Psychology 1 - Personality

Question 1

What is temperament?

Answer 1

The genetic component of personality

Question 2

What is a longitudinal study?

Answer 2

A study carried out over time to show how behaviour changes over time

Question 3

What is personality?

Answer 3

The thoughts, feelings and behaviours that make an individual unique

Question 4

What is the difference between monozygotic and dizygotic twins?

Answer 4

Monozygotic twins have an identical genotype

Dizygotic twins are non-identical

Question 5

Why are monozygotic twins useful to psychologists?

Answer 5

They show how differences in background can affect personality

Question 6

What is type theory?

Answer 6

The theory that suggests that personality types are inherited

Question 7

What is the difference between an introvert and an extrovert?

Answer 7

Extroverts look to other people for entertainment

Introverts are content with their own company and have a small group of very close friends

Question 8

What is neuroticism?

Answer 8

A personality type that describes people who are highly emotional and sensitive

Question 9

What is the amygdala?

Answer 9

The part of the brain involved in emotion

Question 10

What is the prefrontal cortex?

Answer 10

The very front of brain which is controlling strong emotions

Question 11

What are socioeconomic factors?

Answer 11

Social and financial issues that affect individuals

Question 12

What are personality scales?

Answer 12

Ways of measuring personality with yes / no questions

Question 13

What is psychoticism?

Answer 13

A dimension measured by Eyesenck to describe people who are are hostile, aggressive and insensitive

Question 14

What did Thomas, Chess and Birch do?

Answer 14

To discover whether ways of responding to an enviroment remain stable throughout life

They studied 133 studied from infancy to adulthood, their behaviour was observed and the parents were interviewed about the child’s reactions to change

The children fell into 3 categories which were “easy”, “difficult” and “slow to warm up” in their reactions to change and these traits stayed throughout their lives

Temperament must be innate

Question 15

Evaluate the Thomas, Chess and Birch study

Answer 15

The children lived in New York so we can’t generalise the results
The parents could give answers that show the children in the best possible way

Question 16

What did Buss and Plomin do?

Answer 16

To test the idea that temperanent is genetic

They studied 228 pairs of monozygotic twins and 172 pairs of dizygotic twins and rated the temperaments at the age of 5, they looked at 3 dimensions
which were “emotionality” (strength of emotional response), “activity” (how energetic) and “sociability” (how much wanted to be with others)

There was a close correlation between the monozygotic twins than the dizygotic twins

Temperament has a genetic basis

Question 17

Evaluate the Buss and Plomin study

Answer 17

Monozygotic twins are treated in very similar ways so the similarities could come from this
Research carried out on twins can’t be generalised to everyone else

Question 18

What did Kagan and Snidman do?

Answer 18

To see if temperament is due to biological differences

They studied the reactions of 4 month old babies to new situations, the baby was placed next to the caregiver for the first minute but for the next 3 minutes, the caregiver moved out of view and the researcher showed the baby toys

20% were distressed and called high reactive, 40% were calm and called low reactive, the rest were somewhere in between

They concluded that these are inherited differences in the way the brain responds

Question 19

Evaluate the Kagan and Snidman study

Answer 19

It was a large sample so you can generalise the results

Lacks ecological validity because it was an experimental setting

Question 20

Give a study into personality differences

Answer 20

Eysenck (1947)

To investigate personality differences between people

700 servicemen completed a questionaire, Eysenck analysed the results using a technique called factor analysis

He identified 2 dimensions of personality: extraversion - introversion and neuroticism - stability

Everyone can be placed on this scale, most lie in the centre of the scale

Question 21

Evaluate the personality differences study

Answer 21

Answers could be based on their current moods

He didn’t consider the fact that personality is affected by experience as well as genetics

Question 22

Give a study into the causes of APD

Answer 22

Raine (2000)

To support the theory that abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex cause APD

MRI was used to study 21 men with APD and a control group of 34 healthy men, they were all volunteers

The APD group had an 11% reduction in the prefrontal cortex compared with the control group

APD is caused by a reduction in the prefrontal cortex

Question 23

Evaluate the causes of APD study

Answer 23

Results might not relate to women because only men were used

The study assumes that there is no experience-related causes of APD

Question 24

Give a study into situational causes of APD

Answer 24

Elander (2000)

To investigate the childhood risk factors that can be used to predict APD in childhood

Researchers investigated 225 twins who were diagnosed with childhood disorders and interviewed them 10 - 25 years later

Childhood hyperactivity, conduct disorders, low IQ and reading problems were strong predictors of APD and criminality in later life

Disruptive behaviour in childhood can be used to predict APD in adulthood

Question 25

Evaluate the situational causes of APD study

Answer 25

The study looked at twins so their behaviour could be based on genetics and not experience
They were asked to describe experiences from childhood which they could have remembered wrongly