Unit-II (Chapter-3)

DIMENSIONS/AREAS OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

Dr. Anup Kumar
Assistant Professor (Education), GCTE, Dharamshala-Himachal Pradesh

INTRODUCTION

Individual differences refer to the physical and behavioural differences and

variations/deviations, seen in all species including human beings. These differences are
causes by the interaction of heredity forces and environmental conditions. Heredity is
determined by genes, chromosomes and cytoplasm. Environment is determined by physical
factors/conditions, family, neighbourhood, school, social relationships, interaction styles,
cultural practices and other psychological forces. Individual differences are generally
measured through psychological tests such as intelligence tests, mental health inventories,
attitude scales, interest inventories and personality tests etc. These differences are generally
presumed to be normally distributed in the population. Knowledge of individual differences
is helpful for a teacher educational setup to deal with different types of children.

In educational set up, understanding of individual differences helps in planning course

material and providing appropriate instruction. It is being recognised that all students do not
learn in a similar way. Some are fast learners, others are normal or slow; some are interested
in science subjects, others not; some can work and concentrate for long hours, other require
more frequent rest pauses etc. There are some students who are surface readers as compared
to the others who go in depth of everything they study. Some students follow mixed type of
approach. Understanding of individual differences of the students in different
areas/dimensions can help in matching teaching and learning styles for better- academic
results and participation in teaching-learning process.

As per the prescribed syllabus, in this section we have to focus on different

dimensions of individual differences. For better understanding we have classified them into
three types on the basis of their causes i.e. 1. Physical and Physiological differences
2. Psychological differences 3. Socio-cultural differences. Further, Psychological individual
differences are also subdivided into three categories like differences based on cognitive,
affective and psychomotor domain. The entire (major types as well as sub types individual
differences are inter-related to one another and it results in formation of our personality as
shown in figure below.

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 Dimensions/Areas of Individual Differences

Physical and Physiological Socio-cultural Differences

Differences (like sex- (like gender and customs
difference, skin colour etc.) Psychological Differences etc.)

Differences related to Differences related to Differences related to

Cognitive Domain Affective Domain Psychomotor Domain

Cognitive Abilities

Aptitude Emotions

Self-Concept
Values

Study Habits
Attitude
Creativity Psycho-motor Skills

Interests

Personality

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A) DIMENSIONS OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES BASED ON COGNITIVE
DOMAIN OF PERSONALITY
In this section, we will study the following dimensions of individual differences mainly based
on cognitive domain of personality. It includes cognitive abilities, aptitude, self-concept,
study habits and creativity.

1. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN COGNITIVE ABILITIES

Cognition has to do with how a person understands the world and acts in it. It is the set of
cognitive abilities or processes that are part of nearly every human action. Cognitive abilities
are brain-based skills; we need to carry out any task from the simplest to the most complex.
They have more to do with the mechanisms of how we learn, remember, problem-solve, and
pay attention, rather than with any actual knowledge. For instance, answering the telephone
involves perception (hearing the ring tone), decision taking (answering or not), motor skill
(lifting the receiver), language skills (talking and understanding language), social skills
(interpreting tone of voice and interacting properly with another human being). Actually, the
process of cognitive growth and development is responsible for the development of an
individual’s cognitive abilities. People differ in the development as well as use of different
cognitive abilities and skills. Different levels of cognitive abilities constitute student diversity
in the field of learning and responsible for a wide range of individual differences.

Explaining the notion of cognitive abilities experts believe that certain mental or
psychological processes account for dissimilarities in performance, and that these differences
can be affected by biological (genetic) as well as environmental factors. Different factors
internal as well as external are responsible for the development of these cognitive abilities.
The idea that few individuals are brighter, majority is average and fewer are dull/below
average in the acquisition of different traits and cognitive abilities have always been
debatable issue in human society and is reflected in the number of ways. There are different
types of cognitive abilities exhibited by the learners in the classroom. It includes sensation,
perception, concept formation/conceptual ability, power of imagination, thinking and
reasoning, information processing, memory and forgetting, concentration, intelligence,
creativity, language ability, decision making ability and problem solving abilities. These
cognitive abilities are interrelated and never develop in isolation. There is possibility of
greater growth and development in one cognitive ability than other. Wide individual
differences are noticed among students on the basis of these cognitive abilities. Cognitive
abilities might not always operate in the same way for all people. Potential sources of

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variation in the way people approach the cognitive tasks in their lives include cognitive
abilities, cognitive styles, and experience. Individuals apparently differ in their cognitive
abilities especially in such things as mental speed, storage capacity and attention span. Some
psychologists equate these cognitive abilities with intelligence. Other cognitive psychologists
do not equate the two but sees cognition abilities as part of intelligence. Now, we are listing
individual differences among students on the basis of intelligence.

Intelligence is an ability to carry out an activity. Intelligence involved there important

aspects such as adjustment ability, ability to learn and ability to carry out abstract thinking.
There are many factors like genetic, family, school and social environment influencing
intelligence. The index of intelligence is measured through intelligence test and is known as
intelligence quotient. Individuals differ in their level of intelligence. They differ widely as
regard to their I.Q.s. On the basis of general intelligence students are classified into
following categories.
Individual differences on the basis of I.Q. (Terman’s Stanford Binet Second Revision, 1937)
[Link]. Range of I.Q. Level of Intelligence
1. Over 140 Very Superior
2. 120-139 Superior
3. 110-119 High Average
4. 90-109 Normal or Average
5. 80-89 Low Average
6. 70-79 Borderline deficiency
7. Below 70 Mentally Defective

2. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN APTITUDE

Some of your friends may be very good in mathematics but normal in other subjects.
Such people possess special abilities or characteristics in a particular field but relatively
normal/low in other fields. In psychology, this is called aptitude. An aptitude, in a simple
way, may be considered a special ability or specific capacity beside the general intellectual
ability which helps an individual to acquire (with proper education and training) a
required degree of proficiency or achievement in a particular field. Freeman (1971)
defined, “An aptitude is a combination of characteristics indicative of an individual’s
capacity to acquire (with training) some specific knowledge, skill or set of organised
responses, such as ability to speak a language, to become a musician, to do mechanical
work.” Aptitude is a present pattern of traits, but it always refers to future potentialities or

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performance. Aptitude implies the prediction about the individual’s future performance. An
aptitude is a combination of characteristics that indicates an individual’s capacity to acquire
some specific knowledge or skill, after training. These qualities can be harnessed by
appropriate training. Training is most important factor in development of any type of
aptitude. In other words, if a person does not have the special abilities required to become a
musician, such as discrimination between pitch, tone, rhythm, and other aspects of musical
sensitivity, he/she would not be a good musician, even after sufficient training. An aptitude
isn’t ability rather a special ability. It helps to predict the probable development of certain
abilities. An aptitude isn’t inborn. It is a combination of in-born capacities and developed
abilities and skills etc. Such combinations of in born capacities and acquired abilities make
the person what he is at any given time and predicts what he may become. It is mainly the
product of type of ability and nature of interest possessed by the individual.

There are vast individual differences in abilities and interests possessed by the
students and hence we found a wide range of individual differences in their aptitude. There
are different types of aptitude like mechanical aptitude, artistic aptitude, scholastic aptitude
(like mathematics aptitude, language aptitude, science aptitude, art aptitude etc.), professional
aptitude (teaching, medical, engineering, law, graphic art aptitude etc.), musical aptitude,
research aptitude, scientific aptitude and clerical aptitude etc. Several types of aptitude tests
have been designed and used for screening the persons for different jobs, admission to
different professional courses, trainings and providing vocational guidance. A group of
students seeking admission to a particular course or professional study may be found to have
a high degree of aptitude for that course or profession. Within in themselves, we find a
distinct range of diversities and differences when we take notice of the records of their
aptitude tests. Some of them may be found to have highest level of aptitude (toppers) as
compared to others having high and moderate level of aptitude. It should be noted that the
quality of training, instruction and facilities available for developing that particular aptitude
provided by the concerned institution will decide the extent of the development of this
particular aptitude. The extent or degree of different aptitudes as distributed in the population
follows the normal probability curve. Students possess different aptitudes and also those who
possess same type of aptitude in a particular field/area also differ significantly from each
other in the extent like extreme, higher, moderate and below average levels. It is, therefore,
essential that we have to pay due attention to identify these aptitudes early through the use of
different aptitude tests and educate the children accordingly.

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3. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN SELF –CONCEPT

As the child grows and develops in age, he is sure to develop his ability of concept
formation about the things and events available in his environment. Besides the formation of
concepts about the other, he is sure to form a concept about his own self. Such concept about
our own self is termed as one’s self-concept. It reflects the images, considerations or
judgement about one’s abilities and limitations usually held by an individual not only for
projecting himself before others but also for estimating his self in his own eyes. H.J. Eysenk
(1971) defined the self-concept, “The totality of attitude, judgement and values of an
individual relating to his behaviour, abilities and qualities may be referred to his self-
concept.”

Thus, what one thinks of himself may be referred to as his concept about his self.
Most often formation of such a concept is the result of the interaction of his self with the
surrounding environment. Such interaction loaded with past and present experiences may
make him to have judgemental values about his self drawn from his own experiences and
results. However, erroneously in most of the cases the individual, instead of making
judgement about self, tries to accept others’ judgement about him for the formation of his/her
self-concept. Self-concept is like mirror image of what he believes significant people in his
life thinking of him. Our self-concept develops most rapidly during early childhood and
adolescence, but self-concept continues to form and change over time as we learn more about
ourselves. Self-concept is built from this information and continues to develop as people
expand their ideas about who they are. More recently, however, scholars have recognized it
as a dynamic, active structure that is impacted by both the individual’s motivations and the
social situation.

Students must be made to form proper and real concept about their ‘self’ so that they
may be helped in their progress and development by maximizing their potentials after getting
rid of evils and negative things detrimental to their progress. It is in the context that we must
realise that every pupil may differ from others with respect to their self-concept, i.e. image of
the self-maintained by him. His individuality in this regard must be well recognised and
accordingly, he should be helped to strengthen, reshape or reorient his concept about his self
for the cause of his progress and welfare. The better quality of life, happy family, proper
attention of parents towards children, parental adjustments, parental education etc. mould
children self-concept in a proper direction.

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4. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN STUDY-HABITS

Study habits are well planned and deliberate pattern of study which has attained a
form of consistency on the part of the students towards understanding academic subjects and
passing the examination (Bashir & Mattoo, 2012). Study habits are termed as the adopted
ways and manner of study adopted by the students for his private readings, after classroom
teaching. Study habits are students' ways of studying whether systematic, efficient or
inefficient implying that efficient study habits produces positive academic performance while
inefficient study habits leads to academic failure. The study habits, with proper environment,
feedback and guidance help the individuals to learn effectively. In school, the teachers while
at their home the parents should guide the students to develop appropriate study habits. Thus,
it is the duty of the teachers and parents to identify student’s good study habits and guide
them accordingly. Students exhibit wide individual differences and variations related to their
study habits as listed below.

1. Some students develop good and effective study habits resulting in better learning and
academic achievement while some have poor and ineffective habits of study and which is
responsible for early forgetting and academic failure.
2. Students show great differences in studying a particular thing of their interest, time
devoted, purpose served by the study and mode and medium employed for study.
3. They differ in terms of attitude, belief and opinion about studying one or the other
subject/area. Some focus on passing the paper while others focus on deep learning and
understanding.
4. They differ in terms of their interest, objectives and aptitude for studying one or the other
thing. Some are used to study well at a particular time in a particular manner and in a
particular environment while others have their own differences in this respect.
5. Some are slow, majority is normal and few are fast in studying the content or subject
matter of their syllabi. Some grasp and understand well what they study while others
don’t.
6. They differ in terms of the time devoted and attempts made for studying different
concepts. Some students prefer notes making while others have the habit of studying
directly from book or other media like online etc.
7. They differ with respect to the proper use of results of their study in one or the other areas
related to their academic life. Students reach different levels of learning like retention,
understanding and application with respect to the content they studied.

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8. Some study well in isolation while others need company for doing so. Some study at
night, others prefer to rise early for their study and some have no such preference of time.
They focus on availability of time.
9. Some students read aloud while others prefer silent study. Some students like discussion
and sharing their learning material with group while some students possess individual
style of study habits and avoid discussion and sharing of their personal study material.
10. Some students need constant help, motivation, direction and supervision for their studies
and some prefer independent style of study habits and require little or almost no help and
direction.
11. Some students prefer to study daily by following a definite routine and time table for
different subjects and are known as regular study habits group. Some prefer to study
occasionally (twice or thrice) a week and are known as occasional study habit group.
Some prefer to study only near the examination and they have no such routine and they
wasted their time in other activities and are known as rare study habits group. Always
prefer the habit of regular study for the students.

5. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN CREATIVITY

Creativity is application of a person’s mental ability to discover something new, ability to

relate and connect, and ability to develop new ideas, concepts, and processes. Creativity is
the ability to think and design a new way to solve problems. It is to develop an idea based on
an original, novel, and unconventional approach. It is viewed as a type of cognition or mental
ability of humans to look at things in different perspective and provide newer solutions to
existing problems. Creativity is the ability to see something in a new way, to see and solve
problems no one else may know, exists, and to engage in mental and physical experiences
that are original, new, useful, unique, or different. It is the quality that one could bring to the
activity that one is doing. It is an inner approach and refers to how one can look at things.
Creativity is something different from routine. It has nothing to do with anything in
particular. Any activity can be creative or uncreative. There is a possibility to sing or paint in
an uncreative way and one can clean the floor or cook in a creative way. It is quite common
to notice human beings who are creative in many ways and in different fields. The
distribution of creativity trait among population also follows the normal probability curve and
hence individuals possess different extent to creativity level ranging from least creative to
highly creative in different areas.

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 Although many people equate creativity and intelligence, these two terms are not
synonymous. It is not necessary to have a genius level IQ in order to be creative. While
creative people do tend to have average or below average scores on IQ test, beyond an IQ of
about 120. Intelligence and creativity are different entities and there is moderate or low
correlation between intelligence and creativity. Intelligence is mainly related to convergent
thinking while in creativity divergent thinking is required. Researchers have found that the
environment is more important than heredity in influencing creativity. A child’s creativity
can be either strongly encouraged or discouraged by early experiences at home and in school.

Wide individual differences are observed among highly creative and normal students
and are listed below.

1. Creative individuals tend to share certain characteristics, including a tendency to be

more impulsive or spontaneous than others. Nonconformity (not going along with the
majority) can also be a sign of creativity.
2. Many creative individuals are naturally unafraid of experimenting with new things
and are often less susceptible to peer pressure, perhaps because they also tend to be
self-reliant and unafraid to voice their true feelings even if those go against
conventional wisdom.
3. Individuals can be creative in any part, or all parts, of their personal, educational and
adult professional life. Cognitive and non-cognitive traits must combine to orient
students towards creativity thinking.
4. Some students have small or moderate scale creative insights, and others have it in
large scale.
5. Creativity can be forced for some but it also happens suddenly and unpredictably.
Creative innovation may stem from hard work and planning. It may also be from
sudden inspiration and insight.
6. Creative talent will remain repressed and hidden without a psychologically safe social
and cultural environment that supplies opportunities and reinforcement for creativity.
Problem finding and finding its novel and original solution is a hallmark of creative
accomplishment.
7. Creative individual involves in a higher level of logical thinking and analysis as well
as irrational and unrestrained fantasy than normal students.

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 8. Davis (1997) identified the following characteristics from his research, focusing
initially on the positive aspects of high creativity, and adverse aspects of high
creativity among students.
[Link]. Positive aspects of High Creativity Adverse aspects of High Creativity
1. Aware of creativeness Indifferent to conventions and courtesies
2. Original Challenges rules and authority
3. Independent Rebellious, uncooperative
4. Risk taking Capricious, careless, disorderly
5. Energetic Absentminded, forgetful
6. Curious Argumentative, cynical
7. Sense of humour Sloppy with details and unimportant matters
8. Attracted to complexity Egocentric, tolerant, tactless
9. Open minded Temperamental, emotional
10. Needs alone time and intutive Overactive physically and mentally

B) DIMENSIONS OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES BASED ON AFFECTIVE

DOMAIN OF PERSONALITY
In this section, we will study the following dimensions of individual differences mainly based
on affective domain of personality. It includes emotions, values, attitude and interests.

1. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN EMOTIONS

Emotion is an important part of our life, as it affects all aspects of life. Most truly, it is the
soul of every relationship. Being an integral and significant aspect of human nature and the
motivation for behavior, emotions serve as one of the most important ingredient of human
nature. Psychologists have described ‘emotion’ differently, but all agree that it is a complex
state of the human mind involving a variety of bodily changes such as sweaty palms, high
pulse rate, glandular secretions etc. Emotions are internal events that coordinate many
psychological subsystems including physiological responses, cognitions, and conscious
awareness. Few definitions of emotions are given below.

1. According to Charles G. Morris: “Emotion is a complex affective experience that

involves diffuse physiological changes and can be expressed overtly in characteristic
behavior patterns.”

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2. McDougall considered instincts as an innate tendency, he maintains that emotion is an
affective experience that one undergoes during an instinctive excitement. For example, when
a child perceives a bull coming towards him (cognition) he experiences an affective
experience in the form of the arousal of accompanied emotion of fear and consequently tries
to run away (conative aspect of one’s behavior).

On the basis of these definitions, we can say that emotion as some sort of feelings or
affective experiences which are characterized by some physiological changes that generally
lead them to perform some or the other type of behavioral acts. Emotions exist in all the
individuals but the degree of their occurrence varies in all. This leads to individual
differences among students with regard to their emotions and emotional development. The
behavioral acts in an individual are correlated with their emotions. In addition to the above
characteristics, emotions have some more specific features that lead to individual differences
and need to be mentioned. These are:

 Emotions exist in every living organism. But there are differences in degrees. Some
individuals are very sensitive, while some have normal level of emotionality.
 They are present at all stages of development and can be aroused in young as well as in
old age.
 Emotions are extremely individualistic and they differ from person to person. Some
students have great control over their emotions and some students do not possess any
control and get irritated easily. For example the emotion of anger is present in every
individual. Some people get angry quickly and some other does not get angry so easily
and show tolerance and patience.
 Same emotion can be aroused by a number of different stimuli-objects or situations.
Emotions rise abruptly but die down slowly. An emotion once aroused tends to persist
and leaves behind emotional mood. One emotion can give birth to a number of likewise
emotions.
 Emotions have the quality of displacement. The anger aroused on account of the rebuking
by boss is transferred in beating the children at home. Individuals also differ in the
manner, they express their emotions.
 The nature and development of different emotions is related to the pattern of growth and
development and more specifically to the emotional development. Appropriate emphasis
should be given to the development, use and control of different emotions appropriate to
the age under consideration.

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2. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN VALUES

Values are integral part of one’s personality. Values are concepts, ideas and abstractions that
people think are important in life and they want to achieve them. They are things of mind that
has to do with the vision people have of good life for themselves. Values cannot be seen
directly but they have to be inferred from the behaviour either by observation or by using
some other psychological tests. The activities as well as statements of individuals give clues
about their value pattern. People care deeply about the things that they value. Values are
related to behaviour (what we think, speak and act). Human behaviour is determined as well
as directed by the types and nature of values possessed by them. Individuals do differ in what
they value more or less.

From psychological perspective, we may link our values with our need system-
physical, physiological, psychological, social and spiritual. There is a hierarchy in the
gratification of these needs from lowest to highest order. Satisfaction of one type of need
leads to appearance to other next order higher needs. We always value a thing because we
need it. Accordingly, we are materialistic in our values because of our need to satisfy our
materialistic desires. As soon as we are saturated or reasonably satisfied with the realization
of our materialistic needs, we may seek the realization of other next higher order needs viz.
Psychological, social and other spiritual needs. Individual differences in values are caused by
our own philosophy of life, gratification of different needs, experience, maturation,
environmental situations and other prevailing circumstances. Here we may come across
certain similarities and wide individual differences among human beings/students with
respect to their possession of varieties of values. Few of them are listed below.

 Theoretical or Scientific (interest in discovering truth),

 Economic or Materialistic/Utilitarian (interest in materialistic things and economic
preferences)
 Aesthetic or Artistic (interest in beauty),
 Social or Humanitarian (interest in helping others),
 Political and Power seeking(interest in seeking power) and
 Religious or Moral/Spiritual (interest in powers like God and spirituality etc.)

Some are materialistic while other gives more weightage to other values. There is a
need of imbibing a balanced value pattern, because each value is important and needed in one
or the other occasions in life.

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3. INDIVIDUAL DIFFEENCES IN ATTITUDE

Attitudes are another type of individual difference that affects behaviour. Attitudes have
affective (feelings, emotions), cognitive (beliefs, knowledge), and behavioural (a
predisposition to act in a particular way) components. These components do not exist or
function separately. Attitude is learned/ acquired by an individual as he learns many other
things in life. They are not innate and inherent in an individual. Attitude involves direction
as well as magnitude. The positive or negative attitudes may involve intense feelings and
vary from a continuum ranging from the strongly negative to strongly positive. It is evident
that attitude is a specific mental state of the individual towards something according to which
his behaviour towards it is moulded. The term attitude is defined differently by different
authors. An attitude is defined as a mental state of readiness to respond to and also which
indicates the degree of favourableness or unfavourableness towards a person, idea or object.

Sorenson (1977) defined, “An attitude is a particular feeling about something. It, therefore
involves a tendency to behave in a certain way in situations which involves that something,
whether person, idea or object. It is partially rational and partially emotional and is
acquired, not inherent in an individual”.

Myers, (1993) defined, “Attitudes are relatively lasting feelings, beliefs, and behavioural
tendencies directed toward specific people, groups, ideas, issues, or objects.”

Therefore, an attitude is a predisposition or readiness to respond in a pre-determined

manner to relevant stimuli. It is relatively lasting feeling (either positive or negative) about
something that makes our attitude towards that very thing is almost an individual
phenomenon. As Indians, we may have a certain type of attitude towards Pakistanis, Chinese,
Russians and Americans depending upon our own feelings generated through our past
experiences. However, it is not essential that we all should exercise a same sense of attitude.
This is equally true in our classroom situations. Some of our students may have positive
attitude and strong linking for the study of a particular subject, area of activity, place, idea or
person, while others may show a negative attitude and strong disliking depending upon their
own experiences, i.e. interaction of their self with their environment. A wise teacher should
observe the nature of attitude possessed by the individual pupils towards the things, persons,
activities or objects and try to use this characteristic for the attainment of teaching-learning
objectives. There is need to provide reconstructed desirable experience for bringing desirable
changes in attitudes.

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4. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN INTERESTS

Interest is the central force which derives the whole machinery of teaching-learning process.
Interest is defined as the tendency to select certain activities or things in preference to others,
or to make choices in a certain direction without any external pressure. Crow and Crow
defined interest, “Interest may refer to the motivating force that impels us to attend to a
person, a thing, or an activity.” It is a great motivating force that persuades an individual
to engage in a cognitive, affective or psychomotor behaviour. Our interests are very much
linked with our wants, motives, desires and basic needs. The things in which a person has
interest are attended well, learned properly, retained for a long time and made use of at the
proper time. The reverse is also true. If one is not interested in one or the other type of
learning, all the attempts of making him learn will serve no purpose. Interests are not
permanent and fixed. They get changed as a result of maturation, learning and other internal
as well as environmental conditions and factors. Economic and other considerations combine
to restrict any marked changes in interests at maturity. Interests are innate as well as acquired
dispositions. The process of interest formation begins right at birth and continues till late in
the old age. Different configurations of experiences are formed, and those which are pleasant,
developed into patterns of interest.

The development of interest depends upon the personal factors like (Physical health,
Mental health, Social Development, Age, Gender, Emotions, Sentiments and Complexes,
Wishes, Ideals, Motives and Goals of life and Pattern of one’s instinctive behaviour) and
environmental conditions like (Socio-economic status, Culture and influence of Society,
Education and Training, Opportunities available to him/her to explore his potential etc.).
Wide individual differences exist in above mentioned personal as well as environmental
factors and hence responsible for the development of varieties of individual differences in
interest among students. A child may be interested in one or the other subject, topic or a
particular sub area, an activity or experience while the other may have different choices on
his outlooks, desires, motives, derives and other needs. Some students take so much interest
in meeting people, attending social functions, picnics and excursions, other feel interested in
solitude, avoid social gatherings, love meditation and enjoy company of books. Progress in
learning is directly proportional to degrees of interest in studies. Even, more than intelligence,
it is difference in degree of interests in studies which result in the different levels of academic
progress. By adopting psychological and scientific measures teachers should try to make their
teaching as interesting as possible for the benefit of students.

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C) INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN PSYCHOMOTOR SKILLS (PSYCHOMOTOR
DOMAIN)

Psychomotor skills refers to abilities whose functions require a combination of cognitive and
motor processes such as typing, dancing, writing, playing cricket etc. It refers to a wide range
of actions/activities involving physical movements related to conscious cognitive processing.
Individuals are found to differ with regard to development and acquisition of one or other
types of psychomotor skills. These differences are very much observable right from an early
age in children. Some are very quick, efficient and methodical in performing skilled tasks like
jumping, running, skipping, reading, climbing, swimming, dancing, computing, handling
laboratory equipment, sketching and writing. However, others may not be so efficient and
competent and be quite unfamiliar or fail in performing these skilled tasks. All these
psychomotor skills are quite helpful for the proper all-round growth and development of the
child. Not only the physical development, but cognitive, emotional, social, moral, ethical and
aesthetic developments are also inter- linked with the development of psychomotor skills.

Learners in educational settings use different psychomotor skills and therefore each
one is different from other. Some students have beautiful handwriting as there are few with
disastrous hand writing skills. Even the science laboratory, learners learn at various speed
using different tools. Few students can precisely and easily handle all the equipments and can
work on them accurately and other always need help. Therefore, each and every child has
dissimilar psychomotor abilities and teaching should be planned accordingly. There are
several factors that influence psychomotor skills of individual which includes amount of
practice they do with a particular equipment or tool, complexity of the task, distribution of
work, motive-incentive conditions and last but not the least the environmental factors.
Academic as well as professional development is also quite dependent on the proper
development and efficient functioning of these skills. Any deficiency in terms of improper
way of learning a particular skill or its inadequate development may hamper the growth and
development of the child making him backward or even a problem child. It is well illustrated
in the case of children with poor handwriting, defective language skills, inadequate geometric
and mathematical skills, poor sketching and drawing skills, poor reading and composition
skills, poor comprehension and problem solving skills etc. A wise teacher should carefully
diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of the students with regard to the development of the
various psychomotor skills and accordingly plan for their best use or provide remedial
measure for their proper and adequate development.

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D) INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN PERSONALITY

In a layman language, personality is meant by the outer appearance of an individual; how one
wears clothes, how they comb their hair, the way of talking to other persons and some other
factors. But according to psychology, personality is a more complex phenomenon. The
scientific approach to study individual differences cannot set up without proper definition of
personality. Behaviour always involves a complex interaction of person and the situation.
Events in the surrounding environment (including the presence and behaviour of others)
strongly influence the way people behave at any particulars time; yet people always bring
something of themselves to the situation. This “something”, which represents the unique
qualities of the individual, is personality. No single definition of personality is accepted
universally. However, one key idea is that personality represents personal characteristics that
lead to consistent patterns of behaviour. Thus, personality is a person’s set of relatively
stable characteristics and traits (which typically refers to the basic components of
personality) that account for consistent patterns of behaviour in various situations. Each
individual in some ways is like other people and in some ways is unique.
An individual’s personality is the product both of inherited traits or tendencies and
acquired experiences through two primary sources, heredity and environment or nature and
nurture. Such experiences occur within the framework of the individual’s biological, physical
and social environment- all of which are modified by the culture, family, and other groups to
which the person belongs. The term culture refers to the distinctive ways that different human
populations of societies organise their lives. Scientists working within different cultures have
clearly demonstrated the important role that culture plays in personality development. The
primary vehicle for socialising an individual into a particular culture is person’s immediate
family i.e., both parents, sibling, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. Thus, the first
group to which most individuals belong is the family. People also participate in various
groups during their lives, beginning with their childhood playmates, teenaged schoolmates,
sports teams, and groups to adult work and social groups. Again, each person’s life also is
unique in terms of specific events and experiences, which can serve as important
determinants of personality. There are several individual differences and variations in
students’ personality, we are listing a few.

1. Extrovert and Introvert types of Personalities

Learners with extrovert personality type love to interact energetically with others. They also
like to share their ideas and work with their mates. They try to engage themselves in group

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 work because they feel that team work bring better output. However, introvert personalities
are somehow of shy types. They process information and ideas in their own minds and don’t
want to share with anyone. Their strength is self-sufficiency and they love that kind of work
which requires individuality and independence.
2. Differences in Personalities on the basis of Locus of Control
Locus of Control refers to the extent to which individuals believe that they can control events
affecting them. Individuals with high internal locus of control (internals) believe that their
own behaviour and actions primarily, but not necessarily totally, determine many of the
events in their lives while who have high external locus of control (externals) believe that
chance, fate, or other people primarily determine what happens to them.
3. Big Five Personality Factor
An individual’s personality may be described by a set of factors. Different psychologists
proposed different models of personality having different set of factors of which Big Five
Factor Theory (Costa & McCrae, 1978) is very significant because of its applicability in
organisational settings. Specifically, these personality factors describe an individual’s degree
of adjustment, sociability, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and intellectual openness.

1. Adjustment

(Stable, confident, effective) (Nervous, self-doubting, moody)

2. Sociability

(Gregarious, energetic, self-dramatizing) (Shy, unassertive, withdrawn)

3. Conscientiousness

(Planful, neat, dependable) (Impulsive, careless, irresponsible)

4. Agreeableness

(Warm, tactful, considerate) (Independent, cold, rude)

5. Intellectual Openness

(Imaginative, curious, original) (Dull, unimaginative, literal-minded)

The “Big Five” Personality Factors

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