Week 3 - Genetics, evolution and personality

Question 1

W. H. ­Sheldon (1942) expanded the idea from categories to dimensions and looked at normal personality. He believed each quality relates to one of three layers of the embryo. For that reason, he named them after the layers:

Answer 1

Endomorphy - is the tendency toward plumpness ­(reflecting digestion). Endomorphs are soft and round.

Mesomorphy - is the tendency toward muscularity (reflecting predominance of bone and muscle). ­Mesomorphs are rectangular, hard, and strong.

Ectomorphy - is the tendency toward thinness (reflecting the skin and nervous system). Ectomorphs are delicate and frail, easily overwhelmed by stimulation.

Question 2

Behavioral genetics

Answer 2

This is the study of genetic influences on behavioral qualities, including personality

Question 3

Heritability estimate

Answer 3

This index represents the amount of variability in the population that’s accounted for by inheritance in the trait under consideration. The higher the heritability, the stronger the evidence that genes matter.

Question 4

temperament (1984) df + 3

Answer 4

refers to an inherited personality trait present in early childhood.

3: activity level, sociability, and emotionality.

Question 5

Activity level

Answer 5

is the person’s output of energy or behavior. It has two highly correlated aspects: vigor (the intensity of behavior) and tempo (its speed). People high in activity level prefer high-intensity, fast-paced activities. Those lower in activity level take a more leisurely approach to things.

Question 6

Sociability

Answer 6

is the tendency to prefer being with other people, rather than alone. It’s a desire for sharing activities, along with the social responsiveness and stimulation that are part of interaction.

Question 7

Emotionality

Answer 7

is the tendency to become emotionally aroused—easily and intensely—in upsetting situations.

Question 8

Approach temperament

Answer 8

The temperamental tendency to approach rewards.

Question 9

Avoidance temperament

Answer 9

The temperamental tendency to avoid threats.

Question 10

Effortful control

Answer 10

A tendency to be focused, restrained, and planful.

Question 11

Which big 5 is approach temperament similar to?

Answer 11

Extraversion, and in part agreeableness

(Some people think extraversion is about approaching social rewards)

Question 12

Which big 5 is effortful control temperament similar to?

Answer 12

Conscientiousness

Question 13

Which big 5 is emotionality/avoidance temperament similar to?

Answer 13

Neuroticism

Question 14

Which big 5 is intelligence temperament similar to?

Answer 14

Openness to experience

(it often is referred to as intelligence, as it’s one of the more elusive of the big 5).

Intel = Genetically influenced, and its effects on behavior are broad, manifest early in life, and continue throughout the life span (making it a solid temperament)

Question 15

Nonshared environmental effect

Answer 15

The environment seems to affect personality mostly by making twins different, rather than the same

Question 16

Name 3 contexts where a correlation between environment and heritability is likely to occur

Answer 16

When an inherited inclination leads you towards an environment that encourages that inclination to flourish

Sometimes, the impact comes from outsiders’ genes, as when parents’ genetic makeup leads them to create particular environments for their children (e.g. the IQ Vocab / education chart)

Sometimes, it comes when people’s genetic makeup affects the responses they induce from people around them.

Question 17

Gene expression

Answer 17

when the gene engages in the processes that create a protein.

gene expression is not the same throughout the body. Gene expression varies by region and type of cell involved (e.g., brain cells, blood cells).

Question 18

methylation

Answer 18

The attachment of methyl chemical groups to what’s called the gene’s promoter region (its “on” switch). When there’s more methylation, there’s less gene expression. This doesn’t involve a change in the gene itself. For that reason, it’s called an epigenetic effect (which in this context means “in addition to genetic”). Methylation can be affected by stress level and even by diet

Question 19

Two labels for the view that humans are a product of evolution leads to the possibility that ancient evolutionary processes have a major influence on present-day human behavior.

Answer 19

sociobiology and evolutionary psychology

Question 20

directional selection

Answer 20

a shift toward a higher proportion of the adaptive allele in the population’s next generation.

Question 21

stabilizing selection

Answer 21

Evolution in which intermediate values of a dimension are most adaptive.

e.g. It’s important for people to have some sociability, because humans are such a social species. Having too little sociability isn’t adaptive. But neither is it adaptive to have too much sociability. A person with extremely high sociability can hardly bear to be alone, and life sometimes requires people to be alone.

Question 22

Inclusive fitness

Answer 22

The passing on of genes through the survival of relatives.

Question 23

Genetic similarity theory

Answer 23

By making you attracted to someone with genes like yours, your genes increase the odds that genes like themselves will be copied (from one parent or both) into a new person, thus passing into the next generation.

Question 24

assortative mating

Answer 24

The general idea that people choose mates on the basis of particular characteristics

Question 25

young male syndrome

Question 26

Concordance

Answer 26

Agreement on some characteristic between a twin and a co-twin.