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Summary PYC 4808 NCERT-Book-Psychology-XII
- Course
- PYC 4808
- Institution
- University Of South Africa (Unisa)
PYC 4808 NCERT-Book-Psychology-XII
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CONTENTSForeword iii
Preface v
Chapter 1
Variations in Psychological Attributes 1
Chapter 2
Self and Personality 23
Chapter 3
Meeting Life Challenges 50
Chapter 4
Psychological Disorders 69
Chapter 5
Therapeutic Approaches 89
Chapter 6
Attitude and Social Cognition 106
Chapter 7
Social Influence and Group Processes 129
Chapter 8
Psychology and Life 152
Chapter 9
Developing Psychological Skills 177
Guidelines for Practicals in Psychology 196
Glossary 200
Suggested Readings 209
, VARIATIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES
After reading this chapter, you would be able to:
understand psychological attributes on which people differ from each other,
learn about different methods that are used to assess psychological attributes,
explain what constitutes intelligent behaviour,
learn how psychologists assess intelligence to identify mentally challenged
and gifted individuals,
understand how intelligence has different meaning in different cultures, and
understand the difference between intelligence and aptitude.
Introduction
Individual Differences in Human Functioning
Assessment of Psychological Attributes
Intelligence
Theories of Intelligence
Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
Planning, Attention-arousal, and Simultaneous-
successive Model of Intelligence
Individual Differences in Intelligence
CONTENTS Variations of Intelligence
Some Misuses of Intelligence Tests (Box 1.1)
Culture and Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence
Key Terms
Characteristics of Emotionally Intelligent
Persons (Box 1.2) Summary
Special Abilities Review Questions
Aptitude : Nature and Measurement Project Ideas
Creativity Weblinks
Pedagogical Hints
, If you observe your friends, classmates or relatives, you will find how they
differ from each other in the manner they perceive, learn, and think, as
also in their performance on various tasks. Such individual differences can
be noticed in every walk of life. That people differ from one another is obvious.
Introduction In Class XI, you have learnt about psychological principles that are applied
to understand human behaviour. We also need to know how people differ,
what brings about these differences, and how such differences can be
assessed. You will recall how one of the main concerns of modern psychology
has been the study of individual differences from the time of Galton. This
chapter will introduce you to some of the fundamentals of individual
differences.
One of the most popular psychological attributes which has been of
interest to psychologists is Intelligence. People differ from each other in
their ability to understand complex ideas, adapt to environment, learn from
experience, engage in various forms of reasoning, and to overcome obstacles.
In this chapter, you will study the nature of intelligence, changing definitions
of intelligence, cultural differences in intelligence, range and variations in
the intellectual competencies of people, and the nature of special abilities
or aptitudes.
exemplifies a typical combination of
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN HUMAN
various traits. The question which you may
FUNCTIONING
like to pose is how and why people differ.
Individual variations are common within This, in fact, is the subject matter of the
and across all species. Variations add study of individual differences. For
colour and beauty to nature. For a psychologists, individual differences refer to
moment, think of a world around you distinctiveness and variations among
where each and every object is of the same people’s characteristics and behaviour
colour, say red or blue or green. How would patterns.
the world appear to you? Certainly not a While many psychologists believe that
beautiful one! Would you prefer to live in our behaviours are influenced by our
such a world? In all likelihood, your personal traits, some others hold the view
answer will be ‘no’. Like objects, people too that our behaviours are influenced more by
possess different combinations of traits. situational factors. This latter view is
Variability is a fact of nature, and known as situationism, which states that
individuals are no exception to this. They situations and circumstances in which one
vary in terms of physical characteristics, is placed influence one’s behaviour. A
such as height, weight, strength, hair person, who is generally aggressive, may
colour, and so on. They also vary along behave in a submissive manner in the
psychological dimensions. They may be presence of her/his top boss. Sometimes,
intelligent or dull, dominant or submissive, the situational influences are so powerful
creative or not so creative, outgoing or that individuals with differing personality
withdrawn, etc. The list of variations can traits respond to them in almost the same
be endless. Different traits can exist in ways. The situationist perspective views
varying degrees in an individual. In this human behaviour as resulting from
sense, each one of us is unique as s/he interaction of external and internal factors.
2
Psychology
, his family and neighbourhood, we may
ASSESSMENT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL
consider assessing her/his personality
ATTRIBUTES
characteristics. For a poorly motivated
Psychological attributes are involved in person, we may assess her/his interests
very simple phenomena like in time taken and preferences. Psychological assessment
to react to a stimulus, i.e. reaction time, uses systematic testing procedures to
and also in highly global concepts like evaluate abilities, behaviours, and personal
happiness. It is difficult to count and qualities of individuals.
specify the number of psychological
attributes that can be assessed. Some Domains of Psychological
Assessment is the first step in Attributes
understanding a psychological attribute. Psychological attributes are not linear or
Assessment refers to the measurement of unidimensional. They are complex and
psychological attributes of individuals and expressed in terms of dimensions. A line
their evaluation, often using multiple is a mere aggregate of many points. A point
methods in terms of certain standards of occupies no space. But think of a box. It
comparison. Any attribute will be said to occupies space. It can be described only in
exist in a person only if it can be measured terms of its three dimensions, i.e. length,
by using scientific procedures. For width, and height. Similar is the case with
example, when we say, “Harish is psychological attributes. They are usually
dominant”, we are referring to the degree multi-dimensional. If you want to have a
of ‘dominance’ in Harish. This statement is complete assessment of a person, you will
based on our own assessment of need to assess how s/he functions in
‘dominance’ in him. Our assessment may various domains or areas, such as
be informal or formal. Formal assessment cognitive, emotional, social, etc.
is objective, standardised, and organised. We will discuss in this chapter some
On the other hand, informal assessment important attributes that are of interest to
varies from case to case and from one psychologists. These attributes are
assessor to another and, therefore, is open categorised on the basis of varieties of tests
to subjective interpretations. Psychologists used in psychological literature.
are trained in making formal assessment 1. Intelligence is the global capacity to
of psychological attributes. understand the world, think rationally,
Once assessment is done, we can use and use available resources effectively
this information to predict how Harish will when faced with challenges. Intelligence
probably behave in future. We may predict tests provide a global measure of a
that Harish, if given a chance to lead a person’s general cognitive competence
team, will most likely be an authoritarian including the ability to profit from
leader. If the predicted consequence is not schooling. Generally, students having
what we want, we may want to intervene low intelligence are not likely to do so
to effect a change in Harish’s behaviour. well in school-related examinations, but
The attribute chosen for assessment their success in life is not associated
depends upon our purpose. In order to only with their intelligence test scores.
help a weak student perform well in 2. Aptitude refers to an individual’s
examinations, we may assess her/his underlying potential for acquiring skills.
intellectual strengths and weaknesses. If a Aptitude tests are used to predict what
person fails to adjust with members of her/ an individual will be able to do if given
3
Chapter 1 • Variations in Psychological Attributes
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