Understanding personality from Ayurvedic perspective for psychological assessment: A case

Abstract

The study of personality has fascinated psychologists since a long time. Personality as an area of study has grown so much that a wealth of literature is available. On the other hand, the socio-ethnic dynamics of human race in the emerging global village context provoking psychologists to develop a personality theory which can treat certain basic components of personality as invariants, so that irrespective of culture, race, and nativity could still be able to study personality which will have universal applicability and relevance, is still far away. In the above emerging backdrop, “Ayurveda” has perhaps an important role to play as it can enable providing a theoretical and empirical base of personality traits and types. These Ayurvedic concepts are applicable to all human beings irrespective of caste, color, sex or race. Therefore, it is interesting to build on the Ayurvedic knowledge which has already given us so much since time immemorial, and validate some of these issues related to personality from psychological perspective. There are already certain efforts in understanding Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas Gunas. It can be furthered so that a comprehensive personality picture can be generated, which can have implications for health, career, education and many other dimensions of life. The present paper is a theoretical attempt in developing such a personality proposition which can be validated. Thus, the present paper only builds a theoretical framework for their possible empirical validity.