Biological Perspectives Flashcards
Eysenck’s Theory
views personality structure as a hierarchy of traits, in which many superficial traits are derived from a smaller number of more basic trait, which are derived forma handful of fundamental higher order traits
His studies suggest that all aspects of personality emerges from three higher-order traits: Extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism
accord to Eysenck “Personality is determined to a large extent by genes”
Eysenck’s Extraversion
involves being sociable, assertive, active, and lively
Eysenck’s Neuroticism
involves being anxious, tense, mood, and low in self-esteem
Eyenck’s Psychoticism
involves being egocentric, impulsive, cold, and antisocial.
Behavioural Genetics
Philip Vernon examined the heritability of the big Five traits in identical and fraternal twins.
Higher correlations are indicative of greater similarity on a trait. On all five traits, identical twins have been found to be much more similar than fraternal twins.
Even identical twins reared apart we substantially more similar in personality than fraternal twins reared together.
The Neuroscience of Personality
The thinking is that the behavioural regularities that reflect personality trait may have their roots in individual differences in the brain.
Research in this area has focused mainly on the Big Five Traits.
Katie notes: can we see the certain parts of the brain are more developed
It is tied into our core personality
According to evolution it is why certain brain parts develop because of the changing environment (work is more competitive)
The evolutionary Approach to Personality
asserts that personality has a biological basis because natural selection has favoured certain traits over the course of human history.
evolutionary analyses focus on how various personality traits – and the ability to recognized these traits in others– may have contributed to reproductive fitness in ancestral human populations.
big five traits emerge as fundaments dimesions of personality because humans have evolved a special sensitivity to variations in the ability to bond with others (extraversion), the willingness to cooperate and collaborate(agreeableness), the tendency to be reliable and ethical (conscientiousness), the capacity to be an innovative problem solver (openness to experience) and the ability to handle stress (low neuroticism
Evaluating Biological Perspective
Pros: Convincing evidence for genetic influence
Cons: Conceptual problems with heritability estimates, artificial carving apart of nature and nurture, No comprehensive biological theory.
