Maharashtra SSC Personality Development Grade flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Self-awareness

The accurate recognition of one's own traits, feelings, motives, strengths, and weaknesses, together with an understanding of how these affect other people.

Self-esteem

The evaluative judgment a person makes about their own overall worth. High self-esteem supports persistence after failure; low self-esteem often produces avoidance of challenge.

Johari Window

A model with four quadrants - open, blind, hidden, and unknown - describing what is known about a person by themselves and by others. Feedback shrinks the blind area.

Self-efficacy

Bandura's term for belief in one's capacity to perform a specific task successfully. It is task-specific, unlike global self-esteem, and is built mainly through mastery experiences.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

An expectation that alters behaviour in a way that makes the expectation come true. It can operate positively, raising performance, or negatively, lowering it.

Active listening

Listening that requires feedback: attending fully, paraphrasing content, reflecting feeling, asking open questions, and summarising, rather than merely hearing the words.

Communication barriers

Interferences in the sender–message–receiver chain, classified as semantic (jargon, ambiguity), psychological (emotion, prejudice), organisational (hierarchy, overload), or physical (noise, distance).

Assertive communication

Expressing needs and feelings directly using 'I' statements while respecting the other person's rights. It differs from aggression, which ignores the other's rights, and passivity, which ignores one's own.

Non-verbal communication

Meaning carried outside words, including kinesics (body movement), proxemics (space), paralanguage (tone, pace), haptics (touch), and chronemics (use of time).

Grapevine

The informal communication network inside an organisation. It spreads quickly and is often broadly accurate in outline but distorted in detail.

Emotional intelligence

The ability to perceive, use, understand, and manage emotions in oneself and others. Goleman lists self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.

General adaptation syndrome

Selye's three-stage stress response: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. Prolonged resistance depletes resources and can end in exhaustion and illness.

Eustress versus distress

Eustress is positive stress that motivates and improves performance; distress is negative stress that impairs functioning. Appraisal of the event decides which occurs.

Cognitive appraisal

Lazarus's explanation that stress depends on primary appraisal (is this a threat?) and secondary appraisal (can I cope?), not on the event alone.

Problem-focused coping

Coping that attempts to change or remove the stressor itself. It works best for controllable stressors, whereas emotion-focused coping suits uncontrollable ones.

SMART goals

A goal criterion requiring goals to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Each element removes a distinct cause of goal failure.

Locke's goal-setting theory

The finding that specific, difficult goals produce higher performance than vague 'do your best' goals, provided the person is committed and receives feedback.

Implementation intentions

Plans in the form 'if situation X occurs, I will do Y'. They improve follow-through by attaching the intended action to a specific cue.

Process versus outcome goals

Process goals target behaviours you control, such as daily practice; outcome goals target results such as marks. Process goals sustain motivation because they are directly controllable.

Eisenhower matrix

A priority tool sorting tasks by urgency and importance: do urgent-important tasks, schedule important non-urgent ones, delegate urgent unimportant ones, and delete the rest.

Pareto principle

The 80/20 rule: roughly 80% of results come from 20% of activities, so effort should be concentrated on the few high-yield tasks.

Parkinson's law

The observation that work expands to fill the time available for it, which is why fixed deadlines compress effort and reduce delay.

Bounded rationality

Simon's idea that decisions are limited by incomplete information, time, and cognitive capacity, so people 'satisfice' by choosing a good-enough option rather than the optimal one.

Opportunity cost

The value of the best alternative given up when a choice is made. It is central to rational decision making because every choice excludes other options.

Transformational leadership

A leadership style built on idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualised consideration, aiming to raise followers beyond expected performance.

Situational leadership

Hersey and Blanchard's model matching directing, coaching, supporting, or delegating styles to the readiness and maturity of the follower for the task.

French and Raven power bases

Five sources of influence: legitimate, reward, coercive, expert, and referent. Expert and referent power usually produce lasting commitment rather than mere compliance.

Tuckman's stages

The sequence of group development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and later adjourning. Conflict in storming is normal and must be managed.

Social loafing

Reduced individual effort when working in a group. It decreases when individual contributions are identifiable and the task is meaningful.

Groupthink

Janis's term for conformity pressure that suppresses dissent in cohesive groups. Countermeasures include a devil's advocate, anonymous input, and the leader withholding opinion early.

Kohlberg's moral development

Three levels of moral reasoning: pre-conventional (punishment, self-interest), conventional (conformity, law and order), and post-conventional (social contract, universal principles).

Fundamental duties

Article 51A of the Indian Constitution lists duties such as respecting the Constitution, protecting sovereignty, promoting harmony, and safeguarding public property and the environment.