Individual differences Flashcards
define personality trait
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
Eysenck’s Two Factor Model
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
The Five-Factor Model of Personality
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
overview of the big 5
look at diagram
biological foundations:
Eysenck proposed a biological, genetic basis for personality traits
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
Genetic Influences on Personality
Results suggest that personality differences in the population are approximately 25 -50% genetically determined
conscientiousness effect on -longevity health behaviours across lifespan -ways to increase conscientiousness
- 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
Neuroticism
- less or more reporting of somatic symptoms?
- higher rates of?
- effect on health behaviour
- 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
define intelligence
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)
intelligence tests:
Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon
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
describe the IQ test
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
how is IQ distributed
normal distribution of IQ scores
theories of intelligence:
Charles spearman
Believed intellectual activity involves a general factor (g) and specific factor (s)
Specific factors include: mechanical, spatial, verbal and numerical
Factor structure of the Wechsler intelligence scale
see diagram:
g: verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory and processing speed
Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
- 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
The utility of IQ scores - Averaging
-the issue with averaging?
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?
The Psychometric Approach
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.
Genetic factors influence on intelligence
Genetic factors can influence the effects produced by the environment Accounts for 1/2 of the variation in IQ? No single “intelligence gene” identified
effect of environment on intelligence
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
Sex Differences in Intelligence
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
autism
see diagram
sex differences in autism
Autism has a 4:1 male: female ratio ‘Asperger’s syndrome’ or High Functioning autism has a 9:1 male: female ratio
how would you explain the social and communication difficulties in high functioning autism?
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
define both empathising and systemising
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)
graph of empathising vs systemising
females best
then males
and then those with autism
bell curves for all
opposite for systemising
EandS graph
see diagram
define neurosexism
‘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
