Development Of Personality Flashcards
What is temperament?
The genetic component of personality
What is personality?
The thoughts, feelings and behaviours that make an individual unique
Describe Thomas, Chess and Birch’s study?
To discover whether ways of responding to the environment remain stable through life.
Studied 133 children from infancy to adulthood. The children’s behaviour was observed and their parents interviewed about their child’s routine and reaction to change. 3 categories ‘easy’ ‘difficult’ ‘slow to warm up’.
These ways of responding stayed with children as they developed through life.
Temperament is innate.
What is Buss and Plomin’s study?
To test the idea that temperament is innate.
Studied 228 pairs of monozygotic and 172 dizygotic twins. They rated the temperament of the children when they were 5 years old. Looked at 3 dimensions of behaviour; emotion, activity, sociability. Then they compared the scores of each pairs of twins.
Closer correlation between the scores of the monozygotic twins than the dizygotic twins.
Temperament has a genetic basis.
Kagan and Snidman…
To investigate whether temperament is due to biological differences.
The reactions of 500 four month old babies were studied in new situations. The baby was placed in a seat next to its parents. then the parents moved out of the picture while the baby was shown different toys by the researcher. 11 years later the children were again studied in new situations.
20% distress, 40% little emotion. The rest fell somewhere inbetween the two. 11 years later the results were still the same.
What was Eysenck’s study?
To investigate the personality of 700 servicemen.
He gave them a questionnaire and analysed the results using factor analysis.
2 dimensions of personality - extro/intro and stable/neurotic.
Everyone can be placed along the 2 dimensions of personality, most people are in the middle.
What does EPQ stand for and what is it?
Eysenck’s personality questionnaire.
More questions were added to assess another dimension of personality, psychoticism.
