Individual Differences And Experimental Psychology Flashcards
How does the central nervous system and the brain cause different handedness in people?
For right handed people, control of their language functions resides in the left hemisphere, and the part of the left hemisphere associated with movement are more developed than the equivalent areas of the right hemisphere. For the 13% of the population who are left handed, their brains are more symmetrical and balanced than right handers, with fewer differences
Explain how the differences in genes gives different drug responses
Genes affect how sensitive or responsive an individuals nervous system is to recreational drugs including the impact on CNS transmission
How does Frued’s theory of personality explain individual differences
Freud argued that we developed in childhood through a series of stages which each present several psychological challenges. Some people deal with these challenges more successfully than others, and if we fail to overcome a challenge we become stuck in one stage which can affect our adult personality. E.g in the first year of life children pass through the oral stage. Fixation here can result in being verbally aggressive, and so we all grow up to have different personalities
Explain the prenatal influence on aggression in males and females
-the primary influence of testosterone on aggression may occur not in childhood, adolescence or adulthood but prenatally. Embryos that develop to become males are exposed to higher levels of testosterone in the womb than those that become females. Exposure to testosterone has profound effects on brain development, which may partly explain difference in aggressive behaviour between the sexes.