FALL 2004
Psychology 111
Name:______________________________________. Date:______________.
:
Pages: 25
TEXT : Friedman, Howard S. and Schustack, Miriam W. (2003). Personality : Classic Theories and Modern
Research (2 nd ). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Principal Features
Question: What is meant by the following statement?
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“A person is not born a blank slate …
Natural Selection and Functionalism
Question: What was Charles Darwin’s concept of natural selection ?
(160)
Example: Natural selection. (160-161)
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Natural Selection and Functionalism
(Continued)
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Question: Why is it difficult to apply the Darwinian approach to the precise (160) selection pressures that have shaped human evolution over millions of years?
Angelman Syndrome: Genes and Personality
Question: What is the Angelman syndrome ?
Complete the following:
“Extreme cases like Angelman syndrome demonstrate that genetic factors set before birth can …
Behavioral Genomics
Question: What is the study of behavioral genomics ? (161-162)
Illustrations: Genetic factors and human behavior. (162)
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Question: What does the term temperament refer to insofar as human behavior is concerned?
Examples: Temperament.
Activity, Emotionality, Sociability, Impulsivity
Question: What is the activity dimension of temperament?
Question: What is the emotionality dimension of temperament?
Question: What is the sociability dimension of temperament?
Question: What is the aggressive/impulsive dimension of temperament?
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Activity, Emotionality, Sociability, Impulsivity
(Continued)
Question: What is meant by the following statement?
“ … do not assume that science is unanimous
Eysenck’s Model of Nervous System Temperament
“Some of the most interesting evidence for the effects of biological temperament on personality comes from British psychologist Hans
Eysenck, particularly in the area of introversion-introversion.”
Complete the following:
Introverts are generally …
“Extroverts are …
“The introversion-extroversion dimension … combines elements of the …
Question: What is Han's Eysenck’s biologically based personality theory?
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Eysenck’s Model of Nervous System Temperament
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Question: What are some of the problems in trying to test Eysenck’s biologically based personality theory?
Question: What is the evidence that extroverts do differ physiologically
Approach, Inhibition, and Regulation
"An attempt to extend the physiological, brain-based model of personality to incorporate findings from modern neuroscience has been made by
Jeffrey Gray … "
Question: What is Jeffrey Gray's brain-based model of personality?
Question: What is the behavioral inhibition system ?
Question: What is the biological activation system ?
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Approach, Inhibition, and Regulation
(Continued)
Illustrations: Behavioral inhibition/biological activation systems.
Sensation Seeking and Addiction-Proneness
Question: What is the personality dimension known as sensation
seeking ?
Question: What are meant by the following statements?
“(Sensation seekers) are not simply extroverts?
“ … sensation seekers seem to have a strong, nervous system-based, orienting response.”
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Sensation Seeking and Addiction-Proneness
(Continued)
Question: What is the relationship between the neurotransmitter dopamine and sensation-seeking?
Question: What is the relationship between the neurotransmitter serotonin and sensation-seeking?
Question: What is the relationship between left/right brain hemispheric activity and sensation-seeking?
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(167-171)
Question: Why is it informative to compare twins who have been adopted (171-172) and raised apart from each other?
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Sir Francis Galton
Question: What are meant by the following statements?
“ … Galton was what we call today call a
[Page]
(172)
" … Galton … began the eugenics … movement."
Minnesota Twin Study
Question: What is the Minnesota Twin Study?
(173)
(173-174) are (174)
Nurture and Nonshared Environmental Variance
Question: What is the concept of nonshared environmental variance ? (176)
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“Many studies have indicated that schizophrenia tends to run in families.”
Inferences from Schizophrenia Twins
Question: What are meant by the following statements?
“ … researchers now say that there is a
‘genetic predisposition’ to schizophrenia.”
“ … the probability of a … concordance … of manic-depressive illness is very high.”
Question: What are meant by the following statements?
“ … homosexuality seems universal across time
“ … the associations between genetic heritage and homosexuality are nowhere near perfect …
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Exotic Becomes Erotic
Question: What is Daryl Bem’s theory “Exotic becomes erotic?”
Examples: Exotic becomes erotic.
Kin Selection
Question: What does the concept of kin selection have to do with
survival?
Sex Hormones and Experience
“It may also be the case that any biological basis of homosexuality may result from early hormonal experiences.”
Examples: Hormones and experience.
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Sex Hormones and Experience
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“It might also be the case that a genetic tendency toward homosexuality may have some unknown survival advantage in people who do not become gay.”
Example: Survival advantage of homosexuality.
“ … in gaining a sophisticated understanding of the biological bases of personality, it is important to note that unique results emerge when certain biological aspects of personality are combined with certain environments.”
Examples: Interaction effects of biology and environment.
Effects through Environmental Toxins
Poisoning
"It is now well documented that dramatic changes in personality can result from poisoning."
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Poisoning
(Continued)
Examples: Personality change as a result of poisoning.
Effects Through Physical Illness
“Diseases or toxins that affect brain function often affect personality.”
Examples: Personality change as a result of diseases or toxins.
“Our understanding of such biological influences on personality has major implications for our beliefs about law and justice.”
Examples: Biological influences, personality change, and implications
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Brain Disease
(Continued)
“The more difficult, complex position is the one that acknowledges that biological factors influence personality but still recognizes the individual’s capacity to challenge and sometimes overcome these biological tendencies.”
Examples: Individuals capacity to challenge and sometimes overcome
Effects from Legal and Illegal Drugs
“Many chemical effects are not accidental. Widely prescribed drugs … are known to have short-term and sometimes long-term effects on personality.”
Examples: Effects from legal and illegal drugs.
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Effects from Legal and Illegal Drugs
(Continued)
“Because drugs and poisons can have such major and dramatic influences on personality, a basic field of study called ‘personality toxicology’ is in order.”
Question: What is "personality toxicology?"
“Some psychiatrists … study the role of drugs and other toxic substances in causing and treating psychiatric disturbance—the field is called psychopharmacology .”
“ … many correlations between biological functioning and personality undoubtedly will be found that derive from a common environmental cause, not from heredity.”
Examples: Environmentally based biological influences.
“An intriguing way that biology can affect personality is by affecting the environments in which we find ourselves.”
Tropisms
Question: What are tropisms?"
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Tropisms
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“ … sometimes these events may not be totally outside the influence of the individual. In fact, genetic or other biological characteristics may influence the likelihood that we will experience certain events.”
Examples: Tropisms.
“Biological influences on the creation of environments can also function in even more subtle and complex ways.”
Examples: Biological influences on the creation of environments.
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Do Looks Reveal Personality?: Somatotypes
“(The) German psychiatrist Ernst Kretschmer … Observing his patients … speculated about the association between physique and mental disorders.”
[Page]
Example: Association between physique and mental disorders. (188)
“ … W. H. Sheldon elaborated on (Kretschmer’s) idea and applied it to normal people. Sheldon measured people’s proportions and their personalities and developed a theory of body types, or somatotypes .”
Somatotypes
“Sheldon’s somatotypology differentiated between three body types: (1) mesomorphs , muscular, large-boned athletes ; (2) ectomorphs , slender, bookworm types; and (3) endomorphs , roly-poly, and supposedly good- natured, types.”
Question: What is the research evidence with respect to Sheldon’s
somatotypology?
“Could there be a physiological basis for the possible relations between physical characteristics and personality? There are several possibilities.”
Beyond Somatotypes
Examples: Relations between physical characteristics and personality. (188-189)
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"The greatest environmental influence on psychological development is the reactions of the people around us. One’s sense of identity depends on a large extent on how we are treated …."
“Unfortunately, the reverse is also true; undesirable physical characteristics can lead to unpleasant reactions, and consequently, to negative self-images.”
Illustrations: Effects from reactions of others.
Physical Attractiveness Stereotype
Question: What is the physical attractiveness stereotype?
Illustrations: Physical attractiveness stereotype.
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Sociobiology
Question: What sociobiology (191)
Examples: Sociobiology.
Complete the following:
“Most commonly, sociobiological-type analyses are applied to human …
“For example, in all human societies, a close bond, or attachment , develops shortly after birth between the infant and the caretaker (usually the mother).
This is also true in nonhuman primates (and indeed in many mammals), and it certainly appears to have a biological basis.”
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Sociobiology
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Examples: Attachment.
Cinderella Effect
Question: What is meant by the following statement?
“Sociobiologists suggest that the Cinderella phenomenon results from natural selection …"
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Cinderella Effect
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Evolution and Culture
Question: What has been an incorrect assumption when applying
Darwinian thought to human behavior?
(193)
Social Darwinism and Eugenics
Pseudoscience
“What evolutionary theory did … was to provide a pseudoscientific justification for the oppression that was occurring in any case. Many leaders, including many intellectuals and scientists, were quick, at the end of the nineteenth century, to adopt views of ‘genetic inferiority.’ ”
Question: What Social Darwinism (194)
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Pseudoscience
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Illustrations: Social Darwinism.
Culture, Nazis, and "Superior Races"
Question: What is biological determinism?
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The Human Genome: Racist Eugenics of the Future?
Question: What is the goal of the human genome project?
Question: What is meant by the following statement?
“A subtle kind of genetic racism often creeps into the thinking of even talented researchers in this (human genome) area.”
“Going beyond … racist errors, the question still remains as to whether we should tinker with our genes to make a ‘better person’ ”
Illustrations: Changing genes to make a “better” person.
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Question: What is meant by the following statement?
"In a Darwinian analysis, attention is drawn
Question: What is a prime difficulty of a Darwinian approach … to human evolution … ?
Question: What temperament ?
Question: What was Hans Eysenck’s contribution to the notions about biological aspects of personality?
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(Continued)
Question: What might individual differences in hemispheric activity have to do with biological aspects of personality?
Question: What might twin studies have to do with biological aspects of
personality?
Question: What might poisoning and certain illnesses (such as strokes) have to do with biological aspects of personality?
Question: What is meant by the following statement?
“Our understanding of biological influences on personality has major implications for our beliefs about law and justice.”
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(Continued)
Question: What is meant by the following statement?
END
“An intriguing way that biology can affect personality is by affecting the environments in which we find (or put) ourselves.”
Question: Why is ‘survival of the fittest” possible one the most misunderstood and misused concepts in all of science?
Question: What are meant by the following statements?
“There is a certain lure of biological determinism of personality.”
“ … it is very easy for people to accept stereotypes and to rationalize the inequities in the status quo (with respect to biological aspects of personality).”
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