Colegio de Dagupan

School of Business and Accountancy

Human Behavior in Organization

MODULE 2: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES, MENTAL ABILITY, AND PERSONALITY

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this module, the students are expected to:

1. Define what individual differences are

2. Lists the consequences of individual differences
3. Identify what makes people different from each other
a. Demographic diversity
b. Aptitude and ability
c. Personality
d. Emotional intelligence
e. Physical ability

Individual Differences

Individual differences refer to the variation in how people respond to the same situation
based on personal characteristics.

Consequences Arising Out of Individual Differences

1. Differences in productivity
2. Differences in the quality of their work
3. Differences in how people react to empowerment
4. Difference in how people react to any style of leadership
5. Difference in terms of needs for contact with other people
6. Difference in terms of commitment to the organization
7. Difference in terms of level of self-esteem.

What Makes People Different From Each Other

a. Demographic Differences
- Gender Differences
o The differences in the perception of male and female roles are
referred to as gender differences.
o Men and women are not different along the following concerns:
problem solving abilities; analytical skills; competitive drive;
motivation; learning ability; and sociability.
- Generational and Age-Based
o a worker that belongs to a certain generation may have differently
from a worker who belongs to another.
o Differences in the ages of workers also bring about expectations of
differences in the behavior of workers.
o This is seen most often in age difference since age is associated with
experience.
- Culture
o It refers to the learned and shared ways of thinking and acting among
a group of people or society.

b. Aptitude and ability

Aptitude is defined as the capacity of a person to learn or acquire skills.
Ability refers to an individual’s capacity to perform the various tasks in a job.
 Factors of a Person’s Overall Abilities
- Physical abilities refer to the capacity of the individual to do tasks demanding
stamina, dexterity, strength, and similar characteristics.
- Mental abilities refer to the capacity to do mental activities such as thinking,
reasoning, and problem solving.

Dimensions of Physical Ability

1. Dynamic strength- the ability to exert muscular force repeatedly or continuously over
time.
2. Trunk strength – the ability to exert muscular strength using the trunk muscles.
3. Static strength – the ability to exert force against external objects.
4. Explosive strength – the ability to expend a maximum of energy in one or a series of
explosive acts.
5. Extent flexibility – the ability to move the trunk and back muscles as far as possible.
6. Dynamic flexibility – the ability to make rapid, repeated flexing movements.
7. Body coordination – the ability to coordinate the simultaneous actions of different
parts of the body.
8. Balance – the ability to maintain equilibrium despite forces pulling off balance.
9. Stamina – the ability to continue maximum effort requiring prolonged effort over
time.

Various Theories of Intelligence

1. Dimensions of Intellectual Ability

- Cognitive Intelligence refers to the capacity of a person to acquire and apply
knowledge including solving problems
- Social intelligence refers to a person’s ability to relate effectively with others.
- Emotional intelligence refers to a person’s qualities such as understanding
one’s own feelings, empathy for others, and the regulation of emotion to
enhance living.
- Cultural intelligence refers to an outsider’s ability to interpret someone’s
unfamiliar and ambiguous behavior the same way that person’s compatriot
would.
2. The Triarchic Theory of Intelligence by Robert Sternberg
- Componential intelligence involves components for mental processes used in
thinking.
- Experiential intelligence is a type of intelligence that is required for
imagination and combining things in novel ways
- Contextual intelligence requires adapting to, selecting, and shaping our real-
world environment. It incorporates the ideas of common sense, wisdom, and
street smarts.
3. Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner
a. Linguistic
- sensitive to language meanings, and the relations among words. Able to
communicate through language including reading, writing, and speaking.
b. Logical – mathematical

- Covers abstract thought, precision, counting, organization, and logical

structure, enabling the individual to see relationship between objects.
c. Musical
- Create and understand meanings made out sounds and to enjoy different
types of music
d. Spatial
- Enables people to perceive and manipulate images in their brain and to re-
create them from memory.
e. Bodily – kinesthetic
 - Enables people to use their body and perceptual and motor systems in skilled
ways.
f. Intrapersonal
- Highly accurate understanding of himself or herself
g. Interpersonal
- Makes it possible for persons to recognize and make distinctions among the
feelings, motives, and intentions of others.
h. Naturalist
- Possesses the ability to seek patterns in the external physical environment.

Personality
Refers to the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and interacts with
others.
The “ways” are the patterns of behavior that are consistent and enduring.

Determinants of Personality
1. Hereditary factors are those factors that are determined at conception
2. Environmental factors are those that exert pressures on the formation of an
individual’s personality.

Kinds of Environmental Factors

1. Cultural factors
- Refers to the established norms, attitudes, and values that are passed along
from one generation to the next and creates consistency over time.
2. Social factors
- Refers to those that reflects family life, religion and the many kinds of formal
and informal groups in which the individual participants throughout his life.
3. Situational factors
- Indicate that the individual will behave differently in different situations.

Kinds of Personality Factors and Traits

1. Emotional stability
- Characterizes one as calm, self-confident, and secure.
- A person who possesses in a high degree of emotional stability can be
expected to withstand stress.
2. Extraversion
- Someone who is sociable, gregarious, and assertive.
3. Openness to experience
- A person who is imaginative, cultured, curious, original, broad – minded,
intelligent, and artistically sensitive.

4. Agreeableness
- It refers to the person’s interpersonal orientation.
- An agreeable person is cooperative, warm, and trusting.
5. Conscientiousness
- It refers to a person’s reliability.
6. Self-monitoring behavior
- It reflects a person’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external,
situational, or environmental factors.
7. Risk taking and thrill seeking
- It refers to the person’s willingness to take risk and pursue thrills that
sometimes are required in the workplaces.
8. Optimism
- It refers to the tendency to experience positive emotional states and to
typically believe that positive outcomes will be forthcoming from most
activities.
Emotional Intelligence

The concept of emotional intelligence or emotional quotient was introduced by Daniel

Goleman.

It refers to the ability of the person to accurately perceive, evaluate, express and
regulate emotions and feelings.

Five Components of EQ

1. Self-regulation – it refers to the ability to calm down anxiety, control impulsiveness, and
react appropriately to anger.
2. Motivation – it refers to the passion to work for reasons that go beyond money or
status.
3. Empathy – it refers to the ability to respond to the unspoken feelings of others.
4. Self-awareness – it refers to the awareness of one’s own personality or individuality.
5. Social skills – it refers to the proficiency to manage relationships and building networks.