Exam 4- Personality

[Audio] Lecture: Heredity Explanations of Personality Behavioral Genetics: the study of how and why inherited biological material influences biological patterns. They are interested in how broader patterns of behavior tend to cluster together as opposed to focusing on one. There is a lot of stigma around the study of behavioral genetics as they equate this study to eugenics. Behavioral geneticists have tried hard to distance their studies from this. Fundamental question of behavioral genetics: How much variation in phenotype is attribute to variation in genotype? 99% of all human genes are identical across the human race. Only 1% is responsible for the variation seen between humans. The Heritability Quotient determines how much variation in a given set of traits (eg. neuroticism) differs between MZ (identical monozygotic) and DZ (fraternal dizygotic) twins. Heritability Quotient = 2 x (rMZ – rDZ) The difference in correlation between associations (either MZ or DZ) tells us how much is heritable. Heritability Quotient tells us about the variance rather than the % of D-N-A that accounts for a certain trait. ✦ For the average twin study, variance is 40% for heredity. Eg. if one sibling’s IQ is 100 and another’s 105, the difference of 5 is 40% accounted for by heredity. ✧ Heritability quotients from twin studies: 40% ✧ Heritability quotients from non twin studies: 20% ✦ Other study formats include siblings (50% of genes), half siblings (25% of genes), and cousins (12.5% of genes) Rigorous studies in attempt to map out specific genes to disorders and diseases found that most phenotypes (physical) we observe are not determined by single genes or even two or three genes. Traits such as conscientiousness are multi determined; the emergent property of 1000 plus genes interacting with each other. Monozygotic twins have higher heritability quotients and they share 100% of their genes. Because they share these genes, they share the latent response that occurs as a result of these genes interacting. Therefore the trait that arises as a result of genetic interaction is the same. 3 common heritability myths: Heritability coefficients reflect % of one’s personality attributable to genes. Not TRUE = heritability coefficients are about variation. Heritability coefficients tell you how much of your personality are attributable to genes. Not TRUE = heritability coefficients work on a population level not a personal level. Heritability coefficients from twin studies are accurate reflections of heritability in general. Not TRUE = gross estimation of how the genes actually contribute to one’s phenotype..

[Audio] Theoretical Implications of Heritability: Some parts of our personality do come from genes (heritability coefficient between .2 and .4) Much of our personality does not come from genes. How do genes influence personality? We have inherited predispositions towards certain types of thoughts and behaviors. There are a collection of propensities that predispose you towards certain behaviors example: there is no gene for watching TV that determines the amount you consume, but a combination of genes that predispose you to relaxation may influence this. example: observed behavior of travel may be a combination of lower level genes that elicit sensation seeking, energetic, novelty seeking and low fear response behavior. However, we don’t know how or which propensities do what. The study of propensities assumes an environment that allows said genes to be fully expressed; propensities require an outlet for expression. Heritability coefficients can change as a function of the environment ✦ eg. a trait such as intelligence is strongly influenced by environmental qualities such as access to nutrition or disease. G-W-A studies: genome wide association studies investigate the entire genome. Less favored over time when they could not find conclusive results. However, the rise of technology has led to an increase in GWAs. These are not really an issue of replication but more about our lack of understanding and complexity of the problem. Lecture: Intelligence One of the main individual differences studied in psychology is intelligence. Intelligence has been studied for a long time due to its importance in our lives. Proficiency tests were used in ancient China to select officials for the emperor. Intelligence is linked to life outcomes and can affect how people treat you. Intelligence can be defined in many ways, including problem solving, critical thinking, planning, reasoning, learning, creativity, perception, and knowledge. Intelligence is not the same as personality, which is defined as stable and consistent traits. The study of mental ability and personality psychology is closely aligned. Mental ability is defined as traits that reflect how well individuals can process various types of information. dimensional terms rather than typological and does not refer to specific or specialized knowledge or skills..

[Audio] more about the mental processes involved in learning and problem solving. History of the study of intelligence: Charles Spearman: one of the first to study intelligence empirically. Developed Spearman’s Rho. Deeply influenced by Francis Galton. Invented Factor Analysis to study mental ability. Assigned several tasks to study the structure of mental ability Through factor analysis, he found that these mental abilities correlated with one another. He named this factor G for general ability. ✦ The G factor exists in an form which cannot be measured directly. Louis Thurstone: Wanted to do a bigger and more rigorous analysis of intelligence to capture every domain of mental ability so he conducted 60 tests In his analyses he found that there was not a single G factor, but 7 He concluded that Spearman was wrong about there being a G factor. Then a similar debate arose: how many mental abilities are there? Echoes the same question as ‘how many factors of personality?’ Intelligence is structured in a hierarchical manner. Despite many studies suggesting that mental abilities are inter correlated, some suggest there are multiple separate intelligences. Gardner listed seven independent intelligences: ✦ Linguistic ✦ Musical ✦ Logical / mathematical ✦ Spatial ✦ Kinesthetic ✦ Intrapersonal (self) ✦ Interpersonal (social) HowEVER , there is zero evidence to support that this is the case. Evidence points to a single G factor Researchers have tried to investigate this through typological measures; would you prefer this or that?’ which is not how personality or intelligence works..

[Audio] Intelligence Quotient (I-Q---) often used as a metric for mental ability. There is a long history of IQ score with various ways of calculating it. The ratio IQ metric has not been used much since the 1970 seconds. Calculation of your mental age, which was then divided by chronological age. This is inherently flawed as mental ability tends to flatten out after 18; it does not increase with age. The deviation IQ is used more widely than ratio IQ nowadays. Individuals are scored along several mental abilities. These scores are normalized so that the average (mean) is 100 and the SD is 16. Each score is calculated on its distribution – the distance away from the mean. Intelligence is not scored as absolute mental ability but rather relative ability – concerned with how one individual performs relative to others. IQ and Life Outcomes: IQ scores are correlated with important life outcomes like academic success, job performance, and well being. Limitations of IQ: IQ doesn’t fully capture mental ability and doesn’t guarantee success, as external factors can hinder the use of one’s abilities. Factors Influencing IQ: Socioeconomic background and early childhood experiences can contribute to higher IQ scores. Flynn Effect: The tendency for IQ scores to increase over time. Proposed Causes: Improved living conditions, schooling, nutrition, fewer diseases, and more stimulating environments. IQ Score Inflation Solution: Norms are recalculated every 15 years. Reading: Test/Concept Key Feature/Concern Binet Simon Mental age; too verbal; basis for later tests. Historical foundation of intelligence scales. Wechsler Bellevue Verbal plus performance; deviation scores; adult sample Army Alpha/Beta Group tests; verbal & non verbal; military use. Alpha (verbal) and Beta (non verbal) were developed for recruits. Healy’s Picture Test Early non verbal option Criticism Over reliance; lack of child specific logic. Paterson warned against devising tests a priori without studying the phenomena first..

[Audio] Lecture: Personality Across Cultures Culture: customs, habits, beliefs and values that shape emotions, behavior and life patterns. Culture can influence personality in different ways: Enculturation: culture shapes in your personality in a way that is invisible to you as you were born into it. Acculturation: thoughts, feelings and behavior modified by a culture you have to adapt to. The study of cross cultural psychology transcends the individual. Culture intersects personality in two ways: Culture is an environment that can influence personality. Culture may present different dimensions of variation. Raises the question of whether we can really compare personality differences across cultures if different cultures change the way people can vary. Increasing representation of non weird samples (western, educated, industrialized, rich & democratic) Achievement against Affiliation: McClelland found that the need for achievement levels rose within a given culture over time and predicted the degree to which the culture was economically prosperous. Culture is not a constant thing but a dimension along which you can understand variations within and between cultures. The directionality of cause has been questioned when studying culture: do cultures cause personality or vice versa? In general, research suggests that it goes both ways; a bidirectional influence. Selective migration: people are motivated to move to places where people are more like them and share similar values. Social influence: your personality drives characteristics of a culture to emerge. Ecology: weather leads us to behave in a certain way (climate may drive certain architectural styles such as more windows, which leads to more people driven behavior). Research has found that in places that are colder, people tend to be more neurotic. Studies have been conducted to examine the degree of universality of traits across cultures. Research using the Big Five model has found that not all cultures have five main traits. Cheung et al found that openness does not appear in all cultures. Benet Martinez found that the Big Five does not cover all traits in Spanish samples. Schwartz (1992) conducted a study to find universal traits across cultures, coming up with 10 dimensional values. Dimensions Tightness against Looseness: Cultural Tightness: The degree to which societal norms are enforced within a given culture. Tight Culture Example: The U S is considered a loose culture..

[Audio] Tight Culture Benefit: Socially tight cultures were better at enforcing social distancing measures for COVID-19 and therefore had lower death and infection rates. Collectivism against Individualism: Sense of community against self. Varies as a factor of socio economic wealth in countries. Challenges Exaggeration of differences: Homogeneity biases: there is greater variation within culture than between, but this is not reflected. Research mostly focuses on differences, although we are mostly similar. Statistics have been designed to identify differences among people rather than similarities. Ethnocentrism: viewing, interpreting and judging another culture from the viewpoint of your own. We tend to see our own culture as normal vs; other cultures’ values as exotic Cultural Relativism: the idea that all cultural views are equally valid, therefore it is wrong to place judgement on another culture. ✦ To the extent that relativism implies one culture is as good as another…relativism provides a rationale for tolerance that is also a rationale for perpetuation of what is, rather than what might be.’ (Block et al 1971) = refusing to judge others allows us to ignore important social movements or injustices such as slavery. reading: Research Approach Focus Strengths Limitations Etic (Cultural Comparative) Using measures that are used across cultures (from external/ universal viewpoint) Large empirical database, sound methodology (equivalence testing). Emphasis on Western traits/ assumptions, method. issues (bias, theory equivalence gap). Emic (Indigenous) Studying within specific cultures non western contexts, culture specific, bottom up approach Overemphasis on culture uniqueness, lack of integrated model Approach Focus Strengths Limitations Examples Benefits Chinese Personality Balanced view, Makes personality theory Combined Assessment EmicEtic Inventory (C-P-A-I-) Integrating elements of both for a culturally Bridges mainstream and Time consuming, possibility to be ethnocentric, truly universal and identifies new aspects of South African inclusive model. psychological functioning. Personality indigenous psychology needs empirical validation. Inventory (S-A-P-I-).

[Audio] Lecture: Personality Disorders Personality disorder: not a pathological disorder that is often thought of in a traditional medical sense. They are maladaptive traits or systems that don’t adjust adequately or are problematic to one’s environment. adaptive inflexibility is having few coping strategies that they excessively stick to vicious cycles of engaging in behavior that makes relationships even more troubled tenuous stability is a lack of resilience Characteristics of a personality disorder: Unusual: when regular dimensions of personality are taken to unusual extremes anxiety disorder – everyone experiences bouts of anxiety but a lot of anxiety is unusual Causes problems: cause some degree of suffering, distress, harm or other disruption to self and or others. Social Nature of Personality Disorders: Personality disorders are inherently social, requiring evaluation of behavior in relation to others. Social Agents and Expression of Traits: Social agents are necessary for expressing problematic traits, making these traits an emergent property of social interaction. Stable over time: product of the fact that we are discussing personality. Ego syntonic: serves the need of one’s ego and is consistent with self views. ‘That’s who I am’ ‘Other people are the problem, not me’. This element of personality disorders makes it very difficult to treat (1/3 drop out of treatment). Hard to permanently change who you are. Classification of Personality Disorders Traditionally, Personality Disorders were split into 3 smaller clusters in the DSM Updated classification systems (ICD-11) adopt a more dimensional approach to diagnosing PD. Classification based on severity Much of psychopathology theory has its roots in Freudian theory, which posits that PDs originate from childhood experiences. Today, psychologists generally adopt an interactionist perspective: acknowledging the influence of both heredity and predisposition (person against situation debate) while emphasizing the lack of a definitive causal factor. Certain traits can become extreme due to prolonged and pervasive experiences Some Personality Disorders are associated with negative outcomes.

[Audio] Treatment: Psychotherapy Has shown efficacy in certain disorders, such as Borderline Personality Disorder (B-P-D--) Effectiveness in other conditions, like Antisocial Personality Disorder (A-P-D--), remains uncertain Measuring the success of PD treatment is challenging, as personality change is difficult to quantify. Certain aspects of treatment, such as anxiety levels, may be easier to assess and track.Drawing the line between normal and abnormal behavior raises important implications that require careful consideration and research. reading: Hopwood et al (2018) The time has come for dimensional personality disorder diagnosis The committee revising the ICD-11 Mental or Behavioral Disorders section ‘Personality Disorders and Related Traits’ has proposed replacing categorical personality disorders with a severity gradient ranging from personality difficulties to severe personality disorder and 6 trait domains: negative affectivity, detachment, dissociate, disinhibition, anankastic and (new) borderline pattern The severity dimension has ties to the psychodynamic tradition which has historically been at the forefront of personality disorder classification and aligns with a number of empirical efforts to quantify general personality dysfunction. Dimensional models also address issues such as comorbidity and in a direct and empirically tractable manner. Research has repeatedly shown that the borderline personality disorder construct in particular can be accounted for by empirically derived dimensions of personality traits and functioning. The categorical model has become a hindrance to research and practice. Transition to Dimensional Models Limitations of categorical systems like DSM-5. Introduction to ICD-11 and HiTOP as modern dimensional frameworks. Overview of ICD-11.

[Audio] Dimensional approach: classification based on severity Focus on general personality dysfunction. Classification: Mild, Moderate, Severe All diagnostic requirements of PD must be met Reduces diagnostic overlap and increases flexibility Overview of HiTOP: Hierarchical Taxonomy Of Psychopathology A research driven dimensional model Organizes psychopathology into spectra: internalizing, externalizing Goal: Reduce comorbidity and reflect underlying traits. Hierarchal Structure: Broad Dimension → to specific traits Top of hierarchy: P-factor ✦ general dimension of psychopathology that encompasses a wide range of mental health problems.