6a - Individual Differences (28.02.2020) Flashcards
Personalty traits
Personality Traits: relatively stable cognitive, emotional, and behavioural characteristics of people that help establish their individual identities and distinguish them from others
A trait is a continuum along which individuals vary, like speed of reaction -> on a spectrum
We can’t observe traits but infer from behaviour
Eysenck’s Two Factor Model
Hans Eysenck (1916-1997)
Eysenck’s personality theory has two main
factors:
- Neuroticism or stability – the tendency to experience negative emotions
- Extraversion – the degree to which a person is outgoing and seeks stimulation
The Five-Factor Model of Personality
The big five factors of personality (“supertraits”) are thought to describe the main dimensions of personality
Use the acronym OCEAN to remember the big five personality factors:
- Openness
- Conscientiousness
- Extroversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism (emotional stability)
-> this is a continuum, people are not one or the other but on a spectrum
Biological Foundations of individual differences
Eysenck proposed a biological, genetic basis for personality traits
- differences in customary / resting levels of cortical arousal
- Introverts are overaroused; extraverts are underaroused
- Suddenness of shifts in arousal
- Unstable (neurotic) people show large and sudden shifts in limbic system arousal; stable people do not
Nature vs Nature
- how much are we made as we are and how much do we develop that way because of the environment?
Genetic Influences on Personality
123 pairs of identical twins and 127 pairs of fraternal twins
Measured on “Big Five” personality dimensions
Results suggest that personality differences in the population are approximately 25 -50% genetically determined?
- e.g. you can also see the temperament of a child in the first months of life.
Impact of Conscientiousness on health
Longevity
- Adds 7.5 years to lifespan
Health behaviour across lifespan
- Less likely to engage in harmful behaviours
- More likely to engage in healthy behaviours
Higher medical engagement and adherence
Ways to increase conscientiousness?
- E.g. text reminders, goal-setting
Impact of Neuroticism on helath
Increased reporting of somatic symptoms e.g. pain
Higher rates of mental health disorders
Higher mortality rates e.g. in cardiovascular disease
Health behaviour
- Higher rates of healthcare usage
- Less adherence to healthy behaviours
- Higher rate of health harming behaviours
Ways to decrease neuroticism?
?Protective effect of neuroticism
Intelligence
Intelligence: the ability to acquire knowledge, to think and reason effectively, and to deal adaptively with the environment
“Intelligence is what intelligence tests measure” (Boring, 1923)
Intelligence Tests
Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon
Develop first intelligence test to identify French children that might have difficulty in school
All children follow the same course of mental development, but at different paces
Binet-Simon scale measures mental age
US researchers introduced the IQ score (intelligence quotient)
A score of 100 is considered average
Test-taker’s performance relative to average performance of other’s the same age
IQ formula
mental age / chronological age x 100
The Normal Distribution of IQ Scores
- normal distribution
- 95% people fall in a range of 30 points of 100
- 68% people fall within 15 points of 100%
- low and high ends make up 2% each.
Theories of Intelligence
Charles Spearman
Believed intellectual activity involves a general factor (g) and specific factor (s)
-> mechanical
-> verbal
-> spatial
-> numerical
these are specific abilities, They all contribute to a central g (general ability
Factor structure of the Wechsler intelligence scale
Global score is made up of
- verbal conmprehension
- perceptual reasoning
- working memory
- processing speed
Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
Linguistic Intelligence: e.g. Shakespeare
Logical-Mathematic Intelligence: e.g. Einstein
Spatial Intelligence: e.g. Zaha Hadid
Musical Intelligence: e.g. Prince
Furthermore, Gardner believes cardiologists may have this kind of intelligence in abundance as they make diagnoses on the careful listening to patterns of sounds.
Bodily-Kinaesthetic Intelligence: e.g. Serena Williams
Intrapersonal Intelligence: e.g. Dalai Lama
Interpersonal functioning: e.g. Susie Orbach
Naturalistic Intelligence, the ability to understand and work effectively in the natural world e.g. Bear Grylls
Existential Intelligence the ability to ponder questions about existence e.g. Sartre.
The utility of IQ scores - Averaging
This criticism is especially relevant for clinical applications of such tests e.g. Stroke pts where specific cognitive functions might be affected
Consider a doctor who devises a limb strength quotient or LQ by totalling the strength of all four limbs, again with a mean of 100.
Now consider a tennis player who sprains his left ankle reducing his left leg score to 50, but his right leg scores 140 and his right and left arms score 160 and 130 respectively.
His LQ would be 120 – well above average, so no problem, right?
Crystallised vs. fluid intelligence
Crystallized Intelligence (gc): the ability to apply previously acquired knowledge to current problems. Will commonly improve with age then stabilise -> more like learning facts
Fluid Intelligence (gf): the ability to deal with novel problem-solving situations for which personal experience does not provide a solution. Shows steady pattern of decline in aging. -> more problem solving
Cattell and Horn (1971, 1985) broke down Spearman’s ‘g’ into two distinct but related subtypes (with a correlation of about .50)
Intelligence and age
- some types of intelligence increase and some decrease with increased age (after reaching adulthood, different in children)
verbal and numeric ability tends to incresase - these are normal cognitive changes in the lifespan, it is not dementia/
Stability of Intelligence
- scores are fairly consistent
- if you do well as a child you should also do well as an adult.
APOE e4
Alzheimers gene
people with this gene ted to have worse cognitive skills with age, even before/without the disease
you don’t necessarily develop the disease if you have the gene
Intelligence - heredity and environment
Genetic factors can influence the effects produced by the environment
Accounts for 1/2 of the variation in IQ? No single “intelligence gene” identified
Environment can influence how genes express themselves
Accounts for /2 of the variation in IQ?
Both shared and unshared environmental factors are
involved
Educational experiences are very important and opportunities
- studies looking at twins and siblings and unrelated people raised together and apart and there seem to be both genetic and environmental influences.
- it’s hard to compare in groups where environments are quite different.
Sex Differences in Intelligence and cognitive abilities
- no difference in overall scores
Gender differences in performance on certain types of intellectual tasks, not general intelligence
Men generally outperform women on SPATIAL tasks, tests of target-directed skills, and mathematical reasoning
Women generally outperform men on tests of perceptual speed, verbal fluency, mathematical calculation, and precise manual tasks
BUT, what underlies these differences?
- genetics? toys given when they are young.
Autism theory based cognitive styles
Triad of different difficulties:
- language and communication
- social and emotional
- flexibility of thought (imagination)
- 4:1 male to female ration
- Asperger’s syndrome or high functioning autism has a 9:1 male female ratio.
Baron-Cohen (2002) explains the social and communication difficulties in high functioning autism by delays or deficits in empathising whilst explaining the narrow interests with reference to skills in systemising
Extreme male brain
Empathising consists of both being able to infer the thoughts and feelings of others (‘Theory of Mind’) and having an appropriate emotional reaction
-> females score higher here
Systemising is the drive to analyse or construct any kind of system i.e. identifying the rules that a govern a system, in order to predict how that system will behave (Baron-Cohen, 2006) -> men score higher here
SQ. EQ
systemising quotient
how much you agree with statements
empathising quotient
Empathising and systemising
there are some groups:
- extreme E
- type E
- balanced
- type S
- extreme S (ASD mainly )
e is empathising, s is systemising.
women are more empathising and men are more systemising.
autistic brain is a more male Brian.
Testosterone levels, early exposure in amniotic fluid foetal testosterone
Neurosexism
Fine (2010) argues that impossible to exclude contribution of environment and culture
Findings of sex differences reflect bias in gender roles
‘Neurosexism’ is self-fulfilling: by providing a framework for treating children and adults differently on the basis of gender, which causes them to behave differently, which in turn creates so-called gender differences, which in turn prop up neurosexism
