A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PERSONALITY DISPOSITIONS OF DRUG ABUSERS & NON- DRUG ABUSERS

The word Personality, itself holds fascination for the general public. Most of the popular
meanings fall under one of two headings. The first use is related to social skill or adroitness. The
personality of an individual may be assessed by the effectiveness with which he or she is able to
elicit positive reactions from various persons under different conditions. Therefore when a
teacher refers to a student as presenting a personality problem is probably indicating the
inadequacy of his social skills to maintain satisfactory relations with his fellow students and the
teacher. The second use considers the personality of an individual to consist of the most
outstanding or salient impression that he or she creates in others. A person may therefore be said
to have a "submissive personality" or a "fearful personality". Allport (1937) in an exhaustive
survey of the literature extracted almost fifty different definitions. Allportdistinguishties between
biosocial and biophysical definitions. The biosocial definitions shows that it is the reaction of
other individuals to the subject that define the subject's personality. The biophysical definition
relates personality firmly in characteristics or qualities of the subject. Personality thus has an
organic as well as a perceived side and may be linked to specific qualities of the individual that
are susceptible to objective description and measurement.