VARIATIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN HUMAN FUNCTIONING
Individual variations are common within
and across all species. Variations add
colour and beauty to nature. For a
moment, think of a world around you
where each and every object is of the same
colour, say red or blue or green. How would
the world appear to you? Certainly not a
beautiful one! Would you prefer to live in
such a world? In all likelihood, your
answer will be �no�. Like objects, people too
possess different combinations of traits.
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Variability is a fact of nature, and
individuals are no exception to this. They
vary in terms of physical characteristics,
such as height, weight, strength, hair
colour, and so on. They also vary along
psychological dimensions. They may be
intelligent or dull, dominant or submissive,
creative or not so creative, outgoing or
withdrawn, etc. The list of variations can
be endless. Different traits can exist in
varying degrees in an individual. In this
sense, each one of us is unique as s/he
exemplifies a typical combination of
various traits. The question which you may
like to pose is how and why people differ.
This, in fact, is the subject matter of the
study of individual differences. For
psychologists, individual differences refer to
distinctiveness and variations among
people�s characteristics and behaviour
patterns.
While many psychologists believe that
our behaviours are influenced by our
personal traits, some others hold the view
that our behaviours are influenced more by
situational factors. This latter view is
known as situationism, which states that
situations and circumstances in which one
is placed influence one�s behaviour. A
person, who is generally aggressive, may
behave in a submissive manner in the
presence of her/his top boss. Sometimes,
the situational influences are so powerful
that individuals with differing personality
traits respond to them in almost the same
ways. The situationist perspective views
human behaviour as resulting from
interaction of external and internal factors.
ASSESSMENT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES
Psychological attributes are involved in
very simple phenomena like in time taken
to react to a stimulus, i.e. reaction time,
and also in highly global concepts like
happiness. It is difficult to count and
specify the number of psychological
attributes that can be assessed.
Assessment is the first step in
understanding a psychological attribute.
Assessment refers to the measurement of
psychological attributes of individuals and
their evaluation, often using multiple
methods in terms of certain standards of
comparison. Any attribute will be said to
exist in a person only if it can be measured
by using scientific procedures. For
example, when we say, �Harish is
dominant�, we are referring to the degree
of �dominance� in Harish. This statement is
based on our own assessment of
�dominance� in him. Our assessment may
be informal or formal. Formal assessment
is objective, standardised, and organised.
On the other hand, informal assessment
varies from case to case and from one
assessor to another and, therefore, is open
to subjective interpretations. Psychologists
are trained in making formal assessment
of psychological attributes.
Once assessment is done, we can use
this information to predict how Harish will
probably behave in future. We may predict
that Harish, if given a chance to lead a
team, will most likely be an authoritarian
leader. If the predicted consequence is not
what we want, we may want to intervene
to effect a change in Harish�s behaviour.
The attribute chosen for assessment
depends upon our purpose. In order to
help a weak student perform well in
examinations, we may assess her/his
intellectual strengths and weaknesses. If a
person fails to adjust with members of her/
his family and neighbourhood, we may
consider assessing her/his personality
characteristics. For a poorly motivated
person, we may assess her/his interests
and preferences. Psychological assessment
uses systematic testing procedures to
evaluate abilities, behaviours, and personal
qualities of individuals.
Some Domains of Psychological Attributes
Psychological attributes are not linear or
unidimensional. They are complex and
expressed in terms of dimensions. A line
is a mere aggregate of many points. A point
occupies no space. But think of a box. It
occupies space. It can be described only in
terms of its three dimensions, i.e. length,
width, and height. Similar is the case with
psychological attributes. They are usually
multi-dimensional. If you want to have a
complete assessment of a person, you will
need to assess how s/he functions in
various domains or areas, such as
cognitive, emotional, social, etc.
We will discuss in this chapter some
important attributes that are of interest to
psychologists. These attributes are
categorised on the basis of varieties of tests
used in psychological literature.
1. Intelligence
is the global capacity to
understand the world, think rationally,
and use available resources effectively
when faced with challenges. Intelligence
tests provide a global measure of a
person�s general cognitive competence
including the ability to profit from
schooling. Generally, students having
low intelligence are not likely to do so
well in school-related examinations, but
their success in life is not associated
only with their intelligence test scores.
2. Aptitude
refers to an individual�s
underlying potential for acquiring skills.
Aptitude tests are used to predict what
an individual will be able to do if given
proper environment and training. A
person with high mechanical aptitude
can profit from appropriate training and
can do well as an engineer. Similarly,
a person having high language aptitude
can be trained to be a good writer.
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AKHAND PRATAP SINGH
