UNIT -1

• Psychology as a science
• area of applications –
• study of individual-
• individual differences-
• study of behavior
• stimulus
• response behavior
• heredity and environment
• human mind
• attitude-
• personality
 Psychology as a science
• Scientific discipline
• Psychology is the science of mind, brain, and
behavior
• The systematic study of human behavior with an
emphasis on a scientific approach to real-life
problems
 Psychology-Definitions
COON & MITTER- 2007
• Study of behavior and mental processes
PASSER & SMITH ,2007
• Scientific study of behavior and mind
 Industrial Psychology

• I/O Psychology
• Work psychology
• Work and organizational psychology
• Occupational psychology
• Personnel psychology
 Industrial Psychology
 
• Applications of the principles of psychology to the
problems of men working in the industry.
• Branch of psychology that applies psychological
theories and principles to organisations.
• Application of psychological theories,research
methods and intervention strategies to solve work
place issues
 What does an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist do Within a Workplace?

• To give worker greater ease at his work

• Make organization more productive
• Ensure workers lead physically and psychologically
healthy lives
• Interviewing and counseling employees
• Observing employee/employer interactions
• Helping rewrite company policies and procedures to
benefit both the employee pool and the company
officials
• Develop targeted hiring procedures for new
employees and other methods.
• . They go about this by interviewing and
counseling employees
 Applications of Industrial Psychology
• Motivation
• Leadership
• Decision making
• Attitude
• Job analysis
• Recruitment and Selection
• Training
• Performance appraisal
• Organizational change
• Ergonomics and human engineering
• Counseling
• Interpersonal skills
• Occupational safety & health
• Work design/consumer psychology
 Individual Differences
The ways in which people are similar and how they
vary in their thinking ,feeling and behaviour
 Factors for individual difference analysis

• Self awareness -being aware of ones own

behaviours , preferences , styles ,biases ,
personalities and so on
• Awareness of others -being aware of the
behaviours , preferences , styles ,biases ,
personalities and so on of others
 Components of self
• Self concept -the view of individuals have of
themselves as physical ,social ,spiritual or moral
beings
• Self esteem -a belief about ones own worth based
on an overall self evaluation
• Self efficacy -an individual belief about the likely
hood of successfully completing a specific task
 Individual Differences
• People show substantial individual differences,
or variations in how they respond to the same
situation based on personal characteristics.
• Behavior is a function of person interacting
with the environment: B = f (P x E).
• Behavior is, therefore, determined by the
effects of the individual and the environment
on each other .
 Importance of Individual Differences among
employees
• Individual differences have a direct effect on behavior
• People who perceive things differently behave differently
• People with different attitudes respond differently to
directives
• People with different personalities interact differently with
bosses, coworkers, subordinates, and customers
• Some people embrace change and others are fearful of it
• Some employees will be productive only if they are closely
supervised, while others will be productive if they are not
• Some workers learn new tasks more effectively than others
Consequences of individual differences

• People differ in productivity.

• Quality of work varies because people vary in their
propensity for achieving high-quality results.
• Empowerment is effective with some workers, but not
with all.
• A given leadership style does not work with all people.
• People differ in their need for contact with other people.
• Company management will find that commitment to the
firm varies considerably.
• Workers vary in their level of self-esteem that in turn
influences their productivity and capacity to take on
additional responsibility.
 WORK
BEHAVIOUR
-productivity
-Creativity
-performance
Individual behaviour
 Introduction

• The behaviour of each individual is influenced by several

factors
• Every individuals have particulars motives, ambitions,
perceptions and abilities.
• To understand the human behaviour a careful study of all
the factors is necessary.
Factors affecting individual behaviour

1.Personal Factors
2.Psychological factors
3.Environmental Factors
4.Organizational factors

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 1. Personal factors

I. Physical characteristics
II. Age
III. Gender
IV. Religion
V. Marital status
VI. Experience
VII. Intelligence
VIII.Ability

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 Personal factors
• Personal characteristics such as age, gender, and marital
status that are objective and easily obtained from
personnel records.
• Biographical characteristics are generic in nature and are
inherited.

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 Personal factors
a) Physical characteristics-
– These characteristics are related to height, skin, complexion, vision,
shape and size.
– Whether there is a correlation between body structure or not has
been scientifically proven.
b) Age-
– The relationship between age and job performance is an issue of
increasing performance.
– Psychologically, young people are expected to be more energetic,
innovative, adventurous, ambitious and risk taking.
– Whereas old people are supposed to be more conservative, set
their own way and less adaptable.
– Though it is incorrect to generalize in all the cases.
– There is a relationship between age and absenteeism.

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c) Gender -
Personal factors
• Studies and research has proved that there are few, if any,
important differences between man and woman that will affect
their job performance.
• Gender has its impact on absenteeism.
d) Religion -
• Religion and religion based cultures play an important role in
determining some aspects of individual behaviour.
e) Marital status -
• There are not enough studies which could draw any
conclusion as to whether there is any relationship between
marital status and job performance.
 Personal factors
f) Experience :-
– It is considered to be a good indicator of employee performance.
– There is a positive relationship between experience and job
performance.
– There is negative relationship between seniority and absenteeism.
g) Intelligence:-
– Whether it is an inherited trait or acquired trait, intelligence affects
the behaviour of the people.
h) Ability:-
– Ability is the criterion used to determine what a person can do.
 2.Psychological factors
1. Personality:- Personality is dynamic concept describing the
growth and development of a person’s whole psychological
system.
2. Perception:- Perception is the viewpoint of one person
interprets situation.
3. Attitude:- Attitude expresses an individual’s positive or negative
feeling about some object.
4. Values:- Values carries an individual’s ideas as to what is right
and what is wrong.
Values are global beliefs that guide actions and judgments
across a variety of situations. Values represents basic
convictions that a specific mode of conduct is personally or
socially preferable to an opposite mode of conduct.
 3.Environmental factors
• The external environment is known to have a considerable
impact on a person’s behaviour. A brief description of the
external factors follows:-
1. Economic factors.
a) Employment level:-The employment opportunities available
to individuals, the wages payable to them, the general
economic environment and the technological development
affect the individual behaviour to a large extent, either
directly or indirectly.
b) Wage rates:- The major considerations of every employee
working in any organization is his wages. Monetary factor is
the major factor affecting the job satisfaction of the worker.
c) Technological development:- Technological development is
having the impact on the job opportunities.
 2. Environmental factors
2. socio-culture factor :- the social environment of an individual
includes his relationship with family members, friends,
colleagues, supervisors and subordinates. The behaviour of other
people not with the individual, but in general, is also a part of his
social environment.
3. Political factors :- political environment of the country will affect
the individual behaviour not directly, but through several other
factors. Like stable political situation means better employment
and high level of capital investment.
4. Legal environment:- Rules and laws are formalized and written
standards of behaviour.
 3. Organizational factors
• Individual behaviour is largely affected by a variety of organizational
system and resources.
1. Physical facilities:- the physical environment at a work place is the
arrangement of people and things so that it has a positive influence
on people. Some of the individual behaviour which affect the
individual behaviour are noise level, heat , light, ventilation, nature
of job, office furnishing, number of people.
2. Organizational structure and design:- these are concerned with the
way in which different departments in the organizations are set up,
what is the reporting system, how are the line of communications
are set among different level of organizations.
 4. Organizational factors
3. Leadership:- the system of leadership is established by the
management to provide direction, assistance, advice and
coaching to individuals.
4. Reward system:- the behaviour and performance of the
individuals is also influenced by the reward system established by
the organization to compensate their employees.
Attitudes
Attitudes
 Are determinates of behavior because they
are linked with perception, personality,
feelings, and motivation

 Attitude – a mental state of readiness

 learned and organized through experience
 Evaluative statements-either favorable or
unfavorable –about peoples , objects or events
Attitudes: Implications for the
Manager
1. Attitudes are learned
2. Attitudes define one’s predispositions
toward given aspects of the world
3. Attitudes provide the emotional basis of
one’s interpersonal relations and
identification with others
4. Attitudes are organized and are close to
the core of personality
 Attitudes

Attitudes Cognitive component

The opinion or belief segment
Evaluative of an attitude.
statements or
judgments Affective Component
concerning The emotional or feeling segment
objects, of an attitude.
people, or
events. Behavioral Component
An intention to behave in a certain
way toward someone or something.
 Major job Attitudes
• Job Satisfaction
• Job Involvement
• Organizational Commitment
• Perceived organisational support
• Employee engagement
 Major job Attitudes
• Job Satisfaction
A collection of positive feelings that an individual
holds toward his or her job.
• Job Involvement
Identifying with the job, actively participating in it,
and considering performance important to self-
worth
• Organizational Commitment
Identifying with a particular organization and its
goals, and wishing to maintain membership in the
organization.
 Major job Attitudes
• Perceived organisational support :
The degree to which employee believe an
organisation values their contribution and cares
about their well being
• Employee engagement:
An individuals involvement with , satisfaction with,
and enthusiasm for the work he or she does
 The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance
Any incompatibility between two or more attitudes
or between behavior and attitudes.

Desire
Desireto
toreduce
reducedissonance
dissonance
• •Importance
Importanceofofelements
elementscreating
creatingdissonance
dissonance
• •Degree
Degreeofofindividual
individualinfluence
influenceover
overelements
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• •Rewards
Rewardsinvolved
involvedinindissonance
dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance
 A discrepancy between attitudes and
behaviors

 A mental state of anxiety

 Occurs when there is a conflict among an

individual’s various cognitions after a
decision has been made
Personality
 Personality - the sum total
of ways in which an individual
reacts to and interacts with
others
 Most often described in terms
of measurable traits that a
person exhibits such as shy,
aggressive, submissive, lazy,
ambitious, loyal, and timid
Personality
 A relatively stable set of feelings and behaviors
that have been significantly formed by genetic
and environmental factors

 The relationship between behavior and

personality is one of the most complex matters
that managers have to understand
 Measuring Personality
 Self-report surveys
 Most common
 Prone to error
 Evaluate on a series of
factors
 Personality Determinants
 Personality reflects heredity and environment
 Heredity is the most dominant factor
 Twin studies: genetics more influential than parents
 Environmental factors do have some influence
 Aging influences levels of ability
 Basic personality is constant
Some Major Forces Influencing
Personality
Cultural forces

Individual Social class / group

Hereditary forces
Personality membership forces

Family relationship
forces
 Measuring Personality Traits:
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
 Most widely used personality-assessment
instrument in the world
 Individuals are classified as:
 Extroverted or Introverted (E/I)
 Sensing or Intuitive (S/N)
 Thinking or Feeling (T/F)
 Judging or Perceiving (J/P)
 Classifications combined into 16 personality
types (i.e. INTJ or ESTJ)
 Unrelated to job performance

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 Measuring Personality Traits:
The Big-Five Model
Extroversion Agreeableness
 Five Traits:
 Extraversion
 Agreeableness
 Conscientiousness
 Emotional Stability
Conscientiousness
 Openness to Experience
 Strongly supported
relationship to job
performance (especially Emotional StabilityOpenness to
Conscientiousness)
Experience
Personality structure.
 Personality structure
• According to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic
theory of personality, personality is composed
of three elements.
• the id
• the ego
• the superego
– work together to create complex human
behaviors.
 Personality structure- The id

• Only component of personality that is present from

birth.
• Entirely unconscious
• The source of all psychic energy, the primary
component of personality.
•  Pleasure principle, which strives for immediate
gratification of all desires, wants, and needs.
• Behavior would be both disruptive and socially
unacceptable.
 Personality structure- The ego
• Based on the reality principle, which strives to satisfy
 delayed gratification of all desires, wants, and needs.
• The ego develops from the id.
• The ego functions in both the conscious, preconscious,
and unconscious mind.
• Behavior would be realistic and socially appropriate
ways. i.e. in the appropriate time and place.
 Personality structure- The superego
• Based on the moral principle .The aspect of our sense of right and
wrong.
• Provides guidelines for making judgments.
Two parts of the superego:
• The ego ideal includes the rules and standards for good behaviors. These
behaviors include those which are approved of by parental and other
authority figures. Obeying these rules leads to feelings of pride, value,
and accomplishment.
• The conscience includes information about things that are viewed as bad
by parents and society. These behaviors are often forbidden and lead to
bad consequences, punishments, or feelings of guilt and remorse.
• Present in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.