Individual Differences

Dr. Manju N. D
Assistant Professor
S.V.K. National College of Education
 Individual Difference
Concept:
 No two individuals are alike; not even identical twins
 Each individual is distinct and unique
 Individual differ in their intelligence, aptitude, interests, attitude
and other personality traits, Physical, cognitive and personality
areas.
 Every man certain aspects:
- Like all other man
- Like some other man
- Like no other man
 These differences between individuals that separate them from
one another and make one as a unique individual in oneself are
termed as Individual differences.
 Knowledge of individual differences leads to the effective
 Definition of individual difference
• According Carter B. Good : “the variations or
deviations among individuals in regard to a single
characteristic or a number of characteristics”.
• Osborne: “Individual differences as dissimilarity
between persons that distinguish them from one
another”
• The Dictionary of Clinical psychology: “Individual
differences as the deviation of individuals from
the group average or from each other”.
 Causes of Individual Differences:

1. Heredity:
• Some heretical traits bring a change from one
individual to other.
• An individual’s height, size, shape and color of hair,
shape of face, nose, hands and legs so to say the
entire structure of the body is determined by his
heretical qualities.
• Intellectual differences are also to a great extent
influenced by hereditary factor.
 2. Environment:
• Environment brings individual differences in
behaviour, activities, attitude, and style of life
characteristics, Personality etc.
• Environment does not refer only physical
surroundings but also it refers the different
types of people, society, their culture,
customs, traditions, social heritage, ideas and
ideals.
 3. Race and Nationality:
• Race and Nationality is one cause of individual
difference.
• Indians are very peace loving, Chinese are
cruel; Americans are very frank due to race
and nationality.
 4. Sex:
• Due to sex variation one individual differs
from other.
• Men are strong in mental power. On the other
hand women on the average show small
superiority over men in memory, language
and aesthetic sense.
• Women excel the men in shouldering social
responsibilities and have a better control over
their emotions.
 5. Age:
• Age is another factor which is responsible in
bringing individual differences.
• Learning ability and adjustment capacity
naturally grow with age.
• When one grows in age can acquire better
control over our emotions and better social
responsibilities.
• When a child grows then this maturity and
development goes side by side.
 5. Education:
• Education is one major factor which brings individual
differences.
• There is a wide gap in the behaviors of educated and
uneducated persons.
• All traits of human beings like social, emotional and
intellectual are controlled and modifies through
proper education.
• This education brings a change in our attitude,
behaviour, appreciations, Personality.
• It is seen that uneducated persons are guided by
their instinct and emotions where as the educated
persons are guided by their reasoning power.
 Educational Implications of Individual Differences:

1. Aims of education, curriculum, method of

teaching should be linked with individual
differences considering the different abilities and
traits individual.
2. Curriculum should be designed as per the
interest, abilities and needs of different
students.
3. The teacher has to adopt different types of
methods of teaching considering individual
difference related to interest, need, etc.
4. Some co-curricular activities such as Drama,
music, literary activities (Essay & Debate
Competition) should be assigned to children
according to their interest.
5. Teacher uses certain specific teaching aids which
will attract the children towards teaching
considering their interest and need.
6. Various methods such as playing method,
project method, Montessori method, story telling
methods are to be used considering/discovering
how different children respond to a task or a
problem.
7. The division of pupils into classes should not
be based only on the mental age or
chronological age of children but the physical,
social and emotional maturity should be given
due consideration.
8. In case of vocational guidance the counselor
is to plan the guidance technique keeping in
view the needs and requirements of the
students.
 Dimensions of Individual differences

• Physical differences:
– Height,
– weight,
– colour of skin,
– eye,
– Hair,
– Shortness or tallness of stature,
– darkness or fairness of complexion,
– fatness, thinness, or weakness are various physical
individual differences., etc.
• Intellectual differences:
– Reasoning,
– thinking,
– imagination,
– creative expression,
– There are differences in intelligence level among
different individuals.
– The individuals from high intelligence (above 120
I.Q.) to idiots (from 0 to 50 I.Q.) on the basis of
their intelligence level. etc.
• Difference in social and moral development
– Happy social life,
– Anti-social activities,
– Feels isolated,
– Unethical behaviours etc.
• Emotional differences:
– Positive emotion,
– negative emotion,
– mature and
– immature emotion etc.
• Difference in motor ability
– Time,
– speed of action,
– steadiness,
– rate of muscular movement etc…
• Difference in achievement
– Achievement in knowledge
– Schooling,
– Experience.
– differences are very much visible in reading, writing
and in learning mathematics., etc…

• Difference in interest and aptitude

– Group,
– books,
– Meeting people,
– Attending social functions,
– music., etc….
• Difference in attitude, beliefs and opinions
– Groups,
– Attitude towards learning,
– Attitude towards subjects – Maths, science and
social science
– object,
– Ideas., etc…
• Learning differences
– Memorization,
– learning styles,
– group,
– individual learning., etc….
• Personality differences:
– Introverts,
– Extroverts,
– Ambiverts,
– Stable minded, and
– Unstable minded.
• Differences on account of sex:
– Women have greater skill in memory while men have
greater motor ability.
– Handwriting of women is superior while men excel in
mathematics and logic.
– Women show greater skill in making sensory distinctions
of taste, touch and smell etc., while men show greater
reaction and conscious of size- weight illusion.
– Women are superior to men in languages, while men are
superior in physics and chemistry.
– Women are better than men in mirror drawing. Faults of
speech etc. in men were found to be three times of such
faults in women.
Problems arise out of individual differences in classroom:

It is important for teachers to know the problems arise

in classroom. such as
physical characteristics,
intelligence,
perception,
gender,
ability,
learning styles,
which are individual differences of the learners.
 An effective and productive learning-teaching
process can be planned by considering these
individual differences of the students.
 Remedial measures for individual difference
• Every teacher should try to have the desired
knowledge of the abilities, capacities, interests,
attitudes, aptitudes and other personality traits of
his pupils and in the light of this knowledge should
render individual guidance to children for the
maximum utilization of their potentialities.
• Proper knowledge of the individual’s potentialities
• The first step in making provision for the individual
differences is to know about the abilities,
capacities, interests, aptitudes and other
personality traits of individual pupils.
• Schools may also adopt special programs or
method of teaching like
– Dalton plan (children are presented with
opportunities to make educational choices about
their learning),
– the Winnetka plan (the plan attempted to expand
educational focus to creative activities and emotional
and social development) the project method or use
programmed learning material for enabling the
students to learn their own individual pace.
• In the light of the results derived from various
tests for knowing individual differences in
terms of individual potentialities in various
dimensions, the students in a class or area of
activity can be divided into homogenous
groups.
• Such division can prove beneficial in adjusting
instruction to varying individual differences.
• Adjusting the curriculum
– The curriculum should be as flexible and
differentiated as possible.
– It should have the provision for a number of
diversified courses and co-curricular experiences.
– It should provide adjustment suiting the local
requirements and potentialities of the students in
different groups.
• Adjusting the method of teaching
– Every teacher should be somewhat free to formulate
his own plan and strategy and adopt instructional
procedure which he finds most suited to the
particular types of pupils under him.
– He should try to follow a different procedure or
method of instruction suiting the requirements of
varying ability groups of his pupils.
• Create a support system.
– Some students need additional help if they are to
succeed.
– You can refer them to student support services,
but also consider holding special sessions or
creating online tutorials to address struggling
students’ special needs.
• The size of the class or section should be as small
as possible.
• The teacher should try to pay individual attention
the group under instruction.
• The teacher should keep in view the individual
differences of his students while engaging them
in drill or practice work in classroom or assigning
home task
• In case ability grouping is not possible and more
specifically under the prevalent system of class
teaching, special coaching and guidance
programe for both the dull and gifted children is
most helpful.
Thank you………..