MODULE-IV

MOTIVATION, EMOTION AND MEASURING

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
Dr Pallabi Mund, Assistant Professor (Management)

D.A.V. School of Business Management, Bhubaneswar

A) MOTIVATION

It is essential to increase overall efficiency of human beings to improve performance of an

organization. While machines, processes, technology of high order can be made available to
the individuals, but high productivity can only be achieved if workers are highly skilled and
adequately motivated. Motivation perhaps is a single most important factor of the study of
management that concerns each and every executive today.

Motivation: “a driving force which stimulates an individual to initiate and sustain a behavior.”
This driving force is produced by a state of tension, which exists as the result of an unfulfilled
need. Individuals strive, both consciously and subconsciously to reduce this tension. For
example: A student studies books because he wants to get high marks in his exam. An
employee strives to perform better in a job as he wants to earn good money for his livelihood
and his family’s livelihood.

What is Motivation?

• Derived from the Latin word “MOVERE” which means “to move‟

Motivation is the act of stimulating someone or oneself to get desired course of action, to push
right button to get desired reactions.”

DEFINITION OF MOTIVATION

• Scot defined motivation as “a process of stimulating people to action to accomplish desired

goals”.

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NATURE/CHARACTERISTICS OF MOTIVATION

• Psychological phenomenon: The process of motivation depends on the needs, desires,

etc which are psychological phenomenon. The Psychology of every individual is
different, hence the needs, desires, expectations are also different.
• Dynamic and situational: The motives, behavior and goals, are dynamic. The drives
differ every day.
• Not an observed phenomenon: Motivation is not directly observed, rather we
apprehend something based on the behavior of an individual underlying his motives.
• Goal oriented process: The motives of a person help one to achieve a goal.
• Continuous process: Human wants are unlimited, so the motives are unlimited and
once the individual satisfies a single motive/want, he gets encouraged to satisfy another
motive/need/want of a higher order.

TYPES OF MOTIVATION

Intrinsic motivation:

• A type of motivation in which motives/needs originate from inside the human body.
• It refers to the internal driving state (physiological/biological needs, psychological
needs, inner fears, curiosity) stimulating an individual to behave in a specific way.
• It includes all biological drives such as hunger, thirst, sleep, relief from pain, need for
oxygen, etc.
• For example: Hunger becomes the driving force which compels an individual to have
food. Similarly a day’s tiredness compels an individual to relax and have a peaceful sleep.

Extrinsic Motivation:

• In this type of motivation, the motives originate from outside the human body.
• This refers to the external driving forces to the human body but they have a rewarding
or punishing impact for the individual.
• For example, Incentives, Bonuses, Allowances, Promotion and Demotion, Rewards and
Punishment, Merit and Distinction Certificates, appreciation Certificates and Prizes.

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IMPORTANCE/SIGNIFICANCE OF MOTIVATION

• High Performance: Motivated employees will put maximum efforts for achieving
organisational goals. The untapped reservoirs of physical and mental abilities are taped to
the maximum. Better performance will also result in higher productivity. The cost of
production can also be brought down if productivity is raised. The employees should be
offered more incentive for increasing their performance. Motivation will act as a stimulant
for improving the performance of employees.
• Low Employee Turnover and Absenteeism: When the employees are not satisfied with
their job then they will leave it whenever they get an alternative offer. The dissatisfaction
among employees also increases absenteeism. The employment training of new employees
costs dearly to the organisation. When the employees are satisfied with their jobs and they
are well motivated by offering them financial and non-financial incentives then they will
not leave the job. The rate of absenteeism will also be low because they will try to increase
their output.
• Ensures Organisational Efficiency: Motivation is an effective instrument in the hands of
management to maximize efficiency of operations. A worker may be very competent but
no activity can take place until the individual is willing to perform that activity. What
employees do depends largely on how much and why they want to do. Motivated
employees give greater performance than demotivated ones.
• Ensures Loyalty: A good manager identifies the motivational needs of employees and
provides suitable opportunities to satisfy them. A satisfied employee prefers to remain
loyal to the organization and work hard to achieve greater heights. This in turn promotes
a long-term, employee-employer relationship.
• Stability in Workforce: Refers to designing attractive motivational measures that satisfy
the employees of the organization. As a result, their commitment and loyalty increases
towards the organization. It also increases the efficiency of the employee, because a
satisfied employee is a productive employee.
• Facilitates Change: High Motivation helps to reduce resistance to change. An
organization has to incorporate changes to cope with environmental changes. Properly
Motivated employees accept, introduce and implement these changes keeping the
organization effective.

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NEED THEORIES OF MOTIVATION - Contributions of McGregor, Maslow and
Herzberg.

• The Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory

• Fredrick Herzberg’s two factor theory
• McGregor’s Theory X and Y

1. THE MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS THEORY

Abraham Maslow (1943) provided the content perspective with the hierarchy of needs theory
which postulates that people are motivated by multiple needs, which exist in a hierarchical
order. Maslow based his theory that a need that is not satisfied dominates the behaviour
sparking off an activity for its satisfaction. This need, when satisfied, in its turn activates the
higher need. This sequence can be denoted as under:

a) Physiological Needs: The fulfilment of physiological needs, such as thirst, hunger, sleep,
etc. takes precedence over all other needs; on the satisfaction of these needs, is dependent the
very survival and continuance of the human race. Unlike other needs, the physiological needs
have a tendency of recurrence. Money represents the best means to satisfy physiological
needs. Money is valued not for its own sake, but for the sake of what it can buy for us. This
is one of the dimensions of money motive. Physiological needs are finite but are recurrent.

b) Safety needs: Once physiological needs are met, ‘safety’ needs become important. While
physiological needs have a reference to the present, the safety needs look to the future. The
needs for food, clothing, etc. are satisfied today. But what about tomorrow? A man, so long
as he is young and working and earning, is able to satisfy the physiological needs as and when
they occur. But will he be able to satisfy needs and fend for himself when he gets old? He
must have reasonable ‘safety’ in his old age too. Implicit in the fulfilment of these safety
needs is the origin of many labour enactments in India today. The pension plans, the payment
of gratuity Act, the provident funds Act etc. and other retiral benefits, go, basically, to ensure
security for the man in his old age.

c) Social and belongingness needs: The needs for social belongingness have their origin in
the gregarious nature of the human being. Since man is a social being, he has a need to belong
and to be accepted by various groups. When social needs become dominant, a person will
strive for meaningful relations with others. People interact simply because they enjoy it. Even
such interactions which give no apparent tangible rewards are entered into simply because

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they reasonably assure one that one is a part of the society and is accepted by the society. We
always live in the society and are surrounded by others. We may, therefore, fail to properly
visualize the strength of these needs.

The informal groups in an organization are founded in a quest to fulfil the needs for
belongingness. One of the many reasons for the informal groups to thrive in an organization
could be the employees’ reaction to the threat posed by boredom, insignificance and
insecurity the employees feel. The least the management can do is to recognize the fact that
the informal groups can be an asset to them and can be instrumental in furthering the goals of
the organization.

d)Self Esteem i.e., self-Worth Needs: It is not only sufficient for a human being to “belong”,
what he craves for and strives towards is that others should recognize his worth. An employee
stays in an organization not merely because he gets his salary and other material rewards but
he is there because others recognize that he is worthy of the job and other material benefits
that he gets. This need manifests itself in three forms;

a. the need for status

b. the need for power
c. the need for recognition.

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The scuffle in the organization for achieving the organizational status and the power, which
goes with it, is the essence of the esteem needs. Promotion is recognition of one’s capability
to shoulder higher responsibilities.

e)Self-actualization needs: In the words of Maslow, these needs denote “what a man can be,
should be”. A self-actualized person has a cause; an ideology to fight for the goal set for
himself. He concentrates on the feedback, which is task oriented and is not taken in by the
personal criticism or praise. Since such a person has a cause to believe in, many a times he
forgoes fulfilment of other needs in pursuance of cause. He is unmindful of the physical
surroundings.

Archimedes, when he exclaimed “Eureka” was oblivious of the surroundings. The Great
Indian Leader Mahatma Gandhi deprived himself even of the physical necessities when he
underwent a fasting penance at Nowkhali at the time of partition of the country. A highly
successful scientist may fall in the category of the self-actualized persons. Barring exceptions,
this need of self-actualization remains latent in most people.

Criticisms:
• Some critics say that the order/hierarchy of the needs may not always be the same.
• Maslow’s theory cannot be universally applied in all countries, firms or different
positions. Maslow’s observation that “a need that has been relatively well satisfied
ceases to motivate may not be true in the case of self-esteem and self-actualization
needs.
• Needs are not only the determinant of behavior, there are other motivating factors like
perception, experiences, etc.
• Maslow’s theory is static and needs to be changed over time.

2) HERZBERG’S TWO FACTOR THEORY

Herzberg extended work of Maslow and developed a specific content theory of work
motivation. In 1950’s he conducted a study noting responses of 200 Accountants and
Engineers employed by the firms in and around Pittsburgh. In collecting data he used the
critical incidental method. In this method, the respondent was asked to narrate one incident
from his work life about which he was particularly unhappy and another incident from work-
life about which he was particularly happy.

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On analyzing the data thus collected Herzberg came to conclusion that there are two sets of
factors at the work life; one set he called “hygiene factors” while the other was called the
“motivators”. The following are the hygiene factors and motivators.

Hygiene factors are those factors that by their absence inhibit performance but any addition
in them does not increase efficiency or productivity. These are the job context factors that
occur at the time of doing the job. Thus they are extrinsic to the job. These factors are also
called as dissatisfiers.

These are conditions of a job which operates primarily to cause dissatisfaction to the
employee when they (conditions) are not present. But the presence of these factors does not
build strong motivation. Such factors are also called Maintenance factors since they are
necessary to maintain a reasonable level of job satisfaction.

According to Herzberg, an organization that meets only the hygiene needs of its employees
will eliminate dissatisfaction but will not get superior performance.

Motivators are those factors, which by their absence do not inhibit performance, but any
addition in them increases efficiency. These are the job content factors that make the job
itself a tool of motivation. These factors are also called as satisfiers’ as these are job
conditions or factors which build high levels of satisfaction or motivation. However, if these
conditions are not present, they do not prove to be highly dissatisfying. Motivators are
concerned mainly with the job content and tend to be internal to the job.

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By their very nature hygiene factors are necessary for the performance but what is required
of the Manager is to provide these factors to the required level and focus his attention to
provide more and more on the motivators. Motivators cater to the higher order needs of the
human being and, therefore, they are more important. In order to build these factors into the
job design a Manager should load the job with motivators. This is the theory of job loading.
Job loading can be done either by horizontally loading or by vertically loading the job. The
Horizontal job loading is known as “job enlargement” while vertical job loading is known as
“job enrichment”.

Criticism of Herzberg Theory:

❖ The analysis of critical incident type response is highly subjective.
❖ This theory is most applicable to professionals such as engineers, managers,
accountants, etc. and not relevant to blue-collar workers.
❖ Herzberg’s study focused on the level of satisfaction, not performance, and
satisfaction and performance are not synonymous.

Inspire of the seemingly legitimate criticism, Herzberg has to be given credit for contributing
substantially to the study of work motivation. He extended Maslow concept and made it more
applicable to the work motivation. Herzberg added much to the better understanding of the

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job content factors and employee satisfaction, but fell short of comprehensive theory of work
motivation.

3) DOUGLAS MCGREGOR’S THEORY X AND THEORY Y

Douglas McGregor, a social psychologist was heavily influenced by both the Hawthorne
studies and Maslow’s theory. A powerful influence for maturity on organizational behavior
was Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y, first published in 1957 in his book “Human
Side of Enterprise”.

He believed that two basic kinds of managers exist. One type, the Theory X manager, has a
negative view of employees and assumes that they are lazy, untrustworthy, and incapable of
assuming responsibility.

On the other hand, the Theory Y manager assumes that employees are not only trustworthy and
capable of assuming responsibility, but also have high levels of motivation.

As a group, these theorists discovered that people worked for inner satisfaction and not
materialistic rewards, shifting the focus to the role of individuals in an organization's
performance.

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Criticisms:

• Theory Y provides a basis for better management and organizational performance. But
it is not an universal remedy for all managerial problems.
• Simply assuming that people are creative, responsible and so forth, may not always
make them so.
• There were also few managers who believed more in Theory X than Theory Y and
some of those managers were effective.
B) EMOTIONS

The term emotion has been derived from the Latin word E-mover, means to move; to stir up,
to agitate, to excite and to arouse oneself. This arousal of self creates an urge towards action.

Emotion refers to a state of feeling (including physiological responses and cognitions) that
conveys information about relationships.

According to Stephen P. Robbins, “Emotions are intense feelings that are directed towards
someone or something, and are considered to be critical factors in employee behavior”.

NATURE/CHARACTERISTICS OF EMOTION:

• Emotions are subjective and purely individual. The same situation may evoke
different emotions in different individuals.
• Every emotion is followed by physiological changes such as rapid heartbeat, change
in the pulse rate, change in blood pressure, and change in the facial expression, voice
and body movements.
• Emotion is accompanied by a feeling of pleasantness and unpleasantness, following
physiological changes.
• Emotions have wide range and are not restricted to a particular age period. They
occur to children, adolescents and adults.
• Emotions rise suddenly. The passing away of emotions is, however slow, leaving
behind an emotional state which lasts for some time.
• Emotions have swings. One emotion may give rise to another emotion and the two
may get merged.
• Emotions deal with both psychological and psychological changes, both objective
and subjective aspects. It has got feeling or covert aspect as well as overt or behavioural
aspect.

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EMOTIONAL REACTION TYPES (NEGATIVE):
1. Confusion: It is the state of feeling when you get information that does not make sense
to you, leaving you uncertain what to do with it. Confused when you receive
information that you cannot match with what you already know or believe to be true.
For example, if everyone is crazed about an art piece and you don’t see what is so
special about it, you can feel confused and wonder what you might have missed.
2. Fear: is a state of panic. It depends on different situation: loss of support, sudden
approach of anything, loud noise. So, the stimulus itself does not create fear, the way it
is presented determines a fear response.

Causes of fear:
• Getting attention: one shows fear for getting attention. In order to escape an
unpleasant task or experience one develops fear response.
• Poor training: over protection and sheltered home prevents emotional maturity.
When mother or other family members make it a point to accompany the child
wherever he goes, wherever he goes, to protect him, in future he cannot go
anywhere alone.
• Symbolic: phobias are expressing fear for anything. Fear for spider, bunch of
hair, small rats, water, crowded places, etc.
Prevention of fear:
• Social imitation: is an advanced behavior whereby an individual observes and
replicates another's behavior.
• Direct conditioning: association of the stimuli directly by the individual, that
he desires to get fear can be eliminated.
3. Anger: is aid to be a negative emotion like fear. In the beginning generalized
underestimated and mass anger response is found. But gradually it is distinguished and
differentiated. it is the negative state of emotion. It is a more frequent emotional
expression in children than fear. Anger provokes stimuli.
Causes of anger:
• The cause of anger is interference or restriction of any type or it may be due to
frustration. This frustration may be due to personal, physical or social causes.
• Ricketts has pointed out certain other causes of anger like conflict over play
things, interruption of interesting activities like pressurizing the child to leave
paly and study etc.

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 4. Jealousy: it is the extension of anger. Jealously is an outgrowth of anger. It is an
attitude of resentment directed towards other people only; while anger can be directed
towards people, self and others. It is a negative emotion. It is an attitude of bitterness
directed towards others.
How it occurs: it depends upon training and the treatment that one gets from others.
Example- hurting others, reverting to odd behaviour, verbal quarrel, gossiping, name
calling, taunting jokes.

EMOTION (POSITIVE EMOTION):

1. Joy, pleasure and delight: All these are positive emotions and they generally belong to
joy. Such emotions always give pleasure to the individual. Joy depends upon good health
and general bodily conditions. Joy is generalized and undifferentiated rather than specific
in form.
2. Affection: It is a pleasant emotion directed towards a person or a thing. One, who gives
pleasure and satisfaction, usually gets this emotional response. Young children express
their affection to both objects and persons.
3. Sentiments: Sentiments are complex emotional patterns with an intellectual core or
foundation. They are attached to persons. Things and situations and are developed as a
result of child’s experience. Sentiments are learned reactions and are generally weaker
than other emotions. It begins to develop in the early school life of the child and the first
sentiments are social sentiments. These are like group loyalty, school spirit, pride of one’s
friend etc.

PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF EMOTIONS:

Bodily changes mean physiological changes. Because of the excessive activation of different
organs during emotional states, physiological changes occur. Though each emotion has typical
behaviour pattern, it also varies from culture to culture and individual to individual. In spite of
these variations there are some common bodily changes, which can be divided into overt and
covert, external and internal bodily changes.

External expression of emotion:

i) Facial expression: face is the most expressive organ of the human body. It is thus said
to be the barometer of emotion. The muscles in the forehead, head, around the eyes, nose

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 and mouth are used differently with each emotion. Facial expression varies from motion
to emotion, even for a particular emotion it varies from person to person.
ii) Postural reaction: different emotions arouse different postures. Fear involves flight.
Violent anger involves not flight but aggressive movements, which may either be abusive
or involve actual attack. In grief we bow, we stiffen in anger; we learn forward when we
are anxious and expect something. In emotion of love, there is movement in the direction
of the beloved.
iii)Vocal expression: voice is a powerful organ of indicating different types of emotional
experience. The modulation of voice, change in loudness, pitch may represent different
types of emotion. A loud sound with enough variation in pitch indicates excitement, a
rising inflection usually indicates a feeling of surprised doubt, loud laughter indicates joy
and happiness.

Internal Expression of Emotions: may involve both mental and physical components.
Mental components: They involve cognition- an awareness of the sensation and usually its
cause; affect, the feeling itself; physical components: physical changes such as hypertension,
tachycardia, and sweating.

VARIATIONS IN EMOTIONS BASED ON CULTURE:

Culture can impact the way in which people display emotion. A cultural display rule is one
of a collection of culturally specific standards that govern the types and frequencies of displays
of emotions that are acceptable. Therefore, people from varying cultural backgrounds can
have very different cultural display rules of emotion.

For example, research has shown that individuals from the United States express negative
emotions like fear, anger, and disgust both alone and in the presence of others, while Japanese
individuals only do so while alone. Furthermore, individuals from cultures that tend to
emphasize social cohesion are more likely to engage in suppression of emotional reaction so
they can evaluate which response is most appropriate in a given context

Despite different emotional display rules, our ability to recognize and produce facial
expressions of emotion appears to be universal.

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In fact, even congenitally blind individuals produce the same facial expression of emotions,
irrespective of which culture they belong to and also despite their never having the opportunity
to observe these facial displays of emotion in other people.

There is substantial evidence for six universal emotions (already explained above) that are
each associated with distinct facial expressions. These include: happiness, surprise, sadness,
fright, disgust, and anger.

C) MEASURING INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: THE NATURE OF

PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING

Every individual is a unique being. Along with the features and characteristics shared with
other people, i.e. the universal ones, each individual has many particular characteristics. The
subjective tendencies are intelligence, attitude, aptitude, creativity and interest which are
particularly the concern of psychology which makes an individual different from the other.
These individual differences are derived from various psychological tests administered to a
particular group of people.

Psychological testing is a field characterised by the use of samples of behaviour in order to

assess psychological construct(s), such as cognitive and emotional functioning, about a given
individual. The technical term for the science behind psychological testing is psychometrics.

Psychological tests are written, visual, or verbal evaluations administered to assess the
cognitive and emotional functioning of children and adults. It is “an objective and standardized
measure of a sample of behaviour.” Psychological testing is a standard procedure of
measurement designed to measure characteristics, abilities, personality, etc. They are used to
measure the quantified characteristics and have standards.

According to Lee. J. Cronbach - “A test is a systematic procedure for observing a person’s

behaviour and describing with the aid of a numerical scale or category system.”
PURPOSE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING

Psychological tests are used to assess a variety of mental abilities and attributes, including
achievement and ability, personality, and neurological functioning.

For children, academic achievement, ability, and intelligence tests may be used as tools in
school placement, in determining the presence of a learning disability or a developmental delay,

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in identifying giftedness, or in tracking intellectual development. Intelligence testing may also
be used with teens and young adults to determine vocational ability (e.g., in career counselling).

Personality tests are administered for a wide variety of reasons, from diagnosing
psychopathology (e.g., personality disorder, depressive disorder) to screening job
candidates. They may be used in an educational setting to determine personality strengths and
weaknesses. Tests are thus used in the selection, classification, diagnosis, prediction of
individual behaviour. In short it can be said that the Psychological tests are formalized
measures of mental functioning.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD PSYCHOLOGICAL TEST

A test used in counselling / guidance or for training and development is considered good
if the following can be said about it:

1) The test measures what it claims to measure. For example, a test of mental ability does in
fact measure mental ability and not some other characteristic.

2) The test measures what it claims to measure consistently or reliably. This means that if a
person were to take the test again, the person would get a similar test score.

3) The test is purpose-relevant. In other words, the test measures one or more characteristics
that are important to specific career decisions or for predicting or monitoring training and
development outcomes.

4) By using the test, more effective decisions can be made by and about individuals. For
example, an interest inventory helps you to guide a client toward careers in which he or she is
more likely to be satisfied. A mechanical aptitude test may help you predict who would benefit
from mechanical training.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD PSYCHOLOGICAL TEST

There are five main characteristics of a good psychological tests, which are as follows:

❖ Objectivity: The test should be free from subjective judgements such as wish, prejudice,
etc. regarding various attributes which are to be measured and evaluated like, the ability, skill,
knowledge or potentiality, traits, etc.
❖ Reliability: This simply refers to the extent to which the results obtained are consistent or

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reliable, when the test is administered for more than one with a reasonable gap of time, a
reliable test will yield the same scores. It simply shows that the test is trustworthy. Though,
there are many methods of testing the reliability of a test.

❖ Validity: The validity of the test signifies that the test measures what it meant to measure.
For example, when an intelligence test is developed to assess the level of intelligence, it should
assess the intelligence of the person, not other factors. There are many ways to assess validity
of a test. Simply, we can say that it explains us whether the test fulfils the objective of its
development.

❖ Norms/Standardization: It refers to the average performance of a representative sample on

a given test. According to Chaplin - “A norm may be a single value or a range of values
expressing the typical performance of a group against which any individual can be prepared.
Norms may be expressed in terms of age, percentile or simple average.” On the basis of nature,
there are mainly four types of norms-Age norms, Grade norms, Percentile norms, Standard
score norms.

❖ Practicability: The psychological test must be practicable in- time required for completion,
the length, number of items or questions, scoring, etc. The test should neither be too lengthy
nor too short and difficult to answer as well as scoring.

RELIABILITY, VALIDITY AND ITS TYPES

Reliability and Validity are concepts used to evaluate the quality of research. They indicate
how well a method, technique or test measure something. Reliability is about the consistency
of a measure, and validity is about the accuracy of a measure.

Reliability: The term reliability in psychological research refers to the consistency of a

research study or measuring test. Of course, it is unlikely the exact results will be obtained
each time as participants and situations vary, but a strong positive correlation between the
results of the same test indicates reliability. Reliability is important to make sure something
can be replicated and that the findings will be the same if the experiment was done again.

Validity helps in identifying how accurate our findings are. A test can be reliable, means that
the test-takers will get the same score no matter when or where they take it, within reason of
course. A test can be reliable without being valid. However, a test cannot be valid unless
it is reliable.

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As Reliability refers to the consistency of a measure. Psychologists consider three types of
consistency:

a) Over time (test-retest reliability): When researchers measure a construct that they
assume to be consistent across time, then the scores they obtain should also be
consistent across time. For example, intelligence is generally thought to be consistent
across time. A person who is highly intelligent today will be highly intelligent next
week. This means that any good measure of intelligence should produce roughly the
same scores for this individual next week as it does today.

b) Across items (internal consistency): is the consistency of people’s responses across

the items on a multiple-item measure. In general, all the items on such measures are
supposed to reflect the same underlying construct, so people’s scores on those items
should be correlated with each other

c) Across different researchers (inter-rater reliability): Many behavioural measures

involve significant judgment on the part of an observer or a rater. Inter-rater reliability
is the extent to which different observers are consistent in their judgments.

For example, if you were interested in measuring university students’ social skills, you
could make video recordings of them as they interacted with another student whom they
are meeting for the first time. Then you could have two or more observers watch the
videos and rate each student’s level of social skills. To the extent that each participant
does in fact have some level of social skills that can be detected by an attentive observer,
different observers’ ratings should be highly correlated with each other.

Validity is the extent to which the scores from a measure represent the variable they are
intended to measure.

a) Face Validity: Face validity is the extent to which a measurement method appears “on
its face” to measure the construct of interest. Most people would expect a self-esteem
questionnaire to include items about whether they see themselves as a person of worth and
whether they think they have good qualities. So, a questionnaire that included these kinds of
items would have good face validity.

b) Content Validity: the extent to which a measure “covers” the construct of interest:
Consider that attitudes are usually defined as involving thoughts, feelings, and actions toward

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something. By this conceptual definition, a person has a positive attitude toward exercise to the
extent that he or she thinks positive thoughts about exercising, feels good about exercising, and
actually exercises. So, to have good content validity, a measure of people’s attitudes toward
exercise would have to reflect all three of these aspects

c) Criterion Validity: the extent to which people’s scores on a measure are correlated with
other variables (known as criteria) that one would expect them to be correlated with. For
example, people’s scores on a new measure of test anxiety should be negatively correlated with
their performance on an important school exam. If it were found that people’s scores were in
fact negatively correlated with their exam performance, then this would be a piece of evidence
that these scores really represent people’s test anxiety. But if it were found that people scored
equally well on the exam regardless of their test anxiety scores, then this would cast doubt on
the validity of the measure.

d) Discriminant Validity: the extent to which scores on a measure are not correlated with
measures of variables that are conceptually distinct. For example, self-esteem is a general
attitude toward the self that is fairly stable over time. It is not the same as mood, which is how
good or bad one happens to be feeling right now. So, people’s scores on a new measure of self-
esteem should not be very highly correlated with their moods. If the new measure of self-
esteem were highly correlated with a measure of mood, it could be argued that the new measure
is not really measuring self-esteem; it is measuring mood instead.

STANDARDIZATION:

It implies uniformity of procedures in administrating and scoring the test. If the scores obtained
by different persons are to be comparable, testing conditions must obviously be the same for
all.

The formulation of directions is a major part of the standardization of a new test. Such
standardization extends to the exact materials employed, time limits, oral instructions,
preliminary demonstrations, way of handling queries from test takers and every other detail of
the testing situation.

Another important step in the standardization of a test is the establishment of norms. As its
name implies, a norm is a normal or average performance. In the process of standardization a
test, it is administrated to a large, representative sample of the type of persons for whom it is
designed. This group known as the standardization sample serves to establish the norms.

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CLASSIFICATION/TYPES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS

a) Intelligence test: IQ tests purport to be measures of intelligence, IQ (or cognitive) tests and
achievement test are common norm-referenced tests. In these types of tests, a series of tasks
is presented to the person being evaluated, and the person’s responses are graded according
to carefully prescribed guidelines. After the test is completed, the results can be compiled
and compared to the responses of a norm group, usually composed of people of the same
age or grade level as the person being evaluated. IQ tests which contain a series of tasks
typically divide the tasks into verbal and non-verbal and performance test. Some of the
important IQ tests are, Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Wechsler Adult Intelligence scale
and Draw a man Test.
b) Tests of Interest and Aptitude: Tests of Interest assesses the likes and dislikes of the user
whereas aptitude tests aim at measuring the potential of the user in a particular field. These
are mainly used for the educational and vocational counselling. Examples of Interest test are
Strong Vocational Interest Blank and Kuder Preference Record. Commonly used aptitude
tests are Differential Aptitude Test (DAT) and DBDA.
c) Attitude tests: Attitude test assess an individual’s feelings about an event, person, or object.
Attitude scales are used in marketing to determine individual (and group) preferences for
brands, or items. Typically attitude tests use either a Thurston Scale or Likert Scale to
measure specific items.
d) Tests of Achievement: Achievement tests measure the individual’s performance in a
particular area. It assesses the acquisition of knowledge and skills by the individual after the
completion of a course/training. Achievement tests can be standardized or informal
achievement tests made by teachers. Achievement tests help in finding out the student’s
strengths and weaknesses in particular areas and assessing student’s performance over a
period of time.
e) Neuro-psychological tests: These tests consist of specifically designed tasks used to
measure a psychological function known to be linked to a particular brain structure or
pathway. They are typically used to assess impairment after an injury or illness known to
affect neuro-cognitive functioning, or when used in research, to contrast neuropsychological
abilities across experimental groups.
f) Personality tests: Personality tests and inventories evaluate the thoughts, emotions,
attitudes, and behavioural traits that comprise personality. The results of these tests can help
determine a child/adult’s personality strengths and weaknesses and may identify certain

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 disturbances in personality. Psychological measures of personality consist of rating scale or
self-report measures and free response measures or projective tests.
g) Objective tests, i.e., rating scale or self-report measure: These have a restricted response
format, such as allowing for true or false answers or rating using an ordinal scale. Prominent
examples of objective personality tests include the MMPI, MCMI and Child behaviour
check list. Objective personality tests can be designed for use in organisations for potential
employees, such as the NEO-PI, the 16PF, and the Occupational Personality Questionnaire,
all of which are based on the Big Five Factor Model of normal personality.
h) Projective tests (Free response measures): attempt to measure personality based on the
theory that individuals tend to project their own unconscious attitudes into ambiguous
situations. An example of this would be the Rorschach test, in which a person states what
each of ten ink blots might be. Other projective tests include Thematic Apperception Test
(TAT), the House-Tree-Person Test, and the Attachment Projective.
i) Direct observation tests: These are also used in many situations. Although most
psychological tests are “rating scale” or “free response” measures, psychological assessment
may also involve the observation of people as they complete activities. This type of
assessment is usually conducted with families in a laboratory, home or with children in a
classroom. The purpose may be clinical, such as to establish a preintervention baseline of a
child’s hyperactive or aggressive classroom behaviours or to observe the nature of a parent-
child interaction in order to understand a relational disorder. Direct observation procedures
are also used in research, for example to study the relationship between intrapsychic
variables and specific target behaviours, or to explore sequences of behavioural interaction.

MEASURING INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: THE NATURE OF HUMAN

INTELLIGENCE

From birth onwards, differences become increasingly apparent, especially in human beings,
partly as expressions of hereditary factor and partly through the impact of the environment.
Such differences have been recognized since ancient times and they occur in all human abilities
including intellectual functions. You must have observed that two individuals who study the
same amount of time for an examination achieve different scores. You also know that some
succeed in medical school while others have difficulty even finishing high school.

Why does this thing happen? It because of INTELLIGENCE.

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Intelligence is one of the most widely used yet most widely debated concepts in scientific and
everyday life. Intelligence means different things to different people. Many psychologists
believe that intelligence does not refer to one special ability but to a group of abilities.

In general terms, intelligence means the manner with which an individual deals with facts
and situations.

Binet (1905): “Intelligence is the ability of an individual to direct his behaviour towards a
goal”.

J. Piaget (1926): “Intelligence is an adaptation to physical and social environment”.

The definition of intelligence is defined differently, so the nature of intelligent is also described
by different persons in different ways.

1. In terms of behaviour and actions:

The school teacher may describe a student as bright, if the learns his lesson easily. The manager
of a Super Bazar may regard a Salesman as intelligent and smart if he can satisfy customers
and dispose them of quickly. The workshops manager may regard an apprentice as intelligence
if the he is skilful in using his hands and his tools. In the above cases, the word ‘intelligent’ has
been used in the sense of “efficient behaviour.”

2. In terms of the nature of work one does:

Handling ideas and symbols such as words, formulas, numbers and diagrams would require
abstract intelligence. A person with abstract intelligence is able to discover relations among
symbols and to solve problems. In the same way the ability to deal with machines, equipment
and mechanical appliances requires mechanical intelligence.

3. In terms of manging interpersonal skills:

Efficiency in getting on well in personal and social affairs requires social intelligence. The
socially intelligent person makes friends easily and is fateful in dealing with human beings.

4. Variations in Intelligence:

A girl may find chemistry and physics uninteresting but may have the talent to master a foreign
language. We do not usually find a student who is very good in one subject and poor in all
other subjects.

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It is rare to find a person who can do only one task very well. On the other hand, it may be
found that even average people perform to be positively related, to whatever we have discussed
on the concept & nature of intelligence.

5. Intelligence does not have gender differences:

Various studies have been conducted by psychologists & researcher a to find out whether
women are more intelligent that men and vice versa. The result of these researches hangs in
one way or the other.

In some of the cases no significant difference has been found. Research studies also so that the
average scores of the sense are strongly similar. Therefore, it is proper to think that difference
in gender does not contribute towards difference in intelligence.

6. Intelligence has no racial or cultural differences:

The results of earlier studies proved that intelligence is not the birth right of particular race of
group. The bright and the ‘dull’ can be found in any race, caste or cultural group.

7. Intelligence can be recognized in three broad areas:

People do not have same type and same amount of intelligence in solving all problems.
According to Thurstone intelligent behaviour can be recognized in three broad areas:

a) Abstract Intelligence: The ability to understand and manage ideas and symbols. Such
as words, numbers etc.

b) Mechanical Intelligence: The ability to understand and manage things and

mechanisms, such as a knife, a gun, a moving machine and automobile etc.

c) Social Intelligence: The ability to understand and mange interpersonal relationships

with others and to act wisely in human relations.

NATURE OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE: THE ROLE OF HEREDITY

Intelligence is inherited: The amount of intelligence that a person possesses is inherited and
fixed. The amount though fixed does not reveal itself at the start of life with the growth of the
child, the amount inherited by a child also grows. The general belief is that the growth of
intelligence stops and it reaches its limit at the age of sixteen. But it is also true that a man of

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forty knows more than when he was a boy of sixteen. But this does not mean that the amount
of intelligence possessed by him has increased. This may be due to his experience too.

Intelligence is influenced by environment: Love, affection, concern & generosity judiciously

bestowed on growing children, have very desirable effects. Poor environment retard
development of intelligence.

NATURE OF MEASUREMENT OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE

To measure something, we need a unit of measurement. For example, to measure the length we
use a scale, weighing machine for measuring weight etc. To know how much of anything exists,
we have to measure it.

But to measure intelligence, there is no such one specific measuring scale. Because intelligence
is not an object, it is not observable, but it is a relative mental ability. So we have different tests
which gives an idea about the intelligence of an individual.

General (or abstract) Intelligence test:

This test was first designed by psychologists for use in schools. These were intended to serve
primarily as tools in determining a child’s ability to carry on schools work, to use symbols and
numbers quickly and accurately and to read with comprehension.

It is for this reason that tests designed to measure abstract abilities came to be known as general
intelligence tests. Another purpose of designing such tests was to measure the abilities that
distinguishes the bright child from the dull.

The General Intelligence Tests have been classified into three groups. Individual, group
and performance tests:

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1. The Individual Test:

The individual intelligence test is administered to only one individual at a time. A trained
psychologist is expected to administer the test for a definite period of time and interpret the
result. These tests cover age group from 2 years to 18 years. For example: The Binet Simon
tests, and Weschler test.

2. Group Test:

The group intelligence tests are meant for assessing the intelligence of a large number of
individuals in one sitting. There are two kinds of group intelligence tests verbal and non- verbal.

Verbal: The verbal group test requires an individual to read out certain problems and write out
solutions of these problems

Non-verbal: The non-verbal group tests presents similar problems as the verbal test but in a
different way. The problems are presented in the form of pictures, diagrams, puzzles and
mazes. If does not require the individual to read or write, but only to be able to make a mark
with a pencil.

3. Performance Test:

Performance tests are designed to test problem solving ability using certain objects such as
pictures and blocks, instead of words. These tests are especially useful with young children,
illiterates, persons with speech defects and persons who do not have proficiency in language.

Some of the famous tests are (i) Koh’s Block design test (ii) The cube construction tests and
(iii) The Pass Along tests.

MENTALLY RETARDED AND MENTALLY GIFTED PEOPLE

In general terms, intelligence means the manner with which an individual deal with facts and
situations. Binet (1905) defines “Intelligence is the ability of an individual to direct his
behaviour towards a goal”. The measure of Intelligence is done through various intelligence
tests and the score obtained is called as IQ. IQ stands for intelligence quotient. The equation
used to calculate a person's IQ score is Mental Age / Chronological Age x 100.

IQ tests are tools to measure intellectual abilities and potential. They're designed to reflect a
wide range of cognitive skills, such as reasoning, logic, and problem-solving. IQ tests are made

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to have an average score of 100. Most people (about 68 percent) have an IQ between 85 and
115. Only a small fraction of people have a very low IQ (below 70) or a very high IQ (above
130).

Mentally Gifted People: People who score above 130 on intelligence tests are usually
considered gifted. An important study of gifted children was undertaken by who devised the
Stanford-Binet test in the course of developing that test, Terman and his associates tested many
thousands of children, and then did further research on those who had lQ's of 140 or more. This
group of more than 1500 children was in the top 1% of the population. Terman followed most
of these children from 1921 until his death in 1956. Some of his associates are still continuing
this detailed longitudinal study.

In their early years, Terman's gifted children were above average in height, weight, and
physical development, and they were also better adjusted. It had been generally believed that
very gifted children were likely to be maladjusted and socially backward. Terman's study
definitely disproved this notion. Another discovery in Terman's study was that gifted children
are more successful in later life. Twenty-five years after the study began, about 700 of the
original group were still in contact with Terman. Of these, 150 were considered very successful.

The gifted child is liable to encounter serious difficulties in school. He may be bored by
children of his own age and his knowledge may even exceed that of his teacher. Teachers may
consider him rude or a show-off. He may become a real problem simply because he is bored
and loses interest in a class designed for "average" children. Some schools today are facing this
problem by planning appropriate programs for gifted children.

Mentally Retarded People: At the other extreme of the intelligence scale is another problem
area -- the mentally retarded who have IQ's below 70. These persons have traditionally been
classified as morons (IQ 50-70), imbeciles (IQ 20-50), and idiots (IQ below 20). A new
classification by degree of retardation was recently drawn up by the President's Panel on
Mental Retardation. This classification divides retardation into mild, moderate, severe,
and profound. These categories, along with specific characteristics for each category, are
shown below.

a) MILD RETARDATION (IQ 50-70): Often not noticed as retarded by casual observer. Can
acquire practical skills and useful reading and arithmetic to sixth grade level. Can usually
achieve social and vocational skills necessary for self-maintenance but is slower to walk, feed

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self, and talk than most children. Can be guided toward social adjustment. May need occasional
guidance and support when under unusual social or economic stress.

b) MODERATE RETARDATION (IQ 36-50): Noticeable delay in motor especially in

speech; responds to training in various self-help activities, development. Can learn simple
communication, can perform simple tasks under elementary health and safety habits, and
sheltered conditions; participates in simple manual skills; does not progress simple recreation;
travels alone in familiar places; usually incapable of self-maintenance.

c) SEVERE RETARDATION (IQ 20-35): Marked delay in motor development; little or no

communication skill; may respond to training in elementary self-help -- for example, self-
feeding. Usually walks, barring specific disability; has some understanding of speech and some
response; can profit from systematic habit training. Can also conform to daily routines and
repetitive activities but needs continuing direction and supervision in protective environment.

d) PROFOUND RETARDATION (IQ below 20): Gross retardation; minimal capacity for
functioning in sensorimotor areas; needs may walk, Obvious delays in all areas of
development; shows basic emotional responses; may respond to skillful training in use of legs,
hands, and jaws; needs close supervision May walk, need nursing care, have primitive speech,
usually benefits from regular physical activity incapable of self-maintenance

Mental retardation has many causes. Some are genetic accidents, such as Mongolism or
Down's syndrome, which are caused by an extra chromosome. Some are caused by
physiological problems, such as cretinism, which results from thyroid deficiency. Some are
due to physical factors such as not receiving enough oxygen before birth. And many are simply
a combination of hereditary and environmental factors; the parents were retarded and did not
provide a stimulating home environment for the children.

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