PsychologyVariations in Psychological Attributes

Distinctiveness and variations among people's characteristics and beh…

Distinctiveness and variations among people's characteristics and behavioural patterns is called:

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 4

The correct answer is Option (4) → Individual differences

Option (1) Situationism — Incorrect. Situationism is the view that the situation a person is in shapes behaviour. It explains why behaviour changes; it is not the name for variations among people.

Option (2) Variability — Incorrect. Variability is the general fact of nature that all things vary. For variations among people, psychologists use the narrower term individual differences.

Option (3) Assessment — Incorrect. Assessment means measuring a person's psychological attributes with tests and other procedures. It is how differences are measured.

Option (4) Individual differences — Correct. Individual differences are the distinctiveness and variations among people's characteristics and behaviour patterns. Their study asks how and why people differ.

NCERT (2026-27): “INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN HUMAN FUNCTIONING …
Variability is a fact of nature, and individuals are no exception to this. They vary in terms of physical characteristics, such as height, weight, strength, hair colour, and so on. They also vary along psychological dimensions. They may be intelligent or dull, dominant or submissive, creative or not so creative, outgoing or withdrawn, etc. The list of variations can be endless. Different traits can exist in varying degrees in an individual. In this sense, each one of us is unique as s/he exemplifies a typical combination of various traits. The question which you may like to pose is how and why people differ. This, in fact, is the subject matter of the study of individual differences. For psychologists, individual differences refer to distinctiveness and variations among people’s characteristics and behaviour patterns.”