Class 12 Psychology Chapter 1 Variations in Psychological Attributes Notes in English

1Individual Differences: Why People Are Not All Alike

If you watch your friends, classmates and relatives, you will notice that they perceive, learn, think and perform differently from one another. Variability is a fact of nature: people differ in physical traits (height, weight, strength, hair colour) exactly as they differ in psychological traits (intelligent or dull, dominant or submissive, creative or not, outgoing or withdrawn). One of the main concerns of modern psychology has been the study of individual differences from the time of Galton.

Why do people differ? Two views exist. Many psychologists believe our behaviours are influenced by our personal traits. Some others hold that our behaviours are influenced more by situational factors: a view called situationism. The situationist perspective views behaviour relatively more as a result of external factors; sometimes the situation is so powerful that people with differing personality traits respond to it in almost the same way.

2Assessment of Psychological Attributes

Assessment can be formal (objective, standardised, organised: done by trained psychologists) or informal (varies from case to case and assessor to assessor, so it stays open to subjective interpretation). Which attribute we choose to assess depends on our purpose: a weak student’s intellectual strengths and weaknesses, a poorly-adjusted person’s personality, or a poorly-motivated person’s interests. Once assessment is done, we can use the information to predict how the person will probably behave in future, and to intervene if needed.

Psychological attributes are not linear or unidimensional: they are usually multi-dimensional. A complete assessment of a person checks how s/he functions in various domains, such as cognitive, emotional and social.

2.1 Five domains of psychological attributes

2.2 Five assessment methods (from Class XI, recalled here)

3Intelligence: Changing Definitions

The everyday idea of “intelligence” is different from the psychological one. The Oxford Dictionary calls it the power of perceiving, learning, understanding and knowing. Early theorists built their definitions on the same attributes.

4Theories of Intelligence

Theories fall into two broad approaches.

4.1 Psychometric approach: four representative theories

4.2 Theory of Multiple Intelligences: Howard Gardner

Gardner (who studied extremely talented persons) proposed that intelligence is not one entity: distinct, independent intelligences exist, and being high on one does not predict being high or low on another. Different intelligences interact and work together to solve a problem. He described eight types:

4.3 Triarchic Theory of Intelligence: Robert Sternberg (1985)

Sternberg’s triarchic theory represents the information-processing approach to understand intelligence.

4.4 PASS Model: Das, Naglieri and Kirby (1994)

This model (Planning, Attention-arousal, Simultaneous-successive) says intelligent behaviour comes from three neurological “functional units” of the brain working together: each unit is distinct, but depends on the other two. These processes are interactive and dynamic in nature, yet each has its own distinctive functions. The PASS model represents the information-processing approach to intelligence.

Das and Naglieri also developed a battery of tests, the Cognitive Assessment System (CAS): verbal and non-verbal tasks measuring basic cognitive functions independent of schooling, for people aged 5 to 18, used to remedy cognitive deficits in children with learning problems.

5Individual Differences in Intelligence

5.1 Heredity and environment

Evidence comes mainly from twin and adoption studies. The book gives these approximate correlations, a number between 0 and 1 showing how closely two people’s IQ scores move together: the closer to 1, the more alike they are.

Adopted children’s intelligence resembles their biological parents more than their adoptive parents: but as children grow older, their IQ moves closer to their adoptive parents. Twins separated early in childhood also show considerable similarity in their intellectual, personality and behavioural characteristics. Children from disadvantaged homes adopted into higher-status families show large IQ gains. Environmental deprivation lowers intelligence; rich nutrition, good family background and quality schooling raise it. The consensus: intelligence is a product of the complex interaction of heredity (nature), which sets a range, and environment (nurture), which shapes development within that range.

5.2 Assessing intelligence: Mental Age, Chronological Age, IQ

In 1905, Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon made the first successful formal attempt to measure intelligence. Their 1908 revision gave the concept of Mental Age (MA): a measure of a person’s intellectual development relative to others of the same age group. Chronological Age (CA) is the biological age from birth. Binet and Simon defined retardation as an MA two years below CA.

In 1912, German psychologist William Stern devised the Intelligence Quotient (IQ):

IQ scores in a population form a symmetrical, bell-shaped normal curve around a mean of 100.

People with IQ 90-110 have normal intelligence. One practical use of intelligence tests is to identify persons at the extremes of intellectual functioning. About 2% of the population, with IQ above 130, are called intellectually gifted; a similar 2%, with IQ below 70, are called intellectually disabled. Both groups deviate considerably from normal in cognitive, emotional and motivational characteristics.

5.3 Intellectual deficiency

Three features follow from this: (1) sub-average intellectual functioning: IQ below 70; (2) deficits in adaptive behaviour: the capacity to be independent and deal effectively with one’s environment; (3) onset during the developmental period: between 0 and 18 years of age.

(More on the characteristics of intellectually disabled persons appears in Chapter 4.)

5.4 Intellectual giftedness

The study of gifted individuals began in 1925, when Lewis Terman began following the lives of about 1,500 children with IQ 130 and above to see how intelligence related to occupational success and life adjustment.

From a teacher’s point of view, giftedness depends on a combination of high ability, high creativity, and high commitment. Gifted children show early signs: larger attention span, good recognition memory, preference for novelty, sensitivity to environmental change, early language skills. Giftedness is not the same as brilliant academic performance alone; superior athletes with outstanding psychomotor ability (physical skill and coordination) are gifted too.

Identification uses more than test scores: teachers’ judgment, school record, parent interviews, peer and self-ratings. Gifted children need special attention and life-enrichment programmes that sharpen productive thinking, planning, decision-making and communication.

6Types of Intelligence Tests

Individual tests need the tester to build rapport and stay sensitive to the subject’s feelings; responses can be oral, written, or by manipulating objects. Group tests give no such rapport and usually collect written, often multiple-choice, answers.

Verbal tests need oral or written responses (literate people only). Non-verbal tests use pictures: e.g. Raven’s Progressive Matrices (RPM), where the subject completes an incomplete pattern by choosing from given alternatives. Performance tests: written language is not necessary for answering the items: e.g. Kohs’ Block Design Test, where wooden blocks must be arranged to match a given design within a time limit; performance tests are easy to administer across cultures.

Culture-fair vs culture-biased: tests developed in America/Europe reflect an urban, middle-class ethos and are normed on Western groups (their scoring scales were built from Western test-takers’ results), so it is nearly impossible to build one test equally meaningful across all cultures. Psychologists try to build culture-fair tests: assessing experiences common to all cultures, or asking questions in which language usage is not required; non-verbal and performance tests reduce this bias.

6.1 Intelligence testing in India

7Culture and Intelligence

Culture provides the context in which intelligence develops. Russian psychologist Vygotsky believed that cultures, like individuals, have a life of their own: they grow and change. Culture provides the social context in which people live, grow, and understand the world; elementary mental functions (crying, attending to a mother’s voice, walking) are universal, but higher mental functions like problem solving and thinking are largely culture-produced.

7.1 Intelligence in the Indian tradition

Intelligence in the Indian tradition can be termed “integral intelligence”: a holistic view giving equal weight to cognitive and non-cognitive processes and their integration, with strong emphasis on connectivity to the social and world environment. The Sanskrit word “buddhi” covers far more ground than the Western concept of intelligence; per J.P. Das, it includes mental effort, determined action, feelings and opinions along with cognitive competence (knowledge, discrimination, understanding), plus self-knowledge grounded in conscience, will and desire.

8Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence broadens intelligence beyond the intellectual sphere to include emotions: it is “the feeling side of intelligence,” and it builds on the Indian tradition’s own concept of intelligence. A good IQ and scholastic record alone are not enough for success in life: many academically talented people struggle in family, workplace and interpersonal relationships. EQ (Emotional Quotient) expresses the amount of emotional intelligence the way IQ expresses intelligence.

Programmes that raise students’ emotional intelligence improve academic achievement, encourage cooperative behaviour and reduce antisocial activity.

9Special Abilities: Aptitude

People of similar intelligence can still differ widely in specific skills. The book’s own example: you go to Aman for maths help, Avinash for literature, Shabnam to sing, John for a bike problem.

Both are needed for success: a student with high mechanical aptitude and interest in engineering is more likely to become a successful mechanical engineer than one with only one of the two.

Aptitude tests come in two forms: Independent (specialised): Clerical, Mechanical, Numerical, Typing Aptitude tests; and Multiple (generalised) test batteries: the Differential Aptitude Tests (DAT), the General Aptitude Tests Battery (GATB) and the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). DAT is the most common in educational settings, with 8 independent subtests: Verbal Reasoning, Numerical Reasoning, Abstract Reasoning, Clerical Speed and Accuracy, Mechanical Reasoning, Space Relations, Spelling, and Language Usage. J.M. Ojha developed an Indian adaptation of the DAT.

10Creativity

Creativity shows up in a novel solution, an invention, a poem, a painting, a new chemical process, a legal innovation or a disease-prevention breakthrough. The book names Tagore, Einstein, C.V. Raman and Ramanujan as examples of outstanding creative contribution: but creativity is not limited to the eminent; an ordinary person doing pottery, carpentry or cooking can be creative too, even if not at the same level as an eminent scientist or writer.

Children begin to develop imagination in early childhood but express creativity mostly through physical activities and in non-verbal ways; once language and intellectual functions are fully developed, creativity is expressed through verbal modes too.

Heredity and environment: creativity is determined by both. Heredity sets the limits of creative potential; how much of it is realised, when and in what form is largely decided by environmental factors such as motivation, commitment, family support, peer influences and training opportunities. Every individual can raise her/his level of creative potential beyond its present level.

10.1 Creativity and intelligence

The book’s own example: Sunita completes work on time, tops her class, grasps quickly and reproduces material accurately, but rarely offers an idea of her own: she is called more intelligent. Rita is an average student who learns her own way, improvises new ways to help at home, and finds new ways to do her assignments: she is called more creative.

Terman (1920s) found that persons with high IQ were not necessarily creative: creative ideas could come from people without a very high IQ. Other researches have shown that not even one of those identified as gifted, followed up throughout their adult life, became well known for creativity in any field. Both high and low creativity can be found in highly intelligent children and in children of average intelligence.

Named creativity-test developers: Guilford, Torrance, Khatena, Wallach and Kogan, Paramesh, Baqer Mehdi, and Passi. Each test has a standardised procedure, a manual, and an interpretation guide, usable only after training.