PSY206 Midterm 1 Study Guide PDF

CHAPTER 1 1. Define personality. The set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual. Psychological traits: - Characteristics that describe how people are different from each other Psychological mechanisms - Are like traits but refer more to processes of person...

CHAPTER 1 1. Define personality. The set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual. Psychological traits: - Characteristics that describe how people are different from each other Psychological mechanisms - Are like traits but refer more to processes of personality 2. Identify and describe the three levels of personality analysis. Three levels of personality (Murray, 1948) A) human nature B) individual differences and group differences C) individual uniqueness A) human nature: how we are ‘like all others’ traits and mechanisms of personality that are typical of our species and possessed by nearly everyone B) individual and group differences How we are ‘like some others’ Individual differences refer to ways in which each person is like some other people, (ex: extraverts, sensation-seeker) Group differences refers to common features within a group that make that group of people different from other groups (ex: cultures, age groups) C) individual uniqueness How we are ‘like no others’ -refers to the fact that every indidivudal has personal and unique qualities not shared by any other person in the world 3. Describe the fissure that exists in the field between levels of analysis. The gap between grand theories of personality (human nature) and contemporary research in personality (individual and group difference). 4. Describe the six domains of knowledge about human nature. - Dispositional - Biological - Intrapsychic - Cognitive -experiental - Social and cultural - Adjustment Dispositional: - Look at ways individuals differ from one another - Focus on number and nature of fundamental dispositions - Interested in origin of individual differences and how these develop over time (look at how we are different) Biological: - Core assumption - Humans are collection of biological systems - Behavioral genetics of personality - Psychophysiology of personality - Evolutionary personality psychology Intrapsychic: - Deals with mental mechanisms of personality (some operate outside conscious awareness) - Classic and modern versions of Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis - Including work on repression, denial, projection, and motives for power, achievement, and affiliation Cognitive-experiental: - Focuses on cognition (thinking) and subjective experience - Such as conscious thoughts, feelings, beliefs, desire about oneself and others - Self and self-concept: goals we set and strive (how that relates to personality) - Emotional experiences, in general and over time Social and cultural: - Assumption that personality impact and is impacted by social and cultural contexts - Cultural differences between groups - Individual differences within cultures - How personality plays out in social sphere (sex and gender differences in personality processes, traits, and mechanisms) Adjustment: how does this relate to our wellbeing - Personality plays role in how we cope, adapt and adjust to events in daily life - Personality linked to health outcomes, and problems in coping and adjustment - Relates to health by influencing health related behavior (smoking) 5. Summarize the role of personality theory. A good theory fulfills three purposes in science: - Provides a guide for researchers - Organizes known findings - Makes predictions 6. Name and define standards for evaluating personality theories. A) comprehensiveness: explains most or all known facts B) heuristic value: guides researchers to new discoveries C) testability: makes precise predictions that can e empirically tested D) parsimony: contains few premises or assumptions E) compatibility and integration across domains and levels: consistent with what is known in other domains; can be coordinated with other branches of scientific knowledge 7. Discuss the notion of a grand and ultimate theory of personality. An ultimate grand theory of personality psychology will have to unify all six domains. Field of personality psychology currently lacks a grand theory. CHAPTER 2 1. Identify the sources of personality data. A) Self-Report Data (S-Data) - Information people provide about themselves, through surveys or interviews - Individuals have access to info about them that is inaccessible to anyone else - S-data personality tests: -unstructured, open ended -structured, responses option provided - Limitations of S-data -people may not respond honestly -people may lack accurate self-knowledge B) Observer-Report Data (O-Data) - Info about a person’s personality gathered from others (family, friends, teachers) - Strengths: -observers have access to info not attainable through other sources -multiple observers (inner-rater reliability) - Selecting observers: professional personality assessor, people who know the person - Friends and family may be in better position to observe person’s natural behaviours, but may be biased - Naturalistic observation: observers witness and record events that occur in the normal course of lives of participants (advantage to secure info in realistic context) - Artificial observation: occurs in artificial settings or situations (advantage of controlling conditions and eliciting relevant behaviour) C) Test-Data (T-Data) - Participants are placed in standardized testing situation to see if different people react differently to identical situation (ex: Henry-Murray’s bridge-building test) - Limitations: -participants might try to guess what trait is being measured and then alter their behaviour -researcher might influence how participants behave - Mechanical recording devices (actometer) used to assess children’s activity -strengths: not hampered by biases of human observer, may be used in natural setting -disadvantage: few personality dispositions lend themselves to mechanical assessment - Physiological data: info about person’s level of arousal, reactivity of stimuli - Functional magnetic resonance imaging: difficult to fake responses -disadvantage: used in artificial laboratory setting - Projective techniques: person presented with ambiguous stimuli (asked person to describe what they see) -strengths: provide info about wishes, desires, fantasies a person is not aware of -weaknesses: difficult to score, uncertain validity and reliability D) Life-Outcome Data (L-Data) - Personality can be studied through life events, activities, and outcomes - Public record provides real life insights (marriage, speeding tickets) 2. Explain how personality measures are evaluated by researchers. -reliability Degree to which measures represent true level of trait being measured - Types of reliability -test-retest -internal consistency -inter-rater - Response sets: people respond to question on abasis that is unrelated to the question content -extreme responding (1 or 7 to everything) -social desirability (portray ourselves in a better light) -validity Degree to which test measures what it claims to measure - Types of validity -face -predictive or criterion -convergent -discriminant -construct -generalizability Degree to which measures retain validity across different contexts - Generalizability subsumes reliability and validity - Greater generalizability not always better 3. Describe the different research designs in personality. Experimental methods - Used to determine causality, whether one variable causes one another - Two key requirements: -manipulation of variables -counterbalancing  - People who study alone at library are likely to be introverted, people who study in groups tend to be extraverted Correlational studies - Statistical procedure for determining whether there is a relationship between two variables - Designed to identify ‘what goes with what’ - Advantage: allows us to identify relationships among variables as they occur naturally - Correlation coefficient, -1.00 (perfect negative relationship), 0 (no relationship), +1 (perfect positive relationship) - Correlation does not indicate causation - Greater than 0.5 = strong Case studies - In-depth examination of the life of a person - Advantages: -find out about personality in detail - Disadvantage: -results based on study of single person cannot be generalized to others CHAPTER 3 1. Identify and describe the two basic formulations of a trait. -Trait as internal causal properties Traits are internal, people carry their desires, needs, and wants with them across different situations. Desires and needs are causal, help people explain why people behave the way they do. Traits can be dormant, even if trait isn’t visible in behavior, it still exists in person. -Trait as purely descriptive summaries Traits describe a person’s characteristics without assuming they come from internal causes. First identify and describe differences between people, then develop causal theories to explain why those differences exist.  2. Describe the act frequency formulation of traits. Traits are categories of acts. -A trait is a descriptive summary of the general trend in a person’s behaviour relative to other people. 3. Explain and evaluate the three fundamental approaches to identifying the most important traits. Many researchers use a combination of the three strategies Lexical (1) Lexical hypothesis: all important individual differences have become encoded within the natural language. Language reflects the most important personality traits. Trait terms are important for people in communicating with others. Two criteria for identifying important traits: - Synonym frequency (how many synonyms for the word) - Cross-cultural universality (can’t translate word, non-universal) Problems and limitations: - Personality is conveyed through different parts of speech (adjectives, nouns, adverbs) Statistical (2) Identify major dimensions of personality Factor analysis: - Identifies groups of items that covary or go together - Provide means for determining which personality variable share some property or belong within the same group Theoretical Starts with a theory, which then determines which variables are important. 4. Name and summarize the leading taxonomies of personality Eysenck’s Hierarchical Model of Personality Believed traits were highly heritable with a psychophysiological foundation First one to coin term ‘extraversion’ Traits met criteria: - Extraversion-introversion (E) - Neuroticism-emotional stability (N) - Psychoticism (P) Super traits at the top Narrower trait at second level Traits level – habitual acts Lowest level = specific acts Critique of Eysenck’s biological underpinnings: - Racial differences in IQ were not due to social factors but genetic - Racial differences in IQ can be explained entirely by environmental factors - Served to perpetuate false belief that white people were genetically superior The Wiggins Circumplex (1979) Traits terms specify different kinds of ways in which individuals differ: - Interpersonal, temperament, character, material, attitude, mental, physical Concerned with interpersonal traits and Defined ‘interpersonal’ as interactions between people involving exchanges Key advantages: - Provides explicit definition of wat continues interpersonal behaviour - Specify relationships between each trait and every other trait in the model Key limitations: - Interpersonal map is limited to two dimensions Five-Factor Model Extraversion - Warmth - Excitement seeking - Activity level Agreeableness - Trust in others - Compliance Conscientiousness - Self-discipline - Achievement striving Neuroticism - Anxiety - Impulsiveness Openness to experience  - Aesthetics - Values Based on lexical and statistical approaches Empirical evidence: - Replicated in different language - Replicated in every decade for the past half century Critics argue it omits important aspects of personality: - Religion/spirituality - Personality-descriptive nouns Examples: - Good grades: high conscientiousness and low neuroticism - Alcohol consumption: high extraversion and low conscientiousness The HEXACO Model Identify a sixth factor: honesty-humility Honesty-humility contains four facts: - Sincerity - Fairness - Greed avoidance - Modesty People low on H tend to be egoistical and interpersonally exploitative. Difference between hexaco and five factor model: anger under agreeableness rather than emotionality. Cluster of negative traits is called ‘Dark Triad’. CHAPTER 4 1. Identify and explain important theoretical issues in trait psychology. Meaningful differences between individuals Trait psychology also called differential psychology People differ in amount of traits Differences can be accurately measured According to trait psychologists, every personality is product of few basic and of primary traits Individual differences: how individual differ, not just in personality Consistency over time Broad traits are consistent over time How a trait is manifested in behaviour might change over time Rank order: consistent over time relative to others Capsi, Elder, and Bem (1987): - Longitudinal study exploring how childhood personality traits influence adult outcomes and stability of these traits over time - Personality traits in childhood tend to persist into adulthood - Life events and social roles can shape or modify these traits - Early personality traits predict long-term life outcomes Consistency across situations Traits psychologists assumed cross-situation consistency Situationism: - If behaviour varies across situations, then situational differences and not personality traits determine behaviour Harshtone & May’s cross situational study (1928) - Observed honest and dishonest in several situations - Found little evidence for consistency in such traits as honesty 2. Identify and explain common measurement issues in trait psychology. Carelessness Method for detecting carelessness: - Infrequency scale -items that most people answer in particular way, if answer differently than most this suggests carelessness - Include duplicate items far apart in survey -if person answer item differently, this suggests carelessness Faking on questionnaires ‘fake good’ - Attempt to appear better ‘fake bad’ - Attempt to appear worse Barnum statement Generalities that could apply to anyone Ex: fortune cookies, horoscope 3. Summarize the theory and research on personality and prediction, noting key considerations in personality testing in employment settings. Employment success may be determined by a person’s personality Personality traits may predict who is likely to do well in particular job Personality testing in workplace: - Employers may make use of personality testing to avoid charges of negligent hiring Bill C. 16, Legal issues in personality testing in employment settings: - Right to privacy - Discrimination - Disparate impact - Race or gender norming CHAPTER 5 1. Name and define key conceptual issues in personality development, including stability, coherence, and change. a) personality development - Consistencies, stabilities in people over time and the way in which people change over time b) rank order stability - Maintenance of individual position within a group c) mean level stability - Constancy of level d) personality coherence - Maintaining rank order relatives to others but changing in the manifestations of trait e) personality change - Internal -changes are internal to a person - Enduring -changes are enduring over time 2. Identify the three levels of analysis at which personality stability and change can be studied. Population - Changes or constancies that apply more or less to everyone Group differences - Changes or constancies that affect different groups differently Individual differences - Ex: can we predict who is at risk for psychological disturbance later in life based on earlier measures of personality? 3. Examine the research on personality stability over time. 4. Examine the research on personality change over time. 5. Explain and provide examples of personality coherence CHAPTER 6 1. Discuss the history and current state of the scientific study of genes and personality, noting concerns and controversies. 2. Define heritability and describe primary goals and research methods of behavioural genetics. Heritability is a statistic that refers to the proportion of observed variance in a group of individuals that can be accounted for by genetic variance.  - Phenotypic variance -observed individual differences (height, weight, personality) - Genotypic variance -individual differences in the total collection of genes possessed by each person - Environmental -proportion of observed variance in group of individuals attributable to environmental variance (opposite of heritability) Misconceptions about heritability: - Cannot be applied to single individual - Isn’t constant or immutable - Isn’t a precise statistic Primary goals of behavioural genetics - Determine percentage of individual differences in a trait that can be attributed to genetics differences and to environmental differences - Determine ways in which genes and environment interact and correlate with each other to produce individual differences - Determine where in the ‘environment’ environmental effects exist (ex: different teachers) Research methods of behavioural genetics Selective breeding - Occur if desired trait is heritable - Selective studies of dogs - Select desirable qualities - Cannot be conducted with humans Family studies - The more genetically related family members are, the more similar their personality traits should be - If the trait is highly heritable - Problem: family members who share same genes also share same environment (confounds genetic with environmental influences), thus family studies are never definitive Twin studies - Estimates heritability by measuring whether identical (MZ) twins, who share 100% genes, are more similar than fraternal (DZ) twins, who share only 50% of genes - If MZ twins are more similar than DZ twins = evidence of heritability - Calculating heritability: 2(rmz-rdz) - Assumption: equal environment Adoption studies - Traits between adopted children and adoptive parents provide environmental influence - Traits between adopted children and genetics parents provide genetic influence - Problem: selective placement of adopted children 3. Describe the major findings from behavioural genetics research. Personality traits: - Most studied traits are extraversion and neuroticism - Heritability estimates for major personality traits of about 50% (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness to experience) Attitudes and preferences: - Wide variance in heritability of attitudes - Some attitudes (ex: traditionalism) show high heritability (about 0.6) - Others shows low heritability (ex: belief in God) - Current evidence suggests genes provide modest and indirect influence on adult orientation Drinking and Smoking: - Sensation-seeking, extraversion, neuroticism - Both show evidence of heritability 4. Explain the difference between shared and nonshared environmental influences, citing key findings. Shared - In family environment, features that is shared by siblings - Ex: number of books in home Unshared - In family environment, features that differ across siblings - Ex: different friends, different teachers 5. Summarize the insights gained from molecular genetics. Designed to identify specific genes associated with personality traits. D4DR gene  - Association between D4DR gene and personality trait involves novelty seeking - ‘long repeat’ D4DR higher on novelty seeking - Men with DRD4 7R+ invest more money in a financial risk game 6. Identify and explain how genetic and environmental factors interact. People with different genotypes respond differently to the same environment. - Ex: task performance of introverts versus extraverts in loud versus noisy conditions Genes and environment influence each other. Genetic factors: - Traits and characteristics we inherit from our parents (eye color, height) - Can be affected by environment Ex: genetic tendency to be good at sport, but environment can help them develop the talent Environmental factors: - Are the influences around us (family, friends, culture, education) - Can be shaped by genes -ex: person is naturally shy, might choose quieter, less social environments CHAPTER 7 1. Explain the types of questions asked by psychologists regarding the role of human physiology in personality. 2. Identify and describe the physiological measures commonly used in personality research. Electrodermal activity (EDA) (skin conductance) - Obtained by electrodes or sensors placed on the skin surface - Advantage: non-invasive, no discomfort - Disadvantage: movement constrained - increased sweat with arousal = skin conductance of electricity increases - can measures responses to sudden noises, emotionally charged picture, pain, anxiety, fear, guilt - some people display EDA in the absence of external stimuli -associated with anxiety and neuroticism Cardiovascular activity - blood pressure -can measure stress reactivity - heart rate -increases with anxiety, fear, arousal, cognitive effort - tools: apple watch - cardiac reactivity: -increases in blood pressure and heart rate when performing task (backward serial subtraction) -cardiac reactivity (and type A) associated with coronary heart disease -associated with type A personality: impatience, competitiveness, hostility Brain activity - neuroscience: study of nervous system - brain function -PET scan or fMRI - brain structure -MRI - brain connections -focus on functional connectivity between brain regions - brain electrical activity -measured by electrodes on the scalp (EEG) -participant is givens stimulus and researcher assess specific brain response to stimulus 3. Examine physiologically based theories of personality and describe related research findings. Extraversion-Introversion - Measured by Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) - High extraversion: talkative, outgoing, bored easily, hates routine - Low extraversion: quiet, prefers being alone, prefers routine - Eysenck’s theory: -Introverts have higher level of activity in ARAS -Introverts work to decrease and avoid stimulation -Difference between introverts and extraverts lies in arousability - Geen (1984): -Both perform task best under their chosen simulation level Sensitivity to reward and punishment - Impulsivity and anxiety - Behavioural activation system (BAS)  -motivated goal directed behavior -respond to cues that signal potential reward (praise, success) -when activated, encourages approach behavior, making a person more motivated -active BAS produces impulsivity - Fight-Flight-Freeze system (FFS) -respond to immediate danger -respond to threatening stimuli (loud noise, predator) -triggers FFS -sensitivity to FFs is linked to high levels of fear, panic - Behavioural inhibition system (BIS) -respond to potential punishment, frustration, uncertainty -when activated, encourages inhibition or avoidance -active BIS produces anxiety Sensation seeking - Seek out thrilling, exciting, take risks, avoid boredom - Hebb’s theory of optimal level of arousal - Zuckerman: -high sensation seekers are less tolerant of sensory deprivation -require much stimulation to get to optimal level of arousal - High sensation seekers have low levels of MAO Neurotransmitters and personality Dopamine - Associated with pleasure Serotonin - Associated with depression and other mood disorders Norepinephrine - Associated with fight of flight response Cloninger’s tridimensional personality model - Novelty seeking: low levels of dopamine - Harm avoidance: low level of serotonin - Reward dependence: low levels of norepinephrine Morningness-eveningness - Being a morning or evening type of person is a stable characteristic - Individuals with shorter circadian rhythm: -hit peak body temperature and alertness earlier in day -get sleepy earlier  -tend to be morning person - Longer rhythm: -tend to be evening person Brain asymmetry and affective style - EEG can measure brain waves - Left hemisphere: -more active than right when person is experiencing pleasant emotions - Right hemisphere: -more active than left with unpleasant emotions