Individual Profile	
The Basis of Our Individual Behaviour
Beliefs
•	Represent convictions about what you are capable of doing.
•	Beliefs play a critical role in our behaviour.
•	You must believe:
•	You are capable of performing appropriately for what is needed to achieve your goals
•	If you engage in appropriate behaviours  the result will be positive.
•	Motivation is influenced by your beliefs.
Attitudes
•	Evaluative statements or judgments about objects, people or events.
•	Less stable than beliefs.
•	Affect your behaviour in everything that you do 
•	Attitudes represent the cluster of:
•	Beliefs
•	Feelings (perception)
•	Motivation
Personality
•	The sum total of ways in which you react and interact with others.
•	These characteristics and tendencies determine the commonalities and differences in people’s thoughts, feelings and actions.
•	Personality is the result of heredity, environment and the situation.
•	Personality traits are enduring characteristics that describe your individual personality.
You Stole My Mommy!
Determinants of Personality
•	Heredity
Characteristics determined by genetics.
•	Environment
	Characteristics determined by culture, early conditions, norms, values and attitudes.
•	Situation
Different situations demand use of different aspects of our personality.

Perception
•	Your perceptions of the world serve as the basis for your actions. 
•	 “Perceptual Groupings” help us organize information.

Factors that Influence Perception
•	Physical Characteristics
•	If the physical characteristics of a person are abstract, you tend to fill in the blanks about him/her, by relating him/her to other persons who are similar.
Characteristics of a Person
•	Attitudes
•	Attitudes have a powerful influence upon what you pay attention to, what you remember and how you interpret information.
•	Emotions: your emotional state strongly influences the perceptual process.  When you are highly agitated, angry, frustrated, your perceptual processes become impaired.
Characteristics of a Person
•	Experience
•	Previous experiences, both positive and negative, influence perceptions.

•	Needs:
•	Needs not met create motivation to satisfy them and this will affect your perception.
•	Must distinguish between needs and wants.
Characteristics of the Situation
•	Stress
•	High levels of stress affect both perception and capacity to process information.			
•	Timing
•	When information is received at a different time and under different circumstances than accustomed to, the information may be ignored or forgotten.
Common Perceptual Errors
•	When perceptions are distorted or inaccurate, you engage in behaviour that is inappropriate or undesirable.
Stereotyping
•	Judging someone on the basis of your perception of the group to which the person belongs.
Selective Perceptions
•	People selectively interpret what you see based on your interests, background and attitudes.
Halo and Horns
•	Drawing a general conclusion about an individual based on a single characteristic.
Projection	
•	Attributing your own characteristics to other people.