Variations in psychological attributes

• VARIATIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES
• Individual Differences in Human Functioning

  Distinctiveness and variations among people's characteristics and behaviour patterns
• Situationism


  View that situations and circumstances influence one's behaviour more than personal traits
• Assessment of Psychological Attributes
• Intelligence


  Global capacity to understand the world, think rationally, and use available resources effectively when faced with challenges
• Domains of Psychological Attributes


  • Intelligence
  • Aptitude
  • Interest
  • Personality
  • Values
• Aptitude


  An individual's underlying potential for acquiring skills
• Interest


  An individual's preference for engaging in one or more specific activities relative to others
• Personality


  Relatively enduring characteristics of a person that make them distinct from others
• Values


  Enduring beliefs about an ideal mode of behaviour
• Assessment Methods


  • Psychological Test
  • Interview
  • Case Study
  • Observation
  • Self-Report
• Psychological Test is an objective and standardised measure of an individual's mental and/or behavioural characteristics
• Interview involves seeking information from a person on a one-to-one basis
• Case Study is an in-depth study of the individual in terms of their psychological attributes, psychological history in the context of their psychosocial and physical environment
• Observation involves employing systematic, organised, and objective procedures to record behavioural phenomena occurring naturally in real time
• Self-Report is a method in which a person provides factual information about themselves and/or opinions, beliefs, etc. that they hold
• Intelligence


  Ability to judge well, understand well, and reason well
• Intelligence (Wechsler's definition)


  Global and aggregate capacity of an individual to think rationally, act purposefully, and to deal effectively with their environment
• Psychologists have proposed several theories of intelligence, which can be broadly classified as either representing a psychometric/structural approach or an information-processing approach
• Psychometric approach considers intelligence as an aggregate of abilities, expressing the individual's performance in terms of a single index of cognitive abilities
• Information-processing approach describes the processes people use in intellectual reasoning and problem solving, focusing on how an intelligent person acts
• Psychologists have proposed several theories of intelligence
• Psychometric approach

  Considers intelligence as an aggregate of abilities, expresses individual performance in terms of a single index of cognitive abilities
• Information-processing approach


  Describes the processes people use in intellectual reasoning and problem solving, focuses on how an intelligent person acts
• Alfred Binet was the first psychologist who tried to formalise the concept of intelligence in terms of mental operations
• Binet's theory of intelligence


  Conceptualised intelligence as consisting of one similar set of abilities which can be used for solving any or every problem in an individual's environment

  
• Spearman's two-factor theory of intelligence

  Intelligence consists of a general factor (g-factor) and some specific factors (s-factors)
• Thurstone's theory of primary mental abilities

  Intelligence consists of seven primary abilities: Verbal Comprehension, Numerical Abilities, Spatial Relations, Perceptual Speed, Word Fluency, Memory, and Inductive Reasoning
• Jensen's hierarchical model of intelligence

  Level I is associative learning, Level II is cognitive competence involving higher-order skills
• Guilford's structure-of-intellect model


  Classifies intellectual traits among three dimensions: operations, contents, and products
• Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences


  Intelligence is not a single entity, distinct types of intelligences exist which are independent of each other
• Types of intelligence in Gardner's theory


  • Linguistic
  • Logical-Mathematical
  • Spatial
  • Musical
  • Bodily-Kinaesthetic
  • Interpersonal
  • Intrapersonal
  • Naturalistic

  
• Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence

  Three basic types of intelligence: Componential (analytical), Experiential (creative), and Contextual (practical)

  
• PASS model of intelligence

  Intellectual activity involves the interdependent functioning of three neurological systems: Arousal/Attention, Simultaneous/Successive Processing, and Planning

  
• Formal processes of developing intelligence


  Reading, writing, and experimenting
• Informal processes of developing intelligence

  From the environment
• Formal and informal processes of developing intelligence are interactive and dynamic in nature, yet each has its own distinctive functions
• Cognitive Assessment System (CAS)


  A battery of tests developed by Das and Naglieri to measure basic cognitive functions presumed to be independent of schooling, for individuals between 5 and 18 years of age
• The results of CAS assessment can be used to remedy cognitive deficits of children with learning problems
• Information-processing approach to intelligence

  This model represents the information-processing approach to intelligence