Object and objectives of differential psychology

The psychology of individual differences addresses the description, prediction and explanation of the interindividual, intergroup and intra -individual variability in relevant psychological areas, with respect to its origin, manifestation, and functioning.

Description requires the following steps: observation and evaluation in representative samples, both of the population under study and the universe of behaviors to study. Classification and ordering of the dimensions found, from the correlational methodology, In taxonomies, or structures, Organizational.

1. Object and objectives
2. Relevant constructs in research on individual differences
3. Fundamental Units of Analysis
4. Procedural units
5. Definition proposed for a psychology of current individual differences

Object and objectives

The most important initial issue for the study of individual differences, is to detect (reveal):

• If people look more like themselves, through time and situations, than other people
• If the unique individual varies less, over time and situations, than the variation that occurs between people.

Prediction The dimensions found in the different research areas have an important predictive value in very varied criteria of the lives of people, academics, labor, or family and social relationships. Explanation requires that nature be known, how they work, and what processes they behave to be able to elaborate explanatory theories. Sources of human variability The analysis of the nature of individual differences refers to the study of existing sources of variation.

Following Revelle (1995) regarding the levels of analysis and explanation in behavioral diversity we distinguish three sections:

1. Psychological variability is the primary object of study of discipline and refers to the differences in all manifestations of human behavior: as far as the structure of individual differences is concerned, we will talk about feature as a fundamental unit for the study of psychological variability, while, from a study of the most current individual differences based on the study of the Operating dynamics of these features we will pay greater attention to the intrapsychic dynamics processes And to the relevant situational factors, beyond personal provisions, or features, classics.
2. Biological variability Hypothesis: the genetic and biological basis of individual duties are the origin of the existing variability, at least as far as some fundamental dimensions are concerned. Two types of basic investigations: the percentage of the phenotypic variance of the behavior that is explained by the differences in the genetic endowment of individuals and, the variation explained depending on the differential functioning of biological mechanisms. On the other hand, the advances that have been produced around the "quantitative genetics" and more specifically of the "behavioral genetics" make up a solid base on which to build the new explanations "interactionists".

At present, it is totally assumed that genes do not fix the behavior, they only specify a range of possibilities in the reactions that the environment causes in the individual.

The objective of behavior genetics It will be to investigate what are the ultimate causes of the differences between individuals taking as reference the phenotypic variance observed in a behavioral trait. But, neither the method used by behavior genetics is adequate to provide a causality to intergroup differences, nor the results achieved through it can become an explanatory basis in favor of a genetic determinism of group differences.

In any case, whether from the framework of the "genetic of behavior" or "molecular genetics", the results indicate the importation of experiential differences between individuals, a facet in which there is a deficiency of adequate measures, which limit the formulation of models and theories that, in a coherent and systematic way, can predict behavioral differences. There are some conceptual frameworks, such as sociobiology and its derivation more linked to psychology, evolutionary theory, which intend to find the key that articulates the influences of biological and environmental variability, however such theories are developed in a degree of abstraction that makes it difficult to reach the scientific verification of their arguments. On the other hand, as reveals, genes do not act directly on behavior.

The second line of research on sources of biological variation focuses on the study of biological foundations of differential human behavior based on physiological structures and processes governed by fundamental systems such as the nervous system (central and autonomous), the neuroendocrine system, etc. As far as intelligence is concerned, practically all biological models could be grouped around the hypothesis that "in the heart of intelligence is the brain" and, therefore, in which the foundations of mental ability will be based on the neurophysiology, articulated around "The neural efficiency model", which says that the smartest people have a series of biological correlates that show greater mental efficacy and speed.

Techniques such as evoked potentials, nerve driving speed, or brain glucose measurement are among the most used (Davidson and Downing). In personality, the model proposed by Eysenck and Eysenck bases the extraversion/introversion dimension in the cortical arousal and the brain ascending reticular system, and neuroticism in the limbic system. Other authors have temperamental proposals. In the opinion of Pervin and John the relationships between personality and biological processes remains a problematic issue at the beginning of the 21st century. c. Situational and cultural variability since the evolutionary theory proposed to combine the relatively random genesis of the variability in living organisms, with the directional role of the natural selection that acts from the interaction between individuals and the demands of the environment, the Joint importance of genetics and the environment in determining variability in behavior patterns.

Galton himself, so interested in hereditary factors, assumed the influence of these factors through the notion of relative consistency. Situational factors have never been excluded from the psychological consideration of human variability. Subsequently, the influence of "modern interactionism" It allowed to overcome the controversy between "personalism" and "situationism", stressing that the important thing about the situation is not the physical attributes of the situation, but, above all, its significance for the subject, which leads us, again, to variability Psychological.

Levels of complexity of contextual variables depending on their degree of generality and temporary persistence (According to Endler): The stimulus: refers to the concrete objects on which the subject guides his attention and response. the situation: which acquires the character of organized totality that integrates various components. the environment: that groups a variety of situations and the relationships between them. Ten Berge and Raad have made a distinction between the situational concepts according to the theoretical perspectives to which they can be assigned: The ecological, that emphasizes the physical elements of the environment; The behavioral, that focuses on the stimulate value of the situation; and The psychological-social, that attends to roles and the symbolic elements of the social episodes in which the behavior takes place.

In general, two ways of addressing the analysis of situations have been differentiated: Aprioristic elaboration of situational taxonomies: It is useful to achieve a systematic analysis of objective characteristics that define situations and their influence on behavior; Although the problem presented by this strategy is the remarkable lack of agreement both in the proposed classifications and in the criteria underlying them. Characterization of concrete contexts where behavior occurs: Such contexts are referred, in the broadest sense, to the Ecological system in which the person is immersed and even the observer of the same. In this sense, for more than thirty years there have also been approaches that, trying to achieve an integrative vision of the environment, propose a certain articulation of the objective facet and the subjective of them. A very clear example of this is the concept of "social climate", which means that each environment has a unique "personality" and underlying patterns of environmental dynamics that can be considered similar to those that make up the personal system, so that Both systems in "interaction" give rise to individual differences.

Understanding vision of the sources of variability

As Sánchez Cánovas defends, the psychology of individual differences is not deterministic, but random. When talking about genetics or inheritance, we refer to what is given, not a determination. One of the characteristics that define the reflexivity of the human being is its Propositivity or behavioral intentionality. Most integration attempts take as a starting point, well "the general theory of" Bertalanffy systems, well, the "information processing theory", two theoretical frameworks of different origin but that coincide in their generality and complexity When addressing the study of human behavior, and that they have raided the path in order to achieve an organization and provide coherence to the data from the different research in the psychology of individual differences.

Others Approaches In recent years, to clarify the way in which genetic and environmental factors interact when their influence on intellectual manifestations have been clarified in recent years. CECI raises a bioecological model of intelligence that emphasizes multiple cognitive potentials, together with the role of context and knowledge, as the basis of individual differences in cognitive performance. SCARAR, supported by the three types of genotype-environment, passive, active and reactive relationship, has highlighted the notion of "construction of a niche", within an evolutionary theory of individuality, which implies that as they mature , individuals seek, build and create environments that correspond to their inherited personal characteristics, in which to develop their personality, their interests and their abilities.

Relevant constructs in research on individual differences

Currently, the integrative theories proliferate in which the individual's unique. to. Intelligence according to Calvin (1999), there will never be a universal agreement on a definition of intelligence because it is an open word, the same as consciousness. 56 experts in the field concluded: "Intelligence is a very general mental capacity that, among other things, implies the aptitude to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, understand complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. You cannot consider mere encyclopedic knowledge, a particular academic ability or an expertise to solve tests. On the other hand, it reflects a broader and deeper capacity to understand the environment -give up, make sense of things or imagine what should be done ". Not all experts in the study of intelligence share the existence of a unique mental capacity. Currently, in addition to this claim to discover not only what and how much, but how the differences in intelligent behavior occur, there is a greater breadth of sight when addressing the study of intelligence, being a remarkable tendency in The last decades the incorporation into their study of variables traditionally considered outside the cognitive field, such as motivation or emotion. b.

Personality absence of a consensus when defining such construct. In the 30s, the concept of trait (Allport and Murray) was formulated for the first time and several stages begin: during the forties and fifty they proliferated the great factorialist theories and began a sociological approach. The subsequent years, great development of personality tests and disintegration in research that replaces the complex topic of the personality with the study of partial aspects of the same. During the sixties, the criticism movement of the concept of feature that is attacked, under the situationist perspective, also begins. Seventy and eighty years, the interactionist approach will exceed the controversy between the environmental and personalist poles. In the last decade of the last century we find a revitalization of the study of individual differences in personality based on the concept of trait, which continues to be considered the most relevant unit, both when forming the structure of personality, and for the evaluation of the same. However, the notion of trait has undergone some changes thanks to the integration of knowledge from other areas and approaches. From the differentialist approach, which has been accepted to the trait model, the idea that personality is a system of organized dimensions has been justified (P. eg. Guilford, considers individual personality as a unique pattern of traits whose quantitative evaluation of a normative nature allows to establish the differences between people. These dimensions have been identified through the factor analysis technique, based on two premises (Tous): it is necessary Consider differences and compare people with others. Requirement of continuity and homogeneity of intra -individual differences over time and different situations. As Pervin points out, personality definitions focus, either on individual differences, either on the organization of components in a system, or both at the same time at the same time. In the words of Pervin and John "Personality represents those characteristics of the person who account for their consistent patterns of feeling, thinking and acting". These characteristic patterns of the individual fulfill the adaptation function of the individual to the environment and, therefore, show their usual way of facing situations throughout life. For psychologists, personality must serve to explain and predict individual behavior.

The person is considered as a concrete manifestation of the possible combinations of personality traits, and their study should not cover only descriptive dimensions, but also should explain the causes of behavior (Tous). Definition of Allport (systemic, holistic and dynamic mood), for whom personality is: "The dynamic organization intra -individual of those systems that determine their Single adjustment to its environment ". H.J.Eysenck expanded the definitions of Allport and Murray by elaborating a more detailed definition; Thus, the personality would be the total sum of the body's behavior patterns, manifest or potential, determined by the inheritance and the environment, which originates and develops through the functional interaction of 4 fundamental sectors in which behavioral patterns are organize:

1. The cognitive sector, or intelligence.
2. The Constant, volitional, or character sector.
3. The affective sector, or temperament.
4. The somatic sector, or constitution.

The temperament

The temperament concept has its origin in hypocratic typologies. Rothbart and Aradi define temperament as "those individual constitutional differences that manifest in the processes of physiological reactivity and self-regulation, being influenced, over time, by inheritance, maturation and experience". Individual differences in temperament are basically explained under the perspective of temporal development and usually show an early appearance, so there is a long tradition in research related to childhood temperament.

Temperament represents the constitutional style of behavior that each individual shows with some evidence in the course of time and circumstances, including dimensions related to the forms or styles of behavioral manifestations rather than to the content or purpose of the behavior, and being very linked to the sphere of emotions. In this sense, personality is understood as an organizing element and coordinator of the expression of temperament, giving it content and purpose.

THE CHARACTER

The use of the term has been restricted over time.

The character represents, that set of customs, feelings and ideals, or values, which make an individual the reactions of an individual. The character must be distinguished from the values, the latter respond to orientations or provisions that include cognitive and affective components, while the character also implies carrying out actions in which the knowledge and values ​​that the person has are activated including, Therefore, not only cognition and emotion, but also motivational and behavioral components.

Values ​​could be understood, in this sense, as one of the pillars of character. Unlike temperament, the current conception of character is based on the values ​​of each society, its educational system and how those are transmitted. Campbell and Bond propose that the development of character would be, at the present time, depending on the following aspects: inheritance. The early experiences of childhood. The modeling in charge of adults or important young people. The influence of the companions. The physical and social environment. The media. Teaching at school and other institutions. Specific situations and roles that elicit the corresponding behavior

Integrative constructs This tendency to integrate aspects of personality and intelligence, which were previously conceived separately, sinks their roots towards the middle of the twentieth century, when some psychologists began to be interested in knowing the influence that emotions and temperament could exercise On the intellectual operations that the subject carried out, while others focused their attention on the study of individual differences in the way of using the available information that they also had a relationship with the personality . Since there were no psychological concepts that could account for this integration of fields, the terms of cognitive styles and controls were born. Under this orientation, the objective was to explain the individual differences in the way of perceiving, attending, remembering and thinking that, repeatedly, they were manifest in the studies carried out. Characteristics that can be used to define cognitive styles (Quiroga):

1. They are not directly observable;
2. Dan have the differences in the form of mental activity, without referring to its content;
3. They integrate cognitive and non -cognitive aspects;
4. they underlie various psychological functions and different situations;
5. They are the result of the integration of experimental and differential research;
6. they contribute substantially to the prediction of adaptation and performance.

Creativity is halfway between intelligence and personality: "Creativity is the person's ability to produce new and original ideas, discoveries, restructuring, inventions or artistic objects, which are accepted by experts as valuable elements in the Science, technology or art land. Both originality and utility or value are properties of the creative product despite the fact that these properties can vary over time "(Vernon).

Psychologists considered experts in the study of creativity have been interested, both to elucidate the process that leads the individual to generate a creative production, and in providing the description of a creative individual, both for their intellectual characteristics and personality. (Guilford, Sternberg or Eysenck).

New integrative constructs are recently emerging have the purpose of recovering the unification of their object of study, since the study of the person implies the joint consideration of those cognitive, emotional and motivational variables that regulate the psychological processes underlying human behavior. As Lubinski has pointed out, multifaceted and holistic approaches are more effective that include the combination of aspects related to skills, interests, preferences and personality. In the last two years, a large part of the research published around differential psychology deal with issues related to thinking styles, social intelligence and emotional intelligence, constructs in which both personality and intelligence are involved.

Fundamental Units of Analysis

The discipline works with units under two aspects, the structural and the procedural. Provisional units: The trait The unit of measure in the psychology of individual differences is the trait. It is a hypothetical construct of a latent nature (we cannot observe it but to infer it from the behaviors that define it). The feature, thus understood, represents the organization of the entire set of observable behaviors in significant units that allow people to be described in a parsimonial and significant way. Each feature characterizes, in a consistent and stable way, the behavior of individuals in different psychologically relevant areas (personality, intelligence, etc.). Collecting the conceptual synthesis of Sánchez-Elvira we can summarize at various fundamental points what are the defining characteristics of the features:

1. Underlying character: The features are inferred through the observation of "behavioral indicators" is for this reason that, both the study of personality traits, and intelligence, have traditionally been more focused on the analysis of behavior products than in The one of its processes.
2. Dispositional character: The features are not temporarily active at all times, so they must be understood as latent provisions or trends in the individual. The trait represents trends and non -determinants.
3. General character: The degree of generality of the trait in the individual will be based on the number of behavioral indicators that represent him. This leads us to establish a hierarchical range between the features themselves.
4. Regularity of behavioral indicators: It is established based on two fundamental parameters.
5. Temporary stability.
6. Transituational consistency
7. Dimensional character: the features are operational in quantitative dimensions. which allows an ordering of individuals throughout the same.

A higher score in a feature:

1. greater probability of occurrence that behaviors to which the trait predisposes.
2. higher frequency with which these behaviors may be observed.
3. Greater intensity of the response In relevant situations for the trait in question.

The nature and origin of the features. Some authors give traits a biophysical entity status, genetic origin and clear physiological correlates. Other authors, refer to their nature and inferential.

The evaluation of the features. Use of self -reports and/or questionnaires to be fulfilled by the individual himself and/or by the persons close to the person to be evaluated, respectively. However, data from behavior observations, or objective laboratory tests are also important in determining the trait and analysis of its external validity.

Basic Methodology: correlational methodology of a multivariate nature, the application of the factor analysis being of special importance; The latter allows to estimate the possible dimensions or "basic units" of the personality to the general level proposed by the researcher.

Structural and hierarchical character of the organization of traits: Development of structural organizational models, both of personality, and intelligence, usually of hierarchical type. These models are characterized by presenting different levels of abstraction or generality based on their degree of proximity to the specific and specific manifestation of behavior, as well as its degree of inclusiveness. Following Eysenck's proposal, the personality structure could be ordered at four hierarchical levels:

1. Level of occurrence of Acts or individual or singular cognitions specific.
2. Level of Acts or usual cognitions.
3. Level of traits, or primary factors defined in terms of significant intercorelations between behaviors usual.
4. Level of guys, o Higher order factors, or second order, derived from the intercorelations between the features, or first order factors.

It should be noted that, unlike the structures proposed in the study of intelligence, in personality there is no reference to a unique factor, or ultimate dimension of a global nature, which can be called "personality".

The features only allow people and differences between them, as well as perform behavior predictions; They lack causal explanatory value by themselves H.J.Eysenck has reiterated, on multiple occasions, that a theory of individual differences must be committed to the ultimate search for causal explanations and, therefore, subject to experimental predictions and tests. In the area of ​​the personality The feature maintains its nomenclature, although we can also refer to the Guy.

Under the conceptions of modern theories the types are considered the features or dimensions of the highest level of generality in the hierarchy, and people obtain a score in all possible types. When we refer to the scope of the intelligence, The trait acquires other nominations. When we talk about specific factors, we must differentiate the terms aptitude and capacity of the concept of skill, both in the field of human cognition, in general, and in regard to the different abilities and skills that the human being can present and develop.

Fitness: Aptitude is a potential capacity, or ability, for the performance of tasks or other acts that have not been learned. Fundamentally genetic character, which can develop, or not, depending on the use made of the same.

Ability: A specific skill responds to the expertise developed in an area given in the training and experience course. It implies the adaptation to the demands of the task according to the abilities of the individual, as well as following a training or "action strategy" method.

The strategies used are chains or action programs that are anticipated from a specific situation and that pursue a future objective, or final, satisfactory result in which the task is controlled or dominated. The ability also consists in knowing how to choose and carry out those strategies that are more efficient.

Procedural units

Functional processes or mechanisms that are responsible for the differential behavior of the individual. Mischel and Shoda estimate that two are the issues to be answered:

1. ¿Which is the nature of those basic invariances that constitute the fundamental center of the personality of individuals?.
2. ¿Which are the Psychological processes and the intra-individual dynamics that mediate between these dimensions that do not vary and their external manifestation and expression?.

What interests is to analyze how the differences in the processes or strategies usually used by people originate the observable differences in behavior. Analysis units under a procedural perspective:

1. In the individual's relationship with his external world, and under the interactionist paradigm, the fundamental unit will be the interaction person x situation.
2. At the internal level of the individual we will refer to cognitive, emotional, motivational processes, as well as the different strategies that people can implement when facing a specific situation.

In the field of intelligence We will analyze the cognitive processes, both simple and complex, that lead to a certain intellectual performance, understanding by process the elementary unit of mental functioning that can be added to others to give rise to a unit of higher order. In the area of ​​the personality, The study of individual differences will not only contemplate the dimensions or traits of a global, broad and non -contextualized nature, in interaction with situations, but also address:

1. he Type of situations in which each provision is more likely to manifest or be elicitated.
2. The analysis of Less general units, of medium level, such as expectations, goals, attributions, etc. that individuals present, more linked to the specific context where behavior occurs.

Under this approach, the permanence (consistency and stability) of the personal characteristics will be evaluated according to the following indexes:

1. Significant patterns and observable regularities In the transactions of the person with the environment (Coyne and Gottlieb, 1996).
2. Assessment, more than consistency, Probabilities and frequency of change of behavior in response to particular situational keys.
3. Particular forms of intra-individual organization of the different dimensions or fundamental units (eg. cognitions and affections) responsible for the way in which they are activated in different situations and over time.

Definition proposed for a psychology of current individual differences

Differential psychology Its objective is the description, prediction and explanation of the interindividual, intra -individual and intergroup variability of behavior and psychological processes of the human species, mainly from a nomothetic pathway of approximation.

To do this, (Sánchez-Elvira): Establish, describe, classify and structure what are the main dimensions of individual differentiation. Identify those organismic constructs and situational dimensions, as well as their interactions, responsible for the origin and development of individual differences.

Contribute, through adequate procedures, to the understanding of the differences individual From the analysis of what are the characteristics of the individual, of the situation, or of the interaction between the two, which allow to explain the manifestation of these differences from a procedural aspect more linked to the contexts where the behavior occurs.

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