Development Of Personality

Question 1

Thomas, Chess and Birch (1977)

Answer 1

Aim: To see if ways of responding to the environment stay the same throughout life.

Method: Studied 133 children from infancy to early adulthood. The parents were asked about the child’s routine and their reaction to change. The child’s behaviour was also observed.

Results: The children seemed to go into three categories “easy” “difficult” and “slow to warm up”.

Conclusion: The three categories still applied when tested later, Thomas, Chess and Birch later concluded that temperament is innate.

Question 2

Define “Temperament”

Answer 2

Temperament is how you act and it is in your DNA.

Question 3

Define “Longitudinal Study”

Answer 3

A Longitudinal Study is where an experiment is carried out over time and the behaviour is observed.

Question 4

Buss and Plomin (1984)

Answer 4

Aim: To test the idea that temperament is innate.
Method: Studied 228 pairs of monozygotic twins and 172 pairs of dizygotic twins and rated their temperament when they were 5 years old. They studied three dimensions of behaviour:
Emotionality - how strong the child’s emotional response was
Activity - how energetic the child was
Sociability - how much the child wanted to be with other people.
They then compared the results.

Results: The results from the monozygotic twins were close than that o the dizygotic twins.

Conclusion: Temperament has a genetic basis (DNA?).

Question 5

Define “Monozygotic Twins”.

Answer 5

Monozygotic twins are where the twins developed from the same fertile egg.

Question 6

Define “Dizygotic Twins”

Answer 6

dizygotic twins are where the twins develop from two different (separate) fertile eggs.

Question 7

Kagan and Snidman (1991)

Answer 7

Aim: To see if temperament is because of biological differences.

Method: Studied the reaction of 4 month old babies to new situation in a new environment. First the babies were placed on a seat with the main caregiver sitting nearby. After that, the caregiver moved away while the baby was shown multiple toys.

Results: 20% of the babies were very distressed because they were crying and violently moving their arms and legs, they were classed as highly reactive. 40% of the babies showed very little movement /emotion so they were classed as low reactive. the remaining 40% fell in-between the two classes.
In a follow-up study 11 years later Kagan and Snidman found the the ptps that were classed as highly reactive were shy and the low reactives were calm.

Conclusion: The researchers concluded that the two temperaments were due to inherited differences and were caused by how the brain responds.

Question 8

Define “Extroversion”.

Answer 8

Extroversion: a personality type that describes people that are very outgoing and adventurous. They like to find entertainment in the outside world.

Question 9

Define “Introversion”.

Answer 9

Introversion: a personality type that describes people that are shy and anxious. They are very content with being by themselves and entertaining themselves.

Question 10

Define “Neuroticism”.

Answer 10

Neuroticism: a personality type that describe people that are highly emotional and show quick and intense reactions to fear.

Question 11

Eysenck (1947)

Answer 11

Aim: To investigate the personality differences between people.

Method: 700 servicemen filled in a questionnaire which Eysenck later analysed using a statistical technique called factor analysis.

Results: He found two dimensions of personality: extroversion - introversion and neuroticism - stability.

Conclusion: Everyone can be put on the two scales of personality however most people lie in-between the two extremes.

Question 12

Define “Psychoticism”.

Answer 12

Psychoticism is personality type where people are hostile, aggressive and cruel.

Question 13

Define “Antisocial Personality Disorder”

Answer 13

A condition where people don’t follow the normal rules of society and they don’t accept others rights ( can only be diagnosed when 18+)

Question 14

Define “Amygdala”

Answer 14

The amygdala is part of the brain that is involved with emotions.

Question 15

Define “Grey Matter”

Answer 15

Grey Matter is the outer layer of the brain and can also be called the cerebral cortex.

Question 16

Define “Prefrontal Cortex”

Answer 16

The Prefrontal Cortex is the very front of the brain and is involved with thinking, social and moral behaviour and controls aggression.

Question 17

Raine et al. (2000)

Answer 17

Aim: To support the theory that abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex is a cause for APD.

Method: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) was used to study a set of volunteers of 21 men with APD and 34 “healthy” men.

Results: The group with APD had a 11% reduction in size of the prefrontal grey matter in comparison to the “healthy” group.

Conclusion: APD is caused by a reduction in size in the prefrontal grey matter.

Question 18

Farrington (1995)

Answer 18

Aim: to investigate the development of offending and antisocial behaviour in males from childhood to the age of 50.

Method: Used a longitudinal study to study the development of antisocial and offending behaviour in 411 males. All ptps from a deprived area in centre of London. First studied when they were 8 years old and consistently until the age of 50. Their parents and teachers were also interviewed so the researchers could have their opinion on how the ptp acted. Searches were also carried out to see if they (or any family mambers) had committed a crime or had any criminal activity.

Results: 41% of the males were convicted of at least 1 crime from the ages of 10 - 50 years old. The most important factor that corresponded to criminal activity was low school achievements, poverty, poor parenting and family member being convicted for crimes.

Conclusion: How a child is nurtured can affect whether they develop antisocial disorder.