Differential 3.2 and 3.3 Flashcards
What are Turkheimer’s (2000) ‘Three laws of behaviour genetics’?
- All human behavioural traits are heritable
- Shared environmental influences tend to be
weaker than genetic influences - Neither accounts for all the variance
(Non-shared environmental influences matter too, Psychology measures always contain error)
What are five implications of Turkheimer’s (2000) ‘Three laws of behaviour genetics’?
- Can’t assume correlations between
life circumstances and later outcomes are
causal - Family environments make us different as much as similar
- Environmental influences are idiosyncratic
(They transact with our genes in individual ways + there are very few direct main effects out there)
What three types of Mendelian medical conditions has genome technology caused spectacular breakthroughs for?
Huntington’s Disease
Phenylketonuria
Specific Intellectual disabilities
What is the fourth ‘law’ of behavioural genetics (Chabris et al., 2015)?
Typical human trait is associated with very many genetic variants, each accounting for miniscule amounts of variance
What is the definition of intelligence?
An individual’s mental ability to act purposefully, think rationally, and deal effectively with the environment
How is intelligence measured? (10 points)
- Vocabulary
- Relations among words
- Identifying sequences
- Short-term and working memory (lists, keeping track of one thing while doing another)
- Speed of simple processing (identifying symbols, reaction times)
- Ability to visualise transformation of shapes
- IQ
- Brain volume
- Speed of neural transmission
- Working memory capacity
What are the problems with methods of measurement for intelligence?
- Intimidating situations - questions posed by trained assessors, paper-pencil presentations, computer presentations
- Those with less confidence likely to be more intimidated - too much stress hinders performance
What are the benefits of measurements of intelligence?
They predict:
– Educational achievement and attainment
– Job performance
– Attained social class and socioeconomic status
– Income and financial resources
– Health
– Unemployment, divorce, out-of-wedlock birth,
incarceration, public benefit receipt, school dropout
What is the ‘drop in from the sky’ (Hunt, 2011) method of measuring intelligence? (1 sentence)
An examiner poses a set of questions to the examinee, out of context of the examinee’s normal life, and in a limited time.
What are the drawbacks of the ‘drop in from the sky’ method of measuring intelligence? (3 points)
- No time for participant to evaluate, ponder
- Artifical, limited context
- Inevitably dependent on prior experience with related material (school, culture, social class)
What behaviours do ‘drop in from the sky’ tests fail to measure? (7 behaviours)
- Ability to understand others’ perspectives
- Creativity
- Ability to carry out practical tasks
- Self insight
- Decision-making quality
- Wisdom
- Depth of understanding
What was Raymond Cattell’s (1971)investment theory about? (2 points)
- humans have biologically fixed but ‘fluid’ cognitive capacities that can be applied in any direction
- investing capacity in acquiring knowledge and skills become fixed: ‘crystallized’
What is ‘fluid intelligence’ and how is it measured? (1 sentence each)
The biologically limited capacity for processing information
Figural tests
What is ‘crystallized intelligence’ and how is it measured? (1 sentence each)
The accuracy and amount of information available for processing perceptions
Verbal tests
What is the definition of personality? (1 sentence)
An individual’s characteristic style of behaving, thinking, and feeling affected by the development of an individual
