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67 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back

Why study neuroscience?

The brain is responsible for all thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Genes build our brain, experience further shapes it

What is temperament?

A basic individual difference, your broad emotional disposition or energy

Temperament is a set of personality traits that are..

Relatively stable across the lifespan, Expressed through general energy level, Present from early childhood, Similar in other species of animals, Present at birth (at least in a general way), Determined by genetic factors, and Changeable with maturation and experience

Self-concept

mental representation of yourself

Self-recognition (self-consciousness, self-awareness)

The ability to make yourself the object of attention; the self differs from other people and objects.

What is the Mirror test

chimpanzees are able to identify themselves in the mirror; so can other apes. Dolphins, elephants, magpies, etc.

Trait self-consciousness

a personality trait that reflects how often they think reflect on themselves; the habitual tendency to engage in self-awareness

Private self-consciousness

being aware of one’s thought, feelings, motives

Public self-consciousness

trying to focus on oneself from the outside; what do others think of me

Objective Self-Awareness Theory

When we are highly self-aware (mirror, video camera) we compare ourselves to our own goals/ standards (connects to deindividuation);


We may find a self-discrepancy which creates negative feelingsIf self-discrepancy can’t be reduced, people try to escape self-awareness

Independent self-construal

Defining a self concept based on individual traits, values, etc. Separate from others. You stay "You" no matter the context

Interdependent self-construal

The self is defined in terms of one’s relationships to other people; recognizing that one’s behavior is often determined by the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others; different "you" for different contexts

Relational interdependence

defined by the close relationships; collective identity

Possible selves

Futures goals or fears; who you think you will be in the future. Having possible selves is linked to achieving more

Self-complexity

A measure of self-concept organization; Refers to the number of self-aspects in an individual’s self-concept and the degree of redundancy among attributes in self-aspects

Consequences of self-complexity

Affective spillover- low complexity means emotions effect you a lot


That means being happy in one area makes you very happy overall. Being unhappy in one area with high self complexity means you can be resilient

Active self-aspects

whatever side of our personality is currently active, i.e. stereotype threat makes Asian Americans bad at driving when reminded of Asianness

Self-esteem

How we generally feel about ourselves; global/trait esteem is a personality variable revealing how we feel most of the time.

Is self-esteem a stable personality trait?

There are consistent age-related changes in self-esteem, but people peak at around 51; How people feel in their 20s predicts how they will feel in their 40s, but it will not be exactly the same

Self-serving bias in self esteem

We make attributions that are flattering to ourselves; if I succeed it’s due to me, if it’s a failure it’s due to outside factors

High, unstable SE versus high, stable SE

People with unstable, but high self-esteem are more defensive and prone to anger; they are more threatened by failure feedback than participants with stable high self-esteem.

Outcomes associated with self-esteem

Higher self-esteem is correlated with having more confidence and initiative, they have an easier time bouncing back from misfortunes, they take more risks,

Narcissism

Inflated self-esteem; they are defensive and show less compassion

Self-esteem myths

People with high self-esteem are not smarter and more likable; Self esteem is not consistently correlated with drug use, reckless behavior, or antisocial behavior; Bullies do not have low self-esteem (but they are more likely to have unstable or inflated high self esteem); Self esteem is related to school success, work success, life satisfaction, and happiness

Should we pursue high self-esteem?

Self-esteem predicts success in life, SE predicted work success better than vice versa, work success, employment, income, and health predict changes in SE over time

Looked at students who got a C or belowRandomly assigned students to one of three conditions Self-esteem bolstering (SE)Internal-controllable attributions (I/C)Control emails

Students who were Cs were not significantly affected; students who were Ds or below dropped significantly in the SE condition

Self-efficacy

People’s beliefs about their ability to successfully perform some action

Basking in reflected glory (BIRGing)

feeling the pleasure of a group member’s success as if it were our own success. Things like rooting for sports

Cutting off reflected failure (CORFing)

dissociating oneself from one’s group after group failure

Self-enhancement (Cultural differences)

American’s have a higher list of events that would increase their self-esteem; americans are likely to think of successes that are universal, but not failures;

Self-criticism

Japanese have a longer list of events that would decrease their self-esteem; Japanese also think of things that are super sad

Although what is valued (and produces “esteem”) varies by cultures, within cultures people think they possess those valued traits.

I: SE is based on one’s ability to engage in self-expression and to validate internal attributes


C: SE is based on one’s ability to adjust to the group, suppress selfish desires, and maintain social harmony

Self-presentation (managing impressions)

We have to be sensitive to the reactions of others so we can adjust appropriately

Self-monitoring

Paying attention to the social situation and using that to guide your own behaviors. Could be more appropriately called “social-monitoring”

A social chameleon is someone who changes their behavior to adjust to the situation...

Someone who is high on self-monitoring, will have many shallow relationships; someone who is low is self-monitoring will have few, deeper relationships

Self-handicapping-

a person creates obstacles to his or her own performance either to provide an excuse for failure or to enhance success; Can also be self-protective/self- enhancing- we avoid testing our actual ability

Berglas & Jones (1978)All participants were given a taskIf it was easy and they were told they did well, they believed it; success was contingent If it was difficult and they were told they did well, despite feeling like they were failing; success was non-contingentTold they will take another test and they are sure to do well. People in the difficult condition will feel doubt and fear of failing this time.

Men choose a self-impairing drug more in the difficult group.

Zuckerman’s (2005) typology

Extraversion- Positive emotion, reward sensitivity, sociability, approach, a focus on emotion and energy;


Neuroticism- Negative emotion, anxiety, punishment sensitivity, withdrawal;


Impulsivity- Lack of constraint, psychoticism, sensation seeking, novelty seeking, lack of conscientiousness, lack of agreeableness

Eysenck’s PEN Model

Rooted in biology


Extraversion- they want to talk to people, do things, and be engaged with others. Introverts want solitude and quiet. Hypothesized that this comes from a difference in baseline arousal levels. *Cortical arousal*


Neurological testing did not support this; but researchers thought maybe it was a difference in how easily you are made aroused with external stimulation or arousability


Introverts seem to reach optimal arousal at lower levels of stimulation

Geen (1984)- Subjects asked to pick a noise level while completing a learning task

Do introverts and extraverts prefer different volumes when learning?


Introverts choose lower levels than extraverts


When introverts/ extraverts work at noise levels preferred by the other it took them longer to learn


Results support preference for a certain level of external stimulation

Psychophysiology: Measure nervous system response;

Geen (1984) -Measured skin conductance responses for introverts and extraverts


SCR is the same at preferred level of stimulation


(Introverts, low noise, Extraverts, high noise)


So, E and I have similar level of optimal arousal, but they differ in how much external stimulation produces that

Neuroticism- Eysenck thought their sympathetic nervous system was unstable/ oversensitive

No evidence for overall differences in SNS activity Participants high in N and low in E show greater heart rate increase in response to intense stimuliOnly participants high in N show greater startle responses to fearful stimuli

Behavioral Approach System (BAS)

Reacts to appetitive stimuli; sensitive to reward. Represented by dopaminergic centers in the brain. It a “go” system, motivates us to work towards things; 2 parts E, 1 part N”

Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS)

Believed to sense and respond to conflict. Sensitive to punishment; it is a “stop” system. If a person has a really strong BIS may have anxiety disorder; 2 parts N, 1 part E

Flight-fright-freeze system (FFFS)

Produces fear; organizes reactions to aversive stimuli/threats (fight, escape, or freeze)

Impulsive personality in relation to BIS

Impulsivity is the failure of BIS to inhibit behavior, especially in the presence of stimuli that could be exciting or rewarding

Impulsivity studied as sensation seeking and behavioral responses

People high in SS seek varied sensations and experiences, and are willing to take risks in pursuit of those experiences; High SS habituate faster to novel stimuli; they also have greater pain tolerance and higher sensory thresholds

Brain structure differences in extraversion

Prefrontal cortex is thicker for introverts; amygdala is think for extraverts

Brain activity in extraversion

Cortex: Extraversion is correlated with greater temporal and frontal lobe activity when viewing positive pictures; These are involved in emotion

Biochemical activity in extraversion

Dopamine levels are higher in extraverts

Brain structure differences in neuroticism

Cortex: High neuroticism have less gray matter in left hemisphere of prefrontal cortexLeft hemi activity is associated with happinessAmygdala: High N tends to have lower concentrations of gray matter in the right amygdalaRight amygdala more related to negative emotions than left amygdala

Brain activity in neuroticism

Cortex- N is correlated with greater temporal and frontal lobe activity when viewing negative picturesLeft-right asymmetry: Left cortex responds more to positive emotions; right to negative. People differ in which side is more responsive and higher N is correlated with more right asymmetry

Biochemical differences in neuroticism

Serotonin: Circumstantial evidence that high N is associated with less serotoninDepression is linked to lower levels of serotonin in the synapses. High N linked to short alleles of serotonin transporter gene

Trait genotype

The gene(s) that “codes for” the trait

Trait phenotype

How a trait presents; Both the genotype and the environment affect the phenotype

Heritability

The estimate of what percentage of variation in a trait within a population is caused by people having different genes

Environmentality

The estimate of what percentage of variation in a trait within a population is caused by people having different environments; things that qualify as environment is endless; even fetal nutrition, social conditioning, etc. (Heritability is higher in equalizing environments. When everyone has the same experiences, the only thing left to vary is genetics. )

Comparing siblings in environment versus inheritability

Shared environment- aspects of the family environment that are the same for children; Nonshared environment- unique experiences in and outside of the family

Calculating heritability with twin studies

Comparing correlations between monozygotic and dizygotic twins; Or comparing MZ twins apart

Equal environment assumption (Issues with twin studies )

mono should have the same amount of shared environment than dy.

Assumption of representativeness of twins (Issues with twin studies)

they may differ more from the general environment than studies typically account for.

Selective placement (Issues with twin studies)

when comparing twins that are separated, they are still put into very similar homes

Genotype-environment interaction:

Certain genotypes make a person more likely to develop a characteristic when exposed to certain environments; Genotype alone and environment alone are not sufficient for the characteristic,

Looked at if MAO-A had three or four repeaters (just two different versions)

They then looked at psychosocial risk; only people who are at risk on both accounts show a difference

Passive genotype-environment correlations:

parents with the trait both pass on the G to their children and create an E that supports the traits

Reactive genotype-environment correlations:

people treat the child differently (E) based on the child’s trait that comes from G; The halo effect is when people who are attractive are treated better than people who are

Active genotype-environment correlations

The person’s G leads him/her to seek out certain E