Foundation of Individual Behaviour

Sixth Semester BBA, Kuvempu University

1. Foundation of Individual Behaviour Unit- 3

2. Individual Behavi our Individual behavior can be defined as a mix of responses to external and internal stimuli(some thing that influences). It is the way a person reacts in different situations and the way someone expresses different emotions like anger, happiness, love, etc . Human behavior refers to the range of activities exhibited by humans and which are influenced by culture, attitudes, emotions, values, ethics, authority, and genetic factors.

3. The factors influencing individual behavior are Perception  − It is the result of various senses like feeling, seeing, hearing etc. Attitude  − We can either have a positive attitude or negative attitude Personality  − For example, some people seem to be very friendly, while there are some who take time to open up. Emotions  − There are happy moments we cherish and the sad moments like anger, frustration, etc. that we try to forget.

4. Test for self acceptance true/false -I received all the love from my parents -I am no more self conscious than the average person I seldom feel terribly critical of people I have about as many friends as I would like It doesn’t bother me much when people I know do something really stupid I think I have got about as much as I deserve in my life I have not been bothered by many physical or emotional symptoms I tend to trust most people without too much difficult Politicians are as much as honest an average person I am probably no more sensitive than most people It seldom occurs to me – people might be laughing at me Most people won’t let you down

5. Key - if you checked all as true – tremendous self acceptance 10 = high degree of self acceptance 8 = very good degree of self acceptance 6=average Less than 6 = weak self image

6. Individual Differences Dissimilarity is principle of nature. No two persons are alike. All the individuals differ from each other in many a respects. Children born of the same parents and even the-twins are not alike. This differential psychology is linked with the study of individual differences .

7. This change is seen in physical forms like in height, weight, colour , complexion strength etc., difference in intelligence, achievement, interest, attitude, aptitude, learning habits, motor abilities, skill. Each man has an intellectual capacity through which he gains experience and learning.

8. Causes of Individual Differences Heredity Environment Race and Nationality Gender Age Education

9. Heredity Some heretical traits bring a change from one individual to other. An individual’s height, size, shape and color of hair, shape of face, nose, hands and legs so to say the entire structure of the body is determined by his heretical qualities. Intellectual differences are also to a great extent influenced by hereditary factor.

10. Environment Environment brings individual differences in behaviour, activities, attitude, and style of life characteristics. Personality etc. Environment does not refer only physical surroundings but also it refers the different types of people, society, their culture, customs, traditions, social heritage, ideas and ideals.

11. Race and Nationality Race and Nationality is one cause of individual difference. Indians are very peace loving, Chinese are cruel; Americans are very frank due to race and nationality.

12. Gender Due to gender variation one individual differs from other. Men are strong in mental power. On the other hand women on the average show small superiority over men in memory, language and aesthetic sense(sense of looking beautiful). Women excel the men in shouldering social responsibilities and have a better control over their emotions.

13. Age Age is another factor which is responsible in bringing individual differences. Learning ability and adjustment capacity naturally grow with age. When one grows in age can acquire better control over our emotions and better social responsibilities. When a child grows then this maturity and development goes side by side.

14. Education Education is one major factor which brings individual differences. There is a wide gap in the behaviors of educated and uneducated persons. All traits of human beings like social, emotional and intellectual are controlled and modifies through proper education. This education brings a change in our attitude, behaviour, appreciations, Personality. It is seen that uneducated persons are guided by their instinct and emotions where as the educated persons are guided by their reasoning power.

15. MODELS OF MAN A study of human behaviour is both rewarding and necessary to managers and managements all over the world. It is doubtful whether the management can perform its functions successfully without having understanding why people behave as they do. The fact remains that individual differences among people cause differences in their  behaviour. Based on individual differences among people, individuals are classified into certain models or types . The following are the important models of man observed in the organisations: -

16. 5 Models of Individual Behavior in an Organization Rational Economic Man  Social Man Organisational Man The Self Actuating Man Complex Man

17. Rational (balanced) Economic Man From the organisational perspective, managers had, for a long time, viewed their employees as rational beings who are primarily motivated by money. They took the ‘ECONOMIC MAN’ and ‘RATIONAL MAN’ approach to understand and predict the human behaviour. 

18. The basic assumptions of the concept of ‘Rational Economic Man’ are as follows:  People are motivated primarily by economic incentives. They will do things which get them the greatest economic gain.  As the organisation controls the economic incentives, human beings are essentially passive(taking no action) agents, who are manipulated, motivated and controlled by the organisation

19. The feelings of the people are essentially irrational and must be controlled to achieve rationality and self interest . Organisations can and must be designed in such a way so as to neutralize and control people’s feelings and therefore their unpredictable traits(trend). In this model, people are induced to produce more by providing them with economic incentives. In this case, there is no organisation-employees conflict because both are satisfying their needs simultaneously. Management is getting more production and people are getting more money.

20. Drawbacks The economic incentives can work till the man is not reasonably satisfied by the need of money. Though, the need of money is inexhaustible and the man will never have enough, but after a certain stage, only money will not be sufficient for him. He will have some psychological needs also, which cannot be fulfilled by the organisation in this case. Therefore, it can be stated that the whole assumption of Rational Economic man are not sufficient in understanding and predicting human behaviour.

21. Social Man there is a lot more to human behaviour than just being social man economic and rational.  man is a part of the social group he is influenced by the social forces and seeks satisfaction of the needs which are related to the maintenance of his social relationships.

22.   following assumptions about human beings can be drawn Human beings are basically motivated by social needs and all their efforts are directed towards getting this satisfaction by maintaining relationships with others. A human being is more responsive to the pressures and sanctions of his social group than to the incentives and controls of the management. The reason is that he values social relationship higher than his economic motives which are directly under the control of management.

23. The amount of work to be done by a worker is not determined by his physical capacity or by the management but by the social norms. Management should change and organize work in such a way that it provides more belongingness not only in terms of interpersonal and group relationships, but also man’s relationship with his job.

24. Organisational Man Organisation man is an extension of social man. The concept of organisation man was introduced by William Whyte. He believed that it is very important for a person to be loyal to the organisation and cooperative with the fellow workers. Any person who believes in this value system and acts in this way is an organisation man. The basis of this concept is and that every individual should sacrifice his individuality for the sake of the group and the organisation.

25. Whyte had explained three major propositions, on which this concept of organisation man is based. These propositions (ideas) are as follows: The first proposition is that individual by himself is isolated (alone) and meaningless. The group is the source of activity. Individuals create only when they move in a group. A group helps to produce a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. The ultimate need of every individual is belongingness. He wants to belong to his families, friends, relatives, colleagues and other members of the society as a whole. Whyte says that there should be no conflict between man and society.

26. The organisation man concept emphasis, that there is no conflict between the individual interest and the interest of the organisation. Even if there is any conflict, individual interest will be sacrificed in favour of the group interest to remove the conflict. However, there is a basic assumption behind this concept. The assumption is that management will take care of the individual interests. It would be the duty of the management to satisfy the needs of the individuals. People will be willing to sacrifice their interests for the organisation only if they are positive that the organisation would take care of them.

27. The Self Actuating Man The concept of self actuating man is a further extension of social man and the organisation man models. The social man concept assumes that the formation of social groups is the basis of satisfaction for the individuals. But as against this the self actuating man assumes that man’s inherent need is to use his capabilities and skills in such a way that he should have the satisfaction of creating certain things. The earlier models do not allow him to satisfy his self actuating needs.

28. Following are the main assumptions about the self actuating man: The basic assumption about this concept is that the various needs of a man can be put in the order of priority. For example, MASLOW has put various needs in a hierarchy. Every unsatisfied need is a motivational factor for him. Self actualization is the ultimate goal, because it is last in the hierarchy and by the time his goal is achieved, all the other needs of the man are also satisfied .

29. In the process of self actualization, there are various changes in the behaviour of the individual and he moves from immaturity to maturity. Another assumption is that a man is primarily self motivated and self controlled. Any incentives given by the management cannot motivate him after a certain level and any control imposed on him cannot threaten him.

30. COMPLEX MAN As stated earlier, Behaviour of individuals is caused and individual differences make it unpredictable. Given the two persons having the same needs, still they may behave differently because the variable that determine human behaviour are themselves unpredictable. Thus, human being is quite complex and so is his behaviour. Therefore,managers  need to take clues for their managerial actions  realizing  that no single action can be  utilized successfully in all situations, but depending upon complexities of variables affecting human behaviour

31. Theories of Personality What exactly is personality? Where does it come from? Does it change as we grow older? These are the sorts of questions that have long held the fascination of psychologists and which have inspired a number of different theories of personality. 

32. Defining Personality Personality is broadly described as the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that make a person unique. In plain English, it is what makes you.

33. Characteristics of Personality Personality is organized and consistent.   We tend to express certain aspects of our personality in different situations and our responses are generally stable.  Although personality is generally stable, it can be influenced by the environment. 1 For example, while your personality might lead you to be shy in social situations, an emergency might lead you to take on a more outspoken and take-charge approach.

34. Personality  causes  behaviors to happen.  You react to the people and objects in your environment based on your personality. 1 From your personal preferences to your choice of a career, every aspect of your life is affected by your personality.

35. Theories of Personality type trait Psychoanalytic

36. Type theory According to this theories, people are grouped into identifiable categories. One basis for classifying personalities is the structure of the body. in type theories, a relationship was sought to be established between features of face or body and personality. Thus, a short, plump person was said to be sociable, relaxed and even tempered

37. A tall, thin person is characterised as restrained(reserved/unemotional), self-conscious and fond of solitude ( likes loneliness) A heavy set muscular individual was described as noisy, callous (cruel disregard) and fond of physical activity. although a person’s physique may have some influence on personality, the relationship is much more subtle(important) than this sort of classification implies. Thus, classification of personalities on a physical basis is subjective.

38. Another basis to type personalities is psychological factors. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, divided all personalities into introverts and extroverts. These terms are normally associated with an individual’s sociability and interpersonal orientation. extroverts are gregarious( fond of company), sociable individuals, while introverts are shy, quiet.

39. In a more technical sense, introverts are characterized by a greater sensitivity and concern for feelings and are more comfortable dealing with things. extroverts are more oriented towards other people, events and objects. type theories are simple as they are based on physical attributes or psychological factors for categorisation of personalities. But the theories fail to reveal all complexities of a personality.

40. Trait theory A personality trait is understood as being an enduring attribute of a person that appears consistently in a variety of situations. A trait differentiates one from another in a relatively permanent or consistent way. A trait of an individual is abstracted from his behaviour and serves an useful unit of analysis to understand personality.

41. Trait theory assumes that a personality can be described by its position on a number of continuous dimensions or scales, each of which represents a trait. it is important to remember that traits are reactions, not something a person possesses. One does not possess shyness, he feels and acts shy under certain circumstances. Actually, he may behave quite forwardly in some other circumstances or at some other time. What is important is what he does typically.

42. Psychoanalytic theory Sigmund Freud propounded this theory

43. Freud likened the mind to an iceberg- only a small segment of which seen above the surface of the water. This small portion of the mind represents the unconscious. it was this unconscious portion of the mind that Freud sought to explore. Freud saw personality as being composed of three elements- id, ego and super ego

44. What is Perception? Explain which factors affect Perception.

45. 49 Organizational Behavior / Perception The Perceptual Process Sensation An individual’s ability to detect stimuli in the immediate environment. Selection IS the process where a person uses to eliminate some of the stimuli that have been sensed and to retain others for further processing. Organization The process of placing selected perceptual stimuli into a framework for “storage.” Translation The stage of the perceptual process at which stimuli are interpreted and given meaning.

46. According to Joseph Reitz; “Perception includes all those processes by which an individual receives information about his environment—seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling.” Uday Pareek said perception can be defined as “the process of receiving, selecting, organizing, interpreting, checking, and reacting to sensory stimuli or data.”

47. According to S. P. Robbins , perception can be defined as “the process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environments.” Perception includes the 5 senses; touch, sight, taste, smell and sound. 

48. In simple terms, perception is understood as the act of seeing what is there to be seen. But what is seen is influenced by the individual, the object, and the situation. perception may be described as a person’s view of reality.

49. features Sensory : perception is our sensory experience of the world around us and involves both the recognition of environmental stimuli ( thing or event) Subjective: because, different people may look at the same event from different angles and interpret the same in multiple ways. The world is not same for different people.

50. Are these two lines of the same size?

51. filter : perception is a way of forming impressions about oneself, other people and daily life experiences. It serves like a filter through which information passes before it has an effect on people. Unique interpretation : perception is a unique interpretation of the situation, not an exact recording of it. Example president asking for coffee

52. Factors influencing Perce ption External factors influencing perception Internal factors influencing perception

53. External factors influencing perception size Intensity Contrast Repetition Movement

54. size The larger the object, the more likely it will be noticed. Big televisions, refrigerators in a shopping mall stand out very clearly and attract our immediate attention. People often pay more attention to an exceptionally tall or unusually short person than to a person of average size .

55. Intensity The intensity principle of attention states that, the more intense the external stimulus, the more likely it is to be perceived. A loud noise or a bright light will be noticed more than a soft sound or a dim light.

56. Contrast Stimuli which contrast with the surrounding environment are more likely to be selected for attention than stimuli which blend with the environment. Which Blue Circle is Larger?

57. The Blue circle on the left appears much larger than the one on the right because of the contrast with the background circles. both Blue circles are exactly the same size .

58. Repetition A repeated principles states that a repeated external stimulus is more attention drawing than a non-repetitive one. The same advertisement of a product flashed daily on television is based on the principle of repetition.

59. Movement The principle of motion states that a moving object receives more attention than an object that is still.

60. Internal factors These factors reside in person concern . These include one ’s needs , desires , personality and experience . Needs and desires : an individual ’s perception about stimuli is influenced by his needs and desires at that time. Perception varies depending upon variations in his/her needs and desires from time to time.

61. Personality closely related to needs and desires is the personality of the perceiver , which affects what is attended to perceived in the given situation. As mentioned earlier, research studies suggest that secure individuals tent to understand or perceive others as warm and self-accepting individuals perceive themselves as liked , wanted and accepted by others. Personal moods Values and beliefs Expectations

62. Experience : experience and knowledge serve as basis for perception . While one’s successful experience enhances his/her perceptive ability ,failure destroys his/her self confidence. Successful experience also helps perceiver understand stimuli with more accuracy.