Individual differences

Question 1

define personality trait

Answer 1

relatively stable cognitive, emotional, and behavioural characteristics of people that help establish their individual identities and distinguish them from others

A trait is a continuum along which individuals vary, like speed of reaction.  We can’t observe traits but infer from behaviour

Question 2

Eysenck’s Two Factor Model

Answer 2

Hans Eysenck (1916-1997)  Eysenck’s personality theory has two main factors:

*Neuroticism or stability – the tendency to experience negative emotions *Extraversion – the degree to which a person is outgoing and seeks stimulation

Question 3

The Five-Factor Model of Personality

Answer 3

OCEAN
The big five factors of personality (“supertraits”) are thought to describe the main dimensions of personality—specifically, neuroticism (emotional instability), extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness

Question 4

overview of the big 5

Answer 4

look at diagram

Question 5

biological foundations:

Eysenck proposed a biological, genetic basis for personality traits

Answer 5

 Differences in customary levels of cortical arousal  Introverts are overaroused; extraverts are underaroused 

Suddenness of shifts in arousal  Unstable (neurotic) people show large and sudden shifts in limbic system arousal; stable people do not

Question 6

Genetic Influences on Personality

Answer 6

Results suggest that personality differences in the population are approximately 25 -50% genetically determined

Question 7

conscientiousness 
effect on
-longevity 
health behaviours across lifespan 
-ways to increase conscientiousness

Answer 7

• Longevity: Adds 7.5 years to lifespan
• Health behaviour across lifespan: Less likely to engage in harmful behaviours and more likely to engage in healthy behaviours 
• Higher medical engagement and adherence 
• Ways to increase conscientiousness?  E.g. text reminders, goal-settin

Question 8

Neuroticism

• less or more reporting of somatic symptoms?
• higher rates of?
• effect on health behaviour

Answer 8

• Increased reporting of somatic symptoms e.g. pain
• Higher rates of mental health disorders and Higher mortality rates e.g. in cardiovascular disease 
• Health behaviour: Higher rates of healthcare usage, Less adherence to healthy behaviours, Higher rate of health harming behaviours

Ways to decrease neuroticism?  ?Protective effect of neuroticism

Question 9

define intelligence

Answer 9

Intelligence: the ability to acquire knowledge, to think and reason effectively, and to deal adaptively with the environment  “Intelligence is what intelligence tests measure” (Boring, 1923)

Question 10

intelligence tests:

Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon

Answer 10

 Develop first intelligence test to identify French children that might have difficulty in school  All children follow the same course of mental development, but at different paces  Binet-Simon scale measures mental ag

Question 11

describe the IQ test

Answer 11

IQ mental age/ chronological age x 100

US researchers introduced the IQ score (intelligence quotient)  A score of 100 is considered average  Test-taker’s performance relative to average performance of other’s the same age

Question 12

how is IQ distributed

Answer 12

normal distribution of IQ scores

Question 13

theories of intelligence:

Charles spearman

Answer 13

Believed intellectual activity involves a general factor (g) and specific factor (s)
Specific factors include: mechanical, spatial, verbal and numerical

Question 14

Factor structure of the Wechsler intelligence scale

Answer 14

see diagram:

g: verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory and processing speed

Question 15

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

Answer 15

• Linguistic Intelligence: e.g. Shakespeare 
• Logical-Mathematic Intelligence: e.g. Einstein 
• Spatial Intelligence: e.g. Zaha Hadid 
• Musical Intelligence: e.g. Prince Furthermore, Gardner believes cardiologists may have this kind of intelligence in abundance as they make diagnoses on the careful listening to patterns of sounds. 
• Bodily-Kinaesthetic Intelligence: e.g. Serena Williams 
• Intrapersonal Intelligence: e.g. Dalai Lama 
• Interpersonal functioning: e.g. Susie Orbach 
• Naturalistic Intelligence, the ability to understand and work effectively in the natural world e.g. Bear Grylls 
• Existential Intelligence the ability to ponder questions about existence e.g. Sartre

Question 16

The utility of IQ scores - Averaging

-the issue with averaging?

Answer 16

 This criticism is especially relevant for clinical applications of such tests e.g. Stroke pts where specific cognitive functions might be affected  Consider a doctor who devises a limb strength quotient or LQ by totalling the strength of all four limbs, again with a mean of 100.  Now consider a tennis player who sprains his left ankle reducing his left leg score to 50, but his right leg scores 140 and his right and left arms score 160 and 130 respectively.  His LQ would be 120 – well above average, so no problem, right?

Question 17

The Psychometric Approach

Answer 17

 Cattell and Horn (1971, 1985) broke down Spearman’s ‘g’ into two distinct but related subtypes (with a correlation of about .50)  Crystallized Intelligence (gc): the ability to apply previously acquired knowledge to current problems. Will commonly improve with age then stabilise.  Fluid Intelligence (gf): the ability to deal with novel problem-solving situations for which personal experience does not provide a solution. Shows steady pattern of decline in aging.

Question 18

Genetic factors influence on intelligence

Answer 18

Genetic factors can influence the effects produced by the environment  Accounts for 1/2 of the variation in IQ?  No single “intelligence gene” identified

Question 19

effect of environment on intelligence

Answer 19

Environment can influence how genes express themselves  Accounts for /2 of the variation in IQ?  Both shared and unshared environmental factors are involved  Educational experiences are very important

Question 20

Sex Differences in Intelligence

Answer 20

 Gender differences in performance on certain types of intellectual tasks, not general intelligence  Men generally outperform women on spatial tasks, tests of target-directed skills, and mathematical reasoning  Women generally outperform men on tests of perceptual speed, verbal fluency, mathematical calculation, and precise manual tasks  BUT, what underlies these differences

Question 21

autism

Answer 21

see diagram

Question 22

sex differences in autism

Answer 22

 Autism has a 4:1 male: female ratio  ‘Asperger’s syndrome’ or High Functioning autism has a 9:1 male: female ratio

Question 23

how would you explain the social and communication difficulties in high functioning autism?

Answer 23

Baron-Cohen (2002) explains the social and communication difficulties in high functioning autism by delays or deficits in empathising whilst explaining the narrow interests with reference to skills in systemising

Question 24

define both empathising and systemising

Answer 24

 Empathising consists of both being able to infer the thoughts and feelings of others (‘Theory of Mind’) and having an appropriate emotional reaction

Systemising is the drive to analyse or construct any kind of system i.e. identifying the rules that a govern a system, in order to predict how that system will behave (Baron-Cohen, 2006)

Question 25

graph of empathising vs systemising

Answer 25

females best
then males
and then those with autism
bell curves for all

opposite for systemising

Question 26

EandS graph

Answer 26

see diagram

Question 27

define neurosexism

Answer 27

‘Neurosexism’ is self-fulfilling: by providing a framework for treating children and adults differently on the basis of gender, which causes them to behave differently, which in turn creates so-called gender differences, which in turn prop up neurosexism