientation. In fact a new value system has emerged with the young generation. Therefore, psychologists have to explore the field, Values from different perspectives so as to arrive at definite conclusions. Today we are at such a stage of human civilization where the importance of adequate value orientation has become extremely necessary. But on the other hand this importance receives a jolt because of the clash of opposing economic, technological, political, cultural and sociological factors.  In our age with all its material boons, we find a serious crisis of values in human life.    

Planned as a textbook for students, the book can be beneficial for teachers, Guidance and councilors and others interested in such topics. It is hoped that by reading this book, the teachers will be able to develop a more realistic and meaningful understanding of the personality characteristics and values of students.

With all best to the readers,

Dr. Shazia Siraj Zargar