Individual difference, Mental Ability, and Personality

Individual Differences - Refers to the variation in how people

Consequences of Individual Differences
respond to the same situation based
on personal characteristics.
- The idea is that each person is
different from all other and that these
differences are usually substantial
rather than meaningless.
- It is a serious concern when people
are situated in the workplace.

People differ in:

 Productivity
 Quality of their work
 React differently to empowerment
 React differently to any style of
leadership
 Terms of need for contact with other
people
 Terms of commitment to the
organizations
 Terms of level of self-esteem
Productivity - Refers to the rate of output per
worker.
- It differ from person to person.
Quality of their Work - Some individuals will not be
contended in making products of
mediocre quality, while others will
just strive to produce outputs that
barely passed standards requirements.
Empowerment - Means giving someone the power to
do something
- Some person may feel happy if he is
provided with such responsibility;
other will feel uncomfortable and will
prefer to just follow orders
Style of Leadership - Some people will prefer a leader with
a democratic style while some will
need close supervision from their
superior.
Social Contact - Some will need more contact, while
others work alone the whole day.
- Other people cannot be productive
unless they meey people as they
work.
Example: Salesman who constantly meet and
interact with customers while research
laboratories contact is minimal.

Commitment to the Organization - Some are committed and loyal that

 they work whole day without noticing
that they are putting in more than
required working hours.
- Highly committed = produce high
quality of work
- Less committed = less concerned
about performance and output
Self-Esteem - Those with low esteem tend to be less
productive. They also avoid accepting
more responsibilities.
- They think that their abilities do not
march the requirements of the job
- People with high regard of
themselves on the other hand create
great inventions, literary works and
discoveries.
What makes people different from each other  Demographics
 Aptitude and Ability
 Personality
(1) Demographic - The performance and behavior in the
workplace are sometimes affected by
(1) Gender
(2) Generational Differences and Age
(3) Culture
Gender Differences - Differences in the perception of male
and female roles
- Specifically, in:
 Problem Solving Abilities
 Analytic Skills
 Competitive Drive
 Motivation
 Learning Ability
 Sociability
Generational Differences and Age - A worker that belongs to a certain
generation may behave differently
from who belongs to another.
- A generation that values loyalty, it
will not be difficult to find workers
who have stayed in their respective
companies for long periods.
- Differences in age brings about the
expectation of behavior in the
workers. Age is often associated with
experience.
Culture - Refers to the learned and shared ways
of thinking and acting among group
of people or society.
- If a superior confronted a Filipino
employee, it is not surprising if the
employee keeps quiet even if he is not
 at fault.

2 Dimensions of Culture
 Social Culture – refers to the social
environment of human-created
beliefs, customs, knowledge, and
practices that defined conventional
behavior in a society.

 Organizational Culture – set of

values, beliefs, and norms that is
shared among members of an
organization

(2) Aptitude and Ability - Important considerations in an

organization.
- Low Aptitude and Ability = High
Training Cost

Aptitude – 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.

A person’s overall ability are made up

of 2 sets:
 Physical
 Mental
Physical Ability - Refers to the capacity of the
individual to do tasks demanding
stamina, strength and similar
characteristics.

9 Physical Abilities needed to perform:

1. Dynamic Strength – ability to exert
muscular force repeatedly or
continuously overtime.
2. Trunk Strength – ability to exert
muscular strength using the trunk
(abdominal muscles)
3. Static Strength – ability to exert force
against external objects
4. Explosive strength - this is the ability
to expend a maximum of energy in
one or a series of explosive acts.
5. Extent flexibility - this is the ability to
move the trunk and back muscles as
far as possible.
6. Dynamic flexibility this is the ability

Intellectual or Mental Ability
Cognitive Intelligence
Social Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence
Cultural Intelligence
Intelligence Subparts and
Variations
to make rapid, repeated flexing
movements.
7. Body coordination- the ability to
coordinate the simultaneous actions
of different parts of the body.
8. Balance - this is the ability to
maintain equilibrium despite forces
pulling off balance.
9. Stamina - this is the ability to
continue maximum effort requiring
prolonged effort over time.
- Also referred to as intelligence
- Refers to the capacity to do mental
activities such as thinking, reasoning,
and problem solving.
Dimensions of Intellectual Ability
1. Cognitive
2. Social
3. Emotional
4. Cultural
- The capacity of a person to acquire
and apply knowledge including
problem solving.
- Person’s ability to relate effectively
with others.
- A person’s qualities such as
understanding one’s own feelings,
empathy for others and the regulation
of emotion to enhance living.
- Refers to an outsider’s ability to
interpret someone’s unfamiliar and
ambiguous behavior the same the
person’s compatriot would.
Individual - The intelligence levels on the four
subparts differ from person to person.
- For instance, an individual could get
high ratings intelligence subparts,
e.g., cognitive and social but low on
emotional and cultural.
- Another person could be rated
average on all four subparts, and the
like.
- In real life situation, it is not
surprising to see an individual who
scores below average in school
examinations but gets elected student
council president. Or a student who
gets excellent scores in written
examinations but is hampered by

Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
Componential Intelligence
Experiential Intelligence
Contextual Intelligence
Multiple Intelligence
Components:
shyness in meeting other have
dissimilar strengths and weaknesses,
and people.
- Both persons it can be expected that
their behaviors will also be dissimilar
even inside organizations.
An eminent researcher, Robert
Sternberg, developed an approach to
the study of intelligence, which is
now known as the triarchic theory of
intelligence. He maintains that there
are three important parts intelligence,
namely:
1. Componential Intelligence
2. Experiential Intelligence
3. Contextual Intelligence
- referred to as analytical intelligence
- it involves components used in
thinking and the traditional type of
intelligence needed for solving
difficult problems with abstract
reasoning.
- People who score high perform well
in most school subjects.
- Creative intelligence
- focuses on how people perform on
tasks with which they have either
little or no previous experience or else
great experience. It is this type of
intelligence that is required for
imagination and combining things in
novel ways.
- also known as practical intelligence
- is a type of everyday intelligence or
street smarts. It requires adapting to,
selecting, and shaping our real-world
environment.
- incorporates the ideas of common
sense, wisdom, and street smarts.
- Another eminent researcher, Howard
Gardner, developed a very useful
means of understanding intelligence.
It is referred to as the Theory of
Multiple Intelligences. He proposes
eight different components of
intelligence which the individual
possesses in varying degrees.
1. Linguistic
 2. Logical-Mathematical
3. Musical
4. Spatial
5. Bodily-Kinesthetic
6. Intrapersonal
7. Interpersonal
8. Naturalist
Linguistic - People who possess this component
of intelligence is sensitive to
language, meanings, and the relations
among words.
- makes people able to communicate
through language including reading,
writing, and speaking.
- This is a distinct characteristic of
novelist, poets, copywriter,
scriptwriter, editors, magazine
writers, public relations directors, and
speech writers.
Logical-mathematical - This intelligence component covers
abstract thought, precision, counting,
organization, and logical structure,
enabling the individual to see
relationship between objects and
solve problems such as those in
algebra and actuarial concerns
- This is a characteristic of
mathematicians, scientists, engineers,
animal trackers, police investigators,
and lawyers.
Musical - This intelligence component gives
People the sounds timbre capacity to
create and understand meanings made
out of and to enjoy different types of
music.
- The person endowed with and the
emotional power and complex
organization of music.
- This such intelligence component is
sensitive to pitch, rhythm, 1
characteristic is found in performers,
composers, conductors, musical
audience, recording engineers, and
makers of musical
Spatial - Enables people to perceive and
manipulate images in their brain and
re-create them.
- blessed with abilities concerning keen
observation, visual thinking, mental
images, metaphor, essence of the
 whole, and gestalt.
- This intelligence is found in
architects, painters, sculptors,
navigators, chess players, theoretical
physicians, and battlefield
commanders.
Bodily-Kinesthetic - This intelligence enables people their
body and perceptual and motor
systems in skilled ways, such as
dancing, playing sports, and
expressing emotion through facial
expressions.
- Dancers, athletes, actors, inventors,
surgeons,
Intrapersonal - has highly accurate understanding of
himself or herself.
- He or she is sensitive to his or her
values, purpose, feelings, and has a
developed sense of self.
- This is found in novelists, counselors,
wise elders, philosophers, gurus and
persons with deep sense of self.
Interpersonal - This intelligence component makes it
possible for persons to recognize and
make distinctions among the feelings,
motives, and intentions of others, as
in managing people and parenting
children.
- found in politicians, teachers,
religious leaders, counselors,
salesmen, and managers.
Naturalist - A person with this intelligence
possesses the ability to seek patterns
in the external physical environment.
As a result, the opportunity to enrich
all the other seven intelligences is
provided.