Social influence : General Studies- IV: Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude

The way other people influence an individual comes under the topic social influence. The NCERT 12^th standard psychology (which can be downloaded free from internet) has two chapters (6 and 7) which cover this topic. Social influence is a broad term; I have described some aspects of it here. An in-depth knowledge of this topic can be had from basic books of psychology like Wayne Weiten.

Girija is a 35 yr old housewife and an excellent bathroom singer. Her husband who is the president of the Resident association suddenly asks her to sing on stage during the yearly meet. Would she be able to sing well? The thought of singing before all made her to nearly faint. Here the social situation of singing before the crowd was a tough call for her. (a simple example of social influence)

 Meanwhile, their son 6 year old Aditya was singing full throttle when invited to join a group song consisting of 5 children. Here the small group activity could bring out the best in him. (Social facilitation).

Would Aditya sing with same enthusiasm if the group strength (for group song) was fifty instead of five? Human psychology says that in all probability his effort will reduce. His effort won’t be much attended or cared by spectators if he is in the middle of a fifty strength group. He probably sings at a low voice and at times even stops singing! How many of us have done what Aditya did when asked to recite pledge or anthem @ school (social loafing)

A lady was dragged out of the ladies compartment of a train for robbery. There was a struggle inside the compartment, but none of the passengers reacted at that moment. Why didn’t even one of the ladies who witnessed the incident make an attempt to stop the crime? She fell on the track and died during the struggle. Wouldn’t that death be prevented if any one reacted?  Why do people who enthusiastically sms, tweet and talk endlessly about such issues on TV don’t react when seeing the incident in real? Studies in psychology says that larger the group larger the inactivity. (Bystander effect)

The same individual who was inactive in a group might have been active provided he/she was alone. This concept is called Bystander Effect. The reason for the bystander effect is diffusion of responsibility. A person who was inactive in such a scene says to his mind “I didn’t do anything because none did anything, so I am innocent and should not be feeling guilty”. I feel that bystander effect is high in cities than in rural areas.

 *The article attempts to introduce the concepts concerning the topic “social influence” with examples. Think of a similar example that you are familiar; it will simplify the whole study process.There are other aspects associated with the topic ‘social influence’, they will be covered later.

General Studies Paper IV - Ethics, Integrity and Aptitute

Emotional intelligence-concepts, and their utilities and application in administration and governance. PART1

Emotional intelligence: The ability to identify your own and other people’s emotions accurately,express your emotions clearly, and regulate emotions in yourself and others.

The construct of the emotional intelligence can be seen in earlier studies. It was Daniel Goleman who popularised the term “Emotional intelligence” through his book with same name. The word appears in the studies by Mayer and Salovey during 1990’s.

Earlier IQ or intelligence quotient was seen as the measure for intelligence. Later it was identified that all High IQ persons aren’t very successful. It was suggested that something “other than IQ” was needed for success in certain fields, the EQ was an answer to this question.

The components of EQ according to Goleman are

Self-awareness – the ability to know one's emotions, strengths, weaknesses, drives values and goals and recognizes their impact on others while using gut feelings to guide decisions.

Self-regulation – involves controlling or redirecting one's disruptive emotions and impulses and adapting to changing circumstances.

Social skill – managing relationships to move people in the desired direction

Empathy - considering other people's feelings especially when making decisions and

Motivation - being driven to achieve for the sake of achievement.

The EQ added a new dimension to the way administration is conducted. Earlier stress was only on performance and not on human relations. The EQ studies indicate that organisations/governments should invest more time in maintaining good relationships too.

The importance of EQ is that it is related to decision making. The understanding of emotions of people is especially important in areas of governance.

Let take a real world case. Say a particular economic decision will be good for the people in long term. Eg: removing unwanted subsidy on agriculture. The rational decision suggested by the economist would be to remove subsidy as soon as possible. A good administrator would not jump to implement such a decision. He would take decision slowly keeping in mind the emotions of people. (the sudden removal of subsidy to farmers will get lot of crocodile tears from various stake holders which inturn may create a big strike bringing the state to paralysis). Here the administrator has to take decision that is good for farmers keeping in mind their emotional stand on the issue.

Note: There is a trend to project EQ as the most important form of intelligence. But this may not be true. While high EQ may be good in certain professions, it may not be not be a good thing in some other profession. Eg: An officer in charge of Intelligence. He would need for of strategic intelligence than EQ.

Another relation between EQ and governance is with regard to Leadership style. The transformational leadership (understand that there are many type of leadership like charismatic, transactional etc.. and transformational leadership is one type) is regarded as one which can bring a great change to a society. The skills possessed by the transformational leaders are similar to that with better EQ. This means that persons with high EQ can be better in certain leadership roles. Eg: Mahatma Gandhi was a transformational leader who found plenty of supporters due to his humble ways of living. His dress, his thoughts, simplicity etc could connect with millions of followers who were ready to act in ways he would ask for.

Part 2 (click here)