Quiz 10 Review Flashcards
Personality
e.g.
-Genetic & Environmental Influences
-Minnesota twin studies
-Adoption studies
Traits
- Relatively consistent predispositions that influence our behaviour across situations
- Individual characteristics rather than overarching set of characteristics
How do we develop traits?
Interplay between genes & environment
Genetic factors:
Genetic influence on personality
- ½ from each parent
Shared Environmental factors:
Experiences individual share (and make us more alike)
Example: Birth Order matters
- Early born
–> Achievement driven, tend towards status quo - Middle born
–>Diplomacy driven, experiences aligned with both sides - Late born
–> More likely to take risks, rebel, support radical ideas
Non-shared environmental factors:
Experiences individuals do not share (and make us less alike)
Twin Studies
- Fraternal (Dizygotic twins)
–> Share 50% genetic info
–> Same as if 2 siblings born at once - Identical (Monozygotic twins)
–> Share 100% genetic info - Allows for study of genetic contributions to personality
–> Test how traits vary when genes don’t vary
Minnesota Twin Studies
- Longitudinal study of twins conducted by minnesota university
–> Investigating genetic and environmental influences on the development of psychological traits
–> Put together registries of twins for study
–> 130 pairs of twins that were raised apart
How much of personality is genetic?
How well do the traits of identical twins correlate?
- About 50% similar
- Genetic factors DO influence personality, but not all of it
Does a shared environment influence personality?
Do traits of monozygotic twins raised apart differ more than traits of monozygotic twins raised together?
- Nope.
- Shared environment has very little influence on personality
Adoption Studies
- Children adopted at birth are compared to adopted parents and birth parents
–> More similar to their biological parents despite them being raised by their adopted parents - Separated biological siblings are more alike than adopted siblings raised in the same home
- Genes appear to influence personality but do not determine it
- Causes of personality aren’t simple
–> Personality: “Polygenic trait”
° Influenced by sets of genes
–> No evidence for single “trait genes”
–> Many different genes and factors involved
Takeaways
Genetics do influence personality, but not all of it
What is a psychological disorder?
- Difficult to define, even for professionals
- Psychological disorders are complex and diverse
- What we consider “abnormal” isn’t stable
- Varies across time and culture
- Family-resemblance view: members of a category share some, but not necessarily all, features
Statistical rarity:
are uncommon in the population
Subjective distress:
causes the person distress
Impairment:
interfere with daily functioning
Societal disapproval:
socially unacceptable
Biological dysfunction:
involves brain impairments
Diagnosis: how do we define and diagnose?
- DSM-5: manual outlining a standard system for labeling and diagnosing mental disorders
o Biopsychosocial approach: recognizes the interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors
Classifying individuals—
- Classifying individuals can be helpful
- Classifying individuals can be harmful
- We do not classify individuals by their diagnosis
- Say “individual with schizophrenia” not “schizophrenic”
- Comorbidity: co-occurrence of 2 or more diagnoses
o Ex: panic disorder and agoraphobia
these disorders are “comorbid”
Cultural Variations
- what we consider a mental disorder is culturally determined
o homosexuality - some mental disorders are culturally specific
o anorexia
o koro: a cultural belief that genitals will be sucked into the abdomen and eventually disappear
o taijin kyofusho: anxiety “I’m so offensive to you that I have to stay away” - Rates of disorders vary across cultures
o ADHD
Anxiety Disorders
- Panic disorder
- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Phobias
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (related to classification)
Anxiety Disorder
- Disorders in which the most common symptom is fear or anxiety
- 29% of people will meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives
Panic Disorder –
- Panic: feelings of helpless terror
- Panic attack: brief, intense episodes of extreme fear and feelings of impending death or insanity
o May feel: heart racing, shortness of breath, dizziness
o No specific trigger: can occur at any time without warning
Characteristics:
- Anxiety related to having panic attacks
Panic Disorder Diagnosis:
Diagnosis:
- Experienced at least two panic attacks
- Each followed by at least 1 month of anxiety over the occurrence of another attack
- 2-5% of the US population meet criteria
- 20-25% of college students report at least one panic attack
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) Characteristics
- Constant, undifferentiated worry
- Worry about common things, but much more
- Muscle tension
- Difficulty sleeping
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) Diagnosis:
- At least 6 months of self-disrupting worry, independent of any other disorder
- 3-6% of US population meet criteria
