1. “Every man is in certain respects (a) like all other men, (b) like some other men, (c) like no other man.”
Henry Murray and Clyde Kluckhohn (1948) in Personality in Nature, Society, and Culture

2. “Every man is in certain respects (a) like all other men, (b) like some other men, (c) like no other man.”
Small group discussion—
Find something that your whole group has is common, something some of you have in common, something that makes each of you unique.
What kind of differences have you observed (or would you expect) in a typical classroom?

3. Individual Differences
Personality
Interests
Intelligence

4. Importance of physics class
Unimportant Slightly Neutral Slightly Important
unimportant important
Entire physics class

5. Group differences in importance
Unimportant Slightly Neutral Slightly Important
unimportant important
Other non-majors
Engineering majors
Physics majors

6. Personalized system of instruction

7. Group differences in PSI

8. Aptitude theory Aptitude-Treatment Interactions (ATI)
Adapting instruction to meet students’ individual characteristics improves outcomes

9. Intelligence Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
Mental age/chronological age x 100
Mean is 100, 68% of population between 85 and 115, only 16% above 115
Correlates with academic achievement r=.50

10. Spearman’s theory g S

11. Thurstone’s Primary Mental Abilities
Verbal comprehension
Word fluency
Number facility
Spatial visualization
Associative memory
Perceptual speed
Reasoning

12. Verbal Comprehension Perceptual Word fluency Speed Spatial Reasoning
General Intelligence Gc
(Crystallized) Gf
(Fluid)
Verbal
Comprehension
Numerical
Ability
Word fluency
Spatial
Rotations
Perceptual
Speed
Reasoning
Define gc and gf here and narrower abilities

13. Crystallized intelligence
Volume, depth and breadth of knowledge in various domains
Content knowledge specific to domains
May be product of Gf
Efficiency in well- practiced domains
Stable or increases with age
Fluid Intelligence
Analytic problem-solving abilities
General ability applicable to new situations
Efficiency in new domains
Decreases with age
Let’s talk about gc and gf in more detail

14. Gc and Gf tests What month comes right before December?
What is the capital of France?
Who was Mark Twain?
What's the difference between a civil and criminal court trial?

15. When is Gf or Gc more important?

16. What does intelligence predict?
School achievement (r=.50)
Verbal intelligence scores predict reading achievement (r=.83)
General intelligence predicts career success (r=.41)
Work evaluations (r=.50)
Occupational status, changes in occupational status, acquisition of knowledge in occupational settings, and income

17. Aptitude-Treatment Interactions with Intelligence
Speed of learning and amount of practice required
Amount of structure needed, scaffolding

18. Personality traits
Enduring tendencies to behave in a certain way across situations
Big Five personality traits

19. Example personality questions
Rate each of the adjectives below as they apply to you on a scale 1 to 9, extremely inaccurate to accurate
Talkative
Sympathetic
Orderly
Envious
Deep

20. Big Five Personality Traits
Openness to Experience
Conservatism
Imaginative, intellectual, variety-seeking
Down-to-earth, prefers routines

21. Big Five Personality Traits
Openness to Experience
Conservatism
Conscientiousness
Spontaneity
Organized, planful, dependable
Pleasure-seeking, undependable

22. Big Five Personality Traits
Openness to Experience
Conservatism
Conscientiousness
Spontaneity
Introversion
Extroversion
Talkative, sociable, assertive
Quiet, solitary, reserved

23. Big Five Personality Traits
Openness to Experience
Conservatism
Conscientiousness
Spontaneity
Introversion
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Individualism
Warmhearted, trusting,
compassionate
Skeptical, self-serving

24. Big Five Personality Traits
Openness to Experience
Conservatism
Conscientiousness
Spontaneity
Introversion
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Individualism
Emotional Stability
Neuroticism
Calm, even-tempered
Emotional, anxious, irritable

25. Work performance interaction

26. Adapting instruction to personality
Grouping extroverts and introverts
What personality dimension would relate to having high test anxiety?
Encouraging students to explore other cultures or perspectives
Social skills training
Homework and project reminders

27. Interests
Enduring preferences for certain activities, hobbies, or occupations.
Holland’s vocational “personality” or interest types
Individuals may have many or few interests

28. Example interest questions
Check Yes/No
Are you...
Mechanical?
Persuasive?
Friendly?
Can you...
Start projects?
Play a musical instrument?
Lead a group?
Do you like to...
Perform experiments?
Do volunteer service?
Work in groups?

29. Architect, Firefighter
Realistic
Conventional
Enterprising
Social
Artistic
Investigative
Occupational
interests and
environments
Scientist, Engineer
Architect, Firefighter
Musician, Writer
Accountant, Librarian
Nurse, Teacher
Journalist, Stockbroker

30. Anyone preparing to teach: How might individual differences affect your instruction? Pick a specific example of how you might have to adapt to differences in intelligence, personality, interests, or cultural backgrounds.
Anyone interested in measurement: Do individual differences ever act as construct-irrelevant sources of error on tests? Consider personality and interest traits.
Anyone interested in health care: how do individual differences in patients affect how you interact with them?
Anyone interested in counseling: What kind of assessments have you given clients to better assess their counseling needs? How could you use the traits we talked about today for career counseling? Marriage counseling? Occupational counseling?

31. Areas of controversy Heritability of traits
All traits are influenced by experience

32. Take away messages
General intelligence is an important predictor of learning and life outcomes.
Intelligence is a hierarchy of general and specific abilities that help us to adapt to a variety of situations.
Personality is an important contributor to success in life beyond intelligence.
Interest help us understand why individuals with the same level of intelligence choose different paths in life.
Individual differences are important to adapting instruction in the classroom to optimize learning.