differential psych Flashcards
what is variance in differential psych
the individual differences that are often just treated as noise
the expected squared deviation of a variable from its statistical mean
cronbach’s two disciplines of scientific psychology (1957)
experimental - manipulate conditions to see what happens
correlational - study patterns of human nature
what is a criticism of cronbach’s two disciplines
the hard separation of the two can be harmful; wundt argued for them supplementing each other instead
psychometrics
the measurement of any psychological characteristics
genotype
whats in the genes
phenotype
how the gene presents itself
heritability
the proportion of population variance attributed to genetic influences
[genetic influence / observed variance]
shared environment
environmental factors that actually act to make household members more similar
non shared environment
environmental factors that act to make household members different
turkheimer’s three laws of behaviour genetics
- all human behavioural traits are heritable
- shared env tends to be weaker than genetic influences
- neither accounts for all the variance
how many genes do fraternal twins share
50% of the 0.5% of genes that vary amongst humans
3 genotype-environment correlations (plomin)
PASSIVE - the association between the genotypes inherited from parents and childhood environment
EVOCATIVE - an individual’s heritable behaviour evokes an environmental response (EX: smiley baby)
ACTIVE - niche-picking; heritable inclination to select a certain environment
what is the problem with HUNT’s ‘drop in from the sky’ intelligence testing
dependent on prior experience in certain situations and material, mostly gained through cultural/social capital or education
spearman’s g
‘general intelligence’; the correlation of intelligence variance
classic hierarchical model of intelligence
fixed factor of ‘g’ determines all other areas
flynn effect in intelligence
pop. average scores have increased about 3 points/decade since the beginning of intelligence testing
what are possible reasons for the flynn effect
test familiarity
technology = greater cultural saturation in abstract thinking
better health care (esp. neonatal; decreased chances of intellectual disability)
fluid intelligence
humans have biologically fixed but fluid cognitive capacity that can be applied in any direction
crystallised intelligence
humans invest their capacity in acquiring knowledge and procedural skills that become fixed (crystallised)
cattell’s investment theory
there is a dynamic relationship between fluid & crystallised intelligence, we invest to crystallise
how is personality measured
personality inventories - self-reporting the extent to which presented statements apply to the individual
projective techniques - free-form reactions to ambiguous stimuli or situations
allport and odbert - lexical hypothesis (1936)
analysing adjectives reveals everything about personality as language reflects how we view others-ourselves
what was the process of filtering the adjectives used to describe people in personality tests?
allport and odbert - 4504
cattell - 171
tubes and christal - 5
—– costa and mccraes five factor neo
costa and mccraes five factor personality theory
5 behavioural descriptors which correlated to a personality theory
OPENNESS
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
EXTRAVERSION
AGREEABLENESS
NEUROTICISM
the biological contributions to these traits are fixed after 30 years & they have direct causal influences on behaviour
