Individual differences Flashcards
What personality characteristics have shown a relationship to academic performance, what is this effect? (in Bratko et al 2006)
Conscientiousness - Major factor in predicting performance, leads to organisation, discipline and motivation
Neuroticism - Conflicting results, students may study harder but perform worse in exams
Extraversion - Conflicting results, may be less worried about the exam and so perform better, but study less hard.
What did Poropat (2009) find about personality and academic performance?
Agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness predicted performance.
Only conscientiousness predicted it independent of intelligence.
What did Csikszentmihalyi and Getzels (1971) find out about creativity?
Major feats of creativity involved solving problems that had not even been conceptualised as problems by others.
Those who spent time considering possibilities (ie. subjects of painting) were rated as higher in originality and aesthetic appeal.
What is the drawing production test?
Psychological test for creativity, given shapes and have to make that into a drawing.
Rated through criteria
What did Dollinger et al (2004) find in their study?
Dollinger et al (2004) found that openness was related to performance on the drawing production test and the thematic apperception test.
What happens in the Thematic Apperception Test?
Participants are given an image and have to produce a story behind it, this is then assessed through criteria.
What did George and Zhou (2001) find in their study?
Difference in Algorithmic tasks (clear way to accomplish task) and Heuristic tasks (vague, open way to complete the problem).
Openness associated with creativity in heuristic tasks
Monitoring associated with lower creativity when monitored by a supervisor, in conscientious people,
Results of the relationship between creativity and authoritarianism?
One study found using the RWA scale that creativity was negatively correlated with authoritarianism (creativity test of divergent thinking- tel-aviv-creativity test).
What is intrinsic motivation in creativity? Sternberg 2006?
The fact that individuals are motivated to achieve according to themselves and their own decisions. Sternberg 2006 said individuals find ways to make their own work more interesting.
What did Mackinnon (1965) discover?
Sorted architects into three groups, ordered from most creative to least. The most creative architects had characteristics of aggression, autonomy and independence.
The architects who were more creative saw the ideal architect as those who were driven by an inner personal artistic vision
Less creative were more concerned with professional standards (common standards within the profession)
It appears the more creative are self accepting and self actualising, they are imaginative
What does the fact that conscientious people who are observed tend to perform less creatively mean?
Further evidence that creativity comes from an expression of self, self actualising, because when pressured to perform under social norms (being observed) perform less well.
What did Gardner (1993) discover? Design?
In a study of 7 highly creative individuals found a theme of marginality - outside of social norms e.g. freud was jewish.
What is the evidence of psychoticism and creativity (argued by Eysenck)?
Stavridou and Furnham (1996) used Wallach-Kogan creativity test, (name all the… alternative use of objects, round things, for example) found correlation between psychoticism and divergent thinking.
Eysenck’s argument for psychoticism-Divergent thinking link?
Argues that the creative scientist needs a resilient, self-reliant, dominant, aggressive and self-centred mind to make their ideas triumph over orthodoxy.
Theories as to the different thinking pattern of creative persons?
Lower levels of latent inhibition - lower ability to screen out irrelevant ideas.
increased availability of uncommon or distant associations (ideas out of the ordinary)
Martindale (2007) found ‘conceptual-primordial cognition’ primordial thinking is regressing to a more primitive mode of thought, ie. more in common with dreaming, which may be more creative.
Barron (1993) suggested what?
Over inclusiveness (i.e. primordial cognition) is not enough to be creativity, need also the ability to focus those ideas.
Freud’s basic view of the human mind?
Biological basis for his explanation
Determinism: The extent to which our characters and personalities are determined by preceding events or natural law
Pessimistic view: Life is about avoiding pain
Idiographic approach: looking at individuals
Fechner’s ideas that influenced Freud? What is the name that Freud came up for this?
Organisms have ‘energies’ and they need to be kept in balance - homeostasis
Psychophysics - Freud, organisms try to discharge energy, and this is experienced as pleasure.
What did freud term the ‘energy’ in the nervous system?
Q
How did Freud view the role of the nervous system in dealing with the instincts or stimuli that reach it?
He viewed the nervous system as having a role in reducing this stimulation.
Freud’s architecture of the human mind?
Id: Innate, irrational, biologically gratification orientated (a newborn).
Ego: Learned, rational, reality orientated. Will learn the realistic way to satisfy the demands of the id.
Superego: Moral compass, generated after oedipal complex is resolved.
Freud’d psychosexual stages?
Oral: 0-1.5
Anal: 1.5-3
Phallic: 3-5
Genital: 12-18 Adult sexuality development
Freud’s argument for the formation of symptoms according to instincts and desires.
libidinal desires are frustrated, so the pt regresses back to an earlier stage when the desires are satisfied.
The ego however disapproves of this desire as it cannot be satisfied and this leads to feelings of self-loathing
This leads to ambiguity of feeling or mixture of pleasure and disgust.
Freud’s defence mechanisms?
Repression - Don’t acknowledge at all
Projection - We don’t want to acknowledge that we are this way, and so we project that on to others to deal with it
Sublimation - Channel our desires into an output (artists).
Reaction formation - We deny a feeling and act in the opposite direction (woman who couldn’t leave her mother)
Freud’d methods for analysis?
- Dream interpretation - symbols
- Free associations - Association with words (the first thing that comes into your mind) If a pt hesitates you can see there is come kind of repression?
- Parapraxes - Freudian slips
- Idiographic approaches
Freud’s Oedipus complex?
Males:
In love with mother and jealous of father (rival for mothers affections).
Fears father is going to castrate him.
Conflict is resolved and instead of fearing father, sees him as a role model.
Freud’s ‘Death Instinct’?
Freud argued that the ultimate goal of life is death - we all die. The ultimate reduction of stimulation is the cessation of stimulation
Freud’s therapy goals? His explanation of mechanism?
To replace abnormal unhappiness, with normal unhappiness - to have as much as others. To be capable of enjoyment and work. To understand essentially.
By making the unconscious desires conscious, you can disarm them of harmful content, help the ego conquest the id.
Some evaluation of Freud’s psychoanalytic success?
Shedler (2010) success of psychoanalysis is comparable to other techniques.
psychoanalysis also has similar aims to some other therapies, e.g. CBT gains awareness of previously implicit feelings.
What did Bruno Bettelheim argue, referring to psychoanalysis?
Fairy tales embody the ideas of psychoanalysis. The id ego and superego.
What did Karl Popper argue about Freud’d ideas?
That it is conscience. It cannot be falsified by observation.
A theory that can explain everything is a theory that explains nothing
How did Jung differ from Freud?
We are not just driven by basic biological drives (sex, hunger) Can also be driven by more sophisticated drives.
What did Jung and Kant believe about the mind at birth?
Did not believe that the mind was blank at birth, it has basic structures, a basic architecture.
This was called a collective unconscious, common to all human beings. The structures are common to all, are filled by different things
One bit of evidence Jung put forward for the collective unconscious?
Myths and tales have archetypal structures common to all - wise old man, young strong brave man. This represents the structure.
Jung’s structure of the human mind?
Collective unconscious
Personal unconscious (freudian)
Consciousness - Ego
Persona (how we appear to others), Shadow (the side we do not show)
Animus and anima (we all have male and female characterises animus is male and vice versa) in males the animus is dominant (at least in their persona)
Jung’s structure of personality?
Persona
Shadow - darker side, consisting of repressed material.
Anima - female
Animus - male
Self - the potential we all have to achieve the unique
What is individuation?
Jung’s idea to integrate all the aspects of the personality together in balance, self-regulating system.
Jung’s personality types?
Introversion and extraversion. - Present in all (and so must have biological basis)
He also though there were four different functions to interpret the world:
Thinking - Intellectual, rational connections. True or false.
Feeling - Good/bad, Pleasant/Unpleasant
Sensing - Basic perceptual experience
Intuiting - Meaning or general atmosphere. Essential core, not details.
Jung’s approach to therapy?
From clinical experience, more collaborative. Focus on the imbalances of the personality and Jung’s personality types. More concerned with the future than the past (freud) goals in the future.
Teleological rather than deterministic.
Can achieve this through individuation.
Evaluation of Jung’s approach?
They have been influential and have similarities to other historic disciplines (religion and spirituality).
Has led to development of tests such as Myers-Briggs
However has quite a ambiguous broad definition and so is difficult to scientifically disprove (and therefore prove) - nonscience. e.g. when do archetypes stop, wasn’t precise enough.
What did humanistic psychologists, like Jean Paul Sartre, argue?
Jean Paul Sartre:
- Existentialism: Freedom and autonomy, we have the choice to make our own choices, they are not predetermined by instincts.
- This is a large responsibility and we can mess up.
- Everyone is different - phenomenology.
What was Abraham Maslow’s general ideas, what did he study?
Disagreed with the negative emphasis of psychoanalysis.
Thought that there was too much emphasis on mental pathology in psychoanalysis.
Studied self-actualisers. Einstein for example.
Decided we have drives on positive things (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs).
Maslow’s theories on motives?
Argued that instincts are not all or nothing:
- We have universal basic needs, but others are more socially determined
Deficiency motives:
- Like hunger, are negative motives, once they are fulfilled we are not motivated by it (psychoanalysis is concerned with these)
Growth motives:
- e.g. curiosity is a positive motive, and does not necessarily disappear when it is fulfilled
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
Self Actualisation
Esteem
Social
Safety
Pysiological needs
We work from the bottom up, once one is satisfied we concern ourselves with the next level up.
What did Maslow discover from his study of self-actualisation?
They are accepting of themselves
Perceive things more honestly and correctly (not distorted by defence mechanisms)
More motivated by achieving their own potential than they are of success in the eyes of others.
Have more peak experiences
What are peak experiences?
Transient moments of self-actualizing. Cannot seek them but can set up so theta they are more likely.
Absorption in the activity. Not thinking about anything. Mindfulness.
Evaluation of Maslow’s ideas?
Can be hard to test (self admitted by Maslow).
People agree on some ring of truth
Mittleman (1991) suggested that self-actualization is difficult to measure but is similar to openness to experience.
General views of Carl Rogers?
Future goal oriented
Client Centred therapy in contrast to a passive medical model
Phenomenological approach in that he wanted to understand the clients own perception of reality.
Carl Rogers view of Actualisation?
He believed that the organism (real self) strives to organise, maintain and enhance experience
The needs the organism (real self) are sometimes in conflict with our self-concept (what we perceive ourselves as)
Argues that the ‘conditions of worth’ emphasised by society can cause conflict between the two selves
Carl rogers approach to therapy?
Client Centred:
Non-judgemental. The client is free to express whatever he/she like, in order to remove conditions of worth.
The goal is to integrate the two selves in order to achieve actualisation
It is, however, up to the client to solve their own problems.
Evaluation of Carl Rogers, client centred approach to therapy? What is the Q sort technique?
Content analysis indicated more positive self statements are achieved following therapy.
Q sort technique is a technique where the ptp sort phrases according to their real selves and their ideal selves. It is found that the two selves seem to become more similar to each each other through the course of therapy.
What are traits and what are states?
Traits: perceived as predispositions to behaviour, leads to similar behaviour in a variety of situations.
States: A momentary behaviour.
What is the Nomothetic approach to personality?
Focusses on large groups of people and using statistical techniques to uncover the dimensions of personality.
Largely concerned with the discovery of personally traits.
Gordon Allport’s Views?
Started off being influenced by freud.
However he was more concerned with the conscious and present motivations.
He differentiated between healthy and unhealthy personality.
Behaviourist view on personality traits?
Did not think personality traits existed.
He thought that behaviour did not represent something ‘inside’ people, as traits seemed to suggest, but that was just their behaviour.
Allport’s view of personality traits?
He defended them. He thinks that personality is something and it lies behind specific actions within the individual. Suggested that psychophysical systems are traits.
What is the Lexical hypothesis? How was it developed?
The idea that language as an implicit theory, it allows us to interpret people. The study of personality is possible through the analysis if language.
Allport produced a 4500 word list of words used to describe people. Cattell Used factor analysis to analyse this. Eysenck supported this.
What did Cattell develop from factor analysis of Allport’s word database?
16PF - his 16 personality factors in a questionnaire, mostly yes/no questions.
How did Eysenck develop Cattell’s personality factor questionnaire, and produce his own theories?
Came up with two basic dimensions of personality:
- Extraversion vs introversion
- Neuroticism (on a scale)
EPI - His questionnaire.
Later developed psychoticism - egocentric, aggressive, impulsive
What was Eysenck’s explanation for personality factors?
Suggested the Ascending reticular activating system (ARAS) in the brainstem had the job of balancing excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms.
Argued the reticular-cortical system was responsible for introversion/extraversion:
- Someone with high ARAS basal activity will withdraw from social situation so as not to over-stimulate.
- Someone with low ARAS will seek stimulation
The same applies for neuroticism but in the reticulo-limbic system.
Evidence to support Eysenck’s biological ARAS system explanation for personality traits?
Campbell & Hawley (1982):
High extraverted students preferred to study in a space where social activity was more likely to occur.
Geen (1984):
Extraverts preferring higher levels of noise when studying.
Stelmack and Hoolihan (1995):
P300 as a biological measure of arousal is higher in introverts - more arousal
What did the humanistic psychologists such as Maslow argue creativity was the result of? How did this contrast with Eysenck’s views?
Creativity was the result of good mental health.
Eysenck argues that it was included in the psychoticism personality trait.
What is the five factor model? How was this developed?
Costa & McCrae (1992) agued for five personality traits:
Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism (OCEAN)
- Others earlier also actually reduced Cattell’s database to five. (Types and Christal)
- Innate structures (born with)
- Developed a questionnaire.
The HEXACO model? (Ashton & Lee)
Honest-Humility Emotionality eXtraversion Agreeableness Conscientiousness Openness to experience
Sought to give biological explanations (evolutionary theory). They argue all the charecteristics have some kind of evolutionary effect.
Evaluations of Trait theory?
You can map almost every personality construct onto the big five
However cannot derive every personality construct from the big five
It is data driven, not theory driven. Unusual for science, e.g. you don’t start with data you start with a theory.
Sir Frances Galton’s view on intelligence?
Made up of (i) practical question and (ii) theoretical questions.
Thought intelligence was hereditary
He also set up the Anthropometric Laboratory: measured factors such as head size, reaction time and sensory acuity.
What are elementary cognitive tasks?
Simple tasks (in terms of mental operation e.g. reaction time) that do not require prior learning.
What studies have reported correlations between elementary cognitive tasks and intelligence?
Cooper 2002, (reaction time).
Dear and Carrol (1997) Inspection time and IQ.
Alfred Binet’s view on intelligence?
Intelligence test items that became progressively more complicated. Developed the idea of a ‘mental age’ what level of intelligence they were at.
Developed the first formal test of intelligence. It was good at identifying struggling students but not at exceeding students.
He did not think a simple number could properly sum up people’s level of intelligence.
Who developed the original mass intelligence tests?
Robert Yerkes. Developed alpha (literate) and beta (illiterate) intelligence tests in the US army during the first world war. Used factor analysis.
The work of Spearman on intelligence?
There was a correlation between performance on different intelligence tests - developed the idea of ‘g’ - general intelligence. Thought g was a heritable inherent factor.
Also the task specific abilities is ‘s’ - specific intelligence
One specific test developed to test ‘g’ ? Problems with this?
WAIS - Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale.
Will also be taking into account the amount of schooling you will have had.
A test designed to test pure ‘g’?
Ravens progressive matrices - minimise the effect of cultural and linguistic influences. (UKCAT style abstract reasoning shapes)
What did Thurstone argue in terms of intelligence?
‘g’ is the outcome of seven different primary abilities:
Associative memory Number Perceptual speed Reasoning Space verbal Comprehension Word fluency
Guildford’s theory regarding intelligence?
Didn’t acknowledge ‘g’. Considered 3 main processes:
Operations: types of mental operations
Contents: mental material we possess
Products: The form in which information is stored e.g. classes, units.
Cattell’s theory of intelligence?
Two components make up ‘g’:
- Crystalline intelligence (Gc): acquired knowledge, factual knowledge, vocabulary.
- Fluid intelligence (Gf): abstract reasoning, seeing patterns and relationships
Gc increases over lifetime, Gf however stabilises in early adulthood.
What did Gardner argue in terms of intelligence?
7 Different forms of intelligence:
Linguistic Logical-mathematical Spatial Musical Bodily-kinasthetic Interpersonal Intrapersonal
Later added Naturalist: ability to distinguish between natural phenomena
Less scholastic than Thurstone.
Gardner’s criteria for a form of intelligence?
- Potential of isolation by brain damage
- Evolutionary history and plausibility e..g identifying plants
- Identifiable core operation or set of operations
- Susceptibility to encoding in a symbol system e.g. sheet music
- A distinct developmental history and definable expert performances. About it being developed as people grow up.
- The existence of idiot savants and prodigies (idiot savant is very good at one thing but bad at others
- Support from experimental psychological tasks
- Support from psychometric findings
- Doesn’t have to fulfil all criteria, it is a matter of judgement.
Does physics as an example constitute an intelligence?
No, it is an example of a domain
Does Moral intelligence count as an intelligence - according to Gardner?
No, all intelligence should be free of morality - that is a choice of how you use intelligence.
Sternberg’s views concerning culture and intelligence?
Has to be considered within it’s cultural context. Different behaviour is considered intelligent in different cultures.
Intelligence is about achieving a state of well-being within one’s cultural context.
