Differential Psychology Flashcards
What does it mean to measure something?
It means to quantify some characteristic of that thing
What are the three different things we measure in psychology?
physical - actual movement of perception
behavioural - how people react in a given situation
psychological -things going on in the head
What is the criteria of good measurement?
- want our measures to be free from bias
- all measurement has error associated with it
- error is evenly distributed
- measure should have the same meaning regardless of who or what we apply it to
What are traits?
Traits are:
- possessed by individuals
- what differentiate individuals
- stable over time
What are psychological traits often seen as?
Often seen as hypothetical constructs
What are physical traits measured on?
They are measured on a ratio scale where each unit meant the same thing.
What are the five things you can look at to determine how good your measure is?
1- criterion validity 2- internal consistency 3- retest reliability 4- freedom from bias 5- measurement invariance
What tests do we use to measure intelligence?
IQ tests, Aptitude tests, ability tests
What instruments do we use to measure intelligence?
Stanford-Binet Intelligence test, Wechsler’s Adult Intelligence scale, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for children, Army Alpha and Beta, Cattell’s Culture Fair Test, Raven’s Progressive Matrices, Scholastic Aptitude Test
What are the biases in IQ tests?
Some items are more easily answered by one group despite their being no IQ difference.
What is the difference between types versus traits?
Difference is whether people are classified as one thing versus another or whether you are looking at a continuum where someone is just higher or lower on some uniform dimension
There are three types of personality traits. What are they?
1- projective
2- objective
⤢ ⤡
empirical theoretical/factor analytic
How are objective tests designed?
They are empirically designed
What does the nomothetic approach do?
It provides a way to categorize using theory or observations and analyse data and see what happens
What are the three types of data analysis?
1- principal components analysis
2- factor analysis
3- cluster analysis
What is one issue for factor analysis?
There’s no way to tell for certain how many factors you have
What are the five factors in the Five Factor Model?
O, C, E, A and N
openness | conscientiousness | extraversion | agreeableness | neuroticism
What does the standard model of social science test for?
Typically tests for associations between some environmental exposure and behaviour (or outcome)
What is a problem with the standard model of social science test?
Often missing random assignments and control groups
What is meiosis the basis of? and what is it responsible for?
It is the basis of sexual reproduction and is responsible for genetic diversity
What are eukaryotes?
They are species that have cells which possess a membrane-bounded nucleus and organelles
Where does meiosis take place?
Takes place only in eukaryotes
What is a nucleus?
Nucleus is part of a cell containing DNA and RNA
Where is DNA found?
It is found on chromosomes
What are organelles?
Organelles are structures such as mitochondria
What do chromosomes of diploid cells do and produce?
They re-segregate and produce four haploid daughter cells
What happens at fertilization?
Two sets of haploid cells come together to create diploid cells that make new organism
What does fertilization result in?
Results in parent-offspring and sibling similarity
What do gene-environment correlations lead to?
Can lead to spurious correlations between family/home environment and traits
Sandra Scarr and Katherine McCartney identified three types of gene environment correlations. What are they?
1- passive (e.g. children read more as parents have loads of books in the house)
2- active (e.g. child actively asks for books)
3 - evocative (e.g. child’s genotype leads to them to experience certain kinds of environmental events)
What are monozygotic twins?
MZ twins develop from one fertilized egg that splits. These are clones that share 100% of their genes
What are dizygotic twins?
DZ twins develop from two separately fertilized eggs. They are full siblings and share 50% of their genes.
What do genetically informative studies tell us?
They tell us that family environments have mostly small effects
What are three designs for testing age effects?
Cross-sectional, longitudinal and cross - sequential
What are cohort effects?
They refer to historical circumstances of these individuals
What is a cross sectional study?
It is an easy study to do as its a one shot trial involving a large group of people.
What is a longitudinal study?
It is where you measure each individual in sample at least two times
What is attrition?
Attrition is if one trait is related to whether people will drop out or die before study is concluded, the remaining sample will be biased.
What are practice effects?
Practice effects are if looking at ability, having taken the test multiple times, individuals improve
Cognitive function declines with age. What are the two different types of decline?
1- Normative (non-pathological decline)
2- Dementia (pathological decline)
Cognitive reserve hypothesis is difficult to measure. What does it require?
It requires:
- accurate measures of change in the brain
- defining and accurately measuring the reserve
- measures of decline in function
- measures of the degree to which reserve supports function over what function would otherwise be
What is a meta-analysis?
It summarizes many different studies to see general effect.
What does meta-analysis try an answer?
Often tries to answer questions about how large effect is, whether effect is reliable and whether there is publication bias.
What does Brent Robert et al.’s hypothesis of Social Investment Principle argue and predict?
They argue that development in personality is a ‘transaction’ between a person and their environment. This would predict that change in personality should track certain life events
What does Costa and McCrae’s Five Factor Theory say?
They say that personality development is a biological process and they argue that stability and change should be heritable
How do people often measure the size of effects of IQ?
Often there are correlations between IQ and success
Why do we find associations between job performance and general mental ability?
- One possibility may be that brighter people make better decisions and can learn the job more quickly.
- social class also leads to better educational and work outcomes
What is criminal behaviour associated with?
Low IQ is associated with criminal behaviour
What can explain relationship between IQ and criminal behaviour?
One thought is that there are 2 types of empathy.
1) cognitive : understanding another’s emotional state
2) affective: share another’s emotional state
What is a transformational leader?
They have:
- an idealized influence on people
- inspirational motivation
- intellectual stimulation
- individual consideration
What are some internalizing disorders?
- depressive disorders + suicide
- anxiety disorders, including phobias
- generalized anxiety disorder, OCD
- panic disorder
- eating disorders
What are personality disorders?
They are disorders which are rooted in people’s personalities which make it difficult for them to get along in society including:
- interpersonal problems
- problems with the law and coping
- cognitive and perceptual distortions
