Foundations of Individual Behavior

1
 Biographical Characteristics
Biographical Characteristics
Personal characteristics—such as age, gender,
and marital status—that are objective and
easily obtained from personnel records.

2
Ability, Intellect, and Intelligence
Ability
An individual’s capacity to perform
the various tasks in a job.

Intellectual Ability
The capacity to do mental activities.

Multiple Intelligences
Intelligence contains four subparts:
cognitive, social, emotional, and cultural.

3
 Dimensions of
Intellectual Ability

••Number
Numberaptitude
aptitude
••Verbal
Verbalcomprehension
comprehension
••Perceptual
Perceptualspeed
speed
••Inductive
Inductivereasoning
reasoning
••Deductive
Deductivereasoning
reasoning
••Spatial
Spatialvisualization
visualization
••Memory
Memory

4
 Physical Abilities
Physical Abilities
The capacity to do tasks
demanding stamina, dexterity,
strength, and similar
characteristics.

5
What Is Personality?

Heredity Environment Situation

6
 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Extrovert (E)
Type of Social
Interaction Introvert (I)

Sensing (S)
Preference for
Gathering Data Intuitive (N)

Feeling (F)
Preference for
Decision Making Thinking (T)

Perceptive (P)
Style of
Decision Making Judgmental (J)

7
 Extraversion

Agreeableness
The
Big Five Conscientiousness
Personality
Model
Emotional Stability

Openness to Experience

8
The Big Five Personality Dimensions
 Extraversion: Outgoing, talkative, sociable, assertive
 Agreeableness: Trusting, good natured, cooperative,
soft hearted
 Conscientiousness: Dependable, responsible,
achievement oriented, persistent
 Emotional stability: Relaxed, secure, unworried
 Openness to experience: Intellectual, imaginative,
curious, broad minded
Research finding: Conscientiousness is the best (but
not a strong) predictor of job performance

9
 Holland’s Personality-Job Fit Theory
Type Personality Occupations
Mechanic, Farmer,
Realistic Shy, Stable, Practical
Assembly-Line Worker

Biologist, Economist,
Investigative Analytical, Independent
Mathematician

Social Worker,
Social Sociable, Cooperative
Teacher, Counselor

Accountant, Manager
Conventional Practical, Efficient
Bank Teller

Enterprising Ambitious, Energetic Lawyer, Salesperson

Painter, Writer,
Artistic Imaginative, Idealistic
Musician

10
 Attitudes
• Cognitive and affective evaluation that
predisposes a person to act in a certain way

• Attitudes determine how people

– Perceive the work environment
– Interact with others
– Behave on the job
or

11
Components of an Attitude

12
 Components of Attitudes
• Cognitive component includes the beliefs,
opinions, and information the person has
about the object of the attitude
• Affective component is the person’s emotions
or feelings about the object of the attitude
• Behavioral component of an attitude is the
person’s intention to behave toward the
object of the attitude in a certain way

13
 High-Performance Work Attitudes

• Two attitudes that

might relate to high
performance
– Job Satisfaction
– Organizational
Commitment

Managers of today’s knowledge workers often rely on

job satisfaction to keep motivation and enthusiasm for
the organization high
14
 High-Performance Work Attitudes

• Job Satisfaction = positive attitude

toward one’s job

• Organizational Commitment = loyalty

to and heavy involvement in one’s
organization

15
 Conflicts Among Attitudes
• Cognitive Dissonance = condition in which
two attitudes or a behavior and an attitude
conflict
– Leon Festinger – 1950s
– People want to behave in accordance with
their attitudes
– Usually will take corrective action

16
“ WE DON’T SEE THINGS AS THEY

ARE, WE SEE THINGS AS WE ARE.”

 Perception

“ The study of perception is concerned with identifying the process

through which we interpret and organize sensory information to
produce our conscious experience of objects and object relationship.”

“ Perception is the process of receiving information about and making

sense of the world around us. It involves deciding which information
to notice, how to categorize this information and how to interpret it
within the framework of existing knowledge.

“ A process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory

impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.

18
The Perceptual Process

1. Sensation 3.Organization
– An individual’s ability to – The process of placing
detect stimuli in the selected perceptual
immediate environment. stimuli into a framework
2. Selection for “storage.”
– The process a person 4.Translation
uses to eliminate some
– The stage of the
of the stimuli that have
perceptual process at
been sensed and to
which stimuli are
retain others for further
processing. interpreted and given
meaning.

19
• Perceptual Process Selecting Stimuli
External factors : Nature,
Receiving Stimuli Location,Size,contrast,
(External & Internal) Movement,repetition,similarity
Internal factors : Learning,
needs,age,Interest,

Organizing
Interpreting Figure Background ,
Attribution ,Stereotyping, Perceptual Grouping
Halo Effect, Projection ( similarity, proximity,
closure, continuity)

Response
Covert: Attitudes ,
Motivation,
Feeling
Overt: Behavior
20
Factors influencing perception

A number of factors operate to shape and sometimes

distort perception. These factors can reside in the

perceiver, in the object or target being perceived or in

the context of the situation in which the perception is

made.

21
• Factors influencing Perception
Factors in the perceiver
• Attitudes
• Motives
• Interests
• Experience
• Expectations

Factors in the situation

Perception
• Time
• Work Setting
• Social Setting
Factors in the Target
• Novelty
• Motion
• Sounds
• Size
• Background
• Proximity
• Similarity
22
Perceptual organization

• It is the process by which we group outside stimuli into recognizable

and identifiable patterns and whole objects.

• Certain factors are considered to be important contributors on

assembling, organizing and categorizing information in the human
brain. These are

- Figure ground
- Perceptual grouping

23
Figure-Ground Illustration

• Field-ground differentiation
– The tendency to distinguish
and focus on a stimulus that
is classified as figure as
opposed to background.

24
PERCEPTUAL GROUPING

• Our tendency to group several individual stimuli into a

meaningful and recognizable pattern.

• It is very basic in nature and largely it seems to be

inborn.

• Some factors underlying grouping are

-continuity
-closure
-proximity
-similarity

25
 Types of Values

Terminal
Terminal Instrumental
Instrumental
Values
Values Values
Values

26
Values Across Cultures
Power Distance

Individualism or Collectivism

Quantity or Quality of Life

Uncertainty Avoidance

Long-Term or Short-Term

27