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.

Book Review: Climatology by D S Lal

The Climatology is one of the most important segment in studying Geography. The D S lal’s Climatology book is a book popular among geography optional students.

In General: The book is written in lucid style. The images, description is able to generate interest in the subject.

The geography is a subject where imagination generated in our mind can simplify the process of learning. D S Lal is able to do exactly that in many of the chapters.

Pros

Atmospheric equilibrium: Stability and Instability is an area which many geography authors mess up. The understanding of the concept requires thorough understanding about certain physics laws. The author has written these areas with lot of illustration and patience. He has begun from the basics and slowly built up the concepts.

“Air masses” is another chapter where he has written brilliantly. He has written elaborately on the way air masses change their nature with time and place. The “ Frontogenesis and Frontolysis “ chapter is also really good. The illustrations are simple and easy to replicate in exams.

Another area which D S Lal has shown written well is regarding Applied Climatology and Global warming. He has delved into all the details needed for an ias aspirant in these chapters. The imaginary continent diagram is something that has been repeatedly used by D S Lal. We can use this diagram in other areas of geography too.

Cons

An area which disappoints the reader in most Geography textbooks is “Climatic Classification”. Here I cannot say he could do full justice to the area. May be the classification is too complicated subject or may be it’s due to lack of space. The Koppen’s classification has been dealt well in most books including this one.  

Readers would have loved the book more if more illustrations could be brought in chapters like “Climate types and their distribution”. The geo cheong leong book is good in this area.

The illustrations in chapter “Air pressure and winds” too seems bit complicated for beginners. I would prefer illustrations of Savindra Singh over D S Lal for this chapter.

Summary

The D S Lal’s Climatology is a well written book. The chapters will stay in mind if we read it slowly giving importance to the concepts. A basic knowledge of terms like “change of state”, “evaporation” etc are needed for following this book. It’s desirable to have other references for chapters listed in the ‘cons’ segment. Overall it’s a good book recommended for geo optionals. 

*The book is reviewed thinking of ias aspirants as its readers. The review may not be applicable to readers whose purpose may be different (eg: studying for degree). Most books undergo change in content and presentation style every year, which may not be covered in this review.

Probity in Governance : General Studies- IV: Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude

The topics in paper IV – ethics, aptitude and integrity are interrelated. The identification of these interrelated areas makes it easy for you to grasp the paper.

The topics like ethics in public life, foundational values of civil service, integrity, impartiality and non-partisanship, objectivity, dedication to public service etc overlaps with the topic Probity of governance. The Right to information, fight against corruption, conflict of interest etc are topics concerned with probity of governance.

probity in governance

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Importance:

The probity is closely linked to societal values.

Eg: When a corruption case is brought against a politician or beaurocrat, then the whole target is the ‘individual’. Who shapes the individual? The society to an extent shapes his values. A person who lives in a society which gives social standing/respect to a person who has more money, in turn will work to gain money by all means. This is where value education comes in.

The probity of governance is closely related to “equality before law”.

Eg:  Is it wrong if a file before government is cleared within 2 days? The answer is “no” if all citizens with similar file status can get it cleared in 2 days. Here the concern is “compliance with processes”. If an ordinary citizen submits a file, the processes might take lot of time, which is shortened when some1 powerful submits.

One more concept in probity of governance is that ‘Something is legally right’ doesn’t always mean it is ‘right’. The law may be interpreted in ways that are suited. This is especially important when it comes to ‘land acquisition’, ‘signing contract with certain foreign firms’ etc.

Attitude: content, structure, function and its influence and relation with thought and behaviour

General Studies- IV: Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude

Attitude: content, structure, function; its influence and relation with thought and behaviour; moral and political attitudes; social influence and persuasion  

Attitude

Attitude is the evaluation of various aspects of the world. It can be evaluation of an idea, object, action (eg: playing cricket or watching football match etc) or about a person (eg: towards mahendra singh dhoni or sachin tendulkar). The attitude may be strong (eg: attitude towards drinking behaviour – people usually have strong opinion for or against drinking) or weak. The formation of an attitude may be associated with a belief system (eg; attitude towards eating a particular food may be related to religious beliefs – here the belief system rather than rational thought creates attitude).

The attitude may be formed by direct experience or observation. Eg: You see the new ad of ford ecosport you develop a particular attitude towards it. Then you go for a test drive. (attitude towards the vehicle created by ad leads you to do a particular behaviour). Your attitude towards it may change after the test drive!. That means by direct experience you have gained a new attitude.

Functions of attitude

The attitude helps to form a self-concept about us. You like a particular type of movies or music or hobby. All these add up to create an image about yourself in your mind. Eg: When you tell to your girlfriend, “I like playing guitar, i love rugby and love to chill!”, then it’s all ways in which your attitude is shown. These attitudes help create an image of you in her mind and yours.[value-expressive function]

It helps in guiding our actions towards people, ideas, objects etc. Eg: Negative feeling about certain cities as dirty or crowded is an attitude that guides us in taking a particular action. It acts as a protective mechanism in some cases – by avoiding the negative impact.[instrumental]

Attitude can serve knowledge function. It can also serve ego-defensive function.

Relation between attitude and behaviour

Does attitude always lead to behavior  The answer is “NO”. Attitude always doesn't lead to behavior  Eg: Three friends Arun, Varun and Tarun always talk about the evil practice of corruption in their hostel room in Delhi. It was during that time Anna hazare gave a call for Action against corruption. Arun bunked his class and went to Jantar Mantar to protest. Varun’s action against corruption was limited to pressing “like” button in facebook seeing the picture shared by Arun. Tarun enjoyed a pizza with gf, taking care to avoid the road through Jantar Mantar. The three guys hold attitude against corruption but chose to act in different ways [Attitude always doesn’t get converted to behaviour]

An interesting study on the relation between attitude and behaviour was done by Lapierre. He visited around 184 restaurants with Chinese couple. They weren’t turned away (in a area where negative attitude exists against the Chinese) by any of the restaurants. After around 6months, Lapierre did a survey in the same restaurants. The survey enquired whether they would serve Chinese customers. The reply from restaurants was negative. [Attitude against something may not get converted to action always]. When someone is turned away, think how strong the attitude must be. In places like Mumbai, certain community members of society are turned away from accommodation or sale of property by another and vice versa. This shows that prejudice exists to a real dangerous level and that a silly simple event may trigger problems. The whole exercise of healing work is done only when trouble erupts. In fact work should have been done eons back to avoid the trouble. Only when it boils out, a solution is searched. [Prevent/reduce prejudiced attitude for community harmony]

Eg: A voter is highly against corruption and he hates corrupt people. But during election he votes for a very corrupt person who belongs to his community!. Here his attitude towards the corruption has been washed away by another attitude. Here two attitudes competed and one won.[One attitude may be overcome by another]

Thus we see that relation between the attitude and behaviour is rather not so simple. The theory of planned behaviour is an attempt to explain this. The factors other than attitude that affects behaviour are shown in the diagram.

click on pic to enlarge

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

General studies part IV - Ethics Integrity and Aptitude 

Emotional intelligence-concepts, and their utilities and application in administration and governance Part 2

Another case of relation between EQ and good administration/ governance

Let’s say that a major natural disaster occurred. The relief and rebuilding of the place needs good coordination between state and centre, officials of different departments. In short the decision has to be made by a group of people. Imagine that all these officials are holding a meeting to discuss future strategy. The IQ of all the people would combine in such a situation (Group IQ). A heated debate or a angry emotional outburst by a department head (person with low EQ) can spoil the whole discussion. This is something that occurs so commonly in the meetings. Here the low EQ of a person can change the whole direction of talks.

<<  Angry comment during a important meeting--> a lot of hue and cry over this silly occurrence -->discussion is lost  >>

A real life case scenario:Role of EQ in profession

The importance of EQ is high is certain professions. Eg: health care,social justice,ngo’s, rehabilitation etc. The doctor has to be a good listener and good communicator who understand the emotions of the patient while taking decision.

 Eg : A doctor working in government hospital comes across a patient who is poor. He has two choices.

Option A: Prescribe a drug available in his government hospital which is free but has higher side effects and low cure rate.

Option B: Write for a better drug which is not available in government supply but available in medical shops for a price.

If the question asked is “Which is the best treatment for the disease?” then answer would be Option B.

But when the patient is poor and doctor knows that the person won’t buy the better drug from outside, shouldn’t he go for Option A. In that way, at least he will get treatment, even though the treatment is not the best. The above said problem is one which commonly comes in real life scenarios for doctors working in government setups. How should he act? In case some side effect comes up after he prescribed drug thinking about the wellness of patient, can doctor be blamed? Here the judgement of “right” and “wrong” are based on the situation. Not on the research as to “which drug is the best for that particular disease”.

The persons working in social welfare departments continuously come upon such situations.

Measuring Emotional Intelligence

The Baron EQ-I and Goleman’s ECI are the two most widely
used tests for measuring EQ

This earlier part of this article can be read here (Part 1 - Click here)

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)

How to prepare for psychology paper 2 upsc ias exams

*In case you are a person totally unfamiliar with psychology, you may not be able to draw any benefit from this article. This is written keeping in mind aspirants who are familiar with topics in paper 2 psychology.

Psychology is a very popular optional. We will feel a natural inclination to learn this subject, as it directly relates to us. The moment you start learning psychology, some of this thrill disappears.

Psychology paper 2 is notorious for constantly giving aspirants very low marks. The motivation for learning dips down and many aspirants are left confused seeing the marks given for paper 2 psychology in upsc ias exams. The extreme low marks of around 60/300 or 80/300 can be a real spoiler for someone who has done well in other areas.

The common difficulties faced by aspirants while learning paper 2 psychology are

1 lack of adequate materials

2 do not know how to answer

3 Lack of knowledge regarding depth, significance of a particular topic

Nowadays all topics in syllabus are important. In earlier times, many chapters would be left by the aspirants. This method of selectively excluding topic can be dangerous. These days its desirable to cover as much syllabus as possible.

We need to know the availability of material, depth and significance of topics in syllabus when it comes to paper 2 psychology.

Availability of material

In the paper 2 syllabus, there are areas for which there is lot of material available in the commonly available textbooks eg: Schizophrenia or personality disorder. No psychology textbook comes out without such topics.

There are other topics like Psychology of terrorism or gender psychology or rehabilitation psychology in which lot of research has been done. But the in-depth material may not be readily available. The commonly used texts (ncert, baron , morgan & King) would not have featured these areas prominently. In these areas we need to find out books/data which are written for them. That doesn’t mean that we need to learn the whole book on any particular topic. We would benefit from jargons, diagrams, keywords, certain sections which are entirely meant for the topic. Some people after finding a textbook in a particular topic (say psychology of terrorism) will learn the whole thing. In the exam point of view, i would say it’s pretty useless. Since maximum words that can be asked about a topic are 600 (imagining that a 60 mark question came from it, which rarely occur these says). So grinding the whole stuff (a 400 page book on a topic like psychology of terrorism or rehab psychology) and keeping in head would gain knowledge but not much of marks. That is where knowledge of depth on a topic comes in. The book with cover “Sports psychology” is meant for the sports psychologist who needs to know everything about that topic.

Depth

The depth to which studies have occurred may not be known to a person who is learning psychology for the first time. This is one reason why aspirants falter in paper 2 of psychology.

Take for instance chapter 4 of psychology –

     "4. Work Psychology and Organisational Behaviour:

Personnel selection and training;  Use of psychological tests in the industry;  Training and human resource development;  Theories of work motivation – Herzberg, Maslow, Adam Equity theory, Porter and Lawler, Vroom; Leadership and participatory management;  Advertising and marketing;  Stress and its management;  Ergonomics; consumer psychology; Managerial effectiveness; Transformational leadership; Sensitivity training; Power and politics in organizations. "

In almost all areas in chapter 4, in depth studies have been done.

Significance/Current Trend

In the previous para , i had listed topics in chapter 4.The topics like consumer psychology are very significant in the current world. There are researches on it almost every month, while the number of researches on Freudian theory may not be too high. The topics like positive psychology have recently come to the international scenario, and hence very significant. Only when you are familiar with the topics, the relevance of topics can be made out.

The usual advice given when “How to study paper 2 psychology?” asked is “Apply the paper 1 in paper 2”. This technique of putting all things of paper 1 may not be possible. The paper 2 has many topics which are quite important and distinct from paper 2.