15 Understandin Individual.p65

Think about any characteristic of people around you and you will immediately notice that they differ from each other. They differ not only in bodily features like height, skin colour, weight, vision and hearing ability etc. but also in the psychological attributes. In our everyday experience we find that people differ in their motivation, approach to problems, interest and ability to learn. The study of these individual differences forms an important field of psychology. Assessing intelligence, personality, interest, creativity and other attributes with the help of psychological tests has become an established practice. In selecting people for jobs, diagnosing of mental handicap and monitoring psychological development have provided impetus to develop a variety of tests to suit different groups of people (e.g. children, adults, educated, illiterate). The term IQ has now become a common word and people often want to know their IQ and personality. This lesson will help you to learn about the basic features of psychological assessment and understand the nature and assessment of intellectual ability.