M3. Lesson 1: Eysenck's Biologically Based Factor Theory

Question 1

What approach did Eysenck use to extract three bipolar factors?

Answer 1

Eysenck used a hypothetico-deductive approach to extract three bipolar factors

Question 2

What are the three bipolar factors?

Answer 2

extraversion/introversion, neuroticism/stability, and psychoticism/superego.

Question 3

What are extraverts characterized by (Eysenck)?

Answer 3

Extraverts are characterized by sociability and impulsiveness; introverts, by passivity and thoughtfulness.

Question 4

What can neuroticism scores indicate?

Answer 4

High scores on the neuroticism scale may indicate anxiety, hysteria, obsessive-compulsive disorders, or criminality; low scores tend to predict emotional stability.

Question 5

What can psychoticism scores indicate?

Answer 5

High scores on psychoticism indicate hostility, self-centeredness, suspicion, nonconformity, and antisocial behavior; low scores indicate a strong superego, empathy, and cooperation.

Question 6

What did Eysenck insist about personality?

Answer 6

Eysenck insisted that, to be useful, personality must predict behavior, and he presented ample evidence to support his three-factor theory.

Question 7

Where are the three main dimensions of personality based from?

Answer 7

The three main dimensions of personality are biologically based as evidenced from temperament, behavioral genetics, and brain research.

Question 8

What has every theory of personality usually done?

Answer 8

Every theory of personality discussed so far has downplayed, ignored, or even argued against the biological basis of human personality.

Question 9

Who were the only researchers who put mild emphasis on genetic and biological influences on personality?

Answer 9

Only McCrae and Costa placed even mild emphasis on genetic and biological influences on personality.

Question 10

Why did Eysenck only come up with three dimensions of personality?

Answer 10

Eysenck developed a factor theory much like McCrae and Costa, but because he fundamentally based his taxonomy in both factor analysis and biology, he derived only three, rather than five, dimensions of personality.

Question 10

Why did Eysenck only come up with three dimensions of personality?

Answer 10

Eysenck developed a factor theory much like McCrae and Costa, but because he fundamentally based his taxonomy in both factor analysis and biology, he derived only three, rather than five, dimensions of personality.

Question 11

What were the three dimensions of personality Eysenck came up with?

Answer 11

extraversion/introversion, neuroticism/stability, and psychoticism/ superego

Question 12

What was the key point that Eysenck emphasized for personalities?

Answer 12

The key for Eysenck was that the individual differences in people’s personalities were biological, and not merely psychological, aspects of personality.

Question 13

What is the explanation for biological aside from psychological coming into play with personality?

Answer 13

Genetic differences lead to structural differences in the central nervous system, including brain structures, hormones, and neurotransmitters, and these differences in biology lead to differences along the three factors of personality—extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism.

Question 14

Where does the evidence for the biological basis of personality come from?

Answer 14

Evidence for the biological basis of personality comes from many different sources, including temperament, behavioral genetics, and brain measure research.

Question 15

What is temperament?

Answer 15

First, temperament is the biologically based tendency to behave in particular ways from very early in life.

Question 16

What is an example of temperament?

Answer 16

In one study, for example, Janet DiPietro and her colleagues (1996) showed that fetal activity and fetal heart rate predict temperament differences over the first year of life. In particular, a high heart rate in a 36-week-old fetus foreshadowed less predictable eating and sleeping habits at 3 and 6 months after birth. A high heart rate also predicted a less emotional infant at 6 months after birth. The prenatal environment may play an important role in shaping personality. In fact, the amount of stress the mother experiences during pregnancy may alter the infant’s own stress response. That is, infants born to mothers who have experienced an unusual amount of stress during pregnancy tend to have impaired stress function; higher baseline levels of stress hormones; and a faster, stronger, and more pronounced physiological response to stress, all of which persist into childhood (Barbazanges et al., 1996; Clark & Schneider, 1997).

Question 17

Where do psychologists turn to to understand how heredity works?

Answer 17

To understand how heredity affects behavior and personality, psychologists turn to the science of behavioral genetics or the scientific study of the role of heredity in behavior (Fuller & Thompson, 1960).

Question 18

What is heritability?

Answer 18

The extent to which a characteristic is influenced by genetics is known as heritability, as we saw in the McCrae and Costa chapter.

Question 19

What do researchers use to study heritability?

Answer 19

Researchers use twin-adoption studies and gene-by-environment studies to study heritability. Twin-adoption studies research into hereditary influence on twins, both identical and fraternal, who were raised apart (adopted) and who were raised together.

Question 20

What is gene-by-environment interaction research?

Answer 20

A second technique in the study of heritability, gene-by-environment interaction research, allows researchers to assess how genetic differences interact with environment to produce certain behavior in some people but not in others (Moffitt, Caspi, & Rutter, 2005; Thapar, Langley, & Asherson, 2007). Instead of using twins, family members, and adoptees to vary genetic similarity, gene-by-environment studies directly measure genetic variation in parts of the genome itself and examine how such variation interacts with different kinds of environments to produce different behaviors.

Question 21

What is the third aspect of personality? And how are they assessed?

Answer 21

Thirdly, biological aspects of personality are assessed using brain imaging techniques, the two most common forms of which are the electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Question 22

What is EEG?

Answer 22

Researchers use electroencephalography (EEG) to record the electrical activity of the brain. The procedure involves placing electrodes on a person’s scalp. The electrodes, metal disks attached to wires, are usually mounted in a fabric cap that fits snugly over the head. Typically, the person is conducting certain tasks while electrical activity is recorded. EEG is superior to other brain imaging techniques in showing when brain activity occurs. It is not very accurate at indicating precisely where activity occurs.

Question 23

What is the fMRI?

Answer 23

Functional MRI (fMRI), does tell us about brain activity. Images from fMRI tell us where activity in the brain is occurring during particular tasks by tracking blood oxygen use in brain tissue. In this way, researchers can see which areas of the brain are using the most oxygen (and presumably are most active) during certain tasks (Lagopoulos, 2007).