| individual differences | The dissimilarities between or among two or more people.
|
 |
|
|
| mental test | An instrument designed to measure a subject's ability to reason, plan, and solve problems; an intelligence test.
|
|
|
|
| differential psychology | The scientific study of differences between or among two or more people.
|
|
|
|
| intelligence | The ability to learn and adapt to an environment; often refers to general intellectual capacity, as opposed to cognitive ability or mental ability which often refer to more specific abilities such as memory or reasoning.
|
|
|
|
| mental ability | The capacity to reason, plan, and solve problems; cognitive ability.
|
|
|
|
| metric | A standard of measurement; a scale.
|
|
|
|
| psychometrics | The practice of measuring a characteristic such as mental ability, placing it on a scale or metric.
|
|
|
|
| intelligence test | Instrument designed to measure the ability to reason, learn, and solve problems.
|
|
|
|
| psychometrician | A psychologist trained in measuring characteristics such as mental ability.
|
|
|
|
| cognitive ability | The capacity to reason, plan, and solve problems; mental ability.
|
|
|
|
| "g" | The abbreviation for general mental ability.
|
|
|
|
| general mental ability | The nonspecific capacity to reason, learn, and solve problems in any of a wide variety of ways and circumstances.
|
|
|
|
| g-ocentric model | The tendency to understand and predict the behavior of workers simply by examining "g"; coined by Sternberg and Wagner (1993).
|
|
|
|
| physical abilities | Bodily powers such as muscular strength, flexibility, and stamina.
|
|
|
|
| personality | An individual's behavioral and emotional characteristics, generally found to be stable over time and in a variety of circumstances; an individual's habitual way of responding.
|
|
|
|
| interests | Preferences or likings for broad ranges of activities.
|
|
|
|
| knowledge | A collection of specific and interrelated facts and information about a particular topical area.
|
|
|
|
| emotion | An affect or feeling, often experienced and displayed in reaction to an event or thought and accompanied by physiological changes in various systems of the body, often intense enough to disrupt thought processes.
|
|
|
|
| taxonomy | An orderly, scientific system of classification.
|
|
|
|
| perceptual-motor abilities | Physical attributes that combine the senses (e.g., seeing, hearing, smell) and motion (e.g., coordination, dexterity).
|
|
|
|
| affect | The conscious, subjective aspect of emotion.
|
|
|
|
| IQ | Abbreviation for intelligence quotient.
|
|
|
|
| meta-analysis | A statistical method for combining and analyzing the results from many studies to draw a general conclusion about relationships among variables.
|
|
|
|
| Intelligence Quotient (IQ) | The measure of intelligence obtained by giving a subject a standardized "IQ" test. The score is obtained by multiplying by 100 the ratio of the subject's mental age to chronological age.
|
|
|
|
| Flynn effect | The phenomenon in which new generations appear to be smarter than their parents by a gain of 15 points in average intelligence test score per generation; named after the political scientist who has done extensive research on the topic.
|
|
|
|
| mean | The arithmetic average of the scores in a distribution; obtained by summing all of the scores in a distribution and dividing by the sample size.
|
|
|
|
| standard deviation | A measure of the extent of spread in a set of scores.
|
|
|
|
| stamina | The physical ability to supply muscles with oxygenated blood through the cardiovascular system; also known as cardiovascular strength or aerobic strength or endurance.
|
|
|
|
| muscular tension | The physical quality of muscular strength.
|
|
|
|
| muscular power | The physical ability to lift, pull, push, or otherwise move an object; unlike endurance, this is a one-time maximum effort.
|
|
|
|
| muscular endurance | The physical ability to continue to use a single muscle or muscle group repeatedly over a period of time.
|
|
|
|
| sensory abilities | The physical functions of vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell, and kinesthetic feedback (e.g., noticing changes in body position).
|
|
|
|
| Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 | Federal legislation that requires employers to give applicants and employees with disabilities the same consideration as other applicants and employees, and to make certain adaptations in the work environment to accommodate disabilities. Applies to a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities (e.g., sitting, standing, or sleeping).
|
|
|
|
| psychomotor abilities | The physical functions of movement, associated with coordination, dexterity, and reaction time; also called motor or sensorimotor abilities.
|
|
|
|
| sensorimotor abilities | The physical functions of movement, associated with coordination, dexterity, and reaction time; also called psychomotor or motor abilities.
|
|
|
|
| motor abilities | The physical functions of movement, associated with coordination, dexterity, and reaction time; also called psychomotor or sensorimotor abilities.
|
|
|
|
| Five Factor Model (FFM) | A taxonomy of five personality factors, comprised of conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, emotional stability, and openness to experience.
|
|
|
|
| conscientiousness | The quality of having positive intentions and carrying them out with care.
|
|
|
|
| functional personality at work | The way that an individual behaves, handles emotions, and accomplishes tasks in a work setting; a combination of Big Five personality factors.
|
|
|
|
| agreeableness | Likable, easy to get along with, friendly.
|
|
|
|
| emotional stability | Displaying little emotion or showing the same emotional response in various situations.
|
|
|
|
| integrity | The quality of being honest, reliable, and ethical, as in an employee.
|
|
|
|
| achievement | A facet of conscientiousness consisting of hard work, persistence, and the desire to do good work.
|
|
|
|
| dependability | A facet of conscientiousness, consisting of being disciplined, well organized, respectful of laws and regulations, honest, trustworthy, and accepting of authority.
|
|
|
|
| positive valence | A continuum of favorable personality characteristics running from normal to exceptional.
|
|
|
|
| negative valence | A continuum of unfavorable personality characteristics running from normal to abominable.
|
|
|
|
| self-presentation | A person's public face or "game face."
|
|
|
|
| self-efficacy | The belief in one's capability to perform a specific task or reach a specific goal; also, the belief that one can overcome obstacles and accomplish difficult tasks.
|
|
|
|
| social desirability | The desire to be appealing to others.
|
|
|
|
| vocational interest | A preference or liking for a particular activity or setting (as in a job or occupational setting).
|
|
|
|
| skills | Practiced acts, such as shooting a basketball, using a computer keyboard, or persuading someone to buy something.
|
|
|
|
| people skills | A nontechnical term that includes negotiating skills, communication skills, and conflict resolution skills.
|
|
|
|
| O*NET | Abbreviation for Occupational Information Network.
|
|
|
|
| tacit knowledge | Action-oriented, goal-directed knowledge, acquired without direct help from others; colloquially called "street smarts".
|
|
|
|
| procedural knowledge | Knowing how to perform a job or task; often developed through practice and experience.
|
|
|
|
| declarative knowledge | The familiarity with facts or abstract concepts, often acquired through direct instruction; understanding what is required to perform a job or task.
|
|
|
|
| experience | Direct participation in, or observation of, events and activities that serves as a basis for knowledge.
|
|
|
|
| measurement modes | The unit of measurement used to assess experience.
|
|
|
|
| level of specificity | A method used to gauge experience according to task, job, and organizational characteristics.
|
|
|
|
| competencies | Sets of behaviors that are instrumental in the delivery of desired organizational results or outcomes.
|
|
|
|
| job analysis | A process used by I-O psychologists to develop an understanding of a job by identifying the duties of the job and the human attributes necessary to perform them.
|
|
|
|
| emotional intelligence (EI) | A proposed kind of intelligence that is focused on our awareness of our own and others' emotions.
|
|
|
|
| construct | A psychological concept or characteristic that a predictor or criterion is intended to measure. Examples of constructs are intelligence, personality, and leadership.
|