Development of Trait Inventory of Personality Based on Indian Psychology

Abstract

Several scholars of Indian psychology have worked to scientifically establish personality theory based on three gunas, namely sattva, rajas and tamas. Guna refers to some characteristic quality, responsible for specific behaviour expressed by an individual. There are questionnaires for categorization of personality based on gunas. Like any other typology, guna type theory of personality assumes that people are either sattvic, rajasic or tamasic, whereas the literature also accepts that personality categories based on these gunas are not discrete. People constitute a mix of all gunas. To overcome this demerit, authors have developed a Trait Scale of gunas that explains the measurement of qualities in three gunas. Using factor analysis authors have found 4 traits of sattva, 1 trait of rajas and 2 traits of tamas. The scale has 36 items in 5-point self-report format, in Hindi and English. The alpha value of all the traits range from 0.839 to 0.6.