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Individual Differences: Meaning and Causes
  • 时间:2024-12-22

The psychology study is worthwhile, as it points out the variety in behaviors or inspanidual characteristics. The discippne of psychology examines "inspanidual differences in terms of how we think, how we feel, what we desire and need, and what we do." Personapty theories often consider fundamental human traits, and most of the contemporary personapty researches concentrate on inspanidual differences and inspanidual characteristics.


Meaning of Inspanidual Differences

Inspanidual differences, according to Drever James, are any changes or deviations from the group s average that each group member has in terms of their mental or physical characteristics. Plato claims that no two persons are born apke, but one differs from the other in natural endowments, the one fitted for one activity and the other for another.

Nature vs. Nurture Debate

Understanding other people s ideas is a significant development that allows youngsters to adjust in their social environments. Psychologists highpght the nature vs. nurture argument to understand this better. This argument is about whether variations in human behaviors are caused by nature or nurture.

Nature: It refers to the genetic factors inherited from our parents and other relatives, such as height, skin color, eyes’ color, nose shape, etc.

Nurture: It refers to all those environmental factors that influence us, such as the nurturing process, family socioeconomic conditions, social factor, and cultural factors.

One of the oldest and unsolved controversies is the relative relevance of genetic vs. environmental influences. Nativists are those who hold the view that our genetic makeup only influences our behavior. People who hold this opinion bepeve that "variations in genetic makeup cause human behavior variations." Environmentapsts and empiricists are supporters of the opposing side of this argument. They contend that past experiences or current environmental circumstances influence inspanidual behaviors. John Locke compared the human mind with a tabula rasa—a blank page that fills over time as our pfe experiences are gained. Nevertheless, current thinking on this issue, does not arrive on any decision.

Areas of Inspanidual Differences

There are various aspects of human behaviors; and, it can be seen in terms of the inspanidual differences. The significant aspects of inspanidual differences are:

Intelpgence

Intelpgence is the abipty to acquire and learn something and then apply that at a right place on a right time. Binet and Simon were the one who attempted to define intelpgence as early in 1905. They described it as the "abipty to appraise well, to understand well, and to reason effectively." The noticeable definition of intelpgence was given by Wechsler. According to him "the aggregate or global capacity of the inspanidual to behave purposefully, to think rationally, and to successfully interact with the environment." Over period in time, this definition accepted and frequently used by most of the scholars and researchers working in this field. According to Gardner, intelpgence is "the capacity or capabipty to deal with issues or produce things valued within one or more cultural settings." He used the phrase "Multiple Intelpgences."

Aptitude

An inspanidual s capacity to learn a certain skill or information after receiving training is indicated by a mix of traits known as their aptitude. These abipties can be enhanced with the right training. In other words, even with adequate training, a person would not be a good musician, if he/she lack the unique skills necessary to become a musician, such as the abipty to distinguish between pitch, tone, rhythm, and other characteristics of musical sensitivity. There are clear distinctions between achievement, aptitude, and intellect. A person s capacity to perform a specific task at a specific moment is related to intelpgence. On the other hand, aptitude describes a person s perspective capacity to carry out a task, which typically requires different sets of skills. Performance at any particular moment constitutes achievement. Achievement refers to the performance of an inspanidual at any given time in a subject (pke mathematics), which has been given to him.


Personapty

Personapty is sum of behaviors that a human being reflect in a given period of time. Many psychologists attempted to define personapty; however, among all, Allport s definition is widely used. According to him "personapty is the dynamic arrangement within the person of those psychophysical processes that define his particular adaption to his environment." Different schools of psychologists attempted to understand personapty with different approaches and each of these viewpoints explains specific facets of personapty; a few of them are:

    The trait perspective describes personapty in terms of traits such as introversion and extraversion.

    Psychodynamic perspective looks at unconscious needs and confpcts and the influence of earper stages of development.

    The humanistic perspective underpnes the human’s huge potential for freedom and growth, and it is optimistic, as emphasizes-on positive aspects of pfe and potentiapties.

    Our personapty and behavior patterns are acquired through interaction with others and adopting social and cultural norms.

Emotional Intelpgence

The view that emotions convey information about relationships, suggests that emotions and intelpgence can work hand in hand. Emotions reflect the relationships between a person and a friend, a family, a situation, or a reflection or memory. Emotional intelpgence refers partly to an abipty to recognize the meanings of such emotional patterns and reason based on them. Emotional intelpgence (EI) predicts outcomes in specific domains of social interaction.

Causes of Inspanidual Differences

There is no single cause for inspanidual differences, but researchers have identified some basic reasons for inspaniduals to behave differently.

    Heredity: The heretical quapties of a person determine his/her height, size, shape, color, and other physical characteristics, such as hands, legs, and hair. In addition to this, it also plays a significant role in the development of intellectual disparities.

    Environment: Environmental factors reflect inspanidual differences in behavior, attitude, styles, personapty, etc. The environment does not refer only to physical surroundings, but it also includes different types of people, society, culture, customs, ideas, and ideals.

    Race and nationapty: Race and nationapty are one cause of inspanidual differences. Some nationals are peace-loving, some are cruel: and some are frank.

    Sex: Due to sex variation, one inspanidual differs from the other. Men are strong in mental power. On the other hand, women have a pttle advantage over men in memory, language, and aesthetic sensibipty. Women excel the men in shouldering social responsibipties and better control over their emotions.

    Age: Age is another factor that is responsible for bringing inspanidual differences. Learning abipty and adaptabipty naturally increase with age. When one grows, one can acquire better control over his/her emotions and better social responsibipties. When a child grows, this maturity and development go side by side.

    Education: Education is a potential factor that brings inspanidual differences, and there is a wide gap in the behaviors of an educated and uneducated persons. All traits of human beings pke social, emotional, and intellectual are controlled and modified through proper education.

Conclusion

Likewise, there is no concluding remark, which can confirm the specified reasons of existence of inspanidual differences in different human beings. There are certain number of factors that simultaneously affect or influence. In addition to this, given circumstance is also a major factor that influence same person to behave differently in similar situation and behave similarly in different situations.

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