Exam 2 of Psychology of Personality

What does genome refer to?

The complete set of genes that an organism possesses

The Human Genome Project is dedicated to…

to sequencing the entire human genome

What is the purpose of the Human Genome Project?

To identify the particular sequence of DNA molecules in the human species

Identifying the sequence of DNA molecules does not mean…

identifying the function of each molecule

Most genes within the human genome are…

the same for all humans

Small number of genes are different for different individuals, including…

genes that directly code for physical characteristics and personality

Many parts of the other 98% of the DNA in the human chromosomes used to be viewed as…

genetic junk

Why were many parts of the other 98% of the DNA in the human chromosomes used to be viewed as genetic junk?

because scientists believed that these parts were functionless residues that served no purpose

Reseachers attempt to determine the degree to which…

Individual differences are caused by genetic and environmental differences

What is controversial about genes and personality?

Concerns about ideology and renewed interest in eugenics.

What was the highly controversial ideology around genes and personality?

It is controversial because it suggests that genetic differences among individuals, rather than differences in parental socialization or personal experience, are responsible for shaping the core features of human personality.

What is eugenics

The notion that the future of the human species can be designed by fostering the reproduction of persons with certain traits and by discouraging the reproduction of persons without those traits.

Finding that a personality characteristic has a genetic component does not mean that…

the environment is powerless to modify that characteristic

Modern psychologists who study the genetics of personality are careful in their attempts to…

educate others about the use and potential misuse of their findings

What do modern psychologists who study the genetics of personality argue?

They argue that knowledge is better than ignorance.

Finding that a personality characteristic has a genetic component does not mean that…

the environment is powerless to modify that characteristic

What is the goal of behavioral genetics?: To determine the percentage of individual differences in a trait that can be attributed to…

genetic differences and the percentage that can be attributred to environmental differences

What is the goal of behavioral genetics?: To determine the ways in which genes and the environment interact and…

Correlate with each other to produce individual differences, and not just the percentage of variance due to genetic and environmental causes

What is the goal of behavioral genetics?: To determine precisely where in the “environment” are…

the effects taking place

What is heritability?

Proportion of observed variance in a group of individuals that can be explained or accounted for by genetic variance.

Proportion of phenotypic variance that is…

attributed to genotypic variance

Phenotypic variance refers to…

observed individual differences, such as in height, weight, or personality

Genotypic variance refers to

individual differences in the total collection of gene possessed by each person

Environmentality

Proportion of observed variance in a group of individuals attributable to environmental variance

What are the misconceptions about heritability?

It cannot be applied to a single individual, is not constant, and is not a precise statistic

there is no _______ debate at the individual level

nature-nurture

Influence of _____ and _____ is only relevent at the level of population

genes and environment

Selective breeding can only occur if…

A desired characteristic is heritable

Some heritable qualities are physical traits, and others

can be considered personality traits

Family studies correlate the degree relatedness…

among members with the degree of similarity in personality

If a characteristic is highly heritable, family members with greater genetic relatedness should be….

more similar to one another than family members who are less closely genetically related.

What is the problem with family studies

It may not be viewed as definitive

Two members of a family might be similar to each other not because of a given personality characteristic is heritable, but rather….

because of a shared environment

Calculating heritability for twins forumula

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What is an important assumption of the twin method?

The equal environments assumption, which assumes that environments experienced by identical twins are no more similar to each other than environments experienced by fraternal twins

Positive correlations between adopted children and their adoptive parents provide evidence…

for environmental influences on personality traits

Positive correlations between adopted children and their genetic parents provide…

evidence for genetic influence

Adoption studies are powerful because they help…

get around the equal environments assumptions, which must be made in twin studies

Assume that adopted children and their adoptive and genetic parents are representative…

of the general population

selective placement…

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Behavioral genetic design is powerful when it combines strength of twin and adoption studies at the same time,

by studying twins reared apart.

advantages of selective breeding studies

can infer heritability if selective breeding works

limitations of selective breeding studies

are unethical to conduct on humans

advantages of family studies

provide heritability estimates

limitations of family studies

violates equal environments assumption

advantages of twin studies

provide both heritability and environmentality estimates

limitations of twin studies

sometimes violate equal environments assumption

advantage of adoption studies

provide both heritability and environmentality estimates; get around the problem of equal environments assumption

limitations of adoption studies

adopted kids might not be representative of population; problem of selective placement

Summaries of behavioral genetic data yield heritability…

estimates of about 50% for major personality traits

Personality traits include…

extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience

Sexual orientation falls…

well within the scope of personality

Research area about sexual orientation regarding personality is…

developing and controversial

Current evidence suggests that genes may…

indirectly influence adult sexual orientation

Childhood gender nonconformity is stronlgy related to…

adult sexual orientation

Stable attitudes are generally regarded

to be part of personality

They show wide individual differences…

and tend to be stable over time

At least sometimes, attitudes and preferences are linked with…

actual behavior

Some attitudes show high heritability of about .59

whereas others show low or no heritability

Genes appear to influence

occupational preferences

It is not clear why…

only some attitudes appear to be heritable

Behavioral manifestations of personality traits…

such as sensation seeking, extraversion, and neuroticism

Individual differences in smoking and drinking habits tend to…

stabilize over time

Drinking and smokes both show…

evidence of heritability

Genes can even influence…

the propensity to marry or stay single

Genetic proclivity to marry occurs, at least in part,…

through heritable personality traits that are desired by potential marriage partners

Genes plays are important role in

marital satisfaction

Marital satisfaction of both women and men seems partly to depend on…

the moderately heritable personality dispositions of the wives

Genes play a role in the quality of marriages, and who gets divorced versus…

staying married, in part through heritable personality characteristics

Four heritable personality factors predict…

psychological well-being and overall satisfaction with life

What are the four heritable personality factors that predict psychological well-being, overall satisfaction with life

having a sense of purpose, orientation toward personal growth, feeling your life is under your own control, and having positive social relationships

Same studies that suggest moderate heritability also provides…

good evidence for the importance of environmental influences

If many personality characteristics show heritabilities in the range of 30% to 50%, this means…

the same characteristics show a substantial degree of environmentality of 50% to 70%

All measures contain errors of measurement; some of the differences in personality be attributable to…

neither environmental nor genetic differences, but rather to errors measurement

two key types of environmental influences

shared and nonshared

Shared environmental influences

in a family environment, features of the environment that are shared by siblings

Non shared environmental influences

In a family environment, features of the environment that differ across siblings

Examples of shared environmental influences

number of books in home

Example of environmental influences

different friends and different teachers

For most personality traits…

the environment exerts a major influence and the shared environment has little impact

Environmental causes appear to be mostly of

the nonshared variety

types of nonshared experiences that have a key impact on personality are…

not known

Shared environments accounted for several personality clusters in the…

“adjustment” domain

What are the personality clusters included in the shared environment accounted in the “adjustment” domain

antisocial behavior, depressive symptoms, and autonomous functioning

what is genotype-environment interaction?

Differential response of individuals with different genotypes to the same environment

Examples of genotype-environment interaction

task performances of introverts versus extraverts in less simulation versus conditions with distraction

individual differences interact with…

the environment to affect performance

What is genotype-environment correlation

differential exposure of individuals with different genotypes to different environments

genotype-environment correlation

Three types of genotype-environment correlations

passive, reactive, active

Passive genotype environment correlation

Parents provide both genes and the environment to children, yet children do nothing to obtain that environment

Passive genotype environment correlation, short form

there is a correlation between the children’s verbal ability and the number of books in their home, but it is passive

Reactive genotype environment correlation

Parents (or others) respond to children differently depending on the child’s genotypes

Example of reactive genotype environment correlation

Baby’s liking for cuddling and the mother’s cuddling behavior

Active genotype environment correlation

Person with a particular genotype creates or seeks out a particular environment

high sensation seekers expose themselves to…

risky environments

Genotype-environment correlations can be…

positive or negative

What is molecular genetics?

Techniques designed to identify specific genes associated with personality traits

DRD4

gene located on the short arm of chromosome 11, which codes for the dopamine receptor

Most frequently examine association between…

DRD4 gene and a personality trait involves “novelty seeking”