Teacher's Alley

Two Factor Theory - Spearman Two factor theory of intelligence considers that intelligence consists of two factors : a general intelligence factor, G several specific factor, S The general factor G is considered as playing some part in almost all human activities, while there are some special types of activities which are associated with the S factor. For example, learning certain skills and crafts etc. Everybody has one G factor and many specific abilities or many S factors. In every type of activity, one S factor pertaining to that activity is necessarily involved while in all type of activities the necessity of G factor is felt. There are activities in which the G factor is relatively important and also such activities where it plays only a minor role. In cases of minor roles  the S factor plays prominent role. G factor can never be directly measured. It is measured indirectly by obtaining the correlation of many functions involving G. Spearman...

  Gardner's Definition of Intelligence   The human ability to solve problems or to make something that is valued in one or more cultures. The theory of multiple intelligence is Howard Gardner’s theory that proposes: That people are not born with all of the intelligence they will ever have. It says that intelligence can be learned throughout life. Claims that everyone is intelligent in at least nine different ways and can develop each aspect of intelligence to an average level of competency. Intelligence, as defined by Gardner, is the ability to solve problems or fashion products that are valuable in one or more cultural settings. The 9 intelligences included in Gardner’s theory are: Verbal/ Linguistic Visual/ Spatial Interpersonal Musical/ Rhythmic Logical/ Mathematical Intrapersonal Bodily/ Kinesthetic Naturalist Existentialist Principles of Multiple Intelligence Theory: Intelligence is not singular: intelligences are multiple. Ever...

Joy Paul Guilford was a US psychologist, best remembered for his psychometric study of human intelligence, including the important distinction between convergent and divergent production. His "Structure of Intellect" model organized these various abilities along three dimensions: content, product, and process. He sought to develop tests for each combination of the possibilities on these three dimensions, expecting that a person could be high on some of these abilities while being low on others. According to him, Intelligence depends on: Mental operations (process of thinking) Content (what we think about) Product (result of our thinking) By Content he meant that different people seemed to pay more attention to and think more effectively about different kinds of information. There are 5 kinds of Contents Visual - Information perceived through seeing Auditory - Information perceived through hearing. Symbolic content  - arbitrary signs such as numbers or co...

Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development is one of the best-known theories of personality. Similar to Freud, Erikson believed that personality develops in a series of stages. Unlike Freud’s theory of psychosexual stages, Erikson’s theory describes the impact of social experience across the whole lifespan. Each stage in Erikson’s theory is concerned with becoming competent in an area of life. If the stage is handled well, the person will feel a sense of mastery. If the stage is managed poorly, the person will emerge with a sense of inadequacy. In each stage, Erikson believed people experience a conflict that serves as a turning point in development. In Erikson’s view, these conflicts are centered on either developing a psychological quality or failing to develop that quality. During these times, the potential for personal growth is high, but so is the potential for failure. Psychosocial Stage 1 - Trust vs. Mistrust  The first stage of Erikson’s theory of ps...

Trait Theory Trait theorists believe personality can be understood by positing that all people have certain traits, or characteristic ways of behaving. A trait is an identifying characteristic, habit or trend. Saying that a trait is either present or absent does not accurately reflect a person's uniqueness, because according to trait theory all of our personalities are actually made up of same traits. We differ only in the degree to which each trait is expressed. Cattell believed it necessary to sample a wide range of variables to capture a full understanding of personality. The first type of data was life data, which involves collecting information from an individual's natural everyday life  behaviors. Experimental data involves measuring reactions to standardized experimental situations and Questionnaire data involves gathering responses based on introspection by an individual about his or her own feelings. Using this data Cattel performed factor analysis to gen...

Intro In the 1940's, William Herbert Sheldon associated body types with human temperament types. He claimed that a body type could be linked with the personality of that person. He says that a fat person with a large bone structure tends to have an outgoing and more relaxed personality while a more muscular body typed person is more active and aggressive. A slim or scrawny person with thin muscles is usually characterized as quiet or fragile. He split up these body/personality types into three categories called somatotypes. Endomorphic An Endomorphic somatotype is also known as a viscerotonic. The characteristic traits of this somatotype usually includes being relaxed, tolerant, comfortable, and sociable. Psychologically, they are also fun loving, good humored,even tempered, and they love food and affection. The Endomorph is physically "round". They have wide hips and narrow shoulders that give a pear shape. They tend to have a lot of extra fat on their body a...

In 1956, the American educational psychologist Robert M. Gagné proposed a system of classifying different types of learning in terms of the degree of complexity of the mental processes involved. He identified eight basic types, and arranged these in the hierarchy shown in Figure 1. According to Gagné, the higher orders of learning in this hierarchy build upon the lower levels, requiring progressively greater amounts of previous learning for their success. The lowest four orders tend to focus on the more behavioral aspects of learning, while the highest four focus on the more cognitive aspects. Figure 1: Gagne's Hierarchy of Learning Let us now take a closer look at Gagné's eight categories of learning. 1. Signal Learning.  This is the simplest form of learning, and consists essentially of the classical conditioning first described by the behavioural psychologist Pavlov. In this, the subject is 'conditioned' to emit a d...

Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was a humanistic psychologist who developed a personality theory that emphasized the importance of the self-actualizing tendency in shaping human personalities. Rogers believed that humans are constantly reacting to stimuli with their subjective reality (phenomenal field), which changes continuously. Over time, a person develops a self-concept based on the feedback from this field of reality. In the development of self-concept, positive regard is key. Unconditional positive regard is an environment that is free of preconceived notions of value. Conditional positive regard is full of conditions of worth that must be achieved to be considered successful. Carl Rogers agreed with the main assumptions of Abraham Maslow, but added that for a person to "grow", they need an environment that provides them with genuineness (openness and self-disclosure), acceptance (being seen with unconditional positive regard), and empathy (being listened to and un...

Piaget’s theory of Cognitive Development  Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was one of the 20th centuries most influential researchers in the area of developmental psychology.  He was mainly interested in the biological influences on ―how we come to know. Piaget believed that what distinguishes human beings from other animals is our ability to do ―abstract symbolic reasoning. There are two major aspects to his theory:  the process of coming to know and  the stages we move through as we gradually acquire this ability. Piaget (1936) was the first  psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. His contributions include a theory of child cognitive  development, detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a series  of simple but ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive abilities. Before Piaget’s work, the common assumption in psychology was that children are merely less competent thinkers than adul...