PSYC 208 EXAM 1

rai's ch 1-8 sets combined

What is natural selection?

gradual changes in a species over time, as successful variants increase in frequency and eventually spread through the gene pool, replacing the less successful variant

What is hostile forces of nature?

• foot shortages, diseases, predators, extreme weather, parasites

What are genes?

• packet of DNA inherited by children from parents

• smallest discrete unit inherited without being broken up

What is the Inclusive Fitness Theory?

• theory based off differential gene reproduction

• personal reproductive success plus the effects you have on the reproduction of your genetic relatives, is weighted by the degree of genetic relatedness

basically: more likely to help a relative than stranger because the relative has a higher chance to pass down the family DNA

What is intrasexual competition?

members of the same sex compete with each other and the outcome of their contest gives the winner greater sexual access to members of the opposite sex

What is intersexual selection?

members of one sex choose a mate based on their preferences for particular qualities

What are adaptations?

primary products of selection/evolution

ex: taste for sweet and fatty foods

What are byproducts adaptations?

incidental effects of adaptations not properly considered to be adaptations

ex: nose used for smelling, also used to hold up your glasses

What are the 3 key premises of evolutionary pschology?

• domain specificity

  • adaptations are designed by evolutionary process to solve specialized adaptive problems

• numerousness

  • expectation that there are many psychological adaptations, because different adaptations are required to solve different adaptive problems

• functionality

  • psychological mechanisms are designed to accomplish particular adaptive tasks

  • understanding the function of certain behaviors

What are the two approaches to testing hypotheses?

inductive reasoning approach and deductive reasoning approach

What is inductive reasoning approach?

What is deductive reasoning approach?

“top down” theory driven

-once theory has been tested and supported can be utilized to ask further questions about specific theory

What are the 3 main universal components of humans?

• need to belong

• helping and altruism

• universal emotions

What is the evolutionary predicted sex differences?

• expect sex differences in those domains in which sexes recurrently faced different adaptive problems

  • ex: women and childbirth, ability to create labor contractions & release oxytocin. Men can’t

What are the 4 key sex differences and the research to support differences?

• aggression

  • men more aggressive than women

• jealousy

  • men more jealous than women in response to sexual infidelity

  • women more jealous than men in response to mates emotional involvement to someone else

• desire for sexual variety

  • women on average think about sex 9X per, men think about sex 37X per week

• mate preferences

  • due to women bearing weight of obligatory parental investment, women place more value on potential mate’s financial resources

  • men place greater value on physical appearances which provides info into her fertility

What are the 4 individual differences in evolutionary psychology?

• environment differences

• heritable individual differences contingent on other traits

• frequency-dependent selection

• variation over time and space in the optimum value of a trait

What is frequency-dependent selection?

reproductive success of trait depends on frequency relative to other traits in population

What are some limitations to evolutionary psychology?

• adaptations are forged over evolutionary time, and we cannot go back to determine with certainty what the precise selective forces on humans have been

• modern conditions differ from ancestral conditions in many ways

• it is sometimes easy to come up with different and competing evolutionary hypotheses for the same phenomena

What is the physiological approach?

the way the organ systems impacts out personality

-easy to test and measure reliability

-ex: impacts via heart rate, brain activity, 5 senses, nervous system

What is the role of the sympathetic nervous system?

fight or flight

-sweat gland activated and filled with salty water → can lead to sweaty palms or underarms

What is electrodermal activity?

• skin conductance: increase in electricity due to increased sweat from arousal

• measured through ring or watch

• measures responses to numerous stimuli such as:

  • sudden noise, emotional issues, pain, anxiety, fear, guilt

• individuals high in anxiety and neuroticism can experience skin conductance without presence of external stimuli

What is cardiovascular activity?

• measures cardiac reactivity

• heart rate variability → measuring how much ones HR differs from beat to beat over any given time

When would someone elevated heart rate variability?

when they are healthy well-rested person, under no stress

*more variability is good

When would someone have decreased heart rate variability?

when the sympathetic nervous system is increased more often and produces unchanging heart rate over time

What is type A personality?

• when someone is: impatient, competitive, hostile, rule-follower, by the book

• association with coronary artery disease due to chronic cardiac reactivity (chronic stress on the heart)

EEG is a type of neuroimaging, what does it show?

• EEG: electrodes placed on scalp to measure brains spontaneous production of electricity

  • evoked potential EEG:

    • participant is given stimulus and researcher assess participants brain responsiveness to stimulus

    • patient given stimulus, EEG measuring for brain responsiveness to stimulus

fMRI is a type of neuroimaging, what does it show?

• measures activity level in areas of brain through glucose consumption

  • more glucose = more neurons active

• ex: use fMRI to figure out what part of brain is involved in working memory

What is the ascending reticular activating system?

• brain structure located in brainstem and controls overall cortical arousal

• “gateway” to cortex. lower levels = closed gate

Do introverts have higher or lower levels of activity in ARAS?

introverts have higher level of activity in ARAS

• the gateway is open more often allowing more arousal through → too much stimulation

*introverts and extroverts have similar resting levels

People strive to keep ARAS activity at an optimal level. How do introverts and extroverts do this?

• introverts work to decrease and avoid stimulation

• extraverts work to increase and seek stimulation

The reinforcement sensitivity theory has two systems, what are they?

behavioral activation system and behavioral inhibition system

What is the behavioral activation system?

response to incentive, cues for reward. through dopamine system (accelerator towards behaviors)

-produces impulsivity

What is the behavioral inhibition system?

response to punishment, frustration and uncertainty, increase in avoidance behaviors (breaks that inhibit behavior/avoid threat)

-produces anxiety

-introversion and neuroticity → are high in this

What is sensation seeking?

tendency to seek out thrilling and exciting activities, take risk, avoid boredom

What does sensory deprivation research show?

persons in sensory-deprived environments appear motivated to acquire any sensory input, even if ordinarily such input would be perceived as boring

What is Hebb’s theory of optimal levels of arousal?

• under aroused - increased arousal is rewarding

• over aroused - decreased arousal is rewarding

What is the role of MAO enzyme on neurotransmitters?

• monamine oxidase (MAO) used to maintain proper levels of NT

• not enough MAO → excessive amount of NT in synapse

• too much MAO → not enough NT left in synapse

• low levels of MAO → high levels of sensation seeking due to need for stimulation to reach optimal level

What are the three important neurotransmitters and their functions?

• dopamine: pleasure and pleasure seeking behaviors

  • addiction

• serotonin: affects mood, sleep, memory, digestion

  • depression and anxiety

• norepinephrine: fight or flight, SNS

  • PTSD

What is Cloninger’s Tridimensional personality model?

• how neurotransmitters impact personality behaviors

• Novelty seeking low levels of dopamine

• harm avoidance: abnormal serotonin metabolism (reuptake problem)

• reward dependence

  • low levels of norepinephrine

  • acting in ways to produce reward

What are morning people’s circadian rhythm and body temperature?

What are night people’s circadian rhythm and body temperature?

• longer circadian rhythms and body temp & alertness peak later in the day

What is a genome?

complete set of genes

What is eugenics?

we can design the future of the human species by fostering the reproduction of people with certain traits and by discouraging the reproduction of persons without those traits

What is heritability?

proportion of observed variance (phenotypic) in a group of individuals that is due to genetic variance (genotypic)

What is phenotypic variance?

observed individual differences (height, personality)

What is genotypic variance?

individual differences on total gene possession in each person

What is the individual level of nature vs. nurture?

there is no debate

• both are necessary to understand the individual behavior

What is the population level of nature vs. nurture?

debate comes up when talking about groups of people

• differences in genes

• differences in environment

• ex: dating mate preferences

Selective breeding is a type of experimental method, what is it?

breeding to pull out desired traits in dogs

-not ethical for humans

Family studies is a type of experimental method, what is it?

• correlate degree of genetic relatedness among family members with degree of personality similarities

• great for understanding heritability

• problem: two members of a family might be similar to each other not because a given personality characteristic is heritable, but rather because of a shared environment

Twin studies is an example of experimental method, what is it?

• identical twins - monozygotic, 100% shared DNA

• fraternal twins - dizygotic, 50% shared DNA

• gives us great info into genetics/heritability and environmental estimates

• based on equal environment assumption (assuming they were raised similar)

Adoption studies is an example of experimental method, what is it and what is a problem it has?

• helpful in looking beyond equal environment assumption

• there are positive correlations for both:

  • adopted children and their parents - environment

  • adopted children and their genetic parent - genetics

• problem: selective placement

  • being placed with adoptive parents similar to genetic parents

  • can’t tell difference between genetics and environment

What is shared vs. nonshared environmental influence? Which plays more of role on explaining personality?

• shared: parent values, quality and quantity of food, electronics in the home

• nonshared: different parental treatment, different friend groups, different school schedules, or afterschool activities

• environmental causes appear to be mostly nonshared

• nonshared seems to play more of a role in explaining personality

What is genotype-environment interaction?

• individual differences with different genotypes in the same environment (diff. genes, same environment)

• ex: introverts and extroverts studying for test in noisy room

What is genotype-environment correlation?

• differential exposure of individuals with different genotypes to different environments (diff. genes, diff. environment)

• example: reading

  • high reading ability (genotype) → exposed to more opportunities to read

  • low reading ability (genotype) → exposed to less opportunities to read

There are 3 types of correlation in genotype-environment correlation, what are they?

• passive: individual (child) does nothing to cause environment to happen

• reactive: different parenting styles based on child genotype differences

• active: person wit specific genotype creates/seeks out specific environment

What is molecular genetics?

techniques designed to identify specific genes associated with personality traits

What is DRD4 gene?

it codes for the dopamine receptor

-most frequently examined association between DRD4 gene and a personality trait involves “novelty seeking”

-individuals with the “long repeat” version of DRD4 gene are higher on novelty seeking than individuals with the “short repeat” version of the gene

Has the DRD4 gene in molecular genetics been able to be replicated?

there have been several failures while replicating association, and the association can be weak when it is replicated

-may be 10 other genes that are involved

What is rank-order stability in personality development?

• over time, your trait might decrease but its still in the same area on your rank

• consistent ranking within group

• height, dominance

What is mean level stability in personality development?

• your trait changes based on group over time

• average level of a trait in a group over time

• political affiliation → high change of liberalism in college = mean level change

What is personality coherence in personality development?

• maintaining rank order but changing manifestation of trait

• ex: girls being “bossy” and then becoming owner of company in adulthood

What were the key findings in Mary Rothbart study on infancy and temperament?

• stable individual differences noticed at early age (3 months)

• moderate stability over time for most temperament variables

• stability of temperament tends to increase with maturity, traits become more consistent

• short intervals of time for stability of temperament-consistent with trends in adults

What do longitudinal studies about personality over time show?

• stability in traits is clear

  • high aggression at 3? likely will be high in aggression at 7 and predict adult personality

• traits can be identified at an early age

• decline with age but consistent in rank order

In rank-order stability in adulthood, when does personality peak?

• highest peak of +0.75 in 50s

• consistently raising → +.47 in teenage years, +.57 in twenties, +.62 in thirties

• as we age, personality becomes more set in stone

Personality differences between groups:

self-esteem and gender

• assessed at 14 and then 23

• as whole group, no changes in self-esteem with increased age

• differences at a group level (gender)

  • men self esteem increase 1/5 SD

  • women self esteem decreased 1 SD

Personality differences between groups:

independence and traditionalist roles

• 4 groups: homemakers with children, working mothers, divorced mothers, non-mothers

• independence scale

  • self-assurance, resourcefulness, competence

  • distancing self from other and demands of conventional gender roles

• results:

  • increase independent scores for divorced mothers, working mothers, and non-mothers

• issues with study:

  • cofounding factors (religion, political affiliation)

  • do they choose to work, stay at home?

What are some theoretical issues in trait psychology?

• individual differences

• stability over time (rank-order stability)

• consistency across situations

• personXsituation interaction (B=f(PXS)

• situationism: if there are behavioral differences depending on the situation, then it must be because of situational differences and not underlying personality differences

• situational selection: traits predicting how often person enters situation

  • evocation: personality may evoke specific responses from the environment

  • manipulation: intentionally changing others behaviors and the social situation through coercion and influence

  • aggregation: adding and averaging multiple single observations to explain specific traits

What are some issues with personality measurements?

• carelessness

• faking good

• faking bad

• Barnum statement: saying “we have something for everyone”

• (lack of) infrequency scale: using extreme questions

What are some examples of personality tests that would be used in the workplace?

• personnel selection

  • using traits common for success in the role to help pick applicants

• integrity testing

  • most commonly used test in retail and financial service situations

• issues with negligent hiring

  • failure of the employer in hiring someone who is causing harm but could have not been hired if properly screened

What are some legal issues related to personality testing in employment settings?

• Title VII of Civil Rights Act in 1964 → Duke Power & their aptitude test

  • racism: ambiguous test and easy to look over people of color “screen out”

• Gender disputes → Hopkins vs. Price Waterhouse

  • sexism: female employee up for promotion, but wasn’t going to get promotion because too abrasive, too masculine, not enough makeup, not fitting the image

What is a good example of Jobs and personality analysis?

• Hogan personality inventory

  • using big five model in businesses with three needs (acceptance, status and control of resources, and predictability)

  • its good because: it has high predictive validity, more than 500 validity studies of the HPI, helpful in 200 different work categories, and meta-analysis with 28 validity studies

What is a bad example of jobs and personality analysis?

• Myers-Briggs type indicator

  • used to help make career choices

  • problems with test: force choice questions, forced typology, and no predictive validity

What are the three approaches to understanding traits?

lexical, statistical, and theoretical approach

What is the lexical approach?

People within communities use language to describe traits and communicate with others

ex: rizz, karen

cons: nouns, verbs, and adjectives → these words can have different meanings

What is the statistical approach?

-start with large pool of words, questions describing behavior, experiences, emotions

-rating: self rating or rating others

-goal: identify major dimensions

What is factor analysis in a statistical approach?

• identifying groups of items that covary with each other but not with other groups of items

• factor loading: how much of an item is explained by the factor or correlates to the factor

• book ex: creativity (factor) - imaginative, original, inventive (these are all traits)

What is the theoretical approach?

create a theory

• identify theory - set the tone

• identifies and determines which variables are important to look at

Within the circumplex taxonomies of personality, there are 3 types of relationships, what are they?

• adjacency: how close traits are to each other in the circumplex

• bipolarity: traits are located on opposite sides and are different negatively correlated

• orthogonality: perpendicular traits - unrelated to each other

What is the five factor model?

OCEAN

• openness (ideas, actions, imagination)

• conscientiousness (self-discipline, goal-driven)

• extroversion (sociability)

• agreeableness (trustworthy, cooperative)

• neuroticism (tendency toward unstable emotions)

What are some examples of combinations of big 5 variables and the outcomes?

• good grades are best predicted by conscientiousness (high) and emotional stability (high

  • because emotionally stable and conscientiousness people are less likely to procrastinate

• academic dishonesty is more likely among those low in conscientiousness and low in agreeableness

• what makes a good computer wiz? high conscientiousness, high openness, and introversion

What is the HEXACO model?

• openness

• conscientiousness

• emotionality

• agreeableness

• eXtroversion

• honesty-humility

What are the 4 different types of data?

self report data, observer-report data, test data, life-outcome data

What as an example of self-report data?

Likert scale

-7 point scale

-energetic, (1 = least like this trait, 7 = most like this trait)

What is structured vs unstructured in self report data?

structured: T/F, limited answers to choose from → ex: likert scale

unstructured: open-ended

What is an example of observer-report data?

natural: what would you do show?

artificial: Gottman study with couples → put couple in apartment with hidden cameras and observed them with multiple observers

What is inter-rater reliability?

multiple observers → leads to more accurate data

What are the pros and cons to naturalistic observation?

pros: subjects not persuaded, multiple observers, no impression management

cons: based on observation, can’t get details into individual minds

What is an example of test data?

-assessment of men test → testing leadership, frustration, tolerance, and conflict resolution ability

-projective tests → placing people in standardized settings and data gives you how people are appraising an object/situation (ex: how a person draws a tree can reveal something)

What is an example of life-outcome data?

divorce, speeding tickets, gun ownership, voting status, where you live

-marshmallow test: shows temptation of people

What is reliability?

is your results accurate within the same area?

What is validity?

are you measuring what you said you were measuring

What are the 6 different types of validity?

• face validity

• predictive validity

• criterion validity

• convergent validity

• discriminant validity

• construct validity

What are some examples of the 6 different types of validity?

• face validity

• predictive validity

• criterion validity

• convergent validity

• discriminant validity

• construct validity

• face validity

  • ADHD assessments

• predictive validity

  • Sensation seeking measure predicts likelihood someone will engage in __ (ex: sky diving) → shows trends

• criterion validity

• convergent validity

  • BASC self report, teacher report, parent report → comparing same tests with each other

• discriminant validity

  • opposite of convergent → give introvert and extrovert test (to show difference)

• construct validity

  • is a measure what it says it is/isn’t compared to other measures similar/different to it

What are the problems with response sets?

• acquiescence: answers are all yes

• extreme responding

• social desirability: respond to social context rather than question content

• forced choice questionnaire

What is a good experimental method?

random assignment

-statistically significant <0.5 → always want this result

What is correlational method?

• correlation does not mean causation

• correlation coefficient: +1.00 —- -1.00

• ± tell you direction of correlation

• third variable issures

What is an example of a case study?

Ted Bundy

What is the definition of personality?

set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that are organized and relatively enduring and that influence their interactions with, and adaptations to, the intrapsychic, physical and social environment

What are the three levels to analyze personality?

universal (like all others), particulars (like some others), and uniqueness (like no other)