Lifespan Social / Personsality And Temperament

Question 1

Temperament refers to

Answer 1

Temperament refers to “genetically based but also environmentally influenced tendencies to respond in predictable ways to events that serve as the building blocks of personality” (Sigelman & Rider, 2015, p. 336). Research investigating the stability of temperament over time has generally found low to moderate stability, with temperament becoming more stable after three years of age (e.g., Roberts & DelVecchio, 2000).

Question 2

Thomas and Chess:

Answer 2

Thomas and Chess (1977) conceptualize temperament as a behavioral style that can be described in terms of nine dimensions (e.g., activity level, distractibility, adaptability, intensity of reaction) and that most infants can be categorized on the basis of these dimensions into one of three groups: Easy Children, Slow-to-warm-up children, and difficult children.

Question 3

Thomas and Chess easy children tend to

Answer 3

They tend to have a positive mood, adapt easily to new people and situations, can tolerate frustration, and have regular feeding and sleeping routines.

Question 4

Thomas and Chess Slow-to-warm-up children have a

Answer 4

They have a mildly negative mood, take time to adapt to new people and situations, have low levels of activity, and have moderately regular feeding and sleeping routines.

Question 5

Thomas and Chess difficult children have a

Answer 5

They have a negative mood, cry frequently, respond negatively to new people and situations, are very active, and have irregular feeding and sleeping routines.

Question 6

Thomas and Chess’s goodness-of-fit model proposes

Answer 6

Proposes that a child’s behavioral and emotional outcomes are affected by the match between the child’s temperament and the demands of his/her social environment. For example, infants with a difficult temperament can become less difficult and more adaptable if their parents provide them with a stable environment and allow them to respond to new experiences at a slow pace.

Question 7

Rothbart describes temperament as

Answer 7

As “constitutional differences in reactivity and self-regulation, with ‘constitutional’ seen as the relatively enduring biological makeup of the organism influenced over time by heredity, maturation, and experience” (Rothbart & Derryberry, 1981, p. 37). Reactivity refers to the responsivity of underlying biological processes and is determined by the latency, duration, and intensity of attentional, affective, and motor responses to positive and negative stimuli. It consists of two factors – surgency/extraversion and negative affectivity.

Question 8

Rothbart’ s Surgency/extraversion

Answer 8

Surgency/extraversion is characterized by a high activity level, intense pleasure seeking, and a low level of shyness

Question 9

Rothbart’ s negative affectivity are characterized by

Answer 9

negative affectivity is characterized by mood instability and a tendency to be sad, fearful, and irritable

Question 10

Rothbart’ s Self-regulation refers to processes

Answer 10

Self-regulation refers to processes that facilitate, maintain, and inhibit reactivity and consists of one factor – effortful control – which is the ability to “inhibit a dominant response … in order to perform a subdominant response” (Rothbart, 2011, p. 57). Rothbart and her colleagues have developed several questionnaires that are used to assess temperament over the lifespan.

Question 11

Kagan (1989) focused on

Answer 11

The temperamental characteristic of behavioral inhibition (BI), which he described as the tendency to respond to unfamiliar people and situations with negative affect and withdrawal. with high levels of this characteristic.

Question 12

Longitudinal research has produced evidence of both continuity and discontinuity in BI from infancy to adolescence

Answer 12

with greater continuity being found for individuals with high levels of this characteristic. Studies have also found that BI is associated with an increased risk for anxiety (especially social anxiety), depression, and poorer social functioning in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood and that parents of children with BI had higher rates of childhood anxiety disorders themselves as well as continuing anxiety disorders in adulthood (Svihra & Katzman, 2004; Tang, Crawford, Morales, Degnan, Pine, & Fox, 2020).

Question 13

Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development consists of

Answer 13

Consists of five stages that begin at birth and end in adolescence. It proposes that libido (sexual energy) is focused in a different area of the body in each stage and that excessive gratification or frustration of a child’s impulses during a stage can result in fixation at that stage, which affects the child’s outcomes. For instance, libido is focused on the mouth during the oral stage, and fixation at this stage can result in thumb-sucking in childhood and chain smoking and excessive dependence on others in adulthood

Question 14

Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial development emphasizes

Answer 14

Emphasizes social and cultural influences on personality and views personality development as continuing throughout the lifespan. It distinguishes between eight stages that each involve a different psychosocial conflict and proposes that, the more successful the resolution of the crisis at each stage, the better the outcomes. For the exam, you want to be familiar with the names and ages associated with Freud’s psychosexual stages and the names, ages, and successful outcomes (virtues) associated with Erikson’s psychosocial stages.

Question 15

What are Freud and Erickson stages

Answer 15

Age

Freud’s

Psychosexual Stages

Erikson’s

Psychosocial Stages/Virtues

birth-1 year

oral

trust vs. mistrust/hope

1-3 years

anal

autonomy vs. shame and doubt/will

3-6 years

phallic

initiative vs. guilt/purpose

6-12 years

latency

industry vs. inferiority/competence

adolescence

genital

identity vs. role confusion/fidelity

young adulthood

intimacy vs. isolation/love

middle adulthood

generativity vs. stagnation/care

late adulthood

integrity vs. despair/wisdom

Question 16

Effects of Parenting Style on Children’s Personality and Behavior:

Answer 16

Baumrind (1975) and Maccoby and Martin (1983) distinguish between four parenting styles that represent different combinations of two parenting dimensions: demandingness, which is also known as control, and responsiveness, which is also known as acceptance and warmth.

Question 17

Authoritative parents are

Answer 17

Are high in both demandingness and responsiveness. They establish clear rules for their children, expect them to comply with the rules, but respect their children’s opinions and seek their input when making rules. These parents are warm and affectionate and encourage their children’s independence and individuality. Children of authoritative parents have the best outcomes: They’re self-confident, independent, and cooperative, and have good social skills. Authoritative parenting has also been linked to high levels of academic achievement, but the strength of this link may be affected by culture. For example, there’s evidence that the positive impact of authoritative parenting on academic achievement is not as strong for Asian American and African American students as it is for European American students.

Question 18

Authoritarian Parents are

Answer 18

Are high in demandingness and low in responsiveness. They have many rules for their children, emphasize parental control and respect for authority, and often resort to harsh forms of punishment when their children disobey. These parents provide their children with little nurturance and affection and discourage their autonomy. Their children tend to be insecure, moody, and dependent, are easily annoyed, and have poorer social skills and lower levels of academic achievement than children of authoritative parents do. This parenting style has also been linked to an increased likelihood that a child will bully others or be the victim of a bully, with the risk for bullying others being greater than the risk for being the victim of a bully.

Question 19

Permissive parents are

Answer 19

Low in demandingness and high in responsiveness. These parents rarely attempt to control their children, they encourage them to express their feelings, and they’re extremely accepting and supportive of their children’s behaviors, even aggression and other undesirable behaviors. Children of these parents tend to be self-centered, immature, and rebellious, and they have poor impulse control and social skills and low levels of academic achievement. They are also at increased risk for bullying others and being the victim of a bully, with the risk for being the victim of a bully being greater than the risk for bullying others.

Question 20

Uninvolved parents are also referred to as

Answer 20

Are also referred to as rejecting-neglecting parents and are low in both demandingness and responsiveness. They’re uninvolved in their children’s lives and unaware of their needs, and they rarely consider their children’s opinions when making decisions and are more concerned about their own needs than those of their children. Children of uninvolved parents tend to have the worst outcomes: They have low self-esteem and self-control, tend to be moody and irritable, are noncompliant and demanding, have poor social skills and low levels of academic achievement, and are prone to drug use and antisocial behavior.

Question 21

Personality Changes in Adulthood:

Answer 21

Personality changes over the lifespan are often measured in terms of rank-order stability, which indicates the relative positions of several personality traits over time, and mean-level change, which indicates changes in the levels of specific personality traits over time.

Question 22

The studies have found a

Answer 22

high degree of rank-order stability over the lifespan but predictable mean-level changes for some personality traits in middle and late adulthood (Nagi, Froidevaix, & Hirschi, 2019).

Question 23

studies investigating mean-level changes in the “Big Five” personality traits have found that

Answer 23

during adulthood, neuroticism decreases, extraversion and openness to experience remain relatively stable or decrease slightly, and agreeableness and conscientiousness increase (McCrae et al., 2000; Soto et al., 2011).

Question 24

Sex differences in personality regard to

Answer 24

With regard to sex differences in personality, a study by Costa, Terracciano, and McCrae (2001) found that differences were relatively small but consistent across different cultures, especially individualistic (versus collectivist) cultures: Their results indicated that, on a self-report measure, women had higher scores on neuroticism, agreeableness, warmth, and openness to feelings, while men had higher scores on assertiveness and openness to ideas.

Question 25

Self-Awareness and Identity Development:

Answer 25

Self-awareness is a person’s capacity to realize “that he or she is a distinct individual, whose body, mind, and actions are separate from those of other people” (Berger, 2009, p. 190). The development of self-awareness is an initial step in identity development.

Question 26

Some aspects of self-awareness are apparent

Answer 26

Some aspects of self-awareness are apparent soon after birth. For example, four-day-old infants cry more and have faster heartbeats in response to a recording of their own cries than the cries of other infants. By 18 months of age, most children pass the mirror self-recognition test, which is also known as the facial mark test. It involves surreptitiously placing a red spot or sticker on a child’s nose or cheek and then placing the child in front of a mirror. The child passes the test (exhibits self-awareness) when he or she touches his or her own nose or cheek rather than the nose or cheek of the reflected image in the mirror (Lewis & Brooks-Gunn, 1979).

Question 27

Self-understanding is an element of self-awareness, and the research has shown

Answer 27

The research has shown that self-understanding undergoes predictable changes during childhood and adolescence (Damon & Hart, 1988; Harter, 1988; Lewis & Brooks-Gunn, 1979): (a) In early childhood (ages 2 through 6), gender and age are the first characteristics that children apply to themselves. This is followed by concrete observable characteristics and common behaviors and activities (e.g., I have brown eyes, I like to play video games). (b) In middle childhood (ages 7 through 11), children’s self-descriptions become more general, refer to personality traits, and involve social comparisons (e.g., I’m good at sports, I’m a truthful person, I’m better at math than most of my friends). (c) Finally, adolescents (ages 12 through 18) describe themselves in terms of abstract qualities including their beliefs and values and psychological qualities (e.g., I’m a strong believer in equality for all people, I’m usually very self-conscious). They also recognize that their characteristics are not always consistent (e.g., I’m an extrovert with my friends and family but can be a real introvert with people I don’t know).

Question 28

Kholberg’s Gender Identity Theory

Answer 28

Kohlberg’s (1966) cognitive developmental theory was influenced by Piaget and is based on the assumption that gender identity development depends on cognitive development.

Question 29

Kohlberg It describes gender identity development as involving three stages:

Answer 29

The first stage is gender identity, which emerges between 2 and 3 years of age and occurs when children identify themselves and others as either male or female.

Followed at about 4 years of age by gender stability, which occurs when children realize that gender identity is consistent over time – that is, girls become women and boys become men.

Finally, when conservation skills emerge at about 6 or 7 years of age, children develop gender constancy, which is the understanding that gender is stable not only over time but also across situations and doesn’t change just because of a change in appearance or behavior.

While Kohlberg’s theory predicts that children don’t adopt gender-typed behavior until they’ve achieved gender constancy, research has found that children prefer same-gender roles and activities long before they achieve gender constancy.

Question 30

Bussey and Bandura’s (1999) social cognitive theory

Answer 30

There are several versions of social learning theory but all focus on the role of social factors in the development of a gender identity and propose that the acquisition of gender-typed preferences and behaviors precedes the acquisition of gender-related beliefs. Bussey and Bandura’s (1999) social cognitive theory is one version of this approach, and it proposes that gender identity development is the result of a combination of observation and imitation of the behaviors of same-gender adults and children and differential reinforcement that occurs when children receive praise and other reinforcement only when they engage in gender-appropriate behaviors.

Question 31

Bem’s (1981) gender schema theory combines elements of

Answer 31

Bem’s (1981) gender schema theory combines elements of cognitive developmental theory and social learning theory and proposes that children organize gender-typed experiences and information into gender schemas that they use to perceive, encode, and interpret information about themselves and others.

Question 32

According to Bem, people differ with regard to the extent to which they rely on gender schemas

Answer 32

She distinguished between gender-schematic and gender-aschematic people: Gender is very salient for gender-schematic people who are more likely than gender-aschematic people to use gender norms to guide their own behavior and judge the behaviors of others. She also proposed that the extent to which people were exposed to gender norms as children and reinforced for adhering to those norms determines whether they’re gender-schematic or aschematic.

Question 33

Egan and Perry’s (2001) multidimensional model

Answer 33

Identifies the components of gender identity. According to their model, gender identity consists of five components: Membership knowledge refers to the individual’s knowledge of his/her own gender. Gender typicality refers to the degree to which the individual perceives his/her own characteristics as being similar to the characteristics of others of the same gender.

Question 34

Gender contentedness refers to the

Answer 34

Refers to the degree to which the individual is satisfied with his/her gender. Felt pressure refers to the degree to which the individual feels pressure from his/herself and others to conform to gender norms. And intergroup bias refers to the individual’s belief that his/her gender is superior to the other gender. Research on this model has confirmed that a person’s status on the five components is related to his/her adjustment. For example, high scores on measures of gender typicality and contentedness have been linked to high levels of self-esteem and peer acceptance and other positive outcomes, while a high score on a measure of felt pressure has been linked to adjustment problems.

Question 35

Gender Identity – Psychological Androgyny

Answer 35

Prior to formulating her gender schema theory, Bem (1974) developed the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), a self-report measure of gender identity, to help her with her studies on psychological androgyny. It provides scores on four scales: feminine (high feminine/low masculine), masculine (high masculine/low feminine), androgynous (high feminine/high masculine), and undifferentiated (low feminine/low masculine). Bem viewed androgyny as desirable because it gives men and women a greater repertoire of ways to respond to situations.

Question 36

The benefits of the research on androgyny has provided

Answer 36

Studies have confirmed that androgynous individuals are better able than gender-typed individuals to adapt their behaviors to the situation (e.g., Shaffer, Pegalis, & Cornell, 1992). There’s also evidence that androgynous children and adolescents have higher levels of self-esteem than those who are gender-typed and are perceived as more likeable and better adjusted by their peers (e.g., Boldizar, 1991; Major, Carnevale, & Deaux, 1981). Research results have not been entirely consistent, however: For example, there’s some evidence that possessing masculine traits rather than being androgynous is most associated with high self-esteem, positive adjustment, and other benefits (e.g., Whitley, 1983).

Question 37

Adolescent Identity Development:

Answer 37

Marcia’s (1966) model extends Erikson’s ideas about adolescent identity development to include four identity statuses that represent different combinations of identity crisis and identity commitment: a) Identity diffusion b) identity foreclosure c) Identity moratorium and d) identity achievement.

Question 38

Research on Marcia’s model has found that

Answer 38

identity formation occurs at different rates for different aspects of identity (e.g., occupational choice, political ideology, religious beliefs) and that some people recycle through identity moratorium and achievement during adulthood.

Question 39

Marcia’s identity diffusion occurs

Answer 39

Occurs when individuals have not undergone an identity crisis and are not committed to an identity.

Question 40

Marcia’s identity foreclosure occurs

Answer 40

Occurs when individuals have not experienced an identity crisis but have a strong commitment to a particular identity as the result of accepting the values, goals, and preferences of their parents or other authority figure.

Question 41

Marcia’s identity moratorium occurs

Answer 41

Occurs when individuals have experienced or are experiencing an identity crisis but have not yet committed themselves to an identity.

Question 42

Marcia’s identity achievement occurs

Answer 42

Occurs when individuals have experienced an identity crisis and, as a result, have a strong commitment to a specific identity.