Individual differences (Intelligence and Personality) Flashcards
Bacon topic
What do psychologists mean by individual differences?
- study of variation in human behaviour
- latent constructs such as personality and intelligence which underlie variation
- human universals - what is generally true of human nature
- individual differences - how do groups of people differ from one another
- individual uniqueness - how can we explain this
- personality and intelligence
what is personality?
a tendency to show consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings and actions (McCrae & Costa, 1990)
what are personality traits?
an individuals characteristic pattern of thought, emotion and behaviour, together with the psychological mechanisms, hidden or not behind those patterns (Funder, 1997)
how did the trait theory develop?
- allport, denotes the lexical hypothesis: socially relevant personality characteristics encoded in natural language.
- 17,953 trait words from English dictionary/language and classified them into groups of characteristics
- cardinal traits: dominant & influence every aciton
- central traits: key traits which sum up personality but more limited to situation than cardinal
- secondary traits: preferences which are highly situation specific
what did Raymond Cattle develop?
formal taxonomy
->used a large sample of adults rated on traits from natural language using experimental and questionnaire data
how does Cattles development support trait theory?
determines which traits were correlated with each other through factor analysis
->it is a way of reducing data and making it more manageable.
what did Cattles development conclude?
concluded that 15 factors accounted for most of personality, plus an additional factor like intelligence.
what are the 16 personality factors?
the 16 pf questionnaire was a sale of trait dimensions. from low to high, low being: reserved, detached, sober or shy and high being: outgoing, warm-hearted, calm and cheerful.
what are the five factors of the five factor model?
- Openness to experience
- Conscientousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness -
- Neuroticism
what is meant by openness to experience?
receptive to new ideas & change
what is meant by conscientiousness?
degree of self-discipline and control, it is the will to achieve
what is meant by extraversion?
sociability, quantity and intensity of interpersonal relationships and interactions
what is meant by agreeableness?
quality of social interaction
->if high A: trusting, helpful, warm-hearted, sympathetic
->if low - untrusting, cold, unsympathetic
what is meant by neuroticism?
emotional stability and personal adjustment
how can personality traits be measured?
questionnaires, e.g. use the big five and Neo personality inventory
what is the NEO PIR?
NEO personality inventory, composed of 240 questions, 48 for each of the big 5 dimensions. response made on 5 point scale and takes 30-40 mins to complete.
what is the evidence for the 5 factor theory?
- fits well with other measures of personality like the Myers-briggs type inventory.
- predictive utility e.g. C and job performance
- heritability studies
- cross-cultural agreement: trait descriptors in natural languages.
why are trait theories useful?
- enables us to quantify personality & individual differences through results from questionnaires
what are limitations to trait theories?
- how many factors should be included
- correlational or causation, can we assume associated biological variables?
- descriptive, rather than explanatory: are traits real or just convenient communicative devices?
but how many traits of personality are there?
proposed Big 7, by Almagor et al 1995:
HEXACO model (6) proposed by Ashton & Lee 2005
big 2 proposed by digman 1997
big 1 - Musek 2007, general factor of personality is the combination of stability and plasticity.
eyesencks biological model
What are the big 7 proposed by Almagor et al 1995?
positive emotionality, negative emotionality, dependability, agreeability, conventionality, positive valence, and negative valence
what composes the HEXACO model by Ashton & Lee, 2005?
- honesty-humility
- emotionality
- extraversion
- agreeableness
- conscientiousness
- openness to experience
what are the big 2 proposed by digman 1997?
emotional stability and extraversion
what is the big 1 proposed by Mulek 2007?
general factor of personality is the combination of stability and plasticity.
what is eyesencks biological model?
we have a heritable ability to learn and adapt to the environment
based on biological factors, eyesencks observations and linked the response to create categories: psychoticism, extraversion and neuroticism.
what is psychoticism associated to?
testosterone levels - high, more aggressive and low caring, considerate
what is extraversion associated to?
cortical arousal - high under aroused and bored, low over aroused
what is neuroticism associated to?
level of reactivity in limbic system/amygdala - high, stress reactivity and low, lower stress.
what did Shields, 1976 find in evidence to eyesencks biological model?
- shields 1976 found that monozygotic twins were significantly more alike on the introvert-extrovert and psychoticism dimensions than dizygotic twins.
- only 50% of the variations of scores on personality dimensions are due to inherited traits → suggests social factors are important.
what model supports stability for personality traits?
research pointing towards the big five: Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism.
why does the big five support stability for personality traits?
useful as it is quick to administer and free, as it only has 40 items compared to the NEO!
but is has no data on individual sub facets!
what does stability of personality over time and situation depend on?
- cross sectional consistency
- longitudinal consistency
- life stages and personality change
- life roles amplify early dispositions
what is cross sectional consistency?
there’s variation across context and situation.
the person situation debate:
- trait theories emphasise consistency
- social cognitive theories emphasise agency and role of context
- debate as to whether personality is trait driven, or whether context also is important.
what are the social cognitive explanations for the person situation debate?
- Social cognitive theories assume personal agency (Bandura)
- an intentional doer selecting, constructing and regulating one’s own activity to realise certain outcomes.
- Bandura worked on the SC theory of learning, behaviour and personality.key elements are agency & person environment interaction, with the triadic reciprocal causation. learning, expectancies and self-efficacy switch between the behaviour, person and environment of a situation.
what are types of environments occur in the person situation debate?
- Imposed: put up with it whether like it or not but can control how contrue & react to it
- selected: associates, activities etc which we select by our life choices and behaviours
- constructed: through generative effort, how we socially construct environment through our perception of the world and associated actions.
what did research in the person situation debate study do and find?
Mischel observed boys at Summer camp over 6 weeks and looked at their behavioural signature and found behaviour is situational and varies as we interact with the world.
SCT emphasises importance of personal agency and interaction with environment of social context. ‘the capacity to exercise control over the nature and quality of ones life is the essence of humanness’
summarise the person situation debate
- aggregation across many situations and can’t predict single actions or from single actions
- most now subscribe to interactionist approach as both internal traits and situations interact in producing behaviour.
- stable dispositions
what does longitudinal consistency focus on?
are people stable in their trait characteristics over lifetime?
William James 1890, proposed that it is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of 30, the character has set like plaster and will never soften again.
but trait theorists have different thoughts:
- hard plaster hypothesis.
- soft plaster hypothesis
what is the hard plaster hypothesis?
McCrae et al 2000, agree that personality stabilises at age 30 and remains stable in cognitively intact individuals, proposed that from age 18-30 inc in A & C, decreases in N,E and O.
what is the soft plaster hypothesis?
Caspi & Roberts 2001, plateau in personality may not be reached until age 50 but slow changes occur after 30. Lewis 2001 proposed that continuity due to stability of environment.
what does person-environment interaction predict?
changes at different life stages: roles, events and social circumstances.
major normative life role changes
how do life roles amplify early decisions?
Openness and ambition predicted involvement in women’s movement which in turn led to subsequent increases in these traits, agents in shaping their environment.
Roberts et al (2018), growth in social maturity: change is cumulative over life span, likely in response to our life experiences and often leans in a positive, helpful direction.
what studies show that personality traits persistent or do they change?
- Srivastava et al 2003, studied 130,000 people on the internet, adults aged 21-60 completed the big 5 questionnaire. there is evidence for gradual but systematic change through lifespan, C = changes particularly in early adulthood, A = largest changes in mid adulthood and N = declined for women only. rejects hard plaster.
- most theorists subscribe to interactionism in some form and the debate continues because of fundamental differences in trait & social cognitive views.
- Haris et al 2016, Scottish mental survey begun in 1947, to study personality stability from childhood to older age (N = 1,208 people born in 1036), 174 completed a questionnaire at 77 years, self and other ratings.
what did Gottfredson 2000, define intelligence as?
‘general ability to reason, plan, think, solve problems, think abstractly, learn quickly and learn from experience’
what were the origins of IQ testing?
Binet & Simon first developed psychometric intelligence tests to identify children with LD, development in US for IQ testing was Stanford-Binet test, where the mental age is divided by the chronological age then multiplied by 100.
In the 1960s, normative differences in IQ scores standardised age related norms developed based on standard deviation. the distribution of IQ is a bell curve.
what is spearmans G?
proposed by Spearman an English psychologist, scores on ability tests intercorrelated and there was a common variance represented as a single factor.
what is the G in Spearman’s G?
- general intelligence factor underlying performance
- it determines how well we use ability/knowledge etc used for reasoning, drawing inferences and seeing relationships between things.
what is thurstones multi-factorial model?
proposed intelligence as an adaption, g comprised of 7 primary mental abilities like: associative memory, mathematical, perceptual speed, reasoning, visual-spatial, verbal comprehension and word fluency.
contemporary ideas of intelligence comprise a combination of these approaches, the general intelligence and specific abilities.
what is Cattells two factor theory?
consist of fluid intelligence and crystallised intelligence
what is fluid intelligence?
Fluid intelligence is the ability to learn, deal with novel information irrespective of previous experience. Fundamental reasoning and information processing ability and biological which may decline over lifespan.
what is crystallised intelligence?
crystallised intelligence is knowledge and skills arising from acculturative learning, it is acquired and may increase over lifespan with experience
how can intelligence be measured today?
Wechsler intelligence scales used for 16-90 year olds and composed of 12 subtests. participants are scored on verbal IQ, performance IQ and full scale IQ.
what do the WAIS measure?
- VERBAL IQ, as a measure of acquired knowledge, verbal reassign and attention to verbal information.
- PERFORMANCE IQ, as a measure of fluid reasoning, spatial reasoning attentiveness to detail, visual-motor integration.
- FULL SCALE IQ, an estimate of an individual’s general level of intellectual functioning.
what are benefits to the WAIS & WISC (FOR CHILDREN) tests?
- quantification
- identify differences for research and in applied settings.
- high internal reliability
- predictive power
-quick as only has 4 subtests: 2 verbal & 2 performance
what are the limitations to the WAIS tests?
- maybe not a culture fair test, designed to eliminate social or cultural advantages or disadvantages, non-verbal reasoning.
- with standardisation the correct administration is important
- test-retest stability can vary with less than 15 IQ points
- lifespan IQ will change
what did Gardner 1983 find in regard to multiple intelligences?
- Gardner 1983, educational bias in IQ tests, favours those strong in logical-mathematical-verbal-linguisitc and intelligence is multi-sensory.
- multiple intelligences are independent but work together etc. Biology, Formative relationship and cultural background.
how does education facilitate education in children?
- children tend to explore and exercise all of their abilities
- challenges the idea of general intelligence
- measured not through intelligence tests but everyday activities like developmental and dyslexia.
- hot intelligences like non-cognitive abilities, especially those used in everyday life e.g. social skills and contrast with cold abilities like maths.
what did Sternberg say in relation to successful intelligence?
it is the ability to balance the needs to adapt to, shape and select environments in order to attain success however one defines it, within ones socio-cultural context (Sternberg, 1999)
what does Sternberg’s (1999) successful intelligence replace?
replaces traditional notion of intelligence with successful intelligences
as it is a triarchic theory: componential, experiential and practical
what is meant by experiential?
how well a task is performed, is it novel or automation and is measured by creativity tests.
what is meant by componential?
underlying mental mechanisms of information processing, analysing, evaluating, critiquing and comparing and measured by traditional ability tests.
what is meant by experiential?
how well a task is performed, is it novel or automation and is measured by creativity tests.
what is meant by practical?
contextual is the ability to use knowledge and experience to interact with the world, adapt to changing environment, shape our environment and select behaviours and situations. achieve fit between themselves and their environment and is measured by response to vignettes of practical everyday situation.
who proposed the nature debate for intelligence and what did they propose?
Galton,
‘where every lad had a chance of showing his abilities and if highly gifted was enabled to achieve a first class education and entrance into professional life’
who proposed the nurture debate for intelligence and what did they propose?
JB Watson produced the book psychology as the behaviourist views it (2013) and responsible for the Little Albert experiment.
‘give me a dozen healthy infants, well=formed and my own specific world to bring them up in and ill’
what is the present day view on nature vs nurture debate?
most agree that individual differences develop as a result of interaction between environment and genetics
can be discussed and analyses separately but work dependently.
define heritability?
estimates of extent to which variation in scores on measures of interest is due to genetic factors and a proportion of shared variance between individuals is presented as a percentage. The heritability coefficient is between 0 and 1.
what are some general attributes scores of heritability?
Height are 0.80, Weight is 0.60 and IQ is 0.40 but the big five are: E - 0.36, N-0.31, C - 0.28, A - 0.28 and O - 0.46.
what do studying twins studies show?
allows us to separate the two factors of nature and nurture.
we measure the concordance which is the degree to which they are similar.
what is the difference between Monozygotic twins and dizygotic twins?
MZ separated from the same fertilised egg so share 100% of DNA
DZ where two separate eggs fertilised by same sperm so shared 50% of DNA
what does research on twins assume?
- MZ genetically identical and any differences are environmental
- DZ differ genetically, if same environment then the differences must be genetic.
what did Roselle 1967 find in twin studies?
found that even when people look the same their personalities may be different.
what did Jang et al., (2002) find?
Jang et al. (2002) studied MZ & DZ twins from Canada and Germany, found similar results in the big five across both countries. So from these results suggested that there is only a 40-50% concordance even for MZ reared together in same family and the assumptions are unrealistic.
why are twins different to each other?
- Shared genes =/= shared experiences as each child has unique experiences to be considered
- unshared environment like: sex, birth order, life events to particular child, peer group characteristics and personality characteristics.
- differential parenting, with MZ want to treat differently and DZ treat similarly.
- Reiss et al, 2005, found that there was differential parenting, interaction between genetics of child and of parent.
what do adoption studies explore?
MZ twins raised apart lead to differing environments → compare children and both the adoptive & biological parents.
-> suggest less genetic influence than twin studies
what did Palamino & Caspi 1999 estimate?
- Biological parents/children: 0.16 for E & 0.13 for N
- adoptive parents/children: 0.01 for E & 0.05 for N
leads to suggest whether H2 is overestimated in twin studies.
what was the case of the Jim twins?
two twins separated at 4 weeks, reunited at 39 in 1979, found similarities in tension headaches, nail biting, smoked same cigarettes and drove the same type of car.
what are limitations for twin studies?
- unrepresentative of the general population
- unshared environment
- some genes may not have 100% penetrance and different consequences in genetically identical individuals.
overall what do twin studies conclude about heritability?
heritability studies with twins suggest interaction between genes & environment (genetic component and environmental triggers).
what are three controversies within social influence?
- assortative mating
- family size and birth order
- social class
what is assortative mating?
is the idea that couples tend to have traits in common, we are selective with whom we mate with. The typical relationship between partners IQ is r=.40 but for weight, colour and personality is r=.20. Higher IQ parents tend to have higher intelligence kids and lower tend to have more children.
what did Belmont & Marolla (1973) find in regards to family size and birth order?
for larger family size found a Lower IQ even when SES controlled and the first borns IQ Is more than the later born childs.
what did Rogder 2001 find in regards to family size & birth order?
admixture; lower SES & IQ tend to have more children( Rodgers, 2001)
what happen in resource dilution in families?
resources are finite & diminish with number of children (Downey, 2011)
what happens within confluence in families?
intellectual develop occurs within family context and this changed over time (Zajonc, 2011), as FB have more time with 100% parental attention. but there is conflicting research, Rogers et al 2000, conducted a national longitudinal survey of youth, it had more than 11,000 ppts aged 14-22 and children born to them. the study found no relationship between family size & intelligence.
what did Segal & Hur 2022 study?
recent case of two MZ twins born in Seoul, in 1974, separated at age 2 as one was adopted by American parents.
they were reunited in 2020, aged 36, and the twin in Korea described loving and harmonious home while the US twin described regular conflict and the divorce of her adoptive parents.
what difference did Segal & Hur 2022 find in personality?
- US was individualistic and SK more collectivist values
- similar levels of mental health & self-esteem
- high on conscientiousness - purposeful, well-organised and achievement striving.
how did both the segal & hur twins fair on the ravens test?
the SK twin scored 16 points higher than the US twin on the WAIS test and the ravens matrices.
- US obtained a score of 31, testing time was 105 min but she stopped at 42 items from frustration within difficult items
- SK completed all 60 items in 54 min with a score of 43.
what does the Bell Curve show?
Hernstein & Murray 1994, the bell curve shows intelligence and class structure in American life. proposed that IQ will become the basis of class system.
what is the Bell Curve Controversy?
the bell curve and race, Black IQ distribution scored lower than White IQ distribution, as US education dumbed down by lower IQ and those with talent are not reaching their full potential, since resources are expensive they go to supporting talented rather than the disadvantaged.
what does the APA argue against the BCC?
- Intelligence considered hierarchy of abilities
- many not be captured in IQ tests
- IQ is heritable but not completely.
- variance within population about 10 x greater than between races
what is the R value estimated between social economic status and IQ?
between r=.3 - .5, thus meaning that the higher the SES the higher the IQ.
supposedly 45 IQ points between the social classes ranging from 1-5.
what does Capron & Duyme (1989) research and what did he find?
measured IQ at age 14, found the in high SES and low SES with biological parents, the adoptive parents were more likely to be high in SES than low.
how does the GENE X ENVIRONMENT interaction effect IQ?
- SES associated with differences in executive function, memory, emotional regulation and underlying brain areas
- Inherited biological and psychological factors
- genetic cause SES difference through lowered educational and occupational performance
- social policy based on assumption that ID are largely due to environmental factors
what was the view of dollard & miller?
allowed for some inner influence from the higher cognitive functioning possessed by humans but said that principles of reinforcement external to the individual are thought mainly to control human behaviour.
( Maltby, J., et al., 2017)
what does banduras work focus on?
human problems in living
solely focuses on human behaviour but methodology remains similar
what is banduras model doing in his approach?
(Maltby, J., et al, 2017)
-model is an active player responding both to inner stimuli and the external environment - moving in a dynamic system
what does banduras model show?
Individuals seen to be influential in determining their own motivation, development and behaviour
what term does Bandura 1978;1989 use to label the processes that drive behaviour?
reciprocal determinism
-all factors interact w one another to influence how individuals behave
what are the factors within reciprocal determinism?
personal factors e.g. cognitions, emotions, behavioural and environmental factors
what does Bandura 1995 show?
that personal factors can greatly impact the likelihood of failure, as you approach the task differently
(Maltby, J., et al, 2017)
what does bandora suggests that behavioural factors can do?
(Maltby, J., et al, 2017)
affect the individuals cognition, feeling and emotion
how does bandura differ from skinner?
he believes that individuals possess free will
-cognitive processes allow control in selecting situations we operate in
who proposed personal agency?
Bandura (Matlby,J., et al, 2017)
what is personal agency?
the belief that you can change things to make them better for yourself or others (Bandura, 1999)
what is proxy agency?
bandura 1999
the individuals enlists other people to help change some of the factors impacting on their life
what is a limitation of proxy agency?
people surrender their power to the other, who may not have their best interest at heart
-prefers collective agency
what is collective agency?
where a group of individuals come together believe that they can make a difference to their own and or others life circumstances
(Matlby, J., et al, 2017)
what does the social in social learning theory refer to?
how people learn from other individuals
how does the social learning theory relate to personality development?
children learn personalities from learning from parents, peers and others through observational learning
-copy successful behaviour
-dynamic due to how many people are involved in raising children
what does bandura suggest in personality development for maintaining progress and motivation?
Bandura 1991, identifying goals to achieve and obtain external feedback from relevant others helps achieve goals and maintains motivation
what does bandura say that goal achievement relies heavily on?
Bandura, 1990
-that goal achievement depends heavily on self regulatory processes
what do internal self regulatory processes include?
self -efficacy, self criticism, self praise, valuation of own personal standards etc
-attempts to self influence
define self efficacy
(Bandura 1989)
your belief that if you perform some behaviours it will get you a desired positive outcome
what did Bandura 1997 show about self efficacy?
-high self efficacy increases the likelihood of achieving success
-also influences effort put into a task
what did Stevens et al., 2016 find?
-studied self efficacy to avoid drinking
-found those most likely to drink heavily had low self-efficacy and were higher on impulsiveness
what did Abernathy-Dyer et al, 2013 find?
students performed better academically when their teachers had higher levels of self-efficacy
how does self efficacy effect improving performance?
when the model is reinforced through completing a task, the observers cognitions become more positive and impacts their self-efficacy.
how does participant modelling effect self-efficacy?
a person w low self efficacy will shadow a person who is successful int the task and feel ready to complete the task themselves
what did Mischel 1968 create?
the person-situation debate
-do you believe as you do because of the situation you are in or because of your personality?
what was mischel (1968) main concern?
the way in which psychologist interpreted personality test scores and used them to make decisions about individuals
what did Mischel (1968) claim about the correlation between personality trait self report measures and behaviour?
it is between 0.2-0.3
-> meaning that the trait was accounting for under 10% of the variance in behaviour
-> personality coeffiecient
what study did Mischel (2004) cite?
Newcombe 1929
-51 boys measured on the personality characteristics of extraversion and introversion
-studied 21 situations in a summer camp on a daily basis
-recorded how much the boys talked at meals and if they played with others/alone
what did Newcombe 1929 find?
the average correlation of behaviour across situations based on the daily observations was 0.14
who supported mischels concerns?
Epstein, 1979, claimed that they take a personality score and then take one measure of behaviour -> violates good measurement (1980) as needs multiple measurements
what was the impact of the person vs situation debate on psychologists?
-personality psych determined to show consistent differences in individuals that are independent of the situations
-social psych highlight the importance of the situation
(Mischel, 2004)
what was mischels way forward?
incorporate findings from developments in cognitive psychology about how the mind works
(Mischel, 1973) outlined a set of social cognitive person variables - described processes that described how individuals constructed situations
what did Mischel & Peake 1982 examine?
college conscientiousness
-at the beginning students specified the behaviours and situational context they considered relevant to the traits being examined
-found variability across different situations & temporal stability in an individuals behaviour within similar situations
what model does micshel argue the need for? (Maltby,J et al, 2017)
a dynamic personality system that will incorporate developments from cognitive science and genetics that are relevant to personality
- info on the individuals mental and emotional process is an essential component of any model of personality
what is the model of cognitive-affective processing system?
CAPS
fulfils mischesls need for a better model
-composed of mental representations -> cognitive affective units (representations of self, others etc)
(Mischel & Shoda 1995)
how did mischels arguments effect personality tests?
more valid tests were developed
-Crombach & Meehl 1955
-Meyer et al 2001 demonstrated that personality tests share the same high levels of validity
-more attention is paid to designs of studies (variables carefully selected)
what did Wundt categorise traits as?
-mood stability
-the strength of their emotions
(Wundt 1874)
what is Burger (1997) definition of trait?
a dimension of personality used to categorise people according to the degree to which they manifest a particular characteristic
what are the assumptions underlying trait theory?
-traits are relatively stable over time
-traits show stability across situations
what happens in circular reasoning?
trait theorists are more interested in describing personality & predicting behaviour -> over identifying what caused the behaviour
what did Sheldon (1899-1977) do?
-first to relate personality to traits
-created somatotypes, based off physique & temperament
-found three basic types of physique; endomorphy, mesomorphy and ectomorphy
-felt that individuals had different prominent organs and this is what the focus lies on
what temperament did the different physiques have?
-ectomorph - privacy and inhibited
-mesomporph - physically assertive, competitive, keen on physical activity
-endomorph - associated with love of relaxation & comfort
who provided the first documented source of a dictionary being used to elicit words describing personality?
Galton, 1884
what does the lexical hypothesis suggest?
-suggests the individual differences between people that are important that become encoded as single terms
what is the third assumption of the lexical hypothesis?
(Norman, 1963)
most work on LH was done on English language but if valid should apply cross culturally
what did Allport & Odbert, 1936 do?
-published a list of 18,000 words in which 4,500 described personality traits
-allport then published Personality traits:Their classification and Measurement (1921)
what were limitations of lexical hypothesis proposed by all port?
-impossible to use an individuals personality traits to predict how they willl behave in a specific situation
-variablity in everyone’s behaviour
what else did Allport suggest about personality traits?
-traits have a physical presence in our nervous system
-advances in tech would enable psychologists to identify these traits through inspecting the nervous system
what was important in personality traits to all port?
the way traits and personality came together is important
-the evolution and change of unified personality -> adaptability
-approves of both nomothetic and idiographic approaches (law an individual uniqueness)
what did allport 1961 praise about the nomothetic approach?
allows identification of common personality traits
-ways to classify groups with one being more dominant than the comparable group
-but comparision is unhelpful ‘‘personal disposition’’
what is personal disposition?
-comparison based on common traits are not particularly useful
represents the unique characteristics of the individual
-emphasis on the uniqueness of each person
-more fruitful approach of developing an understanding of personality
what are cardinal traits?
single traits which may dominate an individuals personality and heavily influence their behaviour
(Maltby et al., 2017)
what are central traits?
5-10 traits that best describe an individual’s personality
what are secondary traits?
concerned with Individuals preferences and become apparent in stituations
what is cattells (1965) definition of personality?
the characteristics of the individuals that allow prediction of how they will behave in a given situation
what is the first distinction cattell makes between traits?
-whether traits are genetically determined or the result of environmental experiences
-traits genetically determined are constitutional traits
-environmentally induced traits are environmental-mold traits
what did Cattell develop in 1982 due to a need to establish the relative contribution of genetics and environment to various personality traits?
multiple abstract variance analysis
-administers tests to assess a particular trait in relation to complex samples consisting of family members raised together apart etc.
-allows to calculate degrees of influence that genetic and environmental factors have
what are three traits defined by Cattell?
-Ability
-Temperament
-Dynamic
what do ability traits determine?
how well you reach whatever your goal is in that situation
what are temperament traits?
-individuals difference in styles to adapt when taking on challenges
what are dynamic traits?
-traits which motivate us and energise our behaviour
three types: attitudes, sentiments and ergs
define attitudes?
Malty, j et al 2017
-hypothetical constructs that express our particular interests in people or objects in specific situations
-help predict behaviour
define sentiments?
Cattell, 1950
complex attitudes that include our opinions and interests that help determine how we feel about people or situations
define ergs?
innate motivators, that cause us to recognise and attend to some stimuli more readily than others and to seek satisfaction of our drives
what was cattells third distinction?
-between common & unique traits
-common are shared by many e.g. intelligence, sociability
-unique traits are specific to individuals e.g. interests, hobbies that motivate ind to pursue certain related activities
what was the fourth distinction?
surface & source
-surface are collections of trait descriptors, that cluster together in many individuals and situations
-source traits are the traits responsible for related differences in observed behaviour
what did Cattell, 1957 research?
-used the list of personality descriptors developed by Allport & Odbert
-removed synonyms and left raters w 171 trait names
-rates assessed individuals on these and reduced the list to produce 46 surface traits
-gave out questionnaires with 10 point likert scales for people to rate colleagues behaviour and then a separate one for personality
-cattell was able to identify 16 major source factors to develop the 16 PF questionnaire
what are some of the traits on cattells 16 PF questionnaire?
intelligence
stable-emotional
assertive-humble
conscientious-expedient
outgoing -reserved
what did Eysenck claim?
there is a large biological determinant to personality
-three types of super traits that make up personality
what is Eysenck’s 1970 definition of personality?
the way that an individuals character, temperament, intelligence, physique and nervous system are organised
-stable & long lasting organisation
describe Eysenck’s model of personality?
-created a hierarchal typology
-starts with observations of individual behaviour that he calls specific responses
-then we build habitual responses through specific responses - it is how they typically respond
-these then build into certain traits -> personality types, which all come on a continuum
what were the personality factors recognised by Eysenck?
Extraversion, Neuroticism and Psychoticism
what did Eysenck & Eysenck 1985 find about psychotics?
-tend to be creative individuals
-looked at several sources to create hypothesis
-traits are being egocentric, tough minded and unemphatic
what is the Eysenck personality questionnaire?
measures the super traits (neuroticism, psychoticism and extraversion) leading to personality
what did Eysenck 1965 report?
that extraverts compared with introverts prefer to socialise, they like louder music and brighter colours, more likely to engage in more varied sexual activities and drink more alcohol
what did Amirkham et al 1995 find?
extraverts are more likely to attract and maintain networks of friends and to approach others for help when they are under going a crisis
what did Campbell & Hawley 1982 find?
-looked at study habits & the preferred location for studying of students
-found that introverts prefer to study in quiet areas whilst extraverts study in areas where there are other people and opportunities to socialise
-extraverts also took more study breaks -> higher need to engage in environment
what did Eysenck 1990 claim?
there is still a role for environment in the development of personality
-individuals genes provide a strong tendency to become a certain type of person, modification is still possible
how does the lexical approach support the five factor model?
-several accounts have been shown throughout history
-the differences in personality that are important for social interaction and human societies have labelled these differences as single terms
what is some studies around the lexical approach which support the five factor model?
-Tupes & Christal (1961/1992)
-Norman (1963)
-saucier & Goldberg 2001
what did Tupes & Christal 1961/1992 find?
five factors from analyses of trait words in 8 different samples
what did Norman 1963 do?
-revisited earlier research and reproduced the five factor structure using ratings of personality given by peers
what did Saucier & Goldberg 2001 do?
described the lexical approach as an epic approach to research
-researchers use the personality terms that are found in native language of the country & contrast with an epic approach
-etic approach is using personality questionnaires translated from another language than tends to be English
-etic approaches tend to replicate the five factor theory
how does factor analysis support the five factor model?
Costa & McCrae 1985
-big five model (OCEAN)
-consistent finding is the emergence of five factors of personality
-a data derived hypothesis as opposed to a theoretically based one
what does the acronym ocean stand for?
Openness
Conscientousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
how does the Myers-briggs type inventory support the big five model?
-McCrae & Costa 1989, factor anaylsed scores on the Myers-Briggs type inventory and found that it supports a five factor structure
what are the theoretical frameworks of the HEXACO model by Ashton & Lee 2007?
-the factors are explained with biological theory of reciprocal and kin altruism
-extraversion, conscientousness and openness to experience are best understood as biologically driven concepts that relate to three separate areas of behaviour
what is meant by reciprocal altruism?
Trivers, 1977
-a form of altruism, whereby an organism will make an altruistic act but will not expect any immediate benefit in return
-carried out under two conditions: act is made within wider context, act only carried out for a return later down the line
what is meant by Kin Altruism?
when species help each other
what are dimensions of engagement & behaviour?
extraversion
conscientiousness
openness
what are limitations to the hexaco model?
-honesty-humility -> being too honest can lead to exploitation
-investing too much in others in terms of potential personal gains
who proposed that the HEXACO model went too far?
Saucier (2002)
-models must provide independent factors
-five factor model is useful as they are all independently of each other
-in some findings among French and Korean samples, their sixth factor correlated with agreeableness -> not independent of each other
what was Musek, 2007 research?
-examined the relationship between the five factors among three samples of Slovakian adults
-found a factor of personality explained much of the variance in peoples scores on the big five dimensions of personality -> EXTRAVERSION
How did Musek create the general factor of personality?
found from five factor model research in 2007-> stability and plasticity
then reduced the factors to the general factor of personality
what are limitations of research for models of personality?
-Labelling factors depend on the researchers judgements about the best descriptor for the cluster of correlated traits, E.g. Fiske 1949, agreeableness factor can be labelled conformity and likability
-measures in questionnaires affect the final factors produced (Peabody & Goldberg 1989)
what is a genotype?
the internal genetic code or blueprint for constructing & maintaining a living individual
-biologically inherited & found within all the cells, tissues and organs of the individual (Maltby, J., et al, 2017)
what is a phenotype?
the outward manifestation of the individual that is the sum of all the atoms, molecules, cells, tissues and organs
-example is our physical appearance
what are behavioural genetics interested in?
1 - estimating the extent of genetic heritability of behaviour across a population
2 - stating the genetic heritability of that behaviour in terms of shared variance (h squared)
what is shared variance in terms of proportion?
the estimate of the average proportion of variance for any behaviour through to be accounted for by genetic factors across a population
what did Bouchard & McGue 1981, research?
the Minnesota study of twins reared apart
-medically & psychological assessments of identical and fraternal twins separated in life and reared apart
-found a large correlation = 0.70 for neuroticism between MZ twin who were reared apart
what did Riemann et al 1997 research?
-1,000 pairs of German & polish twins, and compared DZ & MZ on the 5 factor model
-the findings show for every factor in DZ twins less correlation than in MZ twins -> thus providing evidence
what did Eaves et al, 1989 find?
- conducted a meta analysis of early twin studies
-found heritability estimates for extroversion were 0.58, for neuroticism were 0.44 and psychotics were 0.46
what did Pedersen et al, 1988 study?
looked at extraversion and neuroticism
-sampled 160 pairs of MZ reared tg, 99 pairs of MZ reared apart, 212 pairs of DZ twins reared together and 229 of DZ raised apart
-the correlations for MZ twins reared together and apart are larger than for DZ
-suggests a genetic influence on personality for both extraversion and neuroticism
what is a problem of heritability and additive assumption?
-estimating the environment is usually done w/o direct measures of environmental factors
-personality shouldn’t be seen as the result of genetics + environment but G X E
what are considerations to make considering behavioural genetics?
conceptions of heritability & the environment
shared vs non shared environmental influences
assortative mating
what are the two main concepts of genetic heritability & the environment?
-Abstract: theoretical concepts, little information about the specific genes or environmental variables that influence personality
-Population: when we refer to a population tells us little about a single Individual
what are types of genetic variance?
-Additive
-Dominant
-Epistatic
what is additive gv?
gv in behaviour that is the total of the individuals genes inherited from their parents
what is dominant genetic variance?
certain genes (dominant) are expressed and the other recessive genes are not
what is epistatic gv?
the result of the way certain genes we inherit determine whether other genes we inherit will be expressed or suppressed
what is narrow heritability?
additive genetic variance
what is broad heritablity?
all three aspects of genetic variance
what is a factor of the environment which contributes to heritability?
shared vs non shared environments
what is meant by shared environments?
environments that are shared between two individuals
e.g. siblings
what is meant by non shared environments?
environments that are not shared between two individuals
e.g. twins separated at birth
what did Bouchard (1994) and Eysenck (1990) suggest?
-environmental influences shared by siblings or twins contribute only marginally to personality differences
what did Braggart et al 1992 find about shared vs non shared environments and the complexity of them?
those environmental factors that are unique (non-shared) to family members are influential, over shared environmental factors.
-non-shared environmental factors, such as different peer friendships, are important mechanisms that explain why members of the same family may differ in their personalities.
(Maltby, J, et al. 2017)
what are models which can explain phenotypes based on the family environment?
proposed by Reiss (1997)
the passive model
the child-effects model
the parent-effects model
what does the passive model suggest?
personality is generally explained by the 50% overlap between a child and their parent
-> bh occurs in child as the result of child & parent sharing the same genes to influence behaviours
what does the child-effects model propose?
-the genes cause a behaviour in the child which turn causes the same or similar behaviour in the patent
-childs development of bh its the result of genes
what is an example of the child-effects model?
the shared genes cause the child to be aggressive to the parent, causes the parent to be aggressive towards the child
what did Harris 1995 find in relation to child driven effects?
Harris documents studies showing that adults do not behave in the same way to a child who shows different tendencies. They will treat a very attractive child differently to one of their children who is less attractive;
what happens in the parent effects model?
-the behaviour of the child is responed to by the parent, which in turns brings out the behaviour in the child
what is a outside family factor which influences personality?
-group socialisation theory
what is the group socialisation theory?
-based of social identity theory and social categorisations
-individuals are thought to place other individuals into social groups on the basis of their similarities and differences to the individual -> consequence is based on groups we feel we belong to and our similarities and differences in relation to different social groups
-personality reflect group as we do activities to fit in
what are five factor that Harris suggests are important in how non shared characteristics influence our personality?
-context specific socialisation
-outside of the home socialisation
-transmission of culture via group processes
-group processes that widen differences between social groups
-group processes that widen differences among individuals within the group
what is assortative mating?
when couples mate they either have traits in common or contrast widely in their traits
-positive: similar traits
-negative: dissimilar traits
what are the factors in population variance of behaviour for phenotypes suggested by Bouchard & Loehlin 2001?
genetic
environmental
g x e influence
evolution
assortative mating
developmental
what do the WISC & WAIS scales measure?
WISC - CHILDREN
WAIS - 16+
-measure verbal and performance intelligence
-psychometric approach towards intelligence
what are cognitive ways to test for intelligence?
-tests called elementary cognitive tasks ,evoked potentials,responsetimes
What did Tiedmann 1836 suggest about brain size?
there is an indisputable connection between the size of a persons brain and their mental energy
-supporting the idea that the more intelligent, the bigger the brain
what equipment do researchers use to measure intelligence?
MRI’s
-creates images of inside of organs in living organisms
-researchers use these to compare overall intelligence scores
what did Willerman et al, 1991 examine?
brain size & IQ among 40 US uni students and reported a correlation of r = 0.35
what did Raz et al, 1993 research?
reported a correlation of r = 0.43 between brain size and general intelligence among 29 adults aged between 18 and 78 years of age.
what did McDaniel 2005 do?
In a meta analysis of 37 samples across 1,530 people (McDaniel, 2005), US psychologist Michael McDaniel estimated the correlation between brain size and overall intelligence was 0.33.
why are elementary cognitive tasks useful to measure intelligence?
simple tasks to understand stimuli, choice and visual search
-intelligence is measured through response times to diff tasks which involve understanding, identifying and discriminating between stimuli
what do ECT tasks measure?
-reaction time
-standard deviation
-inspection time
what are the three main aspects that tend to be in intelligence tests?
Sattler 2002
-variety of tasks
-standardisation of administration
-norm referencing
how does the WAIS show a variety of tasks?
has ability tests of general knowledge, digit span, vocabulary, object assembly etc.
how is standardisation of administration shown?
aim to provide a controlled environment in which the test is taken to allow comparisons among children
-standardised in the process of research taken out through type, time and test situation
what is norm referencing?
a method of comparing and ranking test takers’ performance against a group of others, called a norm group
what are problems of intelligence tests?
-the reliability
-the validity
-whether the usefulness of intelligence tests is over-emphasised
what is internal reliability demonstrated by?
positive correlations of items -> suggests the items are measuring the same construct
what is test-retest reliability?
reliability of the test overtime
what did benson, 2003 estimate?
fluctuation of IQ if retested a week later may be as much as 15 IQ points (Benson, 2003).
what did Jones & Bayley 1941 do?
1920s and represents data from people born in Berkeley, California, between 1928 and 1929.
-tested a sample of children annually throughout childhood and adolescence on a number of measures, including intelligence, and calculated their IQ scores. Jones and Bayley found that IQ scores of children at 18 years were positively correlated with their IQ scores at 12 years ( r = 0.89) and 6 years = 0.77
what does Neisser et al 1996 argue?
that it is generally accepted that individuals perform equally as well or poorly on different intelligence tests, suggesting that intelligence tests tend to correlate with other intelligence tests
who was emergent in studying the heritability of intelligence?
Galton, 1865
what does heritability of intelligence begins with?
the fact that genes are biologically transmitted from biological parents to the child
-children inherit 50% of their fathers and mothers genes
-use to start to explore how genes influence intelligence
what is genetic heritablity?
of phenotypes is assessed through variability between the parents ad. the child
-look at proportion of shared variance of bh between the adult and child
what does low variability to parent and child mean?
the proportion of shared variance of that behaviour is high - they are not very different in the characteristic
what does high variability between a adult and child mean?
when differences in characteristics, there is a high variability and the proportion of shared variance is low
how can heritability in intelligence be measured?
Plomin 2004
family studies, twin studies and adoption studies
what does the meta analysis put together by Ridley 1999 show on concordance rates of IQ?
-the rates are the same from Ridley 1999 as they are in Bouchard & McGues 1981 meta analysis
-MZ raised together have concordance of 86% in IQ
-MZ apart = 72%
-DZ raised together = 60%
-parents and children living together =42%
what happened in Deary 2012?
, found (from measures of verbal and non-verbal intelligence tests administered at ages 2, 3 and 4 years) that, for general intelligence,
-> the heritability estimates were 23 per cent in early childhood, and that this increased to 62 per cent by middle childhood (from measuring intelligence from four mental ability tests at ages 7, 9 and 10 years).
Maltby, John, et al.
what are considerations of behavioural genetics & intelligence?
-different types of genetic variance
-assortative mating
-the representativeness of twin and adoption studies
what did Oddy et al 2004 do?
( examined over 2,000 Australian children and followed them from birth until the age of 8 years. Oddy and her colleagues found that stopping breast feeding early (at 6 months or less) was associated with reduced verbal intelligence, while children who were fully breast fed for more than 6 months scored between 3 and 6 IQ points higher on a vocabulary intelligence test than did those children who were never breast fed.
what are biological variables and maternal effects on intelligence?
Nutrition
Lead
Prenatal factors
what did McMichael et al.,1986 do?
examined the possible relationship between body lead burden and pregnancy outcome among 749 pregnant women in, and around, the largest lead smelting facilities in Australia. Among these women, premature deliveries were statistically significantly associated with higher levels of maternal blood lead concentration at delivery.
how did Neisser et al 1996 research prenatal factors?
Neisser et al. (1996) point to these types of consumption by mothers during pregnancy as having an effect on intelligence. Low birth-weight babies, as well as babies suffering from FAS, show reduced intelligence.
