Socioemotional & Personality Development Midterm #1 Study Set

For Dr. Michalska's PSYC 161 course - good luck y'all!

What does E, T & P stand for?

Emotions, Temperament, and Personality

What does O.C.E.A.N stand for?

Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism

What is the Lexical Hypothesis?

The idea that all aspects of personality have already been recorded in language - Cattell

What is Factor Analysis?

A research method that compresses the number of dimensions in a dataset to something more manageable
(E.g. rather than having 100 separate items/scores on a questionnaire that all mean separate things, you can have 5 factors/scores to make it easier to score and interpret)

What are some limitations of factor analysis?

Subjective based on who does it, results rely on the data you put in (if you put in more anxiety items than depression items, for example, the factor analysis will tell you that you only need to use one anxiety factor for the whole questionnaire)

What is the history behind the Big 5 Personality Traits?

Came from Air Force ratings of one another originally, which then was solidified by two guys (Costa and McCrae) deciding on broad constructs purely based on how well those constructs can be further explained/articulated

What are the critiques of the Big 5 Personality Traits?

The lexical hypothesis is wrong (no guarantee our language already defined all aspects of personality), relies too much on raters who are not professionally trained to make important distinctions in the rating, and that the factor analysis that was “conducted” really was just subjective

What research methods are used in Socioemotional and Personality Development beyond self-reports and other report measures?

Objective behavioral observations by trained raters, psychophysiological and neurobiological measures, and individual differences in reactivity to standardized challenges in the lab

What are some examples of psychophysiological and neurobiological measures of gathering data?

EEGs, EMGs, EKGs, MRIs, fMRIs, pretty much anything that can scan the brain or stuff like pulses

What are some potential advantages of using biology to assess T&P?

Objective, not subject to biases in reporting/introspection/memory

What is the reporting bias?

In the context of reporting on a questionnaire or on data, it is a desire to “look good” (social desirability); outright lying or malingering

What is the Mnemonic Bias?

The “Peak-End” rule of retrospective ratings, aka, the tendency to remember very early experiences and very late experiences

How do we gather data on mental processes that are too fast for self-report or processes that lie outside of our conscious awareness?

Event-related potentials (ERPs)(Cap on head that measures electrical signals in the brain at a rate of 1000x/second), anything else that may be a behavioral or physiological method of gathering data

What are the two things that are required for research methods to have?

Reliability and Validity (Stable over time (trait-like; test-retest))

What are the two kinds of Reliability?

Internal Consistency Reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha) and Temporal Stability/Test-Retest Reliability (Correlation or ICC)

What is Internal Consistency Reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha)?

The degree to which a scale measures a single latent construct (aka how well it measures something like anxiety). If you have a high Alpha score it means that the items you have in your scale are redundant!

What is Temporal Stability/Test-Retest Reliability (Correlation or ICC)?

Any individual differences in scores (Temperament + Personality, in this case) should be stable and consistent over time (unless its over 30+ days, in which you might expect genuine change)

What is Construct Validity?

What the scale/questionnaire/measure actually measures, and what inferences can we actually draw from said scale/questionnaire/measure

What is construct validity also known as?

Functional significance

How do we actually establish the construct validity of a scale/questionnaire/measure?

Psychological sensitivity (Ex: should expect to see amygdala activation given fear-arousing stimuli) and Psychological specificity (Ex: Should expect to see fear given amygdala activation)

What are basic emotions?

6 different emotions that are the base of any complex emotions. These emotions are joy, anger, surprise, disgust, sadness, and fear

Why do people have emotions?

They signal to the person experiencing the emotion the state of their relation to the environment and signal to other people the motivational and emotional state of the person experiencing the emotion. Also helps people adapt to their environment - fear helps you avoid danger, for example

What are the 3 elements of emotions?

Subjective feeling, physiological change, and overt behavior

How do we determine emotions in infants?

Facial expressions and the actions the infants are taking

What two general emotions do newborn infants experience?

Pleasure and distress

How are positive emotions expressed in infants?

Smiling and laughing

How do smiles develop over time in infants?

1 month → smiles are a reflex response
6 weeks → smiles are social
7 months → smiles towards people; encourages interaction and bonding

How do laughs develop over time in infants?

3 to 4 months → during activities (i.e. playing)
1 year → response to unexpected events
2 years → response to own behavior or attempting to make others laugh

How are negative emotions expressed in infants?

General distress, anger and/or sadness, fear and/or distress

How do negative emotions in infants develop over time?

Newborns → General distress from hunger, pain, overstimulation
2 months → Visible facial expression of anger and/or sadness matches situation
6-7 months to 2 years → stranger wariness
7 to 12 months → fear of novel toys, noises, sudden movements
8 to 15 months → separation anxiety

What is stranger wariness?

Distress that young children experience when they are exposed to unfamiliar people; begins between 8-9 months and peaks at 12-15 months. Infants feel this less if the environment is familiar, if they’re given time to “warm up,” and if the person is female

What is separation anxiety?

Intense anxiety/fear that occurs when a parent/caregiver leaves the child (usually develops the same time as object permanence)

What are complex emotions?

Emotions that are self conscious (involve injury to or enhancement of self), those being shame, guilt, envy, pride, and embarrassment. Emerge around 18-24 months

What is an implicit sense of the other?

The realization that we are distinct individuals - separate from other people - that fosters self-conscious emotions

What is the “still-face” paradigm?

A method developed by Cohn and Tronick in which infants are presented with a still/flat face in their caregiver despite anything the infant tries to do to get a reaction from their caregiver

Do neonates/infants show empathy?

Yes, they are able to distinguish the difference between cries of other infants, their own cries, and the cries of a baby chimp. They will cry more if they hear other infants cry

What is the difference between mimicry and imitation?

Mimicry is the automatic/unconscious direct copying of something like facial expressions (this is present at birth), while imitation is the intentional copying of something like behaviors (which is used to develop cognitive and social communication behaviors like language and play!)

How do infants manage their emotional experiences?

They emotionally self-regulate using various strategies that depend on cognitive/neural maturity as well as input from caregivers. Those who are better regulated are prone to sympathy while those who are low in regulation are predisposed to experience personal distress

What are the core features of emotion?

1) Arise when a person attends to a situation and sees it as relevant to their goals
2) Involves changes in subjective experience, behavior, and physiology
3) Changes associated with these are rarely unavoidable

What is emotion regulation?

The process by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express these emotions - applies to both negative + positive emotions

What is the marshmallow task?

A study in which children were given a marshmallow on a plate and were told that if they did not eat the marshmallow while the researchers left the room, they would get two marshmallows to eat as a reward. It looked at how children managed their emotions/impulses

What is the process model of emotion?

Developed by James Gross, it breaks down how emotions are processed. A situation is selected and then modified, with attentional deployment and cognitive reappraisal coming next (these are all antecedent focused). Then, a response happens, usually suppression.

What are the consequences of emotional suppression?

Tend to have worse cognitive performance, increase blood pressure in their partners, etc. This is due to the effort that goes into suppression - it requires focus!

What does early emotional regulation look like in infants?

< 3 months → controlled by innate physiological mechanisms (general reactivity to stimuli + approach vs. withdrawal from pleasant vs. aversive stimuli)
3 months → primitive mechanisms of self-soothing such as sucking
Overall simple motor movements such as moving away
3-6 months → simple actions voluntarily to modify arousal levels
1 year → more purposeful attempts to control arousal
2 years → transition from passive to active emotion regulation

What is Temperament?

Individual differences in emotionality; reactivity present at birth, reflects a relatively stable characteristic

What are intrinsic influences of emotional regulation?

Temperament, prefrontal cortex development

How does the prefrontal cortex develop over time?

Matures over time but is the most mature at 20 years old

What does neuroscience say about adolescent risk and how does that translate to potential juvenile justice implications?

The cognitive control system develops steadily over time, with the socioemotional incentive-processing system developing faster at a younger age. This development peaks at around 15 to 18 years old, with it declining over time from there. This means adolescents are more likely to get into more risks due to their brains wanting higher stimulation than they did previously.

What is the prime extrinsic influence of emotional regulation?

Caregiver support (how well they read signals and how sensitive their responses are)

Is behavior largely determined by the situation?

According to Walter Mischel, yes, as personality traits have limited utility in predicting behavior (only ~10% of variance in behavior can be predicted by T&P)

What does “variance accounted for” mean?

The amount of variation in one measure (such as weight) predicted by another (such as height).
Equal to the correlation (“R”) squared x 100% → R² x 100%

What caused research on T&P to falter for several decades?

Walter Mischel’s “devastating critique” called The 10% Barrier

What is a Meta-Analysis?

Set of statistical methods for aggregating results across individual research studies. More powerful than single study and provides a more definitive, precise, unbiased estimate of relations between 2 or more variables

What is Conscientiousness?

Following rules, paying attention to details, preferring order, etc

What is Neuroticism?

Often feeling down, having low self esteem, having frequent mood swings, panicking easily, etc.

How is T&P impactful when it comes to academic performance?

Performance was predicted by individual differences in Conscientiousness, with more Conscientious students achieving higher performance and low Conscientious students being nearly twice as likely to fail

How is T & P impactful when it comes to marital stability & satisfaction?

Individual differences in Neuroticism are one of the strongest predictors of divorce, with husbands and wives with higher levels of Neuroticism being much more likely to divorce

How is T & P impactful when it comes to mental health?

Increases of 1 standard deviation in Neuroticism was associated with a 31% greater risk of depression

How is T & P impactful when it comes to physical illness (“morbidity”)?

Individuals who were high in Neuroticism or low in Conscientiousness showed illness levels comparable to a peer who was 10 years older. Increases in Conscientiousness decreased the odds of stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, and arthritis while increases in Neuroticism increased the odds of a heart condition, lung disease, high blood pressure, and arthritis

How is T & P impactful when it comes to death (longevity)?

Decreases in Conscientiousness and increases in Neuroticism increased the risk of dying

How is T & P impactful when it comes to the economy?

Individuals in the top 5% of Neuroticism imposed large economic burdens in excess costs (e.g., medical costs; loss of productivity and work absences) with individuals in the top 25% also having great excess costs

How had modern society amplified T & P’s impact?

1) Increased cumulative impact (Living longer so we must pay more attention to health and other things)
2) Increased risk exposure (More availability of food, sedentary occupations, access to harmful substances, jail, etc)
3) Mood and anxiety disorders (Less physical diseases and illnesses lead to a rise in mood and anxiety disorders)

What is attachment?

An affectionate emotional bond between an infant and their caregiver; motivational and behavioral system that directs infants to seek proximity with a familiar caregiver

What was Konrad Lorenz known for?

Figuring out the concept of “imprinting” due to ducks

What are infant smiling, babbling, and cooing meant to do?

Encourage parents to attach to their infant

What is the idea of “Secure Base?”

Introduced by John Bowlby to make up 4 characteristics of attachment: Proximity maintenance, safe haven, secure base, and separation distress

What is the difference between safe haven and secure base?

Safe haven is the safety of the provider while the secure base is the reliability/consistency of the provider

What does the first phase of attachment (newborn indiscriminate (1-2 months)) entail?

Signals such as crying or smiling that result in the baby being brought closer to caregiving adult, with babies learning that parents are a relief from distress. It is indiscriminate.

What does the second phase of attachment (discriminating sociability (2-7 months)) entail?

Infants will prefer to interact with familiar people (attachment figures) to elicit smiles. Will coo more readily, with that all being associated with pleasurable experiences & relief from distress. Play and face-to-face games teach reciprocity, trust, and how to adapt behavior to elicit a response

What does the third phase of attachment (7-24 months) entail?

An increasingly active role in relationship to attachment figures (can crawl to get physically close, can initiate directed social behaviors, and can balance between proximity and exploration. Develop person permanence.

What is person permanence?

The understanding that people have a permanent existence independent of the infant

What does the fourth phase of attachment (goal-corrected partnership (3 years and older)) entail?

Children begin to take parents needs into account when interacting

How do we measure the quality of attachment?

“Strange Situation,” a study by Mary Ainsworth in which infants were observed for their responses to various situations such as the mother leaving the infant with a stranger

What are the four types of attachment relationships?

Secure attachment, insecure avoidant attachment, insecure resistant attachment, and disorganized attachment

What is secure attachment?

Infant explores room with interest when caregiver is present; shows signs of missing parent during separation, crying. Greets caregiver actively on return, settles, and returns to play. Type B attachment

What is insecure avoidant attachment?

Infant doesn’t cry at separation; actively avoids and ignores caregiver on reunion. No distress, no anger. Unemotional response to parent; avid interest in toys or environment. Type A attachment

What is insecure resistant (ambivalent) attachment?

Infant is wary or distressed even prior to separation; little exploration, angry or passive, focuses on parent and cries, fails to settle. Type C attachment

What is disorganized attachment?

Infant’s behavior is disorganized or disoriented, i.e., may freeze with a trance-like expression, may lay in fetal position, may cling and cry hard, or lean away with gaze averted. Infants in this category have generally had trauma.

What physiological factors are affected by specific attachment processes?

Elevated cortisol among highly fearful & insecurely attached infants, frontal cortex activates in contexts in which the attachment system is activated

Who is Harry Harlow and what did he do?

Influenced by Bowlby’s work, he devised an experiment in which baby monkeys were presented with two dolls shaped like their mothers, with one being wrapped in cloth that offered no nutrition/water, with the other being purely wire that offered nutrition and water. Found that infants have more of a need for affection than for physical needs. Also found that monkeys raised without a caregiver were socially maladjusted for the rest of their lives.

What is the Internal Working Model (IWM)?

A cognitive framework comprising mental representations for understanding the world, self, and others.
Primary Carer’s behavior towards child → child’s “working model” of itself → Positive and loved = secure, unloved & rejected = avoidant, angry & confused = resistant

What are the factors that affect attachment?

Opportunity for attachment, quality of caregiving (responding promptly and consistently, sensitive responses), infant characteristics (temperament, special needs, prematurity, illness)

Is attachment psychopathology?

NO!! Does not guarantee psychopathological outcomes but it is thought to be a risk factor for later psychopathology if later development occurs in the context of other risk factors such as poverty, parental psychopathology, and abuse

How does security affect psychopathology?

Security is a protective factor that may buffer against emotional problems when later risks are present. Insecurity was related to higher rates of internalizing and externalizing symptoms, with link being stronger for externalizing symptoms.

Which attachment subtypes are related to higher rates of externalizing problems and internalizing problems?

Avoidance & disorganization were related to higher rates of externalizing problems, with avoidance being significantly related to internalizing problems

What are the three eras of social development research?

Emergence → early writings on social development leading to systematic scientific study beginning in the final decade of the nineteenth century
Middle Period → Shift from studying natural behavior to studying experiences in terms of development, with psychoanalytic perspectives entering the research
The Modern Era → 1960s onwards, looking at the role of the child as an active agent in development, how biological processes impact development

What did Mesquita Ch. 1 discuss?

How the experiences of emotions differ from culture to culture, which can lead to cultural misunderstandings

What did the podcast on the marshmallow task show?

The marshmallow task had different results depending on the culture that it took place in (Western kids had more of a struggle delaying gratification while the kids in Cameroon were very good at delaying gratification). The marshmallow task also measured trust (Cameroonian parents were very consistent and always followed through on promises, so the kids were more likely to wait for the 2nd marshmallow)

What does BI stand for?

Behavioral Inhibition

What does BI look like in toddlers?

Passive Avoidance/Freezing, Hyper-vigilance (orient toward source of potential threat), may show high levels of distress (“reactive”) or show elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol

What is the purpose of Reznick’s Retrospective Self-Report of Inhibition (RSRI)?

To evaluate BI in adults, since it is hard to directly ask children with signs of BI

Anxious temperament (AT) in monkeys and childhood behavioral inhibition (BI) show many parallels except for in a few areas. What are these areas?

Significant functional impairment or distress (unknown in monkeys and variable in children), reduced by anxiolytic administration (administration of medication such as SSRIs)(unknown in children because that is unethical to test!!), increased pituitary-adrenal activity (cortisol)(only because it is not consistently observed in either monkeys or children)

Do high-BI toddlers grow up to be high-BI adults? In other words, how stable is BI across a person’s lifespan?

Estimates for stability typically fall in the moderate range, with ~50% of infants still having High BI two years after first being tested and then ~33% of infants still having High BI four years after first being tested. All of that is to say: most kids grow out of high BI!

What are the examples of environment/nurture that play an important role in determining whether or not a person’s BI stays stable throughout their life?

Stress/adversity; derisive, insecure, or “helicopter” parenting

What is the role of BI in children?

It is an adaptive mechanism that usually also comes with age-appropriate fears that are typically grown out of as a person grows. These fears are thought to be protective, preventing children from encountering harm during the periods of walking and increased exploration

What are the risks of having longterm high BI?

Risk of developing anxiety disorders, major depressive disorder (MDD), substance use disorders (SUDs), seasonal affective disorder (SAD), social anxiety disorder

What do individuals with social anxiety disorder tend to face/experience?

Persistent, intense fear or anxiety around being with other people; having a hard time talking to other people, even though they wish they could; be extremely self-conscious; be afraid about the possibility of being judged, embarrassed, or humiliated; worry for days or even weeks before social activities; avoid social situations; have difficulty making and keeping friends; blush, sweat, or tremble around others; feel nauseous or sick to their stomach around others

How does childhood BI lead to adult dysfunction?

It promotes problematic social behaviors (such as using nonassertive strategies during peer interactions) which can lead to worse social outcomes (such as being more likely to have requests refused or less likely to have quality peer relationships)