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Description
Flashcards by Leanne McMahon, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Leanne McMahon
over 11 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| Heritability. Studies carried out in behaviour genetics, with most research studying twins, since we know the proportion of genes they have in common. | It is the extent to which genetics are responsible for the variability of a characteristic in a particular population. |
| It is a statistical concept and so does not give information about individuals, but assesses the relative contribution of genetics and the environment to individual differences, e.g. the heritability of neuroticism has been found to be or 30%. Criticised for it's methodological grounds assuming that twins grow in the same environment and using biased samples. | These studies are important for providing evidence that most temperament and personality traits are associated with quite a high level of genetic influence. For example, Loehlin found heritability estimates between 0.28 - 0.46 for all five factors of Costa & McCraes OCEAN model of personality. |
| Psychometrics. Uses tests to measure psychological characteristics e.g. intelligence and personality, a tradition started in the late 19th century with Galtons attempt to measure intelligence using sensory-motor criteria. | They facilitate the collection of large amounts of data, which give information about the range and distribution of individual differences in a readily analysable form e.g. Eysenks EPQ measures a person degree of extraversion in a quantifiable form. |
| The problems with psychometrics. Because tests involve questionnaires, there are possible problems with demand characteristics, and people giving what they perceive to socially desirable answers. This can be countered by the inclusion of questions designed to identify these kinds of influences. Another issue is that they often have forced-choice formats, where people must choose from among the answers provided, none of which may be entirely accurate for that person, so the results may present a distorted picture | The use of tests of this kind is crucial to psychology as an empirical and scientific discipline. They are widely used in research and in applied settings, e.g. personnel selection and careers counselling, in forensic psychology and clinical practice. |
| Implicit Personality Theories. Lay theories based on traits such as 'sociable' or 'kind'. They assume coherence within personality, someone assertive is more likely to be energetic than someone who is passive for example.They assume stability and consistency of behaviour over time and situations. | They are likely to be learned from culture. They use every day descriptors which are common in the language; the lexical hypothesis suggests that the ways in which personality is expressed in ordinary language relate in a meaningful and personal way to every day life Questionnaires of these theory types show that they seem to have a hierarchical structure, with more general higher-order traits (e.g. conscientious) at the top which can then be broken down into clusters of surface traits (e.g. in this case 'punctuality', 'reliability' and 'self discipline'). |
| These in turn, at the lowest and most observable level of the heirarchy, express themselves in behaviour, and the beliefs, feelings and preferences which an individual expresses, e.g. 'I never miss deadlines'. | These theories are important because people use them, conciously or unconciously, to describe themselves and others, and to help them understand why people behave as they do. They allow people to predict what others are likely to do, and so make the social world more manageable. Implicit trait theories also important because they are refelcted in more formal psychological theories. |
| Extraversion. Eysencks type theory of personality suggests that personality can be expressed on two dimension, one of which is extroversion-introversion. Everyone can be placed somewhere on a continuum from extreme extraversion to extreme introversion. Extraversion is associated with a range of traits;including sociable;risk-taking;sensation-seeking; lively and active. | He believed cortical arousal levels were at the route of where an individual can be placed on this continuum and as such this theory rests on biological factors. |
| Buss & Plomins research in to temperament lends some support to this theory thourhg there studies of infants, as they claim to have indetifed three factors in young infants; Emotionality; sociability; and activity the last two are traits of extroversion. There is also psychometric and behavioural evidence though no clear evidence to establish that extraversion has biological basis.ARAS (ascending reticulocortical activatin system) The area Eysenck believed controlled levels of cortical arousal which effect extroversion and introversion. Extroverts are chronically under aroused and so engage in behaviour likely to increase arousal. | This is an important trait concept in that it is a factor in other personality theories, e.g. those of Goldbergs Big Five Theory and the five-factor theory of Costa & McCrae, suggesting that it is a useful dimension to use when describing individual differences in personality. |
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