Chapter 1

• Individual differences in human functioning refer to distinctiveness and variations among people’s characteristics and behaviour patterns.
• Psychologists assess intelligence to identify mentally challenged and gifted individuals.
• Select 5 vocations and gather information about the nature of work done by people in these vocations.
• Analyse these vocations in terms of the types of psychological attributes required for successful performance.
• Write a report.
• Culture affects the way intelligence is defined and assessed.
• Emotional Intelligence is a characteristic of emotionally intelligent persons.
• Special abilities include Aptitude and Creativity.
• Aptitude is a nature and measurement.
• Creativity is a key term.
• About 2 per cent of the population have IQ above 130, and a similar percentage have IQ below 70.
• The persons in the first group are called intellectually gifted; those in the second group are termed intellectually disabled.
• The IQ score of a person can be interpreted by referring to Table 1.1.
• The frequency distribution for the IQ scores tends to approximate a bell-shaped curve, called the normal curve.
• Intellectually gifted individuals show higher performance because of their outstanding potentialities.
• People with IQ scores in the range of 90–110 have normal intelligence.
• Those with IQ below 70 are suspected to have ‘intellectual disability’, while persons with IQ above 130 are considered to have exceptional talents.
• The mean IQ score in a population is 100.
• Each cell in Guilford's model is expected to have at least one factor or ability, and some cells may have more than one.
• Guilford's classification of psychological attributes includes 6 × 5 × 6 categories, resulting in 180 cells.
• Howard Gardner proposed the theory of multiple intelligences, stating that intelligence is not a single entity but distinct types of intelligences exist.
• According to the triarchic theory of intelligence, there are three basic types of intelligence: Componential, Experiential, and Contextual.
• The theories represented in Guilford's model are psychometric approaches to understanding intelligent behaviour.
• Each of the eight types of intelligence described by Gardner interact and work together to find a solution to a problem.
• Robert Sternberg proposed the triarchic theory of intelligence, viewing intelligence as the ability to adapt, shape and select environment to accomplish one's goals and those of one's society and culture.
• Creativity tests came into existence to assess variations in terms of the potential for creativity in contrast to intelligence.
• Since expressions of creativity are varied, tests have been developed using different stimuli like words, figures, action, and sounds.
• Each test has a standardised procedure, a complete set of manual, and interpretation guide.
• A few investigators have also developed tests of creativity in different areas such as literary creativity, scientific creativity, mathematical creativity, etc.
• There is little scope for the expression of spontaneity, originality, and imagination in tests of intelligence.
• A wide variety of personal attributes such as intelligence, aptitude, interests, personality, and values can be assessed.
• In tests of intelligence, the person has to think of the right solution to the problem and the focus is on assessing abilities such as memory, logical reasoning, accuracy, perceptual ability, and clear thinking.
• A general feature of most of the creativity tests is that they are open-ended, permitting the person to think of different answers to the questions or problems in terms of her/his experiences, whatever these may have been.
• Creativity can take many forms and blends, some may have more of intellectual attributes, others may have more of attributes associated with creativity.
• Individuals vary in their physical and psychological characteristics.
• These can be used only after extensive training in administration and interpretation of test scores.
• These tests measure general creative thinking abilities like ability to think of a variety of ideas on a given topic/ situation, alternative ways of looking at things, problems or situations, to guess causes and consequences, to think of unusual ideas to improve and to use common objects, ask unusual questions and so on.
• Some of the famous psychologists who have developed creativity tests are Guilford, Torrance, Khatena, Wallach and Kogan, Paramesh, Baqer Mehdi, and Passi.
• Creativity tests involve divergent thinking and assess such abilities as ability to produce a variety of ideas, ability to see new relationships between seemingly unrelated things, ability to guess causes and consequences, ability to put things in a new context, etc.
• Intelligence is the power of perceiving, learning, understanding, and knowing.