VISVESVARAYA TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITYREGIONAL OFFICE, GULBARGA

VISVESVARAYA TECHNOLOGICAL UIVERSITY

Module: 7

Individual BehavioursCONTENTS OF THE MODULE: Individual Behaviour, Personality, Perception, Emotions, Attitudes. Values, Learning

Introduction: Individual behaviour refers to how individual behaves at work place, his behaviour is influenced by his attitude, personality, perception, learning and motivating. This also refers to the combination of responses to internal and external stimuli.

Human behaviour is complex and every individual is different from another, the challenge of an effective organization is in successfully matching the task, the manager and the subordinate. Under ideal situation, a manager would first analyze the task, then determine the required skills and assemble a team that complement each other skills; thereby creating an enriching & conflict free team. In reality, a manager has to use the existing resources for a given task, and must have the ability to understand the differences in individual behaviours and use them appropriately to increase the synergy.

Foundation of Individual Behaviour:Ability refers to an individual’s capacity to perform the various tasks in a job

Factors Influencing Individual Behaviour:

AbilitiesAbilities of a person are the natural or learnt traits. Abilities can be classified into mental and physical abilities and different task requires different level of the two. Mental abilities (Intellectual Abilities) represent the intelligence, person’s deductive reasoning, and memory, analytical and verbal comprehension. Physical abilities include muscular strength, stamina, body coordination and motor skills. An individual’s self awareness of his own abilities determines how he feels about the task, while the manager’s perception of his abilities determines the kind of task he assigns to the individual.

Different Types of Intellectual Abilities

S.I. No Dimensions Descriptions Job example

1 No. of Aptitude Ability to do speedy and accurate arithmetic

Accountant

2 Verbal Communication Read, Write and speaking ability Senior managers

3 Perception Speed Identify similarities and differences quickly and accurately

Investigator

4 Inductive Reasoning Logical sequence drawing Market Researchers

5 Deductive Reasoning Ability to use logic and assess the implication of the arguments

Supervisor

6 Spatial Visualisation Ability to imagine Interior Decorators

7 MemoryAbility to retain and recall past

experience

Sales person i.e., Remembering Customers

name

Physical Abilities: To the same degree that intellectual abilities play a larger role in complex jobs with demanding information-processing requirements, specific physical abilities gain importance for successfully doing less skilled and more standardised jobs. For example, jobs in which success demands stamina, manual dexterity, leg strength or similar talents require management to identify an employee’s physical capabilities.

Different Types of Physical AbilitiesNine-Basic Physical abilities:

Strength Factors

1. Dynamic: Exerting muscular strength rapidly and repeatedly. 2. Trunk: Exerting muscular strength rapidly and repeatedly using the

trunk muscle.3. Static: Exert force against external object4. Explosive: Exert and expand all force in one or series of explosive acts.

Flexibility Factors

5. Extent: Ability to bend trunk and back muscle.6. Dynamic: Ability to bend trunk and back muscle rapidly and repeatedly.

Other Factors

7. Body Coordination: Mind and body control.8. Balance: Ability to maintain equilibrium against external force.9. Stamina: Ability to exert force persistently.

The specific or intellectual abilities required for job adequate job performance depend on the ability requirements of the job. For example, airline pilots need strong spatial-visualisation

abilities. Beach lifeguard needs both strong spatial-visualisation abilities and body coordination and so on.

Personality:

The word Personality comes from the Latin root ‘persona’, meaning “mask”. According to this root, personality is the impression we make on others; the mask we present to. People use different terms like good, popular, strong, honest, weak, polite and dual or split etc to donate personality.

Behavioural scientists and common people define personality from different perspective.The term personality is derived from the Latin word ‘Persona’ which mean “to speak through.” The Latin word was used to denote the mask, the actor used to wear in ancient Rome and Greece.

Thus personality refers to how people influence others through their natural appearance or actions. Personality is what makes individual unique and it is only through the study of personality the relevant differences among person can be clear.

Definition: ‘Personality is how person affects others, how he understands and views himself and

his pattern of inner and outer measurable tribes.’----Fred Luthans

‘The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others.’----Robins

Determinants of Personality:

1. Biological factor: Hereditary Genetic engineering and intelligence Managerial thinking Split brain thinking and or psychology Bio feedback Physical characteristics and the rate of maturing.

2. Cultural and Family contribution: Learning content Value system Beliefs Traits such as independence, aggressiveness etc

3. Socialization process: Social groups Peer Organisation

1. Situational factor: Place of work

1. Biological contribution:

1. Hereditary: it refers to the physical stature, facial beauty, muscle composition etc, which are considered to be determined at conception.

2. Genetic engineering and intelligence: 3. Human genetic engineering: is the alteration of an individual's genotype (genetic makeup of

cell) with the aim of choosing the phenotype (is the study of the process by which organisms grow and develop. Modern developmental biology studies the genetic control of cell growth, differentiation and "morphogenesis" (is the biological process that causes an organism to develop its shape.), which is the process that gives rise to tissues, organs and anatomy ("Anatomy" is the study of the form and structure of internal features of an organism.) of a newborn or changing the existing phenotype of a child or adult.

4. Managerial thinking: Based on research studies conducted some behavioural scientists have drawn a conclusion that manager thinks differently lay people. One such conclusion is their ability to foresee the future, years ahead.

5. Split brain thinking and or psychology: According to the theory of left-brain or right-brain dominance, each side of the brain controls different types of thinking. Additionally, people are said to prefer one type of thinking over the other. For example, a person who is "left-brained" is often said to be more logical, analytical and objective, critical thinker while a person who is "right-brained" is said to be more intuitive, thoughtful and subjective.

6. Bio feedback: It is a device with which one can control and monitor the brain wave pattern, blood pressure, heart beats and other organisms.

7. Physical characteristics and the rate of maturing: It is possible to analyse the effect of physical characteristics such as individual’s physical appearance such as tallness and shortness, fair skin or dark skin etc, are biological pre determined and one cannot change that. Similarly, the rate of maturation can also be related to personality, for instance, a fast maturing child through the exposure of many physical and social activities when compared to a slow maturing child will portray a different personality when compared to a former.

2. Cultural and Family contribution: Culture generally prescribes and sets limitations on what an individual can be thought the task of selecting, interpreting and dispensing the culture usually is evolved around the family initially and later on it is the social groups influencing which work.

An individual’s early development process influenced by his parents who served him as role model, the environment which one is exposed one can substantially shape one’s personality. For instance, children’s brought in instructions such as orphanages, remind homes etc may display personality traits such as aloofness, easily frightened and awakens, where as child brought in a friendly and homely atmosphere will display personality trait such as warm, caring and affectionate etc.

In short, culture is the complex of beliefs, values, norms, opinions and attitude which are shared by individual of contemporary period and transmitted from generation to generation.

4. Socialization process: An individual portray and behave with different traits with different persons or groups. He can wear many masks with different people as per his convenience in his life. Through this process, the individual is exposed with wide range of behavioural potentialities and patterns which are customary and acceptable to the standard of his or her family or social group.

5. Situational factors: Different situations demands different aspects of one’s personality. Therefore, an individual personality change in different situations through it is normally state and constant. Thus, the situational requirements influence the effect of hereditary or environment on personality. For instance, situations like temples, classrooms, and working place, employment interview etc like regulate behaviour of the individuals to a greater extent based upon the situational requirements.

Personality Traits: Models of Personality:1. Myers Briggs personality types theory (MBTI model)2. The 'Big Five' Factors personality model3. Johari window model and free diagrams 3 & 4 NOT SO IMPORTANT4. FIRO-B Personality Assessment model

1. Myers Briggs personality types theory (MBTI model):

• Jungian’s theory important but inaccessible to the general population• Isabel Myers and Katherine Briggs (mother-daughter team) expanded on Jung’s work by

developing an instrument to help people identify their preferences• The MBTI tool is an indicator of personality type (i.e. innate preferences) that has proven to

be remarkably reliable and validFour Jungian Aspects of MBTI Framework / the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator:The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is the most widely used personality-assessment instrument in the world. It’s a 100-question personality test that asks people how they usually feel or act in particular situations. On the basis of their answers, individuals are classified as extraverted or introverted (E or I), Sensing or Intuitive (S or N), Thinking or Feeling (T or F) and Judging and

Perceiving (J or P). These terms as defined as follows: The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator:Aspects Characteristics

Source of energy: Extroversion (E)

Introversion (I)

Outgoing, speaks then thinks. Talkative, sociable and assertive.

Reflective, thinks and then speaks, relates more easily to inner world of ideas than to outer world of people, quiet and shy.

Aspects CharacteristicsCollecting information:

Sensing (S)

Intuiting (I)

Decision making: Thinking (T)

Feeling (F)

Practical, concrete. Would work with known facts than look for possibilities and relationships. Sensing types are practical and prefer routine and orders. They focus on details.Theoretical, abstract. Would look for possibilities and relationships than work with known facts.

Analytical (head). Relies more on interpersonal analysis and logic than on personal values.Subjective (heart). Relies more on personal values and emotions rather than on impersonal analysis and logic.

Understanding the world: Judging (J)

Perceiving (P)

Judging types want control and prefer their world to be ordered and structured.

Perceiving types are flexible and spontaneous.

Jung’s four functional types – descriptions with Extrovert and Introvert

Thinking (T)

Jung's 'Thinking' function is a 'rational' process of understanding reality, implications, causes and effects in a logical and analytical way. judging

(Jung's 'rational'

functions)Feeling (F)

Jung's 'Feeling' function makes judgements on a personal subjective basis. It is a 'rational' process of forming personal subjective opinion about whether something is good or bad, right or wrong, acceptable or unacceptable.

Sensation (S)

Jung's 'Sensation' function translates signals from the senses into factual data. There is no judgement of right or wrong, good or bad, Sensation sees what is, as what it is. 'Sensation' is the opposite to 'Intuition'.

  perceiving

(Jung's 'irrational' functions)Intuition (I)

Jung's 'Intuition' function translates things, facts and details into larger conceptual pictures, possibilities, opportunities, imaginings, mysticism and new ideas. Intuition largely ignores essential facts and details, logic and truth.

According to Jung, the psyche is an apparatus for adaptation and orientation, and consists of a number of different psychic functions. Among these he distinguishes four basic functions:

Sensation - perception by means of the sense organs; Intuition - perceiving in unconscious way or perception of unconscious contents. Thinking - function of intellectual cognition; the forming of logical conclusions; Feeling - function of subjective estimation;

Thinking and feeling functions are rational, while sensation and intuition are non-rational. According to Jung, rationality consists of figurative thoughts, feelings or actions with reason — a point of view based on objective value, which is set by practical experience. Non-rationality is not based in reason. Jung notes that elementary facts are also non-rational, not because they are illogical but because, as thoughts, they are not judgments.

Jung accordingly arranged his four functional types as two pairs of opposites, thinking or feeling (the rational 'judging' pairing), and sensation or intuition (the irrational 'perceiving' pairing), which are often shown as four points (like North South East West) on a compass.

Combining these four aspects, we get the following sixteen types of personality. Each type has its own dynamics.

ISTJ ESTJ INTJ ENTJ

ISTP ESTP INTP ENTP

ISFJ ESFJ INFJ ENFJ

ISFP ESFP INFP ENFP

In details:

1. ISTJ-Introverted-Sensing-Thinking-Judging: Quiet, Serious, Practical, Dependable, Loyal, Steadfast, Responsible, Sensible, Patient, Conservative, Values hard work and honesty.

2. ESTJ- Extraverted-Sensing-Thinking-Judging: Outgoing, Punctual, Organized, Decisive, Rational, Practical, Conservative, Traditional, Loyal, Responsible, Uses five senses, Takes charge, Interested in getting the job done.

3. INTJ- Introverted-Intuitive-Thinking-Judging: Has personal mission, Logical, Introspective, Highly independent, Innovative, Decisive, Critically analyzes, Concerned with organization, Driven by inner ideas and possibilities.

4. ENTJ- Extraverted-Intuitive-Thinking-Judging: Outgoing, Assertive, Logical, Systematic, Analytical, Decisive, Objective, Inspires others, Sets goals, Sees the “big picture”, Provides conceptual structure.

5. ISTP- Introverted-Sensing-Thinking-Perceptive: Logical, Reflective, Productive, Factual, Efficient, Sensible, Curious, Practical, Mechanically adept, Cool rational, Impulsive, Generous, Enjoys activity, independence & solitude.

6. ESTP- Extraverted-Sensing-Thinking-Perceptive: Outgoing, Diplomatic, Charming, Witty, Fun, Generous, Observing, Socially sophisticated, Resourceful, Trouble-shooter, Unpredictable, Action oriented, Clever.

7. INTP- Introverted-Intuitive-Thinking-Perceptive: Quiet, Reflective, Private, Reserved, Impersonal, Analytical, Principled, Intellectual, Visionary, Logical Ability to concentrate, Values ideas and abstract thinking.

8. ENTP- Extraverted-Intuitive-Thinking-Perceptive: Outgoing, Innovative, Enthusiastic, Motivating, Non-conforming, Inspirational, Instigator, Multi-talented, Analytical, Likes to be challenged Optimistic, Easygoing.

9. ISFJ-Introverted-Sensing-Feeling-Judging: Deeply compassionate, Sensitive, Faithful ,Dependable, Conservative, Values a regulated life, Hard worker, Attends to details, Private, Unassuming, Self-sacrificing, Martyr, Undervalued, Sometimes misunderstood.

10. ESFJ- Extraverted-Sensing-Feeling-Judging: Warm, Friendly, Traditional, Conservative, Dutiful, Nurturing, Outgoing, Sociable, Caring, Organized, Practical, and Loyal, Naturally talented at working with others.

11. INFJ- Introverted-Intuitive-Feeling-Judging: Sensitive, Intuitive, Articulate, Empathetic, Committed, Caring, Enjoys being of service to others, Quiet, Peace- loving Reserved.

12. ENFJ- Extraverted-Intuitive-Feeling-Judging: Energetic, Idealistic, Organized, Responsible, Sociable, Charming, Outgoing, Warm, Sensitive, Caring, Tenacious, Tactfully persuasive, Leader, Charismatic, Influential, Popular.

13. ISFP-Introverted-Sensing-Feeling-Perceptive: Quiet, Reserved, Retiring, Optimistic, Cheerful, Sensitive, Kind, Generous, Observant, Receptive, Loyal helper, Trusting, Independent, Enjoys the moment.

14. ESFP-Extraverted-Sensing-Feeling-Perceptive: Outgoing, Warm, Charming, Cheerful, Caring, Generous, Optimistic, Enjoys life, Fun to be with, Conversationalist, Open-minded.

15. INFP-Introverted-Sensing-Feeling-Perceptive: Quiet, Reserved, Retiring, Optimistic, Cheerful, Sensitive, Kind, Generous, Observant, Receptive, Loyal helper, Trusting, Independent, Enjoys the moment.

16. ENFP-Extraverted-Intuitive-Feeling-Perceptive: Charming, Charismatic, Warm, Fun, Enthusiastic, Interactive, Communicative, Open-minded, Imaginative, Outgoing, Caring, Gentle, Sympathetic, Natural gift for inspiring others, Ingenious.

2. The 'Big Five' Factors personality model: With further factor analysis, five basic factors were extracted. This is called ‘Five Factor theory of personality,’ more popularly called ‘Big Five’. Extensive research has shown that these five basic dimensions underlie all others and cover most of the significant variations in personality. The Big Five are:

Extroversion: reflects a person’s comfort level with relationships. Extroverts are sociable, talkative, assertive and open to establishing new relationships. Introverts are less sociable, less talkative, less assertive and more reluctant to being relationships.

Agreeableness: refers to a person’s ability to get along with others. Highly agreeable people value harmony more than they value having their say or their way. They are cooperative and trusting on others.

Conscientiousness: refers to the number of goals that a person focuses on. A highly conscientiousness person focuses on relatively few goals at one time. He or she likely to be organised, systematic, careful, thorough, responsible, self-disciplined and achievement oriented.

Emotional Stability: focuses on individual’s ability to cope with stress. The individual with positive emotional stability tends to be calm, enthusiastic and secure. A person with low emotional stability tends to be nervous, depressed and insecure.

Openness to experience: addresses to one’s range of interests. Extremely open people are fascinated by novelty and innovation. They are willing to listen in new ideas and to change their own ideas, beliefs and attitudes in response to new information.

Johari Window: A model for self-awareness, personal development, group development and understanding relationship.

A simple and useful tool for understanding and training self-awareness, personal development, improving communications, interpersonal relationships, group dynamics, team development and intergroup relationships.

Developed by American psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in the 1950's, calling it 'Johari' after combining their first names, Joe and Harry.

Especially relevant due to emphasis on, and influence of, 'soft' skills, behaviour, empathy, cooperation, inter-group development and interpersonal development.

Also referred to as a 'disclosure/feedback model of self awareness', and an 'information processing tool'.

Represents information - feelings, experience, views, attitudes, skills, intentions, motivation, etc - within or about a person - in relation to their team, from four perspectives.

Standard Representation of Johari Window:

Self

Known Unknown

Others

Known 1. Open/Free Area 2.Blind Area

Unknown 3. Hidden Area 4. Unknown Area

The four quadrants are:

Quadrant 1: Open AreaWhat is known by the person about him/herself and is also known by others.

Quadrant 2: Blind Area, or "Blind Spot"What is unknown by the person about him/herself but which others know. This can be simple information, or can involve deep issues (for example, feelings of inadequacy, incompetence, unworthiness, rejection) which are difficult for individuals to face directly, and yet can be seen by others.

Quadrant 3: Hidden or Avoided Areawhat the person knows about him/herself that others do not.

Quadrant 4: Unknown Areawhat is unknown by the person about him/herself and is also unknown by others.Four Domains of EQ with Johari Window:

1.

Self Awareness

2.

Social Awareness

3.

Self Management

4.

Relationship Management

FIRO-B MODEL:

FIRO-B stands for Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behaviour.

Developed by William Schutz in 1958, Schutz first used the FIRO-B® tool to assess how teams performed in the US Navy.

The FIRO-B® is an assessment tool used to help individuals and teams better understand their preferences in satisfying three basic social needs:

Inclusion (the degree to which one belongs to a group, team or community)

Control (the extent to which one prefers to have structure, hierarchy and influence)

Affection (one's preference for warmth, disclosure and intimacy).

For each of these factors, FIRO-B® assesses individuals as to:

how much they express the needs and

how much they want to have the needs expressed to them from others.

In this respect, FIRO-B® is measuring the three aspects of Inclusion, Control and Affection, from two 'needs perspectives' of expressing (outwardly directed behaviour towards others) and wanting (behaviour from others directed towards oneself).

The overall 'scores' from the assessment also reveal the degree to which people attain satisfaction from their interactions with others versus time spent alone.

The FIRO-B® assessment data is particularly rich in enabling understanding individual and team behaviour.

Instruments to Measure Personality:

To answer this question, we need to take a brief history lesson and to describe the work of Gordon Allport,

Raymond Cattell, Hans Eysenck,. This is worthwhile because many of the tests and much of the terminology

developed in the last century by these psychologists is still in widespread use today and forms the basis of

current personality theory and consequently of personality tests.

 Gordon Allport (1897–1967)

Allport was one of the first psychologists to focus on the study of the personality. He rejected both the

psychoanalytic approach, which he thought often went too deep, and a behavioural approach, which he thought

often, did not go deep enough. He emphasized the uniqueness of each individual, and the importance of the

present context, as opposed to past history, for understanding the personality. He identified thousands of

personality traits and grouped these into three categories:

 

 

Cardinal Traits - a cardinal trait dominates the personality across time and situations. A cardinal trait is the

most important component of your personality e.g. Ambition, Self-sacrifice, etc. Very few people develop a

cardinal trait and if they do, it tends to be late in life.

Central Traits - five to ten traits that are stable across time and situations. These are the building blocks of

personality. For example: friendliness, meanness, happiness, etc. Most personality theories focus on describing

or explaining central traits.

Secondary Traits - these characteristics are only evident in some situations and are of less importance to

personality theorists. They are aspects of the personality that aren’t quite so obvious or so consistent.

 Allport was also one of the first researchers to draw a distinction between Motive and Drive. He suggested that

a drive formed as a reaction to a motive may outgrow the motive as a reason. The drive then is autonomous and

distinct from the motive. For example, the drive associated with making money to buy goods and services often

becomes an end in itself.

Raymond Cattell (1905-1998)

Cattell took the thousands of traits described by Allport and condensed them down to 16 primary traits using the

statistical method of factor analysis. The 16 PF (Personality Factors) test which resulted from this work is still in

use today. He was an early proponent of using factor analytical methods instead of what he called "verbal

theorizing" to explore the basic dimensions of personality, motivation, and cognitive abilities.

 

One of the most important results of Cattell's application of factor analysis was his discovery of 16 factors

underlying human personality. He called these factors "source traits" because he believed they provide the

underlying source for the surface behaviours we think of as personality. This theory of personality factors and

the instrument used to measure them are known respectively as the 16 personality factor model and the 16PF

Questionnaire.

 

 

Hans Eysenck (1916-1997)

Eysenck proposed that only two factors were necessary to explain individual differences in personality. He

argued that Cattell's model contained too many factors which were similar to each other, and that a simple two

factor model could encompass the 16 traits proposed by Cattell. This model had the following dimensions:

 

 

Eysenck argued that these traits were associated with innate biological differences. For example, extraverts need

more stimulation than introverts do because they have lower resting levels of nervous system arousal than

introverts. Eysenck developed a third factor, psychoticism, which dealt with a predisposition to be psychotic

(not grounded in reality) or sociopathic (psychologically unattached).

 

 

The result was the so-called PEN personality model.

P scale: Psychoticism -------------------------------------- High Impulse Control

Aggressive, cold, egocentric, [Nonaggressive, warm, concerned for others

impersonal, impulsive, antisocial, personally involved, considerate, social,

unemphathetic, creative, tough-minded empathetic, uncreative, persuadable]

E scale: Extraversion -------------------------------------- Introversion

Sociable, lively, active, assertive, [Hermetic, taciturn, passive, unassertive,

sensation-seeking, carefree, stoical, reserved, dependent,

dominant, surgent, venturesome even-tempered, risk-averse]

N scale: Neuroticism --------------------------------------- Emotional Stability

Anxious, depressed, guilt-feelings, unconcerned, happy, without regret,

low self-esteem, tense, irrational, high self-esteem, relaxed, rational,

shy, moody, emotional confident, content, controlled.

Major personality attributes influencing Organisational Behaviour:

Locus of control Machiavellianism Self-Esteem Self Monitoring Risk Taking Type A and B personality

1. Locus of control: Degree to people believes they are masters of their own fate. Two categories: Internals: Individuals who believe that they control what happens to them.

Externals: Believe that what happens to them is controlled by outside forces such as luck or chance.

2. Machiavellianism: Degree to which an individual is pragmatic (practical), maintains emotional distance and believes that ends can justify the means. People with Machiavellianism have high self-confidence and high self-esteem. They are cool and calculating and have no hesitation in using others or taking advantages of others in order to serve their own goals.

3. Self-Esteem: Degree to which they like or dislike themselves. It is directly related to expectations for success.

4. Self Monitoring: It refers to an individual’s ability to adjust his behaviour to external and situational factors.

5. Risk Taking: People who are highly risk-taking in their behaviour make decisions quickly without searching for much information. Risk-averse (strongly dislike) people do not make decisions in a hurry and gather a lot of information before making any decision.

6. Type A and B personality:

There are two types of individual personality Type-A and Type-B. A person exhibiting Type behaviour is generally restless, impatient with a desire for quick achievement and perfectionism. Type B is much easier going relaxed about time pressure, less competitive and more philosophical in nature. Some of the characteristics of Type A personality are given below.

Is restless, so that he always moves, walks and eats rapidly. Is impatient with the pace of things, dislikes waiting and is impatient with those who are not

impatient. Does several things at once. Tries to schedule more and more in less and less time, irrespective of whether everything is

done or not. Usually does not complete one thing before starting on another. Uses nervous gestures such as clenched fist and banging on table. Does not have time to relax and enjoy life.

Type B behaviour is just the opposite and is more relaxed, sociable and has a balanced outlook on life.

Perception:

Perception is the ability to see, hear, listen or become aware of something through the five sensory organs i.e. eyes, nose, tongue, feel (touch) and ear.

Perception is the process by which we organise and interpret our sensory impressions in order to give meaning to the environment. As a pointed out, a situation may be the same but the interpretation of that situation by two individuals may be immensely different.

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 our existing knowledge.

Definition: “The process by which individual organise and interpret their sensory impression in order to meaning to their environment.” Stephen P. Robbins

“The process through which people select, organize and interpret or attach meaning to events happening in the environment.” Uma Sekharam

The perceptual process:

1. Receiving2. Selecting3. Organizing4. Interpreting5. Checking6. Reacting to stimuli.

Factors influencing Perception:

Characteristics of the perceiver: It depends on the needs and motives, self concept, past experience, current psychological state, beliefs, expectations, situations and cultural upbringing.

Characteristics of the perceived: Appearance, similarity, behaviour, manner of communication status.

Characteristics of the situation: Physical setting, social setting and organisation setting and time setting.

Theory of Perception:

Attribution theory: Attribution theory tries to explain the ways in which we judge people differently, depending on the meaning we attribute to a given behaviour. It suggests that when we observe an individual’s behaviour, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or externally caused. That determination however, expands largely on three factors: (1) Distinctiveness, (2) consensus and (3) consistency. First, let’s clarify the differences between internal and external causes and then elaborate the three determining factors.

Internally caused behaviour is those we believe to be under the personal control of the individual. Externally caused behaviour is what we imagine the situation forced the individual to do. For example, if one your employees are late for work, you might attribute his lateness to his partying into the wee hours of the morning and then oversleeping. This is internal attribution. But, if you attribute his arriving late to an automobile accident that tied up traffic, then you are making an external attribution.1. Distinctiveness: The degree to which person performs different behaviours with different objects.

2. Consensus: The degree to other actors performs the same behaviour with the same object.3. Consistency: The degree to which actor performs that same behaviour toward an object on different occasions.

Distinctiveness which refers to whether an individual displays different behaviour at different situations. If the behaviour (say being late in the class on a particular day) is unusual, we tend to give the behaviour an external attribution; and if it usual, the reverse.

Consensus refers to the uniformity of the behaviour shown by all the concerned people. If everyone reports late on a particular morning, it is easily assumed that there must be a severe traffic disruption in the city and thus the behaviour is externally attributed. But if the consensus is low, it is internally attributed.

Consistency is the reverse of distinctiveness. Thus in judging the behaviour of an individual, the person looks at his past record. If the present behaviour is consistently found to occur in the past as well (that is being late at least three times a week), it is attributed as internally caused. In other words, the more consistent the behaviour, the more the observer is inclined to attribute it to external causes.

Perceptual Errors: Attributions are found to strongly affect various functions in an organization, e.g. the process of employee performance evaluations, nature of supervision or guidance or the general attitude towards the organization in general. As mentioned earlier, we also tend to make various types of errors while judging others. A few of the frequently committed mistakes are given below:

Selective Perception: People have a tendency to selectively interpret what they see on the basis of their interests, background, experiences and attitudes. We hardly have either time or inclination to process all the relevant inputs and we automatically select a few. Naturally chances are there to miss some important cues in the process.

Halo Effect: It refers to the tendency of forming a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic. The smartly dressed guy who is very fluent in English often tends to create a favourable impression on the interviewer even when the job is of an accountant or engineer, requiring little or no verbal fluency.

Contrast Effect: It refers to the process of rating individuals in the light of other people’s performance which are close in time frame. You might be rated excellent in your project presentation if your predecessor makes a mess in his presentation. The case would have been just the reverse if you were to present just after a superb presentation!

Stereotyping: It is the process of judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which that perception belongs to. Common examples include the debate regarding the effectiveness of a lady doctor or manager or MBA’S from prestigious B’schools.

Emotion

The English word emotion is derived from the French word émouvoir. This is based on the Latin emovere, where e- (variant of ex-) means "without" and movere means "move.

Emotion is a complex psycho physiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical (internal) and environmental (external) influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviours, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, and motivation. Motivations direct and energize behaviour, while emotions provide the affective component to motivation, positive or negative.

Two types of Human Emotions: Researchers on emotions mostly agree on the existence of two types of human emotions:

Primary emotions Secondary emotions Cognitive and non-cognitive emotions Positive and Negative emotion

1. A primary human emotion types are the one triggered in response to an event, for example: Anger.

2. Secondary human emotions types are the group of emotions that follow those types of emotions. If we experience fear, the secondary emotions would be: feel threatened or feel anger , depending on the situation we are experiencing. For example, the early part of the emotion process is the interval between the perception of the stimulus and the triggering of the bodily response. The later part of the emotion process is a bodily response, for example, changes in heart rate, skin conductance, and facial expression.

3. Cognitive and Non Cognitive Emotions: Cognitive emotion is the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge through thought, experience and the senses. Whereas Non Cognitive emotion is a propositional (a statement expressing a judgement or opinion / expressing a concept that can be true or false) attitudes and the conceptual knowledge that they require (for example, anger is the judgement that I have been wronged) are necessary for emotions.

4. Positive and Negative emotion: Positive emotions are human emotion towards: Love, Appreciation, Happiness, Hope, Enthusiasm, Vitality (the state of being strong and active), Confidence, Gratitude (thankfulness), Patient, Trust, Optimistic, Appreciative Astonished (surprise or impress). Negative emotions are human emotion towards: Fear, Anger. Guilt, Depression, Jealousy, Self-pity, Anxiety, Resentment, Envy, Frustration, Shame, Denial, Offended, Negative, Regret, Resentful, Sad, Worried, Grief.

Determinants of Emotion:

Hereditary Physical Socio cultural Biological Parents and home Habit training in childhood Ethical and moral upbringings Intelligence Brain factor

Emotional labour: Emotional labour is an employee’s expression of organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions at work. The concept of emotional labour has emerged from studies of service jobs. Airlines expects their attendants, for instance, to be cheerful; company expect funeral staff to be sad; and we expect doctors to be emotionally neutral. But really, emotional labour is relevant to almost every job.

Emotional Intelligence: Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups. Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions. Some researchers suggest that emotional intelligence can be learned and strengthened, while others claim it is an inborn characteristic.

The Four Branches of Emotional Intelligence

Salovey and Mayer proposed a model that identified four different factors of emotional intelligence: the perception of emotion, the ability reason using emotions, the ability to understand emotion and the ability to manage emotions.

1. Perceiving Emotions: The first step in understanding emotions is to accurately perceive them. In many cases, this might involve understanding nonverbal signals such as body language and facial expressions.

2. Reasoning with Emotions: The next step involves using emotions to promote thinking and cognitive activity. Emotions help prioritize what we pay attention and react to; we respond emotionally to things that garner our attention.

3. Understanding Emotions: The emotions that we perceive can carry a wide variety of meanings. If someone is expressing angry emotions, the observer must interpret the cause of their anger and what it might mean. For example, if your boss is acting angry, it might mean that he is dissatisfied with your work; or it could be because he got a speeding ticket on his way to work that morning or that he's been fighting with his wife.

4. Managing Emotions: The ability to manage emotions effectively is a key part of emotional intelligence. Regulating emotions, responding appropriately and responding to the emotions of others are all important aspect of emotional management.

ATTITUDESThe word “Attitude” describes a persistent tendency to feel and behave in a particular way toward some object. An Attitude is a settled way of thinking or feeling, a position of the body indicating a particular mental state.

Attitudes are evaluative statements either favourable or unfavourable-concerning objects, people or events. They reflect how one feels about something.

Attitudes are tendencies to respond to the target of the attitude. Thus, attitudes often influence our behaviour toward some object, situation, person, or group. Attitudes are a function of what we think and what we feel. That is, attitudes are the product of a related belief and value.

Definition:

An attitude is a tendency to act toward or against something in the environment, which becomes thereby a positive or negative value.

Bogardus, 1931

Attitudes are likes and dislikes of an individual towards other people, things or objects.

Bem, 1970

Sources of Attitudes:

A significant portion of value system is genetically determined the rest are acquired from parents, teachers, friends, relatives and peer group members as well as society at large.

We observe the way family and friends behave and we shape our attitudes and behaviour to align with theirs. People imitate the attitudes of popular individuals or those they admire and respect. In organizations, attitudes are important because they affect job behaviour.

Types of Attitudes:

A person can have several attitudes but in organisational behaviour we are more interested in understanding the job related attitude. Such job related attitudes would reveal about the positive and negative evaluations that employees possess about the various aspects of their environment.

There are three types of Job Attitudes:

Job satisfaction Job involvement Organisational commitment

1. Job satisfaction: Job satisfaction is all about how one feels about one’s job. An employee who expresses satisfaction is said to have a positive attitude towards the job, unlike a dissatisfy employee who has a negative attitude towards the job.

2. Job involvement: This refers to the extent to which an individual identifies psychologically with his/her job and will try to perform the job to the best of his/her ability. A higher level of job involvement results in a display of positive disposition towards his/her job, subordinates, colleagues, superiors and derives a pleasurable and positive attitude from performing their jobs.

3. Organisational commitment: This can be visible in how the employees has identified with the organisation, its goals and vision and is also proud to be a part of the organisation. An employee with high degree of organisational commitment will possess a sense of well being towards the organisation and take pleasure and be effectively engaged in his work and achieving the firm’s goal.

Components of Attitudes: In general, attitudes comprise three elements. They are.

Cognitive Affective Behavioural

Cognitive element: The beliefs, opinion, knowledge, or information held by the individual. For e.g. “My superior is unfair, having a fair superior is important to me”

Affective element: The feelings, sentiments, moods and emotions about some idea, person, event or object. For e.g. “I don’t like my superior”

Behavioural element: The predispositions to get on a favourable or unfavourable evaluating of something or an intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something. For e.g. “I am going to request a transfer”.

Cognitive

AffectiveBehavioural

Cognitive Dissonance Theory: Leon Festinger in 1956 has developed the theory. Cognitive dissonance is a discomfort caused by holding conflicting cognitions (e.g., ideas, beliefs, values, emotional reactions) simultaneously. In a state of dissonance, people may feel surprise, dread, guilt, anger, or embarrassment. The theory of cognitive dissonance in social psychology proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by altering existing cognitions or adding new ones to create consistency.

People tend to seek consistency in their beliefs and perceptions. So what happens when one of our beliefs conflicts with another previously held belief? The term cognitive dissonance is used to describe the feeling of discomfort that results from holding two conflicting beliefs. When there is a discrepancy between beliefs and behaviours, something must change in order to eliminate or reduce the dissonance.

Examples of Cognitive DissonanceCognitive dissonance can occur in many areas of life, but it is particularly evident in situations where an individual's behaviour conflicts with beliefs that are integral to his or her self-identity. For example, consider a situation in which a woman who values financial security is in a relationship with a man who is financially irresponsible

The conflict: It is important for her to be financially secure. She is dating a man who is financially unstable.

In order to reduce this dissonance between belief and behaviour, she can either leave the relationship or reduce her emphasis on financial security. In the case of the second option, dissonance could be further minimized by emphasizing the positive qualities of her significant other rather than focusing on his perceived flaws.

A more common example of cognitive dissonance occurs in the purchasing decisions we make on a regular basis. Most people want to hold the belief that they make good choices. When a product or item we purchase turns out badly, it conflicts with our previously existing belief about our decision-making abilities.

How to Reduce Cognitive Dissonance

There are three key strategies to reduce or minimize cognitive dissonance:

Focus on more supportive beliefs that outweigh the dissonant belief or behaviour. Reduce the importance of the conflicting belief. Change the conflicting belief so that it is consistent with other beliefs or behaviours.

Why is Cognitive Dissonance Important:

Cognitive dissonance plays a role in many value judgments, decisions and evaluations. Becoming aware of how conflicting beliefs impact the decision-making process is a great way to improve your ability to make faster and more accurate choices

Changing attitude: employee’s attitude need to be changed, particularly when they are unfavourable. It is in the best interest of the organisation to change attitudes. But changing attitude is a difficult task as attitude generally endures.

Ways of changing attitudes:

1. Providing additional information: By providing additional information from third parties like consultant to fill the gap between management and workers.

2. Use of fear: The managing director if he wanted to change the attitudes of their workers for their irregular to their duties then he use a terror i.e. fear of retrenchment.

3. Resolving Discrepancies: This can be done by transferring few or excessive staff to the other department to other cities. This made the workers change their attitudes.

4. Influence of friends and peers: Due to the influence of their friends and peers, managers or even employees can change their attitudes for betterment of themselves as well as an organisation.

5. The co-opting approach: many people always criticize their boss for making delays in decision making and in other matters. Then the boss opted such employees into their position for experiencing the rigid procedural formalities and the controlling points in the bureaucracy. Since then they stop criticizing their boss and change their attitudes.

Functions of Attitudes

Attitude

Adjustment Ego Defensive

Value ExpressionKnowledge

1. Adjustment function: Attitudes often help people adjust to their work environment. When employee is well treated, they are likely to develop a positive attitude towards management and organisation.

2. Ego-defence function: People often form and maintain certain attitudes to protect their own self-image. Ego defence attitudes may be aroused by internal and external threats, by frustrating experiences, by build up of pressures previously repassed. Such an ego defence attitude is formed and used to cope with a feeling of guilt or threat. Unless this feeling is removed, this kind of attitude remains unchanged.

3. Expressive function: This attitudinal function contains three main aspects:

A). It helps express the individual’s central values and self-identity. Consumers express their values in the products they buy, the shops they patronize, and the life style they exhibit.

B) The expressive function also helps individuals their self-concept, and facilitates the adoption of sub-culture values considered important. For instance, teenagers may dress and behave in a certain way in order to foster their status in a group.

C) The expressive function helps individuals adopt and internalise the values of a group they have recently joined and as a consequence, they are better able to realize to the group. An individual who has joined an ecology group may now express values manifest in the purchase and use of a bicycle and the recycling of bottle and plastics.

4. Knowledge function: People need maintain a stable, organised and meaningful structure of their world in order to prevent chaos. Attitudes provide the standards or frames of reference by which an individual judges objectives or events, and attitudes that provide consistency in our thinking are particularly relevant. The knowledge function of attitude is observed more in consumer behaviour.

Values:

Values can be defined as a "broad tendency to prefer certain states of affairs over others." Not everyone holds the same values. Values may be classified into intellectual, economic, social, aesthetic, and political categories.

‘A value is a conception, explicit or implicit, distinctive of an individual or characteristic of a group, of the desirable which influences the selection from available modes, means and ends of action.’ In this definition, they emphasis the affective (desirable), cognitive (conception) and conative (selection) elements as essential to the concept of value

Occupational Differences in Values: Members of different occupational groups espouse different values. Salespeople rank social values less than the average person, while professors value "equal opportunity for all" more than the average person. People tend to choose occupations and organizations that correspond to their values.

Importance of values: Values lay the foundation for the understanding of attitudes and motivation and because they influence our perceptions. They generally influence attitudes and behaviour. Values are the basis for the study of; Attitudes, Personality, Morale, Satisfaction, Perception, Motivation and formation of pre conceived notions.

Provide understanding of the attitudes, motivation and behaviour of individuals and culture.

Influence our perception of the world around us. Represent interpretations of “right” and “wrong.” Imply that some behaviours or outcomes are preferred over others.

Sources of Value Systems: A significant value system is genetically determined. The rest is attributable to factors like national culture, parental dictates, teachers, friends and similar environmental influences.

Types of Values: The Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) is a classification system of values. Developed by social psychologist Milton Rokeach, the system consists of two sets of values, 18 individual value items in each. One set is called terminal values the other instrumental values.

RVS is based on a 1968 volume (Beliefs, Attitudes, and Values) which presented the philosophical basis for the association of fundamental values with beliefs and attitudes. His value system was instrumentalised into the Rokeach Value Survey in his 1973 book The Nature of Human Values.

1. Terminal Values refer to desirable end-states of existence. These are the goals that a person would like to achieve during his or her lifetime. These values vary among different groups of people in different cultures.

The terminal values in RVS are: True Friendship, Mature Love, Self-Respect, Happiness, Inner Harmony, Equality, Freedom, Pleasure, Social Recognition, Wisdom, Salvation, Family Security, National Security, A Sense of Accomplishment, A World of Beauty, A World at Peace, A Comfortable Life, and An Exciting Life etc.

2. Instrumental Values refer to preferable modes of behaviour. These are preferable modes of behaviour, or means of achieving the terminal values.

The Instrumental Values RVS are: Cheerfulness, Ambition, Love, Cleanliness, Self-Control, Capability, Courage, Politeness, Honesty, Imagination, Independence, Intellect, Broad-Mindedness, Logic, Obedience, Helpfulness, Responsibility, and Forgiveness

Loyalty and Ethical behaviour: Ethical Behavior - acting in ways consistent with one’s personal values and the commonly held values of the organization and society.

Ethics - reflects the way values are acted outEthical behavior - actions consistent with one’s values

Loyalty: The final response to unethical behaviour in an organization is loyalty. This is the alternative to exit. Instead of leaving, the individual remains and tries to change the organization from within. Loyalty thus discourages or delays exit. Loyalty also may discourage public voice, since being loyal to the organization means trying to solve problems from within without causing public embarrassment or damage. Loyalty can also encourage unethical behaviour, particularly in organizations which promote loyalty above all. These organizations discourage exit and voice, and basically want their members to "go along" with organizational practices. An interesting question is, "Can an individual be loyal to an organization by engaging in exit or voice as a response to unethical behaviour?"

BUILDING AN ETHICAL CLIMATE

How can the strategic leaders of an organization build an ethical climate? Andrews suggests a number of steps that foster corporate ethics. First are the actions of the strategic leadership and the way they deal with ethical issues. The pattern of top leaders' behaviour determines organizational values. A second step is to make explicit ethics policies. Ethical codes are one common example. The next step is to increase awareness of how to apply those ethical codes. Training on how to deal with situations with an ethical dimension, and how to anticipate situations that involve ethical choices, can go a long way toward ethical institutional practices.

Another step to increase the salience of ethics is to expand the information system to focus on areas where ethics may come into play. Knowing what actually is going on in the organization is essential to understanding the ethical principles which govern behaviour. The information system should also support ethical behaviour, and allow the strategic leader to know when or where there are potential ethical breaches so that corrective action can be

taken. The real danger is that when unethical behaviour is unnoticed, or not punished, members will assume it is condoned by the organization's leadership.

LOYALTY AND ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR PROCESS

Another way of categorizing values is:

Theoretical: Refers to the interest in the discovery of truth through reasoning and systematic thinking.

Economic: Refers to interest in usefulness and practicality including the accumulation of wealth.

Authentic: Refers to the interest in beauty, form and artistic harmony.

Social: Refers to interest in people and love as a human relationship

Political: Refers to interest in gaining power and influence people.

Religious: Refers to interest in unity and understanding the cosmos as a world.

Learning:

Definition:

According to Stephen Robbins, learning may be defined as ‘any relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of experience called Learning.’

The present definition has several components that deserve clarification, they are:

Learning involves change The change must be relatively permanent Learning involves change in behaviour.

Theories of learning: In order to explain the complex topic like human learning, various researchers has approached the problem from various perspectives. This has given rise to different theories of learning. We will review some of the most important theories of learning which are:

1. Classical conditioning2. Operant conditioning and3. Social conditioning

1. Classical Conditioning: In order to understand how more about how classical conditioning works, it is important to be familiar with the basic principles of the process.

The Unconditioned StimulusThe unconditioned stimulus is one that unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers a response. For example, when you smell one of your favorite foods, you may immediately feel very hungry. In this example, the smell of the food is the unconditioned stimulus.

The Unconditioned ResponseThe unconditioned response is the unlearned response that occurs naturally in response to the unconditioned stimulus. In our example, the feeling of hunger in response to the smell of food is the unconditioned response.

The Conditioned StimulusThe conditioned stimulus is previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response. In our earlier example, suppose that when you smelled your favourite food, you also heard the sound of a whistle. While the whistle is unrelated to the smell of the food, if the sound of the whistle was paired multiple times with the smell, the sound would eventually trigger the conditioned response. In this case, the sound of the whistle is the conditioned stimulus.

The Conditioned ResponseThe conditioned response is the learned response to the previously neutral stimulus. In our example, the conditioned response would be feeling hungry when you heard the sound of the whistle.

1. Classical or "Pavlovian" Conditioning

One of the best-known aspects of behavioural learning theory is classical conditioning. Discovered by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs through associations between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus.

Classical Conditioning is the type of learning made famous by Pavlov's experiments with dogs. The gist of the experiment is this: Pavlov presented dogs with food, and measured their salivary response (how much they drooled). Then he began ringing a bell just before presenting the food. At first, the dogs did not begin salivating until the food was presented. After a while, however, the dogs began to salivate when the sound of the bell was presented. They learned to associate the sound of the bell with the presentation of the food. As far as their immediate physiological responses were concerned, the sound of the bell became equivalent to the presentation of the food.

Classical conditioning is used by trainers for two purposes: To condition (train) autonomic responses, such as the drooling, producing adrenaline, or reducing adrenaline (calming) without using the stimuli that would naturally create such a response; and, to create an association between a stimulus that normally would not have any effect on the animal and a stimulus that would.

Stimuli that animals react to without training are called primary or unconditioned stimuli (US). They include food, pain, and other "hardwired" or "instinctive" stimuli. Animals do not have to learn to react to an electric shock, for example. Pavlov's dogs did not need to learn about food.

Stimuli that animals react to only after learning about them are called secondary or conditioned stimuli (CS). These are stimuli that have been associated with a primary stimulus. In Pavlov's experiment, the sound of the bell meant nothing to the dogs at first. After its sound was associated with the presentation of food, it became a conditioned stimulus. If a warning buzzer is associated with the shock, the animals will learn to fear it.

Few Pictorial examples of Classical Conditioning Theory:

2. Operant Conditioning Theory-B.F. Skinner:

Operant conditioning (sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning) is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behaviour. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between behaviour and a consequence for that behaviour.

Operant conditioning was coined by behaviourist B.F. Skinner, which is why you may occasionally hear it referred to as Skinnerian conditioning. As a behaviourist, Skinner believed that internal thoughts and motivations could not be used to explain behaviour. Instead, he suggested, we should look only at the external, observable causes of human behaviour.

Skinner used the term operant to refer to any "active behaviour that operates upon the environment to generate consequences" (1953). In other words, Skinner's theory explained how we acquire the range of learned behaviours we exhibit each and every day.

Examples of Operant Conditioning

We can find examples of operant conditioning at work all around us. Consider the case of children completing homework to earn a reward from a parent or teacher, or employees finishing projects to receive praise or promotions.

In these examples, the promise or possibility of rewards causes an increase in behaviour, but operant conditioning can also be used to decrease a behaviour. The removal of an undesirable outcome or the use of punishment can be used to decrease or prevent undesirable behaviours. For example, a child may be told they will lose recess privileges if they talk out of turn in class. This potential for punishment may lead to a decrease in disruptive behaviours.

Components of Operant ConditioningSome key concepts in operant conditioning:

Reinforcement is any event that strengthens or increases the behaviour it follows. There are two kinds of rein forcers:

1. Positive reinforces: are favourable events or outcomes that are presented after the behaviour. In situations that reflect positive reinforcement, a response or behaviour is strengthened by the addition of something, such as praise or a direct reward.

2. Negative reinforces involve the removal of an unfavourable events or outcomes after the display of a behaviour. In these situations, a response is strengthened by the removal of something considered unpleasant.

In both of these cases of reinforcement, the behaviour increases.

Punishment, on the other hand, is the presentation of an adverse event or outcome that causes a decrease in the behaviour it follows. There are two kinds of punishment:

1. Positive punishment, sometimes referred to as punishment by application, involves the presentation of an unfavourable event or outcome in order to weaken the response it follows.

2. Negative punishment, also known as punishment by removal, occurs when an favourable event or outcome is removed after a behaviour occurs.In both of these cases of punishment, the behaviour decreases.

3. Social Learning Theory by Albert Bandura in 1977:

The social learning theory proposed by Albert Bandura has become perhaps the most influential theory of learning and development. While rooted in many of the basic concepts of traditional learning theory, Bandura believed that direct reinforcement could not account for all types of learning.

His theory added a social element, arguing that people can learn new information and behaviours by watching other people. Known as observational learning (or modelling), this type of learning can be used to explain a wide variety of behaviours.

Basic Social Learning ConceptsThere are three core concepts at the heart of social learning theory. First is the idea that people can learn through observation. Next is the idea that internal mental states are an essential part of this process. Finally, this theory recognizes that just because something has been learned, it does not mean that it will result in a change in behaviour.

Let's explore each of these concepts in greater depth.

1. People can learn through observation.Observational Learning In his famous "Bobo doll" studies, Bandura demonstrated that children learn and imitate behaviours they have observed in other people. The children in Bandura’s studies observed an adult acting violently toward a Bobo doll. When the children were later allowed to play in a room with the Bobo doll, they began to imitate the aggressive actions they had previously observed.

Bandura identified three basic models of observational learning:

1. A live model, which involves an actual individual demonstrating or acting out behaviour.

2. A verbal instructional model, which involves descriptions and explanations of behaviour.

3. A symbolic model, which involves real or fictional characters displaying behaviours in books, films, television programs, or online media.

2. Mental states are important to learning.

Intrinsic ReinforcementBandura noted that external, environmental reinforcement was not the only factor to influence learningand behaviour. He described intrinsic reinforcement as a form of internal reward, such as pride,satisfaction, and a sense of accomplishment. This emphasis on internal thoughts and cognitionshelps connect learning theories to cognitive developmental theories. While many textbooks placesocial learning theory with behavioural theories, Bandura himself describes his approach as a'social cognitive theory.'

3. Learning does not necessarily lead to a change in behaviour.While behaviourists believed that learning led to a permanent change in behaviour, observational learning demonstrates that people can learn new information without demonstrating new behaviours.

The Modelling ProcessNot all observed behaviours are effectively learned. Factors involving both the model and the learner can play a role in whether social learning is successful. Certain requirements and steps must also be followed. The following steps are involved in the observational learning and modelling process:

Attention:In order to learn, you need to be paying attention. Anything that detracts your attention is going to have a negative effect on observational learning. If the model interesting or there is a novel aspect to the situation, you are far more likely to dedicate your full attention to learning.

Retention:The ability to store information is also an important part of the learning process. Retention can be affected by a number of factors, but the ability to pull up information later and act on it is vital to observational learning.

Reproduction:Once you have paid attention to the model and retained the information, it is time to actually perform the behaviour you observed. Further practice of the learned behaviour leads to improvement and skill advancement.

Motivation:Finally, in order for observational learning to be successful, you have to be motivated to imitate the behaviour that has been modelled. Reinforcement and punishment play an important role in motivation. While experiencing these motivators can be highly effective, so can observing other experience some type of reinforcement or punishment?

For example, if you see another student rewarded with extra credit for being to class on time, you might start to show up a few minutes early each day.

Final ThoughtsIn addition to influencing other psychologists, Bandura's social learning theory has had important implication in the field of eduction. Today, both teachers and parents recognize the importance of modelling appropriate behaviours. Other classroom strategies such as encouraging children and building self-efficacy are also rooted in social learning theory.