Persona: The Face that Lies behind the Mask

The major objective of the present investigation was to study the respondents' engagement in theatre activities during their leisure time, as affected by their personality traits, emotional intelligence, and general use of defense mechanisms. The sample of the present study consisted of 30 male and 30 female respondents, who were further divided in to two age groups of 20-30 and 30-40years.The respondents were professionals from the corporate sector who engaged in theatre as a leisure time activity. Besides the use of the unstructured interview to collect data about demographic variables, the NEO-FFI, Indian Scale of Emotional Intelligence, and the Defense Mechanism Inventory were administered. Females were significantly higher than the Males on the dimensions of Neuroticism, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. The Old were found to be more Agreeable and Conscientious than the Young. All the respondents were placed in the higher category for Openness as per the norm tables. They were also found to be higher on Emotional Intelligence. Females were more likely to use the defense of Turning Against the Self while Males were more likely to use Turning Against the Object. Both Males and Females showed equivalent use of the adaptive defense mechanism of Reversal. Significant inter- correlations were obtained between Personality dimensions, Emotional Intelligence, and Defense Mechanisms. The results were discussed in the light of major theoretical perspectives, such as; Trait Approach, Freudian concepts, Cognitive Behavioral Approach, and the current Social Cognitive and Social Learning Approaches.