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Psychology 1B > Differential Psychology > Flashcards

Differential Psychology Flashcards

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1
Q

What is measurement?

A

Quantifying a characteristic of some ‘thing’

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2
Q

What do we have to consider if we want to measure something well?

A

Avoid bias & the measure should have the same meaning, regardless of who or what we apply it to

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3
Q

What is a trait? What can be classed as a trait?

A

Trait - A distinguishing characteristic of quality, especially of ones personal nature

They are possessed by individuals & differentiate individuals

Stable over time

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4
Q

What are behavioural traits? How are they measured?

A

Things such as walking speed, sleeping hours etc.

Measured on a ratio scale (where 0 means nothing)

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5
Q

What are psychological traits? How do they differ to behavioural traits?

A

Psychological traits are hypothetical constructs

We infer their existence because they influence other things (intervening variables)

Psychological traits aren’t measured on ratio scales

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6
Q

How do we measure intelligence?

A

Multiple different intelligence tests exist (E.g. Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test)

Deary found there is a stability in individual differences of mental ability

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7
Q

What are the common biases when measuring IQ?

A

Biased against certain demographics (e.g. towards men)

Group differences (E.g. in size, culture etc.)

When IQ tests predict performance measures better in one group than in another

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8
Q

What is the difference between personality types and personality traits?

A

Types - Choleric, Melancholic, Sanguine, Phlegmatic
Traits - Empathic, socially bold etc.

Sheldon believed that body type echoed personality type

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9
Q

How is personality measured?

A

Projective tests - Get asked to look at a picture & described what is happening (from Freudian theory)

Objective tests (Empirical or factor analytic)

  • Empirically designed = Matched groups that differ in a crucial way
  • Factor analytic - Start with an idea about possible existing traits & devise questionnaire based on these traits
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10
Q

What is the NEO test for personality?

A

Tests for neuroticism, openness and extraversion

Supported by a lot of evidence for good re-test stability , self & rater reports agree

Perception of personality traits is based on cues related to personality

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11
Q

How do we test whether our measures are trustworthy?

A

Criterion validity, internal consistency, retest reliability, freedom from bias, measurement invariance

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12
Q

What is the nomothetic approach to measuring intelligence or personality?

A

Categorises using theory or observations, analyse data & see what happens

E.g. With IQ different sub-categories such as verbal IQ & performance IQ

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13
Q

What is Spearman’s factor analysis?

A

Factor analysis - Statistical technique that explains a large number of correlations in terms of small underlying factors

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14
Q

What is the debate over cognitive abilities have general factors/general intelligence?

A

Spearman (1904) - Kids who did well at classics normally did well in other areas + other intelligence tests have found existence of a general factor

Spearman believed in two factor theory

  1. We have a core knowledge/general factor
  2. Have specific knowledge to carry out the skill
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15
Q

What is the belief behind there being multiple intelligences?

A

Thurstone & Gardener both believed in multiple intelligences but proven wrong as there is little variance between different intelligence types so must be a common factor

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16
Q

What is a zombie theory?

A

When people continue to support theories that have been continuously proved wrong

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17
Q

What is data reduction and how can it be achieved?

A

Statistical analyses used to reduce a lot of variable into a smaller set

  • Principal component analysis
  • Factor analysis (confirmatory or exploratory)
  • Cluster analysis (not often used)
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18
Q

What is the definition of personality?

A

An individuals characteristic style of behaving, thinking & feeling

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19
Q

What is a factor? What are the two different types of factor?

A

Factor - Underlying influence that accounts in part for variations in individual behaviour

Oblique factor - Items that correlate with each other
Orthogonal factors - Uncorrelated items

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20
Q

What is meant by dimensionality?

A

How many factors/dimensions we have in personality has to be guided by theory - Disagreement over how many factors we do have

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21
Q

What is the Five-Factor model of personality?

A

Assesses openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness & neuroticism

Accounts for variation in personality

Subjective well being - Individuals own evaluation of their own life & if they’re satisfied

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22
Q

What are some criticisms of the five-factor model?

A

Not sure where traits such as anger, traditionalism, impulsivity would fall on the scale

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23
Q

Are factors in a personality test independent?

A

Cattell believed in modest correlations among personality factors

Digman factor analysis correlations from 14 studies of Big Five Dimensions

Could be due to self-presentation bias

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24
Q

How do you remove method variance?

A

Collected data on three measurement occasions and got different informants

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25
Q

How do you deal with self-presentation bias?

A

Backstrom et al. (2009) - Modified personality items to be more neutral = No longer general factor of personality

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26
Q

How is it suggested that correlations between different factors of personality could come about via multiple processes?

A

Latent variable view assumes that they represent common observed or unobserved causes

Network view suggests activation of neighbouring traits leads to factors

No real test to see if factor is due to latent variables or network view

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27
Q

What are the limitations of factor analysis?

A
  • Only get the traits back that you put in
  • Correlation can be due to third variable
  • Structure of personality can depend on whether you focus on the correlated or uncorrelated
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28
Q

What is the standard model of social science?

A

Tests associations between environment & behaviour

E.g. Daycare studies - Children in early intensive daycare have poor parent relationships & were more aggressive

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29
Q

What is the problem with the standard model?

A

No control groups & random PPT

Assumes genes only account for negligible part of variance & believes most important things come from family

30
Q

What is meant by genetic confounds?

A

When gene-environment correlations can lead to spurious correlations between family/home environment (A may cause B etc)

Three types of genetic confounds:

  • Passive (e.g. parents own lots of books so you read)
  • Active (e.g. you ask for books for your birthday)
  • Evocative
31
Q

How do you rule out genetic confounds?

A

Twin studies - If genes influence a trait then people who share more genes will be more similar on a trait

32
Q

What is the heritability co-efficient?

A

Statistic that describes the proportion of the difference between peoples scores that can be explained by differences in the genetic makeup

33
Q

What is the heritability of intelligence?

A

Age 7 - proportion of variance due to genetic effects & increases until it plateaus

Individuals get older & genes become more important in determining intelligence

Intelligence in chimpanzees showed similar genes to intelligence level

34
Q

What it the heritability of the five-factor model?

A

Five factors had no shared environment effects - heritable about 0.7 correlation

35
Q

What is the heritability of facets (a specific and unique aspect of a broader personality trait)?

A

Source of individual differences at facet level (traits depend on more than one gene at the same locus)

Found genetic effects for all traits some additive and some non-additive
1/3 variation due to common environmental effects

Education can lead to increase in IQ

36
Q

What are the three possible designs to test stability & change in age effects?

A

Cross-sectional

Longitudinal

Cross-sequential

37
Q

What is a cross-sectional design?

A

Large sample with different ages & test for different traits - View the development of certain traits

  • Cohort effects (e.g. if grew up in war time can lead to certain traits)
  • Differential survival (e.g. Participants that are alive have beneficial trait
38
Q

What is a longitudinal design?

A

Measures a group of individuals at least twice to see change of the same group over time

Issues:
Attrition - Participants may drop out or die during the study
Practice effects - Participants traits change/become better at task

39
Q

What is a cross-sequential design?

A

Combination of a cross-sectional & longitudinal = Two or more groups of different ages studied longitudinally

40
Q

What are the two types of stability & change?

A

Mean stability & change - Does the trait increase or decrease as PPT gets older

Rank order stability & change - Do individuals relative standing change over time?

41
Q

What is the genetic explanation for stability and change?

A

Deary et al. (2013) - 24% of change in longitudinal cohort due to genetic differences

62% genetic correlation & retest ability

42
Q

What is cognitive ageing?

A

Cognitive function declines with age

43
Q

What are the two types of cognitive ageing?

A

Normative decline - Not pathological, it is the normal process of decline

Dementia - Pathological decline which prevents independence

44
Q

How does speed of decline differ?

A

It differs for different functions

E.g. Skill of number takes longer to decline than intuitive reasoning

45
Q

What are selection & practice effects in terms of when studying cognitive decline?

A

Selection effects - Type of bias when sample is targeted to specific set of people (in longitudinal studies, people with a certain trait may die off)

Practice effects - Cognitive decline is underestimated due to knowledge of how to do the task

  • Ceiling effect - Original high cognitive ability people can’t achieve much higher through practice effect
  • Opposite with the floor effect
46
Q

What are the individual differences in cognitive ageing in cross-sectional & longitudinal studies?

A

CSS - More variability as age increases but mixed evidence

Longitudinal studies - Variance in change - 10% variance per year

47
Q

What are the two explanations behind cognitive decline? (name only)

A
  1. Cognitive reserve hypothesis
  2. Use it or Lose it

Correlations among rates of decline suggest there are common reasons for decline

48
Q

What is the cognitive reserve hypothesis?

A

Higher socioeconomic status = Cope with neural damages better - Thought they have a better ways to reorganise the brain

People with a lower cognitive ability will fall below the functional threshold before those with a higher cognitive ability

49
Q

What are the cons of the cognitive reserve hypothesis?

A

Difficult to test - Need an accurate way of measuring change in the brain

Definition of cognitive reserve is needed in more detail

Decline also needs to be accurately measured

50
Q

What is the ‘use it or lose it’ explanation?

A

Use of your brain slows cognitive decline

Hard to test this hypothesis

Brighter people may have been more mentally active

Reverse causality - Used to train brain

51
Q

What was found about personality differences and ageing?

A

CSS - Cohort effects should not be found across cultures, Mostly same patterns across cultures

  • Neuroticism & extraversion decline
  • Openness increase and then decreases
  • Agreeableness and conscientiousness increase

LS -
Declines in extraversion over time
Openness to feeling & other emotions may decline

52
Q

How does the stability of personality cope with ageing?

A

Measured via guilford zimmerman test & the NEO-PIR
Meta-analysis
- Social dominance increases as we get older
- Social vitality decreases

53
Q

What are the two competing hypothesis of the development of personality?

A

Social investment principle & Five-Factor Theory

54
Q

What is the social investment principle?

A

Development is a ‘transaction’ between person & environment

Change should track certain life events

Study of 800,000 YA = Those who started work earlier has a bigger difference in neuroticism and conscientiousness

Increase in openness as well

55
Q

What is the Five-Factor Theory to explain the development of personality?

A

Personality development = Biological process
Stability & change should be heritable
Change should be universal
Weiss et al:
Chimps & Orangutans - Neuroticism and extraversion is lower in older
Agreeableness is higher in older chimps but lower in older orangutans
Size of age differences is comparable to humans `

56
Q

What is the effect size in differential psychology?

A

Effect size is a quantitative measure of the magnitude of the experimental effect

It is small = Common criticism

57
Q

What did Gottfredson (1997) state about the importance of ‘g’?

A

Intelligence (g) is important to social life

Life is an intelligence test = Want leaders, doctors educators to have intelligence

Intelligence doesn’t equal moral good or virtue

58
Q

What are the metrics of measuring effect?

A

Correlation between IQ and success

Percent variance in success explained

Average performance levels

Odds of success

59
Q

What did Deary et al. find about the importance of education?

A

High correlation between latent traits of intelligence & educational achievement

Percentage variance is high as attainment is measured poorly in schools & is measured differently

Found that IQ range was narrower within applications for certain jobs (farmers were seen as having a lower IQ)

60
Q

What drives the association between job performance & knowledge?

A

Brighter people learn the job more quickly

Social class can lead to better education and work outcomes

Could be a third factor that causes better intelligence

61
Q

What is the link between intelligence and crime?

A

Low IQ associated with criminal behaviour & more likely to be incarcerated

Due to lower cognitive empathy as increases chance of violent offender

(Cognitive empathy - Understanding another’s emotional state, Affective - Share another’s emotional state)

Association vanished when IQ controlled

62
Q

What are the possible explanations behind crime and empathy? (Jolliffe & Farrington, 2004)

A

Empathy has no relation = Crime & lack of empathy due to low IQ

Empathy is causally related to offending

Empathy measure underlying causes in offending e.g. deficits in executive functions

63
Q

How is IQ linked to social class & prejudice?

A

Deary found that the more educated you are = More liberal and more likely to be against non-traditional values

No significance between social class at 30 and being a liberal when IQ and education are included

64
Q

What is the link between mental health & IQ?

A

Gale et al - Lower IQ is always a risk factor (increases chance of schizophrenia by 64%)

Marmot et al. - Risk of suicide reduced with higher IQ & less likely to be murdered, poor health more present among lower social classes

Social class may impact health and intelligence (third variable may influence)

Has policy implications on education

65
Q

What is link between personality and education?

A

Poropol - People who have more agreeableness, conscientiousness & openness do better in school

High neuroticism = Poor performance in primary education but this levels out in secondary school

66
Q

How is personality linked to happiness?

A

Emotional stability, conscientiousness and agreeableness = Higher life satisfaction, job satisfaction

Openness only increases life satisfaction rather than job

There are some genes involved in happiness levels

67
Q

How is personality linked to leadership?

A

Judge et al. - High extraversion, openness, conscientiousness & low neuroticism are qualities of leadership (not agreeableness)

Agreeableness beneficial for leadership roles in student leadership for example

68
Q

How does personality link to someone’s social attitudes?

A

Social dominance orientation (believe in inferiority), RWA & prejudiced people = Lower in openness

SDO & P = Lower in agreeableness

RWA = High in conscientiousness

69
Q

What are the personality traits of those in a marriage & divorce?

A

Jocklin et al.

  • Men who’ve been married = Low in alienation, absorption & have a high social potency
  • Women who’ve been married = Lower in alienation and stress
  • Divorcees = High in social potency, stress, alienation & absorption
70
Q

How does personality link to mental health?

A

Internalising disorders (such as depression etc.) = Neuroticism is a common risk factor & due to sharing common genes

Personality disorder = Individuals who have a personality that makes it difficult to cope in society. High lifetime prevalence (10 to 15%)

E.g. APD - High neuroticism, extraversion & low agreeableness

71
Q

How does personality link to physical health?

A

Friedman & Roseman - Compared healthy males to those with CHD
- Males with CHD has sustained drive for achievement/competition

Conscientiousness = Correlated to longevity (Lower viral load if get HIV & lower risk of alzheimers)

Openness & longevity = Openness causes longer-life (found more often with FFM)

72
Q

What is Galton’s dangerous idea?

A

He identified differences in cognitive ability

Galton believed individual differences is as importance as Darwinism = Should permeate every theory

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