People have different preferences as to when they need to perform their own activities and run their schedules. Often, while others would be active during the day, another section would be active during the night. Night people refer to those who are active during the night and would prefer night activities while day people refer to those people active during the day and would prefer daytime activities. However, it should be appreciated that the world’s conventional time of performance of most day to day activities is during the day. As such, night people are compelled by circumstances into day activities even though naturally, they prefer night engagements.
While the definition given above is factual and based on empirical evidence collected in various studies, research has shown that the difference between day and night people is more internal and should not be perceived with a superficial lens. It is in order to appreciate the fact that differences are more of psychological and physiological than merely external. Indeed, even the mental processes and functioning differ between night and day people. While it is difficult to discriminate night people from day people from one crowd, it should be appreciated that some people could also contain elements of both and hence constitute an intermediate.
Day people have been found to be conforming to norms and more organized and orderly in their activities. These people respect the law and would want every citizen to behave responsibly and in consonance with the law. They are sticklers of the law. The day people also tend to take in instructions and orders. They believe in structures and hierarchies and desire that the people follow due procedure. Day people admire managers more than they do admire leaders. They often conform to standards and are good followers of instructions. The day people are less receptive of criticisms and innovative ideas.
On the other hand, night people pose a high degree of independence. They desire to be let to control and determine their own course. They do not like commands and orders and prefer flatter structures in organisations. Night people are more susceptible to breaking of the law. They have the mentality of the end justifies the means and see the law not as a static principle to be conformed to but as a channel to get to the end. These people are imaginative and quite informal. They usually want to try out new ideas, follow unique and diverse channels and prefer to work alone rather than in groups. These people would rarely be seen in formal settings and would take every opportunity to dress informally. They are the group at the workplace that would petition the human resource manager to allow them wear informal attire on Fridays and would walk to work late on Monday mornings. In addition, these group are the best party animals. They attend every party and appear for every concert in town. Their attitude to recreation is overwhelmingly positive. They are the people that would sponsor parties, sports events and tournaments and fun activities.
It has been observed by scholars that the category of the person determines his interaction skills, perception and attitude in life. Night people are more informal in interaction, they share less about themselves but tend to listen more. They also approach issues with an open mind and often are imaginative and ready to offer alternative solutions. Given a chance, a night person would prefer leadership rather than management. They disdain authority and would take every opportunity to twist and break the law. On the other hand, day people are more formal in interactions. They are those new faces who would want to be formally introduced in crowds. They approach issues from and adherence point of view. They are good consensus builders and believe in team building and group functioning. These are the people who would want to follow the letter of the law and the detail of the instructions. Managers often find these people easy to relate to. In addition, they are less likely to create opposition at the workplace, school or any social gathering. They respect authority and take every opportunity to see to it that order prevails. In the long run, they would be seen as bureaucrats and disliked for their admiration of order, procedures and structures.
Given the night people’s liking, one then wonders how their attitude and perceptions should be connected by the fact that they would be active at night and why the converse holds for day people. This can be explained in the fact that day due to its openness encourages more responsibility, less dissidence and more order. On the other hand, night due to its darkness and silence provides room for imaginations and critical thoughts, allows for breaking of the law and entertains less order.
In overall, night and day people cannot survive in isolation. The two are needed for purposes of complementing each other. A good example is the set up in an organisation, the leaders need to be night people to think, innovate and explore for the organisation while the managers need to be day people to guide implementation, observation of schedules and standards and conformity to the law. At the end of the day, both night and day people are compelled to execute most of their transactions during the day due to the nature of the economy.
Works Cited
Weiten, Wayne. Psychology: Themes and Variations. New York: Cengage Learning, 2011.
