96 Questions
What is a recording of the electrical activity in various locations on the scalp called?
Electroencephalogram (EEG)
How are hormones primarily transported to the receptors of organs in the body?
Through the blood stream
What is a cheaper alternative to measuring cortisol repeatedly over a longer time period?
Measuring cortisol in hair samples
What hormone is released during stress and primarily functions to mobilize the body for action?
Cortisol
What do higher concentrations of cortisol in hair samples indicate?
Higher levels of stress during a specific period
What type of measures are useful to study situational effects on the human stress response?
Saliva or blood samples
What does error related negativity leave in EEG recordings when humans notice they made a mistake?
A trace
In what bodily fluid can hormones be measured, allowing psychologists who are not equipped to take blood samples to relate them to personality variables?
Saliva
What makes it possible to study individual differences in the human stress response using hair samples?
Good test-retest reliability of cortisol levels in hair samples
Why have researchers found it difficult to establish reliable relationships between cortisol and personality traits?
Personality has relatively weak effects on behavior in a single situation and small sample sizes are often used.
What is the immediate causal process that influences behavior?
The brain
What is the main problem for physiological theories of personality?
Difficulty in studying individual differences in brain functioning
Which approach uses peripheral physiological measures to draw inferences about the brain?
Indirect approach
What could an increase in skin conductance reveal?
Anxiety
What does a larger difference between anxiety-provoking and neutral situations indicate?
Biological differences in sensitivity to threat
What is required for genes to have an effect on behavior?
Influence on biological processes underpinning information processing in the brain
What does the direct approach rely on?
Brain functioning
What contributes to human diversity in personality according to the previous chapter?
Genetic variation
What does an indirect approach use peripheral physiological measures for?
To draw inferences about the brain
What is the focus of physiological theories of personality?
Understanding genetic variation
What has research shown about the stereotype that high-testosterone men are more prone to violence and aggression?
It is not supported by scientific data
How are high-testosterone men perceived by women according to the text?
More attractive
What did a study of over 4,000 soldiers in the US Army suggest about low-testosterone men?
They are more likely to invest heavily in romantic relationships and their offspring
What effect does marital status have on testosterone levels according to the text?
Married men have lower levels and divorced men experience an increase
What has research shown about the effectiveness of testosterone supplements to increase abnormally low levels in men?
Produced mixed results and their effectiveness has been oversold by drug companies
What is the estimated heritability of testosterone levels?
60%
At what age do men's testosterone levels peak?
20
What is the retest correlation for testosterone levels over a period of 10 years?
.50
What role does testosterone play in male-male competition and aggression according to animal studies?
Important role in male-male competition and aggression
What happens to men's testosterone levels after age 20?
They decline over the rest of the life span
What does retest stability (rank order consistency) imply for testosterone levels?
Stability in rank order but not absolute stability
What do twin studies reveal about testosterone levels?
Partially genetically determined
What is the likely effect on Paul and Peter's testosterone levels at age 30 compared to age 20?
Lower at age 30 than at age 20
What is the likely effect of genetic variants that increase production of testosterone throughout men's lives?
Higher testosterone levels throughout their lives
What is the next interesting question regarding the influence of testosterone on personality and behavior?
Its influence on personality and behavior
What percentage of men and women have testosterone after puberty?
Both men and women have it after puberty
What is the dominant hormone during reproductive years when women are not pregnant?
Estradiol
What is currently the most trustworthy finding about women's sexual desire?
Women's sexual desire increases during the fertile phase of the cycle
What did oxytocin research become popularly known as in the 2000s?
The love hormone
What did higher estradiol levels in women correlate with, based on a specific finding?
Rating pictures of men's bodies as more attractive
What did Gangestad express doubts about regarding earlier findings in evolutionary psychology?
"some of what we wrote was just garbage because we trusted all that work, including our own"
What did the literature on women's hormones produce in terms of personality correlates of estrogen?
Very few consistent findings
What did researchers find about the effectiveness of testosterone supplements to increase abnormally low levels in men?
Inconclusive results on their effectiveness
What did earlier proponents of evolutionary psychology express doubts about?
Some of the earlier findings in evolutionary psychology
What did Jünger, Kordsmeyer, Gerlach, & Penke find about women's sexual desire and estradiol levels?
Women's sexual desire increases during the fertile phase of the cycle with higher estradiol levels.
What has estrogen been found to be involved in regulating?
Women's cycle
What was oxytocin called during its popularization in the 2000s?
The love hormone
What is a modern method used to measure brain activity by detecting oxygen levels in blood flow?
fMRI
Why is it challenging to study individual differences using fMRI?
Expense and sample size limitations
What has been a limitation in studying individual differences with fMRI?
Inflated and non-replicable correlations
How have researchers responded to the challenges of studying individual differences with fMRI?
By increasing sample sizes and reliability of fMRI measures
What makes it difficult to detect stable personality variance in fMRI studies?
Situational factors
What did a meta-analysis of 61 fMRI studies with 1,850 participants find about gender differences in brain activation in response to visual sexual stimuli?
No significant gender differences in brain activation
What is the area between the axon and the dendrite called?
Synaptic cleft
What are the little arms on the receiver neuron that are ready to receive information called?
Dendrites
What is the long arm of the sender neuron called?
Axon
What are the chemicals that transmit information between neurons called?
Neurotransmitters
What type of impulse is sent along the axon towards the receiver neuron when the sender neuron is ready to send information?
Electrical impulse
What term is used for the end of the axon not touching the end of the dendrite?
Synaptic cleft
What do neurotransmitters primarily do in terms of neuron communication?
Transmit information between neurons
What is released from the axon and binds to receptors on the dendrite for transmitting information?
Neurotransmitters
What part of the neuron does an electrical impulse travel along when transmitting information?
Axon
What part of a neuron has little arms called dendrites that receive information?
Receiver neuron
In what way does communication between neurons occur according to neuroscience concepts?
Partly electrically and partly chemically
What is the main drawback of using EEG to measure brain activity?
Limited to activity in brain regions closer to the scalp
What do event related potentials in EEG recordings measure?
Responses to stimuli
What did a systematic meta-analysis find regarding the hypothesis about left versus right frontal brain activity and personality?
No evidence for this hypothesis
What did a new meta-analysis in 2019 fail to find regarding resting frontal asymmetries and personality?
Theoretically important relationships
What was the result of studies on EEG measures and personality despite disappointing findings from meta-analyses?
Doubled over the next decade
What is one way to use EEG recordings to study personality?
Recording brain activity during a resting state or focusing on responses to stimuli
What did an influential hypothesis assume about left versus right frontal brain activity and personality?
Individuals who are more approach oriented have more left-frontal activity than right-frontal activity.
What neurotransmitters are most relevant for personality psychology?
Serotonin and dopamine
What event-related potential is a negative electrical response when participants make a mistake in a simple reaction time task?
Error-related negativity (ERN)
What did the authors use to find predictors of the Big Five traits instead of focusing on a specific brain area?
Brain-wide EEG recordings
What is the analogy often used to compare the brain's information processing?
Computer or artificial neural network
What did Suzuki et al. (2019) find no systematic relationships between and the Big Five personality traits?
Event-related potentials
What is the ultimate communication from neuron to neuron in the brain reliant on?
Chemicals called neurotransmitters
What is proposed to be related to variation in neuroticism and extraversion?
Serotonin and dopamine
What type of response is reward-related positivity?
Positive electrical signal when a response is rewarded with money
What do studies suggest about SSRIs and their effect on neuroticism scores in patients with mood disorders?
SSRIs reduce neuroticism scores
What did a study on public employees in Finland find about higher neuroticism scores?
Higher neuroticism scores as a risk factor for mood disorders
What did the study on men receiving SSRI treatment show about their neuroticism scores over time?
Decreased neuroticism scores over time
What is needed to examine SSRIs' influence on personality in individuals with high neuroticism but no history of mood disorder?
Evidence
What does serotonin regulate according to the text?
Both negative and positive mood states
What is the relationship between dopamine theory and extraversion according to the text?
Lacks strong support
What is the impact of treatment of depression on extraversion scores?
Increases extraversion scores, particularly cheerfulness
What did studies with healthy volunteers on SSRIs' effect on personality show?
Mixed results
What do meta-analyses show about the effectiveness of SSRIs for mood disorders?
SSRIs are effective for mood disorders
What do side effects of SSRIs result from according to the text?
Serotonin's role in regulating sleep, eating, and sex
What is unclear about the relationship between personality and mood disorders according to the text?
Causality of the relationship between personality and mood disorders
What do other antidepressants and psychotherapy also reduce according to the text?
Neuroticism scores
What is the main difference between selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and ecstasy in terms of serotonin?
Ecstasy releases massive amounts of serotonin into the synaptic cleft, while SSRIs influence the reuptake mechanism for serotonin
What does the term 'reuptake inhibitor' indicate about selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)?
They influence the reuptake mechanism by inhibiting it, allowing serotonin to stay longer in the synaptic cleft
What is the primary difference in effects between ecstasy and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)?
Ecstasy releases massive amounts of serotonin into the synaptic cleft, while SSRIs have subtle effects that take several weeks to show
What is the specific action of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) on serotonin?
They block the reuptake mechanism for serotonin, allowing it to stay longer in the synaptic cleft
What is the difference between how ecstasy and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) affect serotonin levels?
Ecstasy releases massive amounts of serotonin into the synaptic cleft, while SSRIs do not supply more serotonin but influence its reuptake mechanism
Study Notes
Hormones and Behavior: Testosterone, Estrogen, and Oxytocin
- Studies have examined the relationship between testosterone levels in men and their personality and behavior, with a focus on dominance, status, and aggression.
- The stereotype that high-testosterone men are more prone to violence and aggression is not supported by scientific data.
- Testosterone is linked to sex differences in human behaviors, particularly in sexual behaviors, and is related to the stronger sex drive in men.
- High-testosterone men might be seen as more attractive by women, giving them more opportunities for minimal investment in fathering offspring.
- Low-testosterone men are more likely to invest heavily in romantic relationships and their offspring, as supported by evidence from a study of over 4,000 soldiers in the US Army.
- Marital status can influence testosterone levels, with married men having lower levels and divorced men experiencing an increase.
- Testosterone supplements to increase abnormally low levels in men have produced mixed results, and their effectiveness has been oversold by drug companies.
- Marital status is not an ideal measure of sexual behaviors, and a better measure may be the number of sexual partners.
- Testosterone levels may be more important during development than in adulthood, and studies have not supported the correlation between facial masculinity and testosterone levels.
- Research has not produced solid findings linking men's testosterone levels and personality, and any future relationships found are likely to be weaker than stereotypes suggest.
- Estrogen, the female hormone involved in regulating women's cycle, has different versions, with estradiol being dominant during reproductive years.
- Despite efforts to find personality correlates of estrogen, research has produced very few consistent findings, with the most trustworthy finding being that women's sexual desire increases during the fertile phase of the cycle.
Oxytocin research became popular in the 2000s and was called the love hormone, but the text did not provide any detailed information about oxytocin.
Challenges of Studying Brain Activity and Individual Differences
- Human brains have variation in neurological processes, such as neurotransmitter production and receptor levels, leading to quantitative variation in experiences like fear.
- Functional MRI (fMRI) is a modern method used to measure brain activity by detecting oxygen levels in blood flow, showing active brain regions.
- fMRI has been used since the 1990s to study human brain activity in response to different stimuli, but it's challenging to study individual differences due to expense and sample size limitations.
- Research using fMRI with small samples has reported inflated and non-replicable correlations, leading to skepticism about the method's reliability.
- Studies of individual differences with fMRI require reliable measurement of variation across individuals, which has been limited by the modest reliability of fMRI measures.
- Researchers have responded to these challenges by increasing sample sizes and reliability of fMRI measures to find neurological correlates of personality traits.
- Personality is a better predictor of behavior across multiple situations, making it difficult to detect stable personality variance in the large variation due to situational factors in fMRI studies.
- Situational factors play a strong role in detecting personality variance, and lying in a brain scanner without a task or stimuli may not be ideal for this purpose.
- A meta-analysis of 61 fMRI studies with 1,850 participants found no consistent gender differences in brain activation in response to visual sexual stimuli, contrary to common beliefs.
- However, a different group of researchers analyzing the same data found sex differences in specific brain regions, indicating the difficulty of fMRI research on individual variation.
- Brain scans may seem more scientific, but measuring processes in the brain is difficult, and brain measures must meet the same criteria of reliability and validity as other measures.
- The challenges of studying brain activity and individual differences highlight the need for rigorous methods and cautious interpretation in fMRI research.
SSRIs, Personality, and Neurotransmitters
- Meta-analysis shows SSRIs are effective for mood disorders
- SSRIs have side effects due to serotonin's role in regulating sleep, eating, and sex
- Studies suggest SSRIs reduce neuroticism scores in patients with mood disorders
- Other antidepressants and psychotherapy also reduce neuroticism scores
- Treatment of depression increases extraversion scores, particularly cheerfulness
- Causality of the relationship between personality and mood disorders is unclear
- Studies with healthy volunteers on SSRIs' effect on personality have mixed results
- A study on public employees in Finland found higher neuroticism scores as a risk factor for mood disorders
- Men receiving SSRI treatment showed decreased neuroticism scores over time, but women did not
- Evidence is needed to examine SSRIs' influence on personality in individuals with high neuroticism but no history of mood disorder
- Serotonin regulates both negative and positive mood states
- Dopamine theory linking it to extraversion lacks strong support, and studies on legal drugs altering dopamine levels are limited
Test your knowledge on how the brain integrates information to guide behavior and the influence of genes on biological processes. Explore the relationship between genetic variation, brain function, and human diversity in personality.
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