Personality, Biology and Learning

Question 1

Heritability formula

Answer 1

Vg/Vp = h squared

Question 2

What does Molecular genetics do?

Answer 2

Attempts to link personality traits to single genes

E.g. DRD4 gene alleles longer in those with higher sensation-seeking (Benjamin et al 1996)

Question 3

Problem with candidate gene studies?

Answer 3

BUT candidate gene studies have not generally replicated (Plomin et al 2016

Question 4

more often what are traits the result of?

but….

Answer 4

Of many genes acting together

• the largest effect sizes detected are extremely small for both disorders and traits (e.g., Chabris et al., 2015; Plomin & Deary, 2015)

Question 5

So What Do We Know? (Plomin et al, 2016)

Answer 5

•All psychological traits show significant and substantial genetic influence.
•No traits are 100% heritable.
•Heritability is caused by many genes of small effect.
•Phenotypic correlations between psychological traits show significant and substantial genetic mediation.
•The heritability of intelligence increases throughout development.
•Age-to-age stability is mainly due to genetics.
•Most measures of the ‘environment’ show significant genetic influence
.•Most associations between environmental measures and psychological traits are significantly mediated genetically.
•Most environmental effects are not shared by children growing up in the same family.
•Abnormal is normal

Question 6

Effect size shared environment (vs non shared)

Answer 6

Shared environment effect often negligible•Always smaller than a non-shared – individual, unique experiences

Question 7

Rhee and Waldman 2002

Answer 7

Antisocial behavior in adolescence
•Shared effect = 15%
•Nonshared effect = 40

Question 8

Matteson et al (2013)

Answer 8

Shared effects from 0.00 – 0.26

•Nonshared effects from 0.42 – 0.62

Question 9

Within family factors

Answer 9

Within Family
•Positive and negative feedback loops

•Parent effects
Driving similarity between twins
Expected differences due to birth order

•Child effects
Gender
Health status

Question 10

Outside family factors

Answer 10

Context specific socialisation
•Outside the home socialisation
•Transmission of culture
•Group processes that widen differences between groups
•Group process that widen differences between individual

Question 11

Skinner 1948

Answer 11

Operant conditioning
•Not personality – learning history
•S-R responses formed by
•Operant schedules (cf intermittent reinforcement)
•Shaping

Question 12

Dollard and Miller 1950

Answer 12

Inner stimuli can be reinforcing •Habits
•Primary drives and reinforcers
•Secondary drives and reinforcers

Question 13

SLT - BANDURA

Answer 13

Bandura (1978, 1989)•Expanded from just behaviour to consider cognitions as well
•Forethought (Bandura 1999) – we can conceptualise the outcomes of our behaviour
•Modelling (Bandura and Walters, 1963) – affected by characteristics of the model (e.g. similarity), attributes of the observer (e.g. confidence), consequences of the behavior
•Self-efficacy (Bandura 1989, 1994, 2012)•Self-reinforcement (linked with forethought)

Question 14

Rotter 1982 LOC

Answer 14

Locus of control
•Behaviour potential = reinforcement value X expectancy
•Internal vs External LOC

• Culpin et al (2015) – deprivation > ELOC > depression
• Bender (1995) – repeated failure at school > ELOC

Question 15

Attachment - Bowlby 1982

Answer 15

) – innate attachment system (seeking closeness with parental figures) vs e.g. exploration system. Activated in the presence of threats and aims to seek safety, protection and comfort. Assessed e.g. in infants in the Strange Situation (Ainsworth, 1991

Question 16

Attachment - bowlby 1973

Answer 16

attachment experiences lead to “internal working models” of self and other. Consistent findings of more negative views of self and other with less “secure” attachment (e.g. Mikulincer and Shaver, 2016)

Question 17

Ainsworth et al 1978

Main and Solomon (1990)

what is it now conceptualized as?

Answer 17

Secure vs hyperactive (anxious) vs deactivated (avoidant) attachment responses

added disorganised attachment (associated with neglect/abuse)

as two dimension – attachment anxiety vs attachment avoidance (e.g. Crowley et al, 2016

Question 18

what does Cognitive Models of Personality look at

Answer 18

Associations of personality traits with particular types of information processes e.g. Eysenck and Derakshan (2011) links anxiety with poor inhibitory control

Clinical psychology links biased information processing with disorder e.g. selective attention to threat > anxiety (MacLeod and Clarke, 2015)

Question 19

What does the emotional stroop test look at (McNally 2019)

Answer 19

Test shows slowness to name colour of threat words in anxious people

Question 20

Armstrong and Olatunji (2012)

(Raes et al, 2006)

(see Waris et al, 2018)

Answer 20

eye tracking showed faster orientation towards threat and (less clearly) delayed disengagement from threat with high anxiety

Memory bias e.g. overly general memory in depression

Extraversion suggested to be associated with e.g. working memory but associations are inconsistent

Question 21

Eysenk and Derakshan (2011)

Answer 21

Attentional Control Theory suggests anxiety is related to weaker inhibition and therefore vulnerability to distraction

Question 22

What are the effects sensitive to?

Answer 22

to experimental factors such as presentation times, and measuring them has been psychometrically difficult

Question 23

whats the visual probe task and who was it developed by?

Answer 23

by MacLeod, Mathews and Tata (1986). It is intended to measure how strongly your attention is drawn toward and held by specific types of stimuli. This can include emotionally relevant information, including “social threat

Question 24

Gene-environment interactions

Answer 24

G+E > G x E
•Plomin et al (1985) – genes shape interests/activities shape shared environment into non-shared environment

•Moderation effects e.g. Kreuger et al (2008) – Parental regard and negative emotionality

Question 25

Epigenetics- when environment drives gene

Answer 25

Nestler (2009) chronic stress
•McGowan et al (2009) gene methylation and childhood maltreatment
•Lutter et al (2008) chronic “social defeat” affects genes implicated in emotional processing