Chapter 9: The Biological Approach PDF

216 Chapter 9 / The Biological Approach Proponents of this view point out that anxiety, although expressed in different ways, is found in nearly all cultures (Barlow, 1988). Moreover, the kinds of behavior that lead to social exclusion are typically those that impair the survival of the species (B...

216 Chapter 9 / The Biological Approach Proponents of this view point out that anxiety, although expressed in different ways, is found in nearly all cultures (Barlow, 1988). Moreover, the kinds of behavior that lead to social exclusion are typically those that impair the survival of the species (Buss, 1990; Sloman, 2008). These include adultery, aggression, and taking valuable resources away from others. In this sense, evolutionary theory crosses paths with Sigmund Freud. Freud also argued that primitive people came to live in groups and developed laws against many sexual and aggressive behaviors so that the species might survive. Although Freud was concerned with repressing unconscious impulses, his analysis is in many ways similar to that of more recent evolutionary theorists. In sum, what we call “human nature” can be thought of as a large number of psychological mechanisms that have allowed humankind to survive as long as we have. Advocates of this approach do not argue that all human characteristics are necessarily beneficial. It is even possible that some of our psychological mechanisms could someday contribute to the extinction of the species. Nonetheless, evolutionary personality psychology provides an interesting avenue for understanding some basic features of human personality. Application: Children’s Temperaments and School M ost of us have been exposed at one time or another to a parent’s or a grandparent’s description of the strict and regimented way teachers used to run their classes “when I was a kid.” According to these stories, all children were treated alike. Each was expected to sit quietly during reading period, to work at the pace set by the teacher, and, above all, to pay full attention at all times. Any deviations from the routine were met with strict and sometimes severe punishment. Although the accuracy of these descriptions might be challenged, teachers today do not approach their job the same way they did a few generations ago. One important difference between teaching then and teaching now is an awareness that not all children approach learning the same way. Because children are born with different temperaments, some jump right in and begin participating in lessons, but others are slow to warm up to new tasks. Some students have difficulty focusing their attention on any one activity for very long, whereas other students become frustrated when forced to move to a new assignment before they are ready. In fact, the transition from a familiar home environment to an unfamiliar classroom is just the kind of event that is likely to highlight differences in temperament. This was illustrated in a study in which researchers used measures of inhibition taken at age 21 months to predict how children would react upon entering kindergarten (Gersten, 1989). Observers watched the children during a relatively unstructured free-play period their first day of school. The children who had earlier been identified as inhibited responded to this unfamiliar situation by keeping to themselves and watching their new classmates. Compared to their classmates, the inhibited children were less likely to play with the other boys and girls, to touch other children, or even to laugh. Clearly inhibited and uninhibited children respond very differently to the first day of class, and researchers find these differences often continue throughout the school year (Gersten, 1989). Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Application: Children’s Temperaments and School 217 Although temperaments can be classified in a number of ways, many researchers find it convenient to examine three basic temperament patterns among elementary school children (Chess & Thomas, 1996). First, there is the easy child, who eagerly approaches new situations, is adaptive, and generally experiences a positive mood. Most teachers would probably prefer an entire classroom full of these students. However, classes are likely to include some examples of the difficult child. These children have difficulty adapting to new environments and are often in a negative mood. A classroom is also likely to include some children who fall in the third general pattern, the slow-to-warm-up child. These children are similar to the inhibited children described earlier in the chapter. They tend to withdraw from unfamiliar situations and are slow to adapt to new academic tasks and new activities. A 6-year study of children primarily from middle-class backgrounds found that about two-thirds of the elementary school children could be placed into one of these three categories (Thomas & Chess, 1977). Forty percent of the students fell into the easy child category, 10% into the difficult child group, and 15% into the slow­to-warm-up category. Thus, the typical elementary school classroom contains a mix of children with different temperament patterns. Obviously, this represents a significant challenge for the teacher. Temperament and Academic Performance Numerous studies find that a child’s temperament affects how well that child does in school (Al-Hendawi, 2013; Coplan, Barber, & Lagace-Seguin, 1999; Fernandez-Vilar & Carranza, 2013; Keogh, 2003; Poropat, 2016; Rudasill & Konold, 2008; Stright, Gallagher, & Kelley, 2008). As you might expect, children with either the difficult or slow-to-warm-up pattern tend to perform more poorly than students with the easy child pattern. Children with an easy temperament get higher grades and better evaluations from their teachers and do better on standardized achievement tests. But researchers also find that temperament is not related to intelligence (Keogh, 1986). So how does temperament affect a child’s academic performance? Psychologists have identified several possibilities. First, some temperaments are probably more compatible with the requirements of the typical classroom than others. In most classes, children who are attentive, adaptable, and persistent are likely to do better than those who are low on these temperament dimensions. Children with short attention spans and children who are easily distracted may have difficulty completing assignments or paying enough attention to learn their lessons. Students who take a long time to adapt to new situations often find themselves behind the rest of the class. Moreover, children who fall behind or do poorly on assignments may become discouraged or give up, thus adding to their academic problems. Second, a student’s behavior evokes responses from the teacher (Houts, Caspi, Pianta, Arseneault, & Moffitt, 2010). The student who is attentive and seemingly eager to learn is going to draw a different reaction from the typical elementary school teacher than the student who is easily distracted and withdrawn. Working with the former student probably will be pleasant and rewarding; working with the latter may be frustrating and demanding. Because they are less likely to initiate interactions with the teacher, inhibited children also are less likely to get help when they need it and generally receive Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 218 Chapter 9 / The Biological Approach less attention from their teachers than do other students (Rudasill & Rimm-Kaufman, 2009). Thus, perhaps quite unintentionally, teachers may pay more attention to and work more closely with some students than with others. In other words, opportunities for learning and achievement may be shaped by the child’s temperament. Third, teachers sometimes misinterpret temperamental differences in their students (Keogh, 1989). Slow-to-warm-up children may be seen as unmotivated when they fail to eagerly attack an assignment or as unintelligent when they require several tries to master a new task. A highly active student might be identified as a troublemaker. An easily distracted student might be seen as uninterested in learning. These false impressions can color the way teachers respond to the student. A large amount of research demonstrates that teachers’ explanations for their students’ behavior often affect how the teacher interacts with the student and subsequently how well the student does in school (Cooper & Good, 1983). Other studies suggest that temperament may affect academic achievement even before the child enters school. One team of investigators assessed temperament in 4-month old infants and again when the children were 12 months old (Gerstein, ­Putnam, & Kliewer, 2016). The researchers found that children with an active, quickto-approach temperament were better prepared for academic learning when it came time for them to enter kindergarten than were children in the other temperament categories. This finding suggests that the child’s temperament also comes into play in early learning situations with parents and preschool instructors. Matching Temperament and Teaching It is important to ask, as many researchers do, “What temperament characteristics contribute to better school performance?” However, this is probably not the right question for educators. More appropriately, they should ask, “What kind of environment and procedures are most conducive to learning for this student, given his or her temperament?” The second question reflects the thinking behind what some researchers call the “goodness of fit” model. According to this approach, how well a child does in school is partly a function of how well the learning environment matches the child’s “capabilities, characteristics, and style of behaving” (Thomas & Chess, 1977). In other words, not all children come to school with the same learning styles or abilities. We can’t do much to change a child’s temperament, but an optimal amount of learning takes place when lessons and assignments are presented in a way that matches the child’s learning style. Several investigations find support for the goodness of fit approach and suggest strategies for improved teaching (Keogh, 2003). Classroom assignments that require extensive concentration create a problem for the easily distracted girl with a short attention span. However, this girl will probably have little difficulty mastering the assignment if the same material is presented in short, easily processed segments. A slow-to-warm-up boy will fall behind when his teacher works at a pace set for the average member of the class. But if he is allowed to progress at his own rate, the boy eventually will do as well as his classmates. The goodness of fit model can also be applied to preschool settings. Of particular importance is the child’s ability to adjust to the regimen and rules of an organized social situation. Of course, as part of their preparation for elementary school, children Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Assessment: Brain Electrical Activity and Cerebral Asymmetry 219 must learn to follow rules and consider the needs of others. But impulsive children who have a difficult time sitting still are likely to be frustrated and get into trouble in a rigid one-size-fits-all preschool (Coplan, Bowker, & Cooper, 2003; De Schipper, Tavecchio, Van IJzendoorn, & Van Zeijl, 2004; Rudasill, Rimm-Kaufman, Justice, & Pence, 2006). Preschool teachers find fewer adjustment problems when they adapt their style to consider the child’s temperament, and improved adjustment paves the way for academic development. One study found that a good match between Head Start teachers’ styles and student temperament was associated with higher math and preliteracy scores (Churchill, 2003). Teachers who match teaching style with temperament not only increase the child’s chances of academic success, but also contribute to the child’s feelings of self-worth (Chess & Thomas, 1991). Children who do poorly in school begin to blame themselves. These feelings are often reinforced by parents and teachers who accuse the child of not trying or who communicate to the child in various ways that he or she simply may not have the ability to keep up with classmates. The resulting decline in self-esteem may add to the child’s academic difficulties, which can create a downward spiral effect. Fortunately, today most teachers are aware of differences in temperament and take steps to adapt their teaching to meet students’ individual styles (Keogh, 2003). Although time and resources may limit teachers’ abilities to meet the individual needs of all their students, recognizing temperament differences is an important step toward that goal. Assessment: Brain Electrical Activity and Cerebral Asymmetry T he notion that we can examine personality with physiological measures has been around a long time. Freud speculated that scientists would one day discover the neurological underpinnings of personality. Similarly, Allport argued that future technological advances would identify differences in the central nervous system associated with different traits. Although we have yet to fulfill these prophecies, personality researchers have come to use a wide variety of physiological measures in their experiments. For many years now, researchers have used physiological indicators of arousal, such as heart rate, respiration, and galvanic skin response. Other investigators examine hormones, immune systems, neurotransmitters, respiration, automatic ­muscle reflexes, and enzymes in the blood. More recently, researchers have turned to ­neuroimaging techniques to pinpoint the location of neural activity in the brain (Mather, Cacioppo, & Kanwisher, 2013). These techniques include functional ­Magnetic R ­ esonance Imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET). In this section, we look at another example of how psychologists use physiological measures to examine differences in brain activity level. Measuring Brain Activity How can we measure brain activity without physically going into a person’s skull? Fortunately, technology provides some relatively nonintrusive procedures for obtaining these measurements. One relatively simple and inexpensive procedure uses an Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 220 Chapter 9 / The Biological Approach instrument called an electroencephalograph (EEG) to measure electrical activity in different parts of the human brain. Personality researchers find EEG measurements particularly useful for several reasons. The procedure is relatively easy and does not harm the individual in any way. Typically, small electrodes are attached to the person’s head with hair clips and elastic straps. Participants report that the procedure is not uncomfortable, although electrode paste can sometimes leave messy spots in their hair. In addition, the EEG enables researchers to record brain activity in very quick intervals. Some instruments can measure this activity within milliseconds. This sensitivity is particularly important when looking at emotions, which often change very rapidly. EEG data are usually described in terms of cycles per second, or waves. One kind of wave identified through this process, known as an alpha wave, has proven particularly useful for research on personality and emotion. The lower the alpha wave activity, the more activation in that region of the brain. Cerebral Asymmetry Jerry Burger/Santa Clara University Although EEG data can be used to assess activity level in many different regions of the brain, research on alpha wave levels in the anterior (front) area of the cerebral hemisphere has proven particularly useful in understanding individual differences in emotion. This region has considerable connections with the parts of the brain that regulate emotions. More important, researchers find the anterior region of a person’s right cerebral hemisphere often shows a different activity level than the anterior region of that same person’s left cerebral hemisphere. Researchers refer to this difference in right and left hemisphere activity as cerebral asymmetry, or sometimes EEG asymmetry. Investigators find that different patterns of cerebral asymmetry are associated with differences in emotional experience. Originally researchers noticed that higher activation in the left hemisphere was associated with positive moods, whereas higher activation in the right hemisphere was indicative of negative moods (Wheeler, Davidson, & Tomarken, 1993). In one study, researchers showed emoResearchers measure brain activity levels with an tion-arousing films to participants instrument known as an EEG. This information may tell while taking EEG measures of right us about the person’s tendency to experience different emotions. and left hemisphere activity (Davidson, Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.