Chapter 1: Theory, Chapter 12, Biological Approach

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dictionary meanings

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1. the quality, character or fact of being a perosn as distinct from an object
2. a personal being, a person
3. the quality of assemblage of qualities which makes a person what he or she is, as distinct from other people

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1.object
2.person
3.qualities

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Allport's scientific definitions of personality

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1. Sociological
2. Biosocial
3. Psychological

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s b p

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Sociological definition:

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personality is considered to be only the relection of the social group

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group

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Biosocial definiton:

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Personality is dereved partially from society and partially from out genes

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both

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Psychological definition:

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personality involved more then societal roles and biological urges

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more

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Psychological definitions of personality

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1. omnibus
2. organization of personal attributes
3. Heirarchal
4. Adjustment
5. uniqueness

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o
o
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a
e

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Omnibus

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the sum total of all the biological impulses, tendencies, appetites and instincts of an individual and the dispositions and tendencies acquired by experience

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Organization of personal attributes

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personality serves to integrate a persons qualities in order to give direction to the persons behavior

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Hierarchial

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personality is viewed as being organized in a hierarchal manner with one level being on top another level

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Adjustment

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those systems which permit individuals to modify their behavior to be more adaptive to any situation

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uniqueness

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emphasis on the acting, feeling and thinking that differentiates an individuals from others

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Textbook definitions

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1. A pattern of relatively permanent traits, dispositions, or propensities that lend consistency to a person’s behavior and thought processes.
2. The unique relatively enduring internal and external aspects of a person’s behavior character that influences behavior in different situations.
3. An individual’s habitual way of thinking felling perceiving and reaction to the world

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Characteristics of textbook definitions

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1. Personality fosters continuity, stability, and coherence of thought and behavior
2. The personality is expressed in many ways.
3. It organizes our experiences, perceptions and thoughts
4. It determines how one related to the social world.
5, While it is a psychological construct, it assumes a link with the physical, biological characteristics of the person.

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Free will

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the philosophical position that individuals have the ability to choose one’s fate and control one’s behavior

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Determinism

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the philosophical position that behavior results from factors not controlled by the individual.

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Nativism

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that a characteristic is determined by genetics

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Environmentalism

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belief that a characteristic is determined by the factors in the environment.

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Motivational Assumptions

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Homeostatic motivation: emphasis on returning to the status quo or original state
Hetereostatic motivation: emphasis on growth or moving on to a higher state

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Mind/ Body relationship

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physical monism: there is no mind, just the body
epiphenomenalism: mental events do occur; however, they are simply a function of the body so we can ignore them
parallelism: environmental factors influence both the mind and the body; thus mind and body are independent of each other but are correlated due to their relationship to the environmental factor
interactionism: the mind can influence the body; the body can influence the mind.

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what is a theory in personality?

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-it is a conceptual took for understanding certain specified phenomena
-it should describe the phenomena
-it should be verifiable
-it should explain a broad range of behavior
-it should use as few constructs as possible
-it should offer use of practical strategies for improving human life
-it should foster scientific progress

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Theoretical constructs

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these are concepts of the theory that are not directly observable

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Theoretical propositions

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statements regarding how constructs are related

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Operational definitions

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statements about what observable phenomena are evidence of a particular theoretical construct

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Hypotheses

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theoretical propositions that are stated in terms of observable phenomena, which can be tested by empirical evidence

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Mode 1

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- Self -reports in which respondents are asked to endorse the accuracy of self-descriptive items.
- Individuals presumably select responses after thoughtfully considering their past behaviors and stores of self memories
- Traits refer to personal characteristics that are stable, long lasting and internally caused.

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Mode 2

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- These are self-reports in which people are asked about current experiences
- There is less reliance on the constructive part of the memory
- This strategy assess states which are temporary, brief, and linked to external circumstances

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Mode 3:

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- These are self-reports in which individuals are given the task of answering an item correctly
- This approach is more objective in that is required little in the way of interpretation or self-knowledge and the test taker can not fake a good question

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Mode 4

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- This involves an observer deciding whether an item accurately describes the target person
- This assumes that the observer is a knowledgeable informant of the target
- it requires that the observer presumably select a response after thoughtfully considering their past interactions and memories of the target individual.

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Mode 5

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- This approach has observers base their judgments solely on information derived from the observational setting of other available archival records
- The use of impartial observers offers a reasonable degree of objectivity
- One employs observers as transcribers rather then interpreters

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Mode 6

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- With this strategy the target individual responds to some event in a relatively observable and controlled manner that is automatically recorded by a mechanical devise
- Interpretation and subjective ratings are eliminated as much as possible

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Mode 7

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- This mode involves the recording by mechanical instrumentation of ongoing physiological activity that is relatively private and that may be only vaguely apprehended by the individual.

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galen's humoral theory

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The products of you body (body humor) are related to your temperament.
- If any of your body humors are askew then your personality will also be askew
- Black bile + melancholy
- Yellow bile + argumentative and hot tempered
- Blood + cheerfulness
- Phlegm + indifferent, dull and apathetic

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sheldon's constituational theory

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Your body type has an affect on your personality type.
- Dimensions: each has seven levels.
Body Type:
1. Endomorphy: fat, huge
2. Mesomorphy: muscle
3. Ectomorphy: skinny
Personality:
1. Viscerotonic: relaxed
2. Somatotonic: active
3. Cerebrotonic: inhibited

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criticisms of sheldons theory

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- Experimenter bias
- Lack of replication
- Issues of causal direction
- Small effect size
- Ethical questions about participant coercion

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behavioral genetics

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- The scientific study of how both genetic and environmental factors interact to generate the variations that we observe in the characteristics of living organisms

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Scarr and McCartney's theory of genetic and environmental interaction

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- Passive genotype environmental correlation: the parents produce genes for their child, and the home environment, which influences the child’s behavior
- Evocative genotype environmental correlation: the child’s genes affect the child’s behavior, which shows in the environment and feedback from the environment in turn affect their behavior
- Active genotype environment correlation: the child’s genes affect their behavior, which affects environmental selection

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basic behavior research design

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Twin study method: monozygotic characteristic to dizygotic twins r MZ > r DZ
Adoption study method: Child ( C ) biological parent (B) and adopted parent ( A)
rBC= index of genetic relatedness
rAC= index of environmental relatedness
Studies find: rBC > rAC for most psychological variables
rBC increases as child ages, but rAC remains the same

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methodological problems with behavioral research

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1. We cannot control human mating patterns:
- Associative mating: behavior genetic research design is based on our understanding of meiosis.
- Individuals with similar characteristics (genes) will mate
2. We cannot control natural human environment
- There is no clear process for estimating the degree of environmental relatedness among individuals
- We are unable to control these variables in order to unconfound genetic and environmental relatedness.

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cloninger's tridimentional model

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Personality traits result from levels of neurotransmitters:
- Novelty seeking: people high in this trait become more excited to stimuli, explore their environment more, report trying new things for the thrill of it = lower levels of dopamine
- Harm avoidance: people high in this trait are highly influenced by aversive stimuli or by signals indicating that they will be punished and act to avoid pain, are more likely to report being worries or tense= low levels of serotonin
- Reward dependence: people who are high in this trait are hard working, show persistence in working even after others have given up= high levels of norepinephrine

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evolutionary theory and assumptions

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- Reflects the belief that evolutionary process have had an important influence on contemporary human personality
1. This theory concerns events that occurred in the distant past
2. Evolution is an exceedingly slow process
3. This theory applies to the entire species
4. This theory concerns genetic material not the phenotype

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sociobiology

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- The study of the biological basis of all social behavior

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inclusive fitness

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- The committing of an altruistic act that places an organism at an individual disadvantage, but gives an advantage to its genetic material

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hamiltons rule of social evolution applied to altruistic behavior

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For a behavior to be exhibited this equation needs to be greater then zero
(bxr)-c
b= benfical impact on the Darwinian fitness of the recipient of any social act
c= the cost impact on the Darwinian fitness of the performer of any social act
r= the coefficient of relatedness between the recipient and performer of the social act

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Rushtons genetic similarity theory

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- Assumes that it is evolutionary advantageous for a gene to benefit any organism in which copes of itself is located
- This predicts that genetically similar individuals will show beneficial preferences