JHU AS.200.101 Intro Psych Exam #3

What is personality?

A person’s characteristic style of thinking, feeling, behaving, and interacting with others

What makes a personality test good?

It demonstrates test-retest reliability (produces the same score if a person retakes the test) and validity (clear that it can predict a trait)

True or false: Testing someone’s level of awe by whether their mouth is open or not is not reliable

True; their mouth could be open because of other reasons, like yawning

True or false: Measuring intelligence by measuring forehead size is valid but not reliable

False; it would be reliable in the test-retest sense because I’ll get the same answer every time I test you; it’s not valid because it won't tell me anything about your intelligence

Examples of not-so-great personality tests?

Rorschach Test, Myer-Briggs Type Indicator

What is the difference between a state and a trait?

A state is something that is true about a person right now regardless of whether it is true in the past or future, while a trait is something generally true

Why is the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator a bad personality test?

It had low test-retest reliability (50% of people get a different type upon retest) and unclear validity (weakly predicts good managers, teammates, etc)

What is the “Big Five?”

Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism (emotional stability)

Which Big Five personality trait describes the following: How open-minded are you? How much adventure do you seek?

Openness to experience

Which Big Five personality trait describes the following: How tidy are you? Do you like routines? Do you have good hygiene habits?

Conscientiousness

Which Big Five personality trait describes the following: How social are you? Do you have tons of friends? Do you prefer being alone with a book?

Extraversion

Which Big Five personality trait describes the following: Are you a friendly person? Do you trust others? Do you avoid conflict? Are you willing to piss people off?

Agreeableness

Which Big Five personality trait describes the following: How often does your mood change? Are you the same when times are tough vs. easy times? Do you show excitement easily?

Neuroticism

How do we differ and why?

Genes and environment (nature & nurture)

What are monozygotic twins?

“Identical” twins that are formed when a single fertilized egg splits into two embryos, sharing virtually all genetic material

What are dizygotic twins?

“Fraternal” twins formed when two separate eggs are fertilized in the same cycle; basically siblings born on the same day

How does studying twins help us test the question of how much of who I am is genetic and how much is because of the environment?

Using twins helps us isolate genes; when monozygotic twins have more similar traits than dizygotic twins, it shows that there is a genetic basis for traits because it cancels out the upbringing factor

What is heritability?

The proportion of trait variation that is explained by genetic variation

What is the heritability of eye color and why?

~1 (high); differing in eye color is almost always because of differing genes, as monozygotic twins almost always share same color, unlike dizygotic twins

What is the heritability of heart disease and why?

~0.5 (middle of the road); people differ in how healthy their heart is b/c of genetic predisposition, but also because of diet/exercise; about 50% of difference can be explained by genes

What is the heritability of number of eyes and why?

~0 (no heritability); when people differ in number of eyes, it's rarely because of genetic differences and usually because of an accident causing someone to have one or no eyes

What is heritable (i.e. have non-zero heritability)? Name examples.

Almost everything; Big Five traits, political views, religiosity, sexual orientation, intelligence test scores

True or false: Nonidentical twins are more likely to have the same political views than identical twins

False; things like political views are heritable, so identical twins are more likely to share the same political views than nonidentical twins

There are two piles of seeds, each containing some high quality seeds and some low quality seeds. Each pile is put into two separate planters. One planter is designated as the high quality planer with good water/light/soil; the other is designated as the low quality planer with bad water/light/soil. The seeds in the good planter will grow to a certain height, some taller and some shorter. The seeds in the other planter won't grow as high, but there will also be in-group variability.

1. What is the heritability within each group?

2. What is the heritability between groups?

3. Can heritability (differences in genes) explain the difference between the two groups?

1. The heritability within each group is high

2. The heritability between groups is ~0

3. No; differences between groups are environmental

Behavior = ____ + ____

personality; situation

In “Obedience to authority with an authentic victim,” (1972) college students are shown real cute, fluffy puppy. They are asked to watch the puppy complete a task and shock it if it got the wrong answer. Each wrong answer increases voltage up to 450V, and subjects told it would be painful to the puppy (it wasn’t). They were also told course credit earned upon arrival, without obligation to continue. At the end of the study, what percent of students delivered the shock?

80%

What was the 1972 puppy study inspired by and why was it conducted?

Inspired by the Milgrim Experiment; conducted to test if the Milgrim Experiment’s results were due to participants realizing the learner was acting

In the Milgram Experiment, participants asked to watch a learner complete a task and shock him if he got the wrong answer. Each wrong answer increased voltage, and the participants didn't know the man was an actor. ____ of participants were prepared to deliver a potentially fatal electric shock because someone in authority told them to. When the experiment was redone in 2009, ___% of people still deliver the shock.

2/3; 70

In the Asch Conformity Experiment (1956), a participant is in a room with other people answering easy questions. They don't know everyone else is an actor who all purposefully give the same wrong answer. Does the participant say the right answer or go along with everyone else?

Went along with the group

In a variation of the Asch Conformity Experiment, a participant is in a room with other people answering easy questions. They don't know everyone else is an actor who all purposefully give the same wrong answer, except for one actor who says the correct answer. Does the participant say the right answer or go along with everyone else?

The participant was more likely to say the correct answer, though they denied the ally had any impact