Chapter 9 Flashcards
Temperament
biologically-based individual differences in emotional and motivational tendencies evident early in life
Greek view on development of characteristics…
human nature is composed of earth, wind, fire, and water
variations in psychological characteristics because of variations in bodily fluids
Gall’s approach to understanding temperament
Phrenology: conducted post-mortem studies of brain tissue and correlated with character traits of deceased.
Longitudinal studies…
Thomas and Chess: Followed 100 children from birth to adolescence
Found link between easy babies and their acclimation into adolescence. Difficult babies=difficult adjusting later
Jerome Kagan findings
People are either inhibited or uninhibited. Inhibited people don’t like novelty situations and grow stressed by them. High reactive infants became inhibited children and vice versa
Brain regions that are associated with inhibited and uninhibited people…
Amygdala- centrally involved in the fear response
Frontal cortex- involved in regulating emotional response, in part, by influencing the functioning of the amygdala
The Limbic System…
Septal area, Amygdala, Hippocampus,
effortful control and development of the conscience findings…
children who had assertive mothers failed to develop their own internal self-control. Children less able to exhibit effortful control
Proximate Causes
biological processes operating in the organism at the time the behavior is observed
Ultimate Causes
why is a given biological mechanism a part of the organism, and why does it respond to the environment in a given way? (invokes principles of natural selection)
Evolutionary Psychologies via human functioning…
human functioning is directly related to natural selection and adaptive principles to survival and reproductive processes.
4 Points of Evolution and the Human mind…
- The features of mind that evolved are all about passing on genes!
- Evolved mental mechanisms are adaptive to the way of life of hundreds of centuries ago
- Evolved psychological mechanisms are domain-specific
- The mind contains multiple information-processing devices
Aspects of Social Exchange and detection of Cheating
ability to detect cheating has survival value
ability to solve cheating problems is a human universal
frontal cortex and amygdala are important parts used in social contracts
Mate preference for Males…
Youthfulness, genetic appeal and health. A woman should be able to carry on his genetics. Chastity.
Mate preference for females…
Ability to provide and protect. Genetic appeal, but mostly provision.