Exam 2 Flashcards
Key concepts from Chapter 5-8 and lecture
Personality Development
As the continuities, consistencies, and stabilities in people over time and the ways in which people change over time.
Rank Order Stability
The maintenance of individual position within a group.
Ex. Even though between ages 14 and 20, people’s heights fluctuate, the rank order tend to remain fairly stable because it adds a few inches to everyone.
Mean Level Stability
When average level in a group remains the same over time. Another kind of personality stability is constancy in level.
Mean Level Change
If the average degree changes
Personality Coherence
Maintaining rank order in relation to other individuals but changing the manifestations of the trait.
Temperament
The individual differences that emerge very early in life, are likely to have a heritable basis and are often involved with emotionality and arousability.
Longitudinal Studies
Examining the same group of individuals over time. Costly and difficult.
Actometer
A recording device attached to the wrists of the children during several play periods. Motoric movement activated the recording devices.
Stability Coefficients
The correlations between the same measures obtained at two different points in time.
Validity Coefficients
The correlations between different measures of the same trait obtained at the same time.
Self-Esteem
The extent to which one perceives oneself as relatively close to being the person one wants to be and/or as relatively distant from being the kind of person one does not want to be, with respect to person-qualities one positively and negatively values.
Cohort Effects
Whether changes observed are due to true personal change or other variants.
Genome
Complete set of genes an organism possesses.
Genetic junk
Many parts of the other 98% of the DnA in the human chromosomes
Eugenics
The notion that we can design the future of the human species by fostering the reproduction of persons with certain traits and by discouraging the reproduction of personas without those traits.
Percentage of variance
The fact that individuals vary, or are different from each other, and this variability can be partitioned into percentages that are due to different causes.
Heritability
To the proportion of observed variance in a group of individuals that can be accounted for by genetic variance. Describes the degree to which genetic differences among individuals cause differences in an observed property.
Phenotypic varience
Observed individual differences such as heights, weight, or personality
Genotypic Variance
Individual differences in the total collection of genes possessed by each person.
Environmentality
The percentage of observed variance in a group of individuals that can be attributed to environmental differences.
Nature-Nuture Debate
The arguments about whether genes or environments are more important determinants of personality.
Selective Breeding
By identifying the dogs that possess the desired characteristic and having them mate only with other dogs that also possess the characteristics.
Family Studies
Correlate the degree of genetic relatedness among family members with the degree if personality similarity.
Twin Studies
Estimate heritability by gauging whether identical twins who share 100% of their genes.
Monozygotic Twins
Comes froma single fertilized egg which divides into two at some point during gestation.
Dizygotic Twins
Come from two eggs that were separately fertilized.
Equal Environments Assumptions
Assume that the environments experienced by identical twins are no more similar to each other than are the environments experienced by fraternal twins.
Adoption Studies
One can examine the correlations between adopted children and their adoptive parents, with whom they share no genes.
Selective Placement
If adopted children are placed with adoptive parents who are similar to their birth parents then this may inflate the correlations between the adopted children and their adoptive parents.
Shared Environmental Influences
Ex. Number of books at home, presence/absence of TV, quality and quantity of food at home.
Unshared Environmental Influences
Ex. Special treatment from parents, different groups of friends, etc.
Genotype-Environment Interaction
The differential response of individuals with different genotypes to the same environments.
Genotype-Environment Correlation
The differential exposure of individuals with different genotypes to different environments.
Passive Genotype-Environment Correlation
When parents provide both genes and the environment to children, yet the children do nothing obtain that environment
Relative Genotype-Environment Correlation
Occurs when parents (or others) respond to children differently, depending on the child’s genotypes.
Active Genotype-Environment Correlation
When a person with a particular genotype creates or seeks out a particular environment.
Molecular Genetics
Designed to identify the specific genes associated with personality traits.
DRD4 Gene
Located on the short arm of chromosome 11. This gene codes for a protein called a dopamine receptor. The function of this dopamine receptor is to respond to the presence of dopamine.
Environmentalist View
The notion that personality was determined by socialization practices, such as parenting styles.
Lykken & Tellegen (1996)
Waller, 1994
Individual differences in mate preferences- the qualities we desire in marriage partner - show very low heritabilities of roughly .10
