An Exploration into the Level of Personality Organisation of Nail Biting Children

Abstract

Nail biting is an activity which is common enough since ancient times to secure its place in the literature and also attract the attention of psychologists to unveil the psychological processes involved in the act of biting nails. The high prevalence of the nail biting created an ambiguity in the research opinions, whether the clinical severity is qualifying to attract the research attention or not. The vagueness is reflected in the research investigations, which are not refined enough to draw some concrete conclusions. Hence, the present study aims to explore and observe any particular trend present in the personality organization of nail biters. Samples of 30(15 nail biting and 15 normal) children of both the sexes have been taken. The present study intends to observe the personality organization of nail biters by taking a small sample, which can create foundation for the conduction of more refined research investigations. Rorschach inkblot test was employed for the purpose of assessing personality organization, which was done at six levels of personality organization of Lerner’s system. The result revealed a trend in the level of defensive organization of nail biters but no difference in the level of ego identity of nail biting and normal children. More refined research investigations are required to be done in this arena to generalize the results as the present study possesses certain limitations.