Class XII Psychology: Variations in Psychological Attributes

VARIATIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES

Introduction to Individual Differences

  • Individual variations are common across all species and add uniqueness to human behavior.
  • Individual Differences: Refers to distinctiveness and variations among people's characteristics and behavior patterns.
  • Situationism: The view that behavior is influenced more by situational factors and external circumstances than by internal traits.

Assessment of Psychological Attributes

  • Assessment: The first step in understanding attributes, involving measurement and evaluation using scientific procedures.
  • Formal Assessment: Objective, standardized, and organized.
  • Informal Assessment: Subjective and open to interpretation.
  • Psychological Assessment Domains:
    • Intelligence: Global capacity to understand the world, think rationally, and use resources effectively.
    • Aptitude: Underlying potential for acquiring specific skills with training.
    • Interest: Preference for engaging in specific activities.
    • Personality: Enduring characteristics that make a person distinct.
    • Values: Enduring beliefs about ideal modes of behavior.
  • Assessment Methods:
    • Psychological Test: Objective and standardized measure of mental/behavioral characteristics.
    • Interview: One-to-one information seeking.
    • Case Study: In-depth study based on psychological history and environment.
    • Observation: Systematic recording of naturally occurring behavior.
    • Self-Report: Factual information or opinions provided by the individual.

Intelligence: Nature and Theories

  • Definitions:
    • Alfred Binet: Ability to judge, understand, and reason well.
    • Wechsler: Global capacity to think rationally, act purposefully, and deal effectively with the environment.
  • Theories of Intelligence:
    • Psychometric Approach: Views intelligence as an aggregate of abilities (structure-focused).
    • Information-Processing Approach: Focuses on cognitive functions and how an intelligent person acts.
  • Key Models:
    • Uni/One-Factor Theory (Binet): One set of abilities for all problems.
    • Two-Factor Theory (Spearman): General factor (g-factor) and Specific factors (s-factors).
    • Theory of Primary Mental Abilities (Thurstone): Seven independent abilities (Verbal Comprehension, Numerical, Spatial, Perceptual Speed, Word Fluency, Memory, Inductive Reasoning).
    • Hierarchical Model (Jensen): Level I (associative learning) and Level II (cognitive competence).
    • Structure-of-Intellect Model (Guilford): 180 cells classified by Operations, Contents, and Products.
    • Theory of Multiple Intelligences (Gardner): Eight independent types (Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Spatial, Musical, Bodily-Kinaesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Naturalistic).
    • Triarchic Theory (Sternberg): Componential (analytical), Experiential (creative), and Contextual (practical).
    • PASS Model (Das, Naglieri, Kirby): Planning, Attention-arousal, Simultaneous, and Successive processing.

Individual Differences in Intelligence

  • Nature vs. Nurture: Intelligence is a product of complex interaction between heredity (90\% correlation in identical twins reared together) and environment.
  • Assessment of IQ:
    • Mental Age (MA): Intellectual development relative to age group.
    • Chronological Age (CA): Biological age.
    • IQ Formula: IQ = \frac{MA}{CA} \times 100
    • Normal Distribution: IQ scores follow a bell-shaped curve centered at a mean of 100.
  • Variations:
    • Intellectual Disability: IQ below 70 and deficits in adaptive behavior. Levels: Mild (55-70), Moderate (35-50), Severe (20-35), Profound (Below 20).
    • Intellectual Giftedness: IQ above 130; exceptional general ability and high creativity.

Culture and Intelligence

  • Technological Intelligence: Promoted in Western cultures; focuses on generalization, speed, and achievement.
  • Integral Intelligence: Promoted in Indian tradition; includes cognitive capacity, social competence, emotional competence, and entrepreneurial competence (the concept of Buddhi).

SELF AND PERSONALITY

Concept of Self

  • Self: The totality of an individual’s conscious experiences, ideas, thoughts, and feelings regarding themselves.
  • Kinds of Self:
    • Personal Self: Concerns regarding oneself (freedom, achievement).
    • Social/Familial Self: Emerges in relation to others (cooperation, affiliation).
  • Cognitive Aspects:
    • Self-concept: Perception of one's own competencies.
    • Self-esteem: Value judgment about one's own worth.
    • Self-efficacy: Belief in one's ability to control life outcomes (Bandura).
    • Self-regulation: Ability to monitor and change behavior (self-control).

Concept of Personality

  • Personality: Unique and relatively stable qualities that characterize behavior across situations over time.
  • Major Approaches:
    • Type Approach: Categorizing by broad patterns (e.g., Hippocrates' humors, Charak Samhita's Tridoshas, Sheldon's body types).
    • Trait Approach: Focus on specific psychological attributes (Allport's Cardinal/Central/Secondary traits; Cattell's 16PF; Eysenck's H/I and N/S dimensions).
    • Five-Factor Model (Big Five): Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism (OCEAN).

Psychodynamic Approach (Freud)

  • Levels of Consciousness: Conscious, Preconscious, Unconscious.
  • Structure of Personality:
    • Id: Pleasure principle, instinctual energy (Libido).
    • Ego: Reality principle, patient and reasonable.
    • Superego: Moral branch of functioning.
  • Defense Mechanisms: Repression, Projection, Denial, Reaction Formation, Rationalization.
  • Psychosexual Stages: Oral, Anal, Phallic (Oedipus/Electra complex), Latency, Genital.

Humanistic Approach

  • Carl Rogers: Focus on the "fully functioning person" and congruence between the Real Self and Ideal Self. Unconditional positive regard is essential.
  • Abraham Maslow: Hierarchy of needs leading to self-actualization.

Personality Assessment

  • Self-Report: MMPI, EPQ, 16PF.
  • Projective Techniques: Rorschach Inkblot Test, TAT, P-F Study, Sentence Completion, Draw-a-Person.
  • Behavioral Analysis: Interview, Observation, Ratings, Nomination, Situational Tests.

MEETING LIFE CHALLENGES (STRESS)

Nature and Sources of Stress

  • Eustress: Good stress that helps peak performance.
  • Distress: Negative stress causing wear and tear.
  • Cognitive Theory (Lazarus): Primary appraisal (perceiving harm/threat) and Secondary appraisal (assessing coping resources).
  • Stressors: Life events, daily hassles, traumatic events.

Effects and Health

  • GAS Model (Selye): Alarm reaction, Resistance, Exhaustion.
  • Immune System: Stress impairs leucocytes (white blood cells), increasing vulnerability to illness.
  • Burnout: State of physical, emotional, and psychological exhaustion.

Coping and Management

  • Strategies: Task-oriented, Emotion-oriented, Avoidance-oriented.
  • Techniques: Relaxation, Meditation, Biofeedback, Creative Visualization, CBT, Exercise.
  • Resilience: The capacity to 'bounce back' from adversity.

PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

Abnormality Concepts

  • The Four Ds: Deviance, Distress, Dysfunction, Danger.
  • Models: Biological, Psychodynamic, Behavioral, Cognitive, Humanistic-Existential, Socio-cultural, and Diathesis-Stress model.

Major Disorders

  • Anxiety Disorders: GAD, Panic Disorder, Phobias, Separation Anxiety.
  • OCD: Obsessions (thoughts) and Compulsions (actions).
  • Trauma-Related: PTSD.
  • Somatic Symptom Disorders: Conversion Disorder, Illness Anxiety.
  • Dissociative Disorders: Amnesia, Fugue, Identity Disorder (MPD).
  • Depressive Disorders: Major Depression, Bipolar (Mania/Depression).
  • Schizophrenia: Positive symptoms (delusions, hallucinations), Negative symptoms (poverty of speech, blunted affect), and Catatonia.
  • Neurodevelopmental: ADHD, Autism, Intellectual Disability, Specific Learning Disorder.

THERAPEUTIC APPROACHES

Types of Therapy

  • Psychodynamic: Focus on intrapsychic conflict, free association, and transference.
  • Behavior Therapy: Changing faulty behavior through conditioning (Aversive conditioning, Systematic Desensitization, Token Economy).
  • Cognitive Therapy: Albert Ellis (RET) and Aaron Beck (deleting faulty schemas).
  • Humanistic: Logotherapy (Victor Frankl) and Client-Centered Therapy (Rogers).
  • Biomedical: Drugs and ECT.
  • Alternative: Yoga, Meditation.

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND LIFE

Attitudes and Social Cognition

  • Attitude Components: A-B-C (Affective-Behavioral-Cognitive).
  • Prejudice: Negative attitudes based on stereotypes.
  • Social Cognition: Guided by schemas (mental frameworks).
  • Attribution: Internal vs. External causes. Fundamental Attribution Error.

Social Influence

  • Conformity: Following group norms.
  • Compliance: Responding to a request.
  • Obedience: Following orders from authority (Milgram).
  • Social Loafing: Putting in less effort when in a group.

Environment and Social Concerns

  • Poverty vs. Deprivation: Poverty is a shortage of resources; deprivation is the perception of loss.
  • Environmental Stressors: Noise, Pollution, Crowding, Natural Disasters.
  • Aggression: Instrumental (to get a goal) or Hostile (to hurt anyway).