Differential Psychology

Question 1

What is differential psychology?

Answer 1

Differential psychology studies the ways in which individuals differ in their behaviour and the processes that underlie it

Question 2

What do differential psychologists study?

Answer 2

Variance (Differences between individuals)

Question 3

What other discipline does differential psychology closely link to?

Answer 3

Developmental (Nature + Nurture)

Question 4

What can psychological attributes create in psychological experiments?

Answer 4

Can create variance in psychological experiments - Not error

Question 5

What is systematic variance?

Answer 5

When random factors occur that affect only some participants in a group

Question 6

Why is psychological variance useful?

Answer 6

Help understand, explain and predict behaviours and performance

Question 7

What characteristics do people vary on?

Answer 7

Basics – e.g. height, weight, hair etc.
Physiological/medical – e.g. Blood pressure, hormone levels
Surprising stuff – e.g. organ location, numbers of teeth & fingers
Developmental – Readiness to learn to read, timing of learning to walk
Psychological characteristics – cognitive abilities, learning rates etc.
Demographic status – Sex, age, marital status
Lifestyle – Diet, exercise etc.
Experiences & responses to them – Culture of upbringing, educational opportunities

Question 8

What two disciplines of scientific psychology doe Cronbach (1957) propose?

Answer 8

Experimental and correlational

Question 9

What is the experimental discipline? (Cronbach, 1957)

Answer 9

Manipulate conditions to see what happens
Strictly controls situational variables = Permits rigorous test of hypothesis & statements of causation
Can’t fully control experimental conditions = Systematic variance , even with an increased sample size
Studies variance among treatment of variable, not among organisms
Constructs, originating in differential are now being tie to experimental variables - e.g. monkey in a controlled environment

Question 10

What is the correlational discipline? (Cronbach, 1957)

Answer 10

Identify and understand free-standing patterns of nature, stuff we cannot/will not control (environment)
Have to use the best measure for what they want to study - need to know theories about how the mind works and development etc.
Must understand what generates variance
Factor analysis is correlational
Discovery of the correlation coefficient was revolutionary –> Factor analysis
Knows that no observed criterion is truly valid - need simultaneous consideration of many criteria

Question 11

How can variance be described mathematically?

Answer 11

Expected square deviation of a random variable from its statistical mean (how far data extends from the mean (central tendency))
Always positive (as squared)

Question 12

What is Meehl’s theory of validity?

Answer 12

Interpreting test scores = Assuming that tests measure theoretical networks’ constructs = implies states that should be observable under specific conditions

Theories know that required conditions aren’t always present - Generates variance in states

Experiments needed to state that the variations occur as the theory specifies

Question 13

How do we study individual differences scientifically?

Answer 13

Define the dimension of difference e.g. height or eye colour

Harder to define concepts such as creativity & persistence

To study individual differences we have to operationalize the dimension & develop ways to measure it (always small measurement error)

Question 14

What are the issues with studying individual differences scientifically?

Answer 14

Jingle-Jangle problem - People define the one thing differently or label one definition differently

Issue of operationalizing = Individuals aren’t good at accurately describing internal psychological experience = Each have own selective judgements (including the people defining & operationalizing the characteristics)

People unaware about how they appear to others etc. so are not biased - simply unaware - may be better to ask someone who knows the person (still systematic distortions)

Misconception of ‘Psychometrics’ as science of measuring mental capacities & processes
Psychometrics - Measuring psychological characteristics in general - applied more widely (not just to IQ tests)

Question 15

What does it mean to measure something well?

Answer 15

Assessing what we mean to - e.g. making sure shoes are off before measuring height

Various assessment methods have similar results when measuring the same variable (concurrent validity)

Different intelligence tests usually agree/correlate better than different measures of aggression do

If we assess something once, then later on & get the same result

Intelligence & aggression develop similarly - vary more with context than height

Assessment process is free from ‘bias’
Bias - Something about the assessment process that introduces systematic/measurement variance considered unfair - systematic variance is not bias
E.g. If test is not in the native language of the PPT

Question 16

What is the process of a differential study

Answer 16

Start with a question you want to ask (e.g. childhood intelligence & impact on old age - Lothian birth cohort)
Identify needed data (childhood data intelligence scores & old-age outcomes)
Figure out how to collect a good sample
Needs to represent whole relevant population

Question 17

What is population representation and why is it necessary?

Answer 17

Not practical to sample whole population despite it improving data collected (law of large numbers) as participation = Voluntary
Certain type/set of people who volunteer for studies (reliable?)
Issue of population representation & geographical data - e.g. Old-age outcomes in Edinburgh differ to the rest of Scotland as more upper class - more access to resources & care
Early life IQ may contribute to old-age outcomes (e.g. Core values, social class & education) - Shows importance of development on individual differences

Question 18

Why is it important to consider development alongside differential psychology?

Answer 18

People differ from one another throughout their lives & differ in development
Development - Something growing/maturing over time (not just in childhood)
Development is very different for each individual (different rates)

Question 19

What is quantitative change?

Answer 19

Simple difference in magnitude but same mechanisms - something that you can measure e.g. height (e.g. learning more words in vocab)

Question 20

What is qualitative change?

Answer 20

Implies capacities have come online/eroded & no common measure - pervasive in childhood transitions (when individuals progress in developmental stages results in them becoming different than how they were earlier)

Question 21

What are the three types of developmental research designs?

Answer 21

Cross-sectional, longitudinal and cohort-sequential

Question 22

What is a cross sectional design? Advantages and limitations?

Answer 22

Different ages are studied at the same time

Advantages: Faster, cheaper & no concern about participant drop out

Disadvantages: Possible varying levels of sample selectivity, can’t evaluate prior influences on individual differences, cohort effects, age & cohort effects are entangled , can’t evaluate change in development directly

Question 23

What is a longitudinal design? Advantages and limitations?

Answer 23

Assess same sample every few years

Advantages: Measures change in individuals & individual differences in change, can evaluate prior influences on individual differences

Disadvantages: Expensive, time consuming, some PPT drop out, usually limited to one cohort, questions/measures used get outdated, age & time of measurement are tangled

Question 24

What is a cohort-sequential design?

Answer 24

An experimental design in which multiple measures are taken over a period of time from two or more groups of different ages (birth cohorts).

Question 25

What influences psychological characteristics?

Answer 25

Genetic influences

Question 26

What was the work of Mendel and what is Epigenetics?

Answer 26

Work of Mendel - inheritance, dominant & recessive genes etc.

Continuous characteristics - genes can have more than two forms & the environment influences gene expression (e.g. Epigenetics - switched on or off by environmental factors)

Rats similar to human genetics - good test animal

Question 27

What is heritability?

Answer 27

Proportion of population variance attributed to genetic influence

genetic variance/observed variance

Doesn’t apply to individuals - It is a situation in a population

Heritability = specific to populations & environmental circumstances, not characteristics alone

Overall heritability of human characteristics are similar across population groups e.g. moderate range of .3 - .6

Question 28

What is the shared environment and non-shared environment in relation to heritability?

Answer 28

‘shared environment’ - environmental factors actually acting to make household members more similar rather than factors experienced by all family members

‘non-shared environment’ - Environmental factors that acts to make household members different & measurement error

Question 29

What are Turkheimer’s ‘Three laws of behavioural genetics’?

Answer 29

All behavioural traits are heritable

Shared environmental influence tend to be weaker than genetic

Neither accounts for all variance - non-shared environmental influences matter too & psychology measures always contain error

Question 30

What are the implications of Turkheimer’s laws of genetics?

Answer 30

Can’t assume correlations between life circumstances & later outcomes are causal

Family environments do at least as much to make us different as similar

Environmental influences are idiosyncratic

Transect without genes in individual ways & very few main effects (mean difference between experiencing something & not experiencing something) out there

Population statistic doesn’t apply to individuals

Question 31

How has genetic research developed in the last few years?

Answer 31

Genome technology exploded in last 30 years
Now identify specific genetic components - alleles
Spectacular breakthrough for Mendelian medical conditions
Huntington’s Disease
Phenylketonuria
Specific intellectual disabilities
Haven’t done much for psychological characteristics - Massively homogenic

Fourth ‘law’ of behavioural genetics (Chabirs et al., 2015)
Typical human trait is associated with very many genetic variants, each accounting for miniscule amounts of variance

Question 32

Why do we use animals to study?

Answer 32

Won’t/can’t manipulate as we do nonhumans
Breeding, fostering, imposed environments

Researchers assume alleles have direct, specific and biologically effects only on particular characteristics

But gene code for building-block proteins
These proteins can and do take many functions
And environments influence gene expression
Born with ‘genetic toolboxes’ we use as best we can to make our ways in the world
Make assumption 1:1 association between part of genome & characteristic - more complicated

Question 33

What is a common misconception about fraternal twins?

Answer 33

Human fraternal genes share on average 50% of the genes that vary in humans rather than genes overall as humans on average share 99.5% of their genes

Question 34

What is the definition of intelligence?

Answer 34

“A global concept that involves an individual’s ability to act purposefully, think rationally, and deal effectively with the environment” - Wechsler, 1958

“What the intelligence tests test” - Boring, 1923

Question 35

What do intelligence definitions assume?

Answer 35

Intelligence is an inherent personal capacity, stable throughout life, that varies among people
- Not literally true
- Babies can’t reason ‘figure things out’ as adults
do
- Intelligence develops over time - Need to
understand how

Intelligence does have considerable relative stability - At least as measured
- In LBC 21 - Correlation between ages 11 and 90
was .67
- But average scores at age 79 were 13 points
higher than at age 11, thought only 2 points
higher by age 90

Assumption of ‘inherent capacity’ (inseparable part) is large
- Could develop during ongoing socialisation, chosen activities

Question 36

What are the different ways we can test intelligence?

Answer 36

Vocabulary
Relations among words (Similarities, analogies, opposites)
Identifying sequence progressions (Of numbers, letters, figural configurations)
Short-term and working memory (Lists digits, unrelated worlds; keeping track of one thing while doing another)
Speed of very simple processing (Identifying or coding symbols; reaction, inspection times)
Ability to visualise transformation of shapes and figures

Question 37

What did Hunt (2011) proposed to test intelligence?

Answer 37

‘Drop in from the sky’ (Hunt, 2011)
No time to evaluate, ponder
Artificial, very limited context
Inevitably dependent on prior experience with related material (much of it gleaned in school, culture, social class)
Despite many efforts to eliminate this
Claims of success in doing so

Question 38

How do you measure intelligence in situations that might be intimidating?

Answer 38

Questions, problems posed by trained assessors to individuals
Paper and pencil presentations to individuals, large groups
Computer presentations to individuals, large groups
Those with less confidence in ability more likely to be intimidated
In general, some stress is motivating and improves performance, but too much hinders it

Question 39

What is the idea of an informal test of intelligence?

Answer 39

Life is an intelligence test, with many, many very poorly discriminating items (Linda Gottfredson)

Question 40

Do intelligence tests work well as a test?

Answer 40

They predict very well - Reliable predictors about later life outcomes rather than psychological characteristics:
Educational achievement and attainment
Job performance
Especially for complex jobs requiring autonomous decision making
Attained social class and SES
Income and financial resources
Health
Longevity
Unemployment, divorce

Question 41

Why do intelligence tests work?

Answer 41

Jobs are increasingly intellectually complex - automating way to simpler ones
Society rewards educational achievement
Financially and socially
Starting from young childhood (At least in higher-SES groups)
Parents pass both genes and ‘educational culture’ to children
Financial resources buy healthy lifestyles and cultural access - piano lessons, test preps etc.
Reinforced by SES-related access to health and cultural knowledge and social support (peers, ‘special ed’)
Made tests to measure things we already have made to matter in society - develop our societies further around these ideas/matters

Question 42

Do certain test formats work equally as well? What is meant by Spearman’s g?

Answer 42

Some more test-retest reliable than others
All-predict some specific outcomes better than they do others (but which one they predict varies)

All tend to correlate with each other
Spearman’s g - robust observation
Some correlate more closely than others
Suggests ‘hierarchy of abilities’

Drop in from the sky tests - don’t measure everything involved in intelligent behaviour
Ability to understand others perspectives , Creativity etc.
But when these are measured, they correlate with the ‘classic ones’ similarly given reliability

Question 43

What is the Flynn effect?

Answer 43

The Flynn effect refers to a secular increase in population intelligence quotient (IQ) observed throughout the 20th century
Average increase of 3-points per decade
If this were real, most WWI soldiers would be considered intellectually disabled today
Tests have to be normed periodically to compensate

Question 44

Why has the Flynn effect occurred?

Answer 44

Still very unknown
Education - Potentially test familiarity
Cultural saturation in abstract thinking
Technology, more stimulating environment?
Better nutrition
Height has a flynn effect too, as does excess weight
Better health care, especially neonatal
So chances of intellectual disability lower, low scores rarer
Tighter connection between test scores and opportunity?

Question 45

What is fluid and crystallised intelligence?

Answer 45

Terns come from Cattell’s (1971) famous ‘investment’ theory

Fluid intelligence refers to abilities needed for abstract reasoning and speeded performance

Crystallized intelligence refers to knowledge acquired through one’s culture including verbal ability and social knowledge

Humans have biologically fixed but ‘fluid’ cognitive capacities that can be applied in any direction

They invest capacity in acquiring knowledge and procedural skills that become fixed: ‘ crystallised’
Claimed capacity is independent of realisation

Question 46

How are fluid and crystallised intelligence tested?

Answer 46

Developed tests he claimed could distinguish between them - in practice this doesn’t work
No test that measure capacity alone, without also tapping knowledge, and no test that taps available information alone
In practice - ‘fluid’ is measured with figural tests & ‘crystallised is measured with verbal tests’

Question 47

What are the assumptions of fluid and crystallised intelligence?

Answer 47

Assumption of the patterns of correlations among tests suggests the existence of eight middle-level abilities independent of each other and g

In practice, what factors you get depends on what tests you model
Statistical method can’t determine whether factors are independent

Question 48

What are the definitions of personality?

Answer 48

An individual’s characteristic style of behaving, thinking and feeling
- Funder (2016) added “together with psychological mechanisms, hidden or not, behind it”

“Those characteristics that account for a person’s consistent patterns of feeling, thinking and behaving” (Pervice & John, 1999)

Question 49

How do definitions in personality differ?

Answer 49

No definition involves understanding personality as some kind of unitary personal capacity

Three emphasise that people take active (inherently influenced though not necessarily consciously played) roles in own personality development

Within ranges of what’s available and demanded in surrounding environments

Question 50

What are two main ways personality is measured?

Answer 50

Personality inventories
Self-reports of how well presented statements or adjective apply to respondents
Statements/adjectives selected to cluster around theoretically defined fundamental characteristics, with scores sums of clustered responses
Reports of close others about relevance of statements/adjectives to specific people of interest

Projective techniques
Free-form reaction/response to ambiguous stimuli or situations
Intended to reveal hidden emotions and internal conflicts
Reactions/responses interpreted by test administrator

Indicate the extent to which the following apply to you on a scale of 1-5 (1 = Very Little)
E.g. I get stressed out easily

Question 51

How good are measures to test personality in reality?

Answer 51

Intended to reflect personality ‘traits’

Relatively stable tendencies to behave consistently in particular, biologically coherent ways

Generate descriptions of behavioural generalities, but motivations vary
- People don’t behave consistently in any particular way
- Behaviour varies with situation
And with prior and anticipated circumstances

Question 52

How were the core traits of personality determined?

Answer 52

Allport and Odbert (1936) started ‘lexical hypothesis’ dynasty
Selected 4,504 English adjectives describing people
Cattell factor-analysed 16
Costa and McCrae (1985) based their Five-Factor NEO on it
Uses behavioural descriptions rather than adjectives
Articulated personality ‘theory’ to go with it
Subjective judgement at every step

Question 53

What are the five factors in the Five Factor Model?

Answer 53

Openness to experience
- General appreciation for art, culture, variety of experience
- Intellectual curiosity, imagination
Conscientiousness
- Tendency to exercise self-discipline, regulate
impulses
- Orderliness, Planfulness, attention to duty
Extraversion
- Breadth rather than depth of activities,a active
engagement with external world as a source of
energy
Enjoyment of socialising, enthusiasm, social
assertiveness
Agreeableness
- Concern for social harmony, optimistic view of
people
- Considerate, kind, generous, helpful
Neuroticism (or reversed as emotional stability)
- Tendency to anger, worry, feel ‘down’
- Emotionally reactive, vulnerable to stress

Question 54

What does the five-factor theory say about these factors?

Answer 54

Factors reflex five independent traits
Biological (genetic) contributions to these traits are fixed and stable after about age 30
These traits exert directly causal influences on behaviour that maintain stability; environment produces short-term variance
Biological ‘seeds’ of these traits present from birth
The model can incorporate all aspects of personality if we construct a hierarchy of measurement detail

Question 55

What is missing from FFM?

Answer 55

Anti-social behaviours
Alienation, aggression, manipulation
Social dominance, competitiveness, ambition
Risk taking, thrill-seeking, assertiveness
Morality, spirituality
Enjoyment of solitude
Openness to ideas outside the mainstream
Distinction between reactivity

Question 56

Why should we accept the FFM?

Answer 56

Personality does influence our life choices and behaviours & behaviour matters
Very broad factors, cloudy definitions do still tap into psychologically relevant areas
Saturation with social desirability
People who behave in socially desirable ways tend to ‘succeed’, experience ‘easier’, happier lives
Content overlap between items and outcomes
Example: Low C predicts obesity simply because of items relating to impulsive eating

Question 57

How does psychopathology link to personality differences?

Answer 57

‘Normal’ is a relative concept
All forms of psychopathology show the same kinds of genetic, environmental influences as do intelligence, personality
Abuse, trauma, exposure to violence increase risk of psychopathology
Large individual differences in vulnerability, resilience
Some claim psychopathology is just extreme personality
Have developed ambiguous FFMs, even DSM V
But this is probably overly simplistic - some kind of twist from reality seems to be involved

Question 58

What did Freud recognise about cognitive and emotional processing?

Answer 58

Recognised that much of cognitive and emotional processing takes place outside our awareness thrives today
Flies on the flag of ‘dual-process models’
Implicit/unconscious and explicit/conscious processing
Common in current theories of cognition, reasoning, emotional processing, stereotyping, habituation, economic behaviour