Lecture 1 Flashcards
Outline diffential psychology, the study of what?
- time
- How and why people differ
- Describe explain or measure changes over time
- origins/ devvelopment
- Allows you to predict behaviours and outcomes over time
What areas does differential psychology cross over into?
- 5 things
- Cognitive
- biological
- psychoanalytical
- psychometric
- evolutionary approaches
Outline Hippocrates
460-370bc
- Greek Physician
- Argued that imbalances in the body caused ill health
- He noticed how some could cope better with ill health
- so he was interested in the differences in people
- Body contains: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile, these cause pain and health
- when in the correct proportion, we are healthy
- pain occurs when one of these is in deficiency or excess
- We can identify the cause of an illness and do something about it
Who are considered the founding fathers of differential psychology?
The Ancient greeks
- they were interested in what caused differences between people
- They formed the groundwork in this area
Outline Galen
130-210 AD - Greek Physician/ Surgeon
- Outline the 4 humours based on Hippocrates ideas
- These acted as a causal basis for all temperaments
Outline Galens 4 temperaments and which bodily fluid causes them
- Choleric - Yellow Bile
- Phlegmatic - Phlegm
- Sanguine - blood
- Melancholic - Black bile
Outline the choleric temperement
Caused by Yellow Bile - High energy/ passion/ charisma
- Touchy
- Restless
- Aggressive
- Excitable
- Changeable
- Impulsive
- optimistic
- Active
Outline the Phlegmatic temperement
Caused by Phlegm - Dependability/ kind/ affection
- passive
- Careful
- Thoughtful
- Peacful
- Controlled
- Reliable
- Even-tempered
- Calm
Outline the Sanguine temperement
Caused by Blood - extraverted/ social
- Sociable
- Outgoing
- Talkative
- Responsive
- Easygoing
- Lively
- Carefree
- Leadership
Outline the Melancholic temperement
Caused by Black bile - Creative/ kind/ considerate
- Moody
- Anxious
- Sober
- Pessimistic
- Reserved
- Unsociable
- Quiet
Outline Plato
427-347 BC
- Asked why we see differences in each person
- argued we are born different - differences are innate
- Argued “no two persons are born exaclty alike”
- Platos cave:
Indicates mechanisms/ explanations behind behaviour.. That sometimes we dont realise
Outline Plato’s cave
Indicates mechanisms/ explanations behind behaviour.. That sometimes we don’t realise
- Some may be interested in the pattern of shadows
- consistency and repetition may be noticed
- e.g. guard comes in at the same time to feed the
- but wont fully comprehend what that means
- But others may not notice this at all
What does Plato’s allegory of the cave tell us about differential psychology?
- psychometrics
The notion of latent variables
- Because in ID psychology, we can observe behaviours, but cannot see the explanations behind them - we have to come up with a way to figure it out
- likewise, these prisoners can only observe the shadows, they cannot see the origin of these
- therefore, like us, the prisoners are interpreting reality from their observations
- Psychometrics are commonly used to measure latent variables
Outline Plato’s Tripartite Soul
- Rational/ Logical - LOCATED IN THE HEAD
- Seeks truth, swayed by facts or arguments - Spirited/ Emotional - LOCATED IN THE HEART
- How feelings fuel your actions
- e.g. anger and sadness - Appetitve/ Physical Desires - LOCATED IN THE LIVER
- Drives you to eat, have sex and protect yourself
The top 2 often have to overive the appetitive part
Outline Freuds tripartite theory of personality
Freuds theory of the structure of personality (1923)
- Id - primal instinct, pleasure
- equivalent to Plato’s appetitive (liver) - Ego - rational, mediates the other two
- equivalent to Plato’s rational (head) - Superego - morality, conciousness, guilt
- equivalent to Plato’s spirited (heart)
Outline Theophrastrus
Greek Physician
- Particularly interested in individual differences
- Observed people and tried to classify/ organised personality types
- Created a list of 30 characters based on the personality types he had observed
- He asked how characters are so variously constituted
Give some examples of Theophrastrus’ 30 personality types
- The buffoon
- The coward
- The nasty man
- The Arrogant Man
- The stupid Man
What approach did Theophrastrus do?
Adopted a lexical approach
- Using words to describe personalty types
- Descriptive terms of people tell us about how they differ
- From one word, e.g. coward, we kind of already understand what theyll be like and can then make predictions
- the important a differences, the more likely it is to become expressed as a single word
Outline the age of enlightenment
- When and with what?
- Mid 17thC to 18thC - intense revolutions in science, philosphy, society and politics
- Involved some key figures in the development of differential psychology
Outline Rene Descartes
1596-1650
- Advocate of mind-body dualism
- that the mind and body were seperate
- the body = a physical structure
- the mind = seperate but interacts with body in PINEAL GLAND
X - inference - cannot study the mind
Outline Thomas Hobbes
1588-1679
- Disagreed with Descartes
- proposed Monism - opposite to dualism
- The mind and brain are the same thing
- Much closer to modern beliefs than how close dualism was
- argued mind can be located in body and can be pinned and measured
Outline John Locke
- Tabula
1632-1704
- Advocated NURTURE over nature
- At birth, we are born a blank slate (Tabula Rasa)
- We are born without innate ideas/ knowldge
- This is determined only by experience, derived from sense perception
- Environments we are exposed to are the origins of Individual differences
Outline Darwin
1809-1882
- Advocated genetics and inheritability of traits
- Origin of the species (1859)
Outline Galton
1822-1911
- 2nd cousin to Darwin
- Introduced selective breeding - known as eugenics
- Huge influence in individual differences, looked at measuring it
- argued you could produce a highly-gifted race of men by selective marriages and several consecutive generations
- Hereditary Genius (1869)
- ARgued poor people/ criminals should be prevented from breeding
- but the rich should breed so much
Give some examples of Galtons interview questions he asked
- Demographic information - including parents occupations (Family prestige)
- How fit are you
- recall any physical competitions that you won?
- Awarded any prizes for academics?
- have you held any position of esteem/ trust?
What are the 2 main approaches to studying individual differences?
- Nomothetic
- General laws about human behaviour - Idiographic
- concerned with uniqueness in human behaviour
Outline the nomothetic approach
- methods
- Fixed set of variables that can be used to describe human personality
- From the Greek: Nomos, meaning law
- Study large groups to establish averages/ norms
- Focus on similarities
- Primarily studied using quantitative methods
•e.g. questionnaires, experiments
Outline the idiographic approach
- Focus on individuals, and their unique variables
- Study individuals, one at a time
- Differences prioritised over similarities
- Studied using qualitative research: case studies, interviews, diaries
•These are in-depth methods, to understand all aspects of a persons personality - e.g. Freud, psychoanalytic approach - e.g. dream diaries
Give examples of applications individual difference psychology has today
- Education
- Recruitment and HR - mechanisms to find perfect person for job
- Differences across societies/ cultures
- Health + illness - people differ in how they respond to therapy - find perfect one for them
