Chapter 13- Personality 1

Question 1

personality

Answer 1

-a person’s unique set of behaviours, feelings and thoughts
traits, motives, thoughts, self-concept, and feeling
normally distributed (symmetric and bell-shaped)

Question 2

Two key components of personality

Answer 2

1) personality is unique
- individual differences

2) personality is consistent
- 2 types of consistency: consistent across situations and consistency over time: the extent of a person behaving the same throughout their life

Question 3

trait

Answer 3

a disposition to behave consistently in a particular way
make up a large part of a person’s personality, not synonymous with it though
directly connected to behaviour
lower behavioural thresholds
-not the result of a single gene

Question 4

behavioural thresholds

Answer 4

the point where a person goes from not having a response to having one
low threshold= likely to behave a certain way
high threshold= not likely to behave a certain way

Question 5

neuroticism

Answer 5

-big 5 personality trait
“emotional stability
characterized by worry and distressing thoughts
-high neuroticism= likely to experience negative emotions (anxiety, moody, fear, sadness)
-normally distributed: most people are moderate, extremes can be bad

Question 6

adaptive behavioural response

Answer 6

• behaviours that increase survival and/or reproduction
  ex: traits like anxiety, makes you more sensitive to threats, make you more aware of surroundings, protect youserlf, increases survival

Question 7

sexually selected traits

Answer 7

-make you more attactive to opposite sex

Question 8

STUDY: 400 creative artists and poets

revealed a positive correlation between

Answer 8

positive correlation between creativity and sexual success
More creative people were more sexually active
STUDY: 400 creative artists and poets
revealed a positive correlation between creativity and sexual success
More creative people were more sexually active
Supports theory that human creative ability is a sexually selected trait because it is a quality that increases one’s attractiveness to members of the opposite sex

Question 9

two methods to study behavioural genetics

Answer 9

1) Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) Approach

2) Twin studies

Question 10

quantitative trait loci (QTL) approach

Answer 10

-searching for genetic markers
-looking for locations/markers that are linked to high or low levels of a trait/behaviour
has uncovered genetic markers for several basic personality traits, such as novelty/thrill seeking, impulsivity, and neuroticism/anxiety

Question 11

Quantitative traits

Answer 11

how much a trait is expressed
some personality types display a lot of a specific behaviour, others might show this behaviour less often
ex: anxiety, some people are not at all anxious, most people are average, a few are very anxious

Question 12

Twin studies

Answer 12

-studying identical and fraternal twins that are raised together and apart

Question 13

personality is _____ heritable

Answer 13

40-60%

Question 14

____% of the differences in personality in a population is explained by ___ non genetic sources

Answer 14

50%

3

Question 15

Three non-genetic sources of personality

Answer 15

1) Shared environment: what siblings have in common (parents, household)
2) Unshared environment: what siblings don’t have in common
- birth order, different friends, different teachers, different social groups, different environment
- shapes personality the most
3) Error

Question 16

personality is mostly influenced by the _________

Answer 16

unshared environment

Question 17

temperament

Answer 17

• biological disposition to behave in certain ways
• personality traits that are inherited rather than learned
• lays the foundation of personality
• obvious before birth
• can be influenced by culture

ex: easy kids:
slow to warm up:
difficult:

Question 18

Temperament and personality traits are ________ before birth

Answer 18

obvious before birth

• high heart rate/activity at 36 weeks= less predictable eating and sleeping (3-6months after birth)
• less emotionality 6 months after birth

Question 19

Amount of stress the mother experiences during pregnancy changes the infant’s permanent stress response

Answer 19

Infants born to mothers who have experienced an usual amount of stress during pregnancy tend to have impaired stress function, higher baseline levels of stress hormones, and a faster, stronger and more pronounced stress response, all of which persist into childhood

Question 20

Studying Personality Traits across different Cultures

Studied extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and psychoticism

Answer 20

exist in all cultures

Question 21

NEO-Personality Inventory (NEO-PI)

Answer 21

common measure of personality
translated to more than 40 different languages
Assesses 5 major dimensions of personality, called the “Big Five”
Revealed big 5 traits are in every culture
universally exhibit these traits- indicating a biological basis

Question 22

Asian cultures exhibit qualities of

Answer 22

interpersonal relatedness
-depend on each other
behaviours and attitudes as a respectful, obedient demeanour towards others, a belief in saving “face”

Question 23

Collectivism

Answer 23

being concerned about the behaviour affects family, friends, and social groups
adopted by Asian cultures

Question 24

Individualism

Answer 24

being concerned about how behaviour will affect personal goals
adopted by Western cultures