differential psych

Question 1

what is variance in differential psych

Answer 1

the individual differences that are often just treated as noise
the expected squared deviation of a variable from its statistical mean

Question 2

cronbach’s two disciplines of scientific psychology (1957)

Answer 2

experimental - manipulate conditions to see what happens

correlational - study patterns of human nature

Question 3

what is a criticism of cronbach’s two disciplines

Answer 3

the hard separation of the two can be harmful; wundt argued for them supplementing each other instead

Question 4

psychometrics

Answer 4

the measurement of any psychological characteristics

Question 5

genotype

Answer 5

whats in the genes

Question 6

phenotype

Answer 6

how the gene presents itself

Question 7

heritability

Answer 7

the proportion of population variance attributed to genetic influences
[genetic influence / observed variance]

Question 8

shared environment

Answer 8

environmental factors that actually act to make household members more similar

Question 9

non shared environment

Answer 9

environmental factors that act to make household members different

Question 10

turkheimer’s three laws of behaviour genetics

Answer 10

• all human behavioural traits are heritable
• shared env tends to be weaker than genetic influences
• neither accounts for all the variance

Question 11

how many genes do fraternal twins share

Answer 11

50% of the 0.5% of genes that vary amongst humans

Question 12

3 genotype-environment correlations (plomin)

Answer 12

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

Question 13

what is the problem with HUNT’s ‘drop in from the sky’ intelligence testing

Answer 13

dependent on prior experience in certain situations and material, mostly gained through cultural/social capital or education

Question 14

spearman’s g

Answer 14

‘general intelligence’; the correlation of intelligence variance

Question 15

classic hierarchical model of intelligence

Answer 15

fixed factor of ‘g’ determines all other areas

Question 16

flynn effect in intelligence

Answer 16

pop. average scores have increased about 3 points/decade since the beginning of intelligence testing

Question 17

what are possible reasons for the flynn effect

Answer 17

test familiarity
technology = greater cultural saturation in abstract thinking
better health care (esp. neonatal; decreased chances of intellectual disability)

Question 18

fluid intelligence

Answer 18

humans have biologically fixed but fluid cognitive capacity that can be applied in any direction

Question 19

crystallised intelligence

Answer 19

humans invest their capacity in acquiring knowledge and procedural skills that become fixed (crystallised)

Question 20

cattell’s investment theory

Answer 20

there is a dynamic relationship between fluid & crystallised intelligence, we invest to crystallise

Question 21

how is personality measured

Answer 21

personality inventories - self-reporting the extent to which presented statements apply to the individual
projective techniques - free-form reactions to ambiguous stimuli or situations

Question 22

allport and odbert - lexical hypothesis (1936)

Answer 22

analysing adjectives reveals everything about personality as language reflects how we view others-ourselves

Question 23

what was the process of filtering the adjectives used to describe people in personality tests?

Answer 23

allport and odbert - 4504
cattell - 171
tubes and christal - 5
—– costa and mccraes five factor neo

Question 24

costa and mccraes five factor personality theory

Answer 24

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