Chapter 7 Biological Processes and Personality

Question 1

Biological process approach

Answer 1

• assumes that human behavior reflects the operation of a complex biological system.
• The process that make up this system reflect the way we’re organized as living creatures.
• Biological processes have systematic influences on behavior and experience.
• Personality is embedded in our bodies.
• Personality is influenced by the workings of the body.
• Similarities: everyone has a nervous system and an endocrine system
• Differences: parts of the nervous system and endocrine system are more active or more responsive in some people than in others.

Question 2

Eyesnck’s View on Behavior Functions

Answer 2

*saw personality as composed largely of two supertraits: neuroticism and extraversion

Question 3

Eyesnck’s Introverts

Answer 3

• Quiet, calm, higher cortical arousal
• Introverts more vigilant, need more of a depressive to become unalert than extroverts, less of a stimulant to become alert
• Introverts normally have higher cortical arousal than extraverts -> avoid social interation because it gets them overstimulated

Question 4

Eyesnck’s Extraverts

Answer 4

• Outgoing, uninhibited, immersed in social activity, lower cortical arousal
• Extraverts with lower baseline levels -> seek stimulation to bring their arousal up

Question 5

Eyesnck’s Neuroticism

Answer 5

*High neurotic people are highly aroused in emotion centers of brain

Question 6

Incentives

Answer 6

things they desire

Question 7

Behavioral approach system (BAS)

Answer 7

• Gray’s Biopsychological Theory of Personality
• Set of brain structures responsible for reward seeking behavior-drives behavior toward active incentives
• Responsible for many kinds of positive emotions -> reflecting the anticipation of getting a reward
• The approach system is engaged, but the emotions-frustration and anger- have a negative valence -> left-prefrontal activation and BAS sensitivity
• Incentives and positive feelings activate the left prefrontal cortex
• People with highly reactive approach systems are: highly sensitive to incentives/cues good things might happen
• Overactive BAS -> Antisocial personality disorder - pursue whatever incentive comes to mind, and fail to be motivated by opposing threats
• Learning involving positive outcomes but not to learning involving negative outcomes

Question 8

Neurotransmitter

Answer 8

*chemical involved in sending messages along nerve pathways.

Question 9

Dopamine

Answer 9

*involved in the approach system

Question 10

High levels of dopamine reactivity

Answer 10

• High positive emotionality, novelty seeking
• Aspects of extroversion including dominance, enthusiasm, energy, assertiveness, and responsiveness
• Flexible shifting between goals
• Reward based learning
• Bursts of dopamine in response to reward increase the learning (and the execution) of approach responses
• Dips in dopamine after nonreward increase the learning (and the execution) of avoidance responses
• Respond intensely to unexpected reward but less so to reward that are expected. When a reward is expected but fails to occur, these neurons decrease responding.
• Not clear if related to learning itself though or motivation to learn

Question 11

Behavioral inhibition system (BIS)

Answer 11

Gray

• system in the brain that reacts to punishments and threats
• Cause people to inhibit movement (especially if they’re currently approaching an incentive) or to pull back from what they just encountered.
• Cues of punishment and danger
• Stop and scan for further cues about the threat or pull back
• Responsible for feelings such as anxiety, fear, guilt, and revulsion
• Anxiety relates to a behavioral withdrawal system, which involves the right prefrontal cortex
• People with reactive avoidance systems are sensitive to threat
• Threat sensitivity and incentive sensitivity are thought to be relatively separate.
• Possible to be both highly sociable (drawn to social incentives) and very shy (fearful of social interaction and avoiding it )

Question 12

Avoidance/withdrawal system

Answer 12

threat-responsive system

*Maps well onto neuroticism and anxiety proneness often go hand in hand

Question 13

Serotonin

Answer 13

• involved in anxiety or threat sensitivity
• Ambiguous and hotly debated
• Strongly challenged
• Serotonin’s main influence lies else where
• SSRIs: class of drugs used to treat anxiety and depression

Question 14

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)

Answer 14

• Senitivity of GABA receptors to neuroticism

* Increase GABA reduce anxiety in panic patients

Question 15

Norepinephrine

Answer 15

• response to stress
• Panic reactions
• Problems in regulating norepinephrine relate selectively to anxiety disorders and panic attacks
• Threat sensitivity

Question 16

Approach system extraversion

Answer 16

• Zelenski and Larsen (1999): measures of extraversion and several BAS constructs were all interrelated, and as a set, they predicted positive feelings.
• Extraverts are responsive to positive mood manipulations.
• Those high in BAS sensitivity also have positive feelings to impending reward.
• View BAS sensitivity as sensitivity to social incentives
• the core of extraversion is reward sensitivity and the tendency to experience positive affect
• Extravert’s social tendencies stem from the fact that social interaction is one source of positive experiences

Question 17

Impulsivity

Answer 17

*Historically believed to be part of extraversion, but evidence does not support this

Question 18

Sensation seeking

Answer 18

*Possible third dimension of biologically based personality

Question 19

People high in sensation seeking want new, varied, and exciting experiences

Answer 19

• Faster drivers
• More likely to use drugs, to increase alcohol use over time, to do high-risk sports and to engage in risky antisocial behaviors
• More sexually experienced and sexually responsive
• When in relationships, they are more dissatisfied
• When serving in the army, they are more likely to volunteer for a combat unit

Question 20

Functional approach in sensation seeking

Answer 20

• Regulates exposure to stimulus intensity
• High sensation seekers open themselves to stimulation; low sensation seekers protect themselves from it
• People high in sensation seeking should function well in overwhelming conditions, but they may display antisocial qualities in situations that are less demanding
• People lower in sensation seeking are better adapted to most circumstances

Question 21

Impulsive unsocialized sensation seeking (IUSS)

Answer 21

• the capacity to inhibit behavior in service of social adaptation.
• People high in IUSS don’’t do this very well
• IUSS relates inversely to sociability and positvely to aggressiveness
• Implicated in antisocial personality disorder
• Involves a focus on the immediate consequences of behavior, rather than longer-term consequences
• relates inversely to both agreeableness and conscientiousness of the five-factor model and to constraint from Tellegen’s (1985) model (constraint being virtually the opposite of IUSS)
• relates to psychoticism in Eysenck’s model- disregard of social restraint in pursuit of intense sensations
• Relates inversely to the temperament, effortful control

Question 22

Effortful control

Answer 22

• pertaining to impulsivity (Rothbart)
• Being focused and restrainted
• Implies a planfulness and awareness of others’ needs
• High levels early in life -> fewer problems with antisocial behavior later
• Slower to emerge than the apporoach and avoidance temperaments and may not fully operative until adulthood
• Relate to the part of the brain that manages executive functions: the prefrontal cortex

Question 23

Monoamine oxidase (MAO)

Answer 23

• Zuckerman (1994, 1995)
• helps regulate several neurotransmitters
• MAO levels relate to personality traits such as sensation seeking and novelty seeking
• Relates to dominance, aggression and drunk driving
• Genes related to MAO levels have been linked to aggression and impulsivity
• Some consider MAO level to be mostly an indicator of the activity of neurons of the serotonin system- serotonin function

Question 24

Low in serotonin

Answer 24

• impulsivity- hostility and aggressiveness
• created higher aggressiveness among highly aggressive men but had the opposite effect among those low in aggressiveness
• loosening restraint of one’s basic tendencies
• a history of fighting and assault, domestic violence and impulsive aggression
• more directly to impulsiveness or volatility than to hostility per se.
• higher neuroticism -> angry hostility
• serotonin should inhibit positive reactions as well as negative

Question 25

Testosterone

Answer 25

* Children who had been exposured chose physical aggression more than children who hadn’t been exposed. True for boys and girls. * High levels of natural androgen in girls has been related to greater involvement in sports that involve rough body contact, activities that are more typical of boys * High levels of naturally occuring fetal testosterone predicted lower levels of empathy at age 4 * More dominant/more likely to have committed violent crimes/more likely to violate prison rules * Men with high testosterone were more likely to have planned the act ahead of time and to have killed people they knew * larger numbers of sex partners * More likely to abuse alcohol and other drugs * More likely to have gone absent without leave in the military and to have assaulted others * More likely to have had trouble with parents, teachers, and classmates while growing up * Strongest among men of low socioeconomic status (SES) * High testosterone Lower-SES occupations - Success is defined partly by socioeconomic status, rather than physical dominance * were less likely to have married * More likely to divorce * More likely to have had extramarital sex and to commit domestic abuse * Have smiles that are less friendly * Express more dominance in their gaze when in conversation * Fraternities are more wild and unruly

Question 26

Anabolic steroids

Answer 26

* the desire for a well-formed body * Chemicals that mimic the body’s tendency to rebuild muscle tissue that has been stressed or exercised * Unintended and unpleasant side effects: shutting down the production of testosterone -> lowered sperm count and a decrease sex drive - Women: shrinking breasts, a deepening voice, and an increase in facial and body hair * Behavioral effects: dominance and aggressiveness * aggressive personality -> serious violence

Question 27

Shift of testosterone

Answer 27

*Testosterone rises after positive experiences Rises after success at a competitive event *Falls after a failure or humiliation *Rises when your team wins and falls when your team loses *Rises when you are confronted with an insult *Rises after sexual intercourse *Rises among me skateboarding in front of an attractive woman *Rises when fooling around with a gun for a few minutes *Culture of honor in the south: Testosterone and Cortisol Increases among Insulted Southern Men -After being insulted, men from the American South have a greater increase in testosterone than men from the North *Amy Cuddy: Power posing

Question 28

Fight of Flight

Answer 28

Cannon (1932) * When an animal confronts a predator or competitor, it has two adptive choices: to attack (hoping to overcome the other) or to flee (hoping to escape) * Flight response- avoidance * Fight- impulsivity

Question 29

Shelly Taylor (2002, 2006)

Answer 29

* Tend and befriend: stronger in females * Reflects a difference in evolutionary pressures on males and females, due to differing investment in offspring * Fighting and fleeing may make good sense for males, who aren’t carrying offspring, but it makes less sense for females. Females may have evolved strategies that benefit both themselves and their offspring. * Tending: calming offspring and puting them into a situation of less threat, protects them from harm * Befriending: affiliating and bonding with others; reduces cetain kinds of risk with greater safetyin numbers) and increases the chances of receiving tending from each other when needed * Derive from system that produces attachment between infant and caregiver * Involve oxytocin

Question 30

Oxytocin

Answer 30

* relax and sedate, to *reduce fear and to *enhance mother-infant bonding * Androgens inhibit its release under stress, and estrogen increases its effects * Both males and females have this hormone but females seem to have more of it * Men and women react somewhat differently to stress: men tend to remove themselves from social interaction; women immerse themselves in nurturing those around them * Social bonding- adult pair bonding in some species * Released during orgasm, childbirth, massage, and breastfeeding * Greater partner support relates to higher levels of oxytocin * Increase in trust, a willingness to take on risks in the context of a social bond with a stranger * Improves the ability to empathically infer other people’s mental states * Lower lifetime aggression

Question 31

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

Answer 31

*an indirect indication of brain activity can be obtained by recording electrical activity from the scalp. *Neurons in the brain fire at various intervals, creating fluctuations in voltage *Electrodes on the scalp sense these changes, giving a view of aspects of the activity in the cerebral cortex. *Cortical activity- relate to different subjective states Investigating normal persoanlity *Mapping EEG activities in different locations shows what areas of the brain are involved in what kinds of mental activity Identify a person who’s dominated by incentive motivation or by avoidance motivation by looking at left-versus right-prefrontal activation levels at rest

Question 32

Positron emission tomography (PET)

Answer 32

* derives a picture of brain functioning from metabolic activity * The person receives a radioactive form of glucose (the brain’s energy source) * Radioactivity in different brain areas are recorded * More active areas use more glucose, resulting in higher radioactivity there * A computer color codes the intensities, producing a brain map in which colors represent levels of brain activity

Question 33

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Answer 33

* Functioning nerve cells create magnetic fields * The magnetic resonances of a person’s brain can be translated into a visual image * The image is of slices across the brain * Different slices give different information, because they show different parts of the brain * Structural problems in the brain

Question 34

Functional MRI (fMRI)

Answer 34

* assess levels of activation in various brain structures, both at rest and in other mental states * Much more detailed than EEG recordings * Lets the brain be viewed in slices at different levels * Very detailed three-dimensional picture about what brain centers are active during the scan * Created in multiple colors, with each color representing a different level of activity * Increase use of fMRI * Very expensive * Show increases and decreases in neural activity as a function of what the person is doing * Lets researchers determine which parts of the brain are involved in those various experiences

Question 35

Anxiety Disorder

Answer 35

* The avoidance system creates anxiety in the presence of cues of impending punishment * A person with a very sensitive threat system will experience anxiety easily and frequently * Phobias, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorders

Question 36

Depression

Answer 36

* A variant of anxiety, reflecting an oversensitive avoidance system * Tie depression to a weak BAS: has little motivation to approach incentives

Question 37

Antisocial personality

Answer 37

* involves impulsivity and an inability to restrain antisocial urges * An overactive BAS * Pursue whatever incentive comes to mind * Deficits in the threat system * Fail to learn from punishment or aren’t motivated to avoid it * Some think that the failure to learn from punishment stems not from a deficient avoidance system but from a failure to stop and think before plowing ahead in pursuit of an incentive * Over-responsiveness to emotions * Insufficient MAO may be a vulnerabiity, interacting with an adverse environment - Low MAO-> antisocial behavior - only if they were maltreated while growing up * High testosterone -> violent and antisocial behavior

Question 38

Pharmacotherapy

Answer 38

* Involve administering drugs | * Changing the action of these biological functions should change the manifestation of the disorder

Question 39

Lithium

Answer 39

* bipolar or manic-depressive | * Unpleasant side effects

Question 40

Schizophrenia

Answer 40

* Symptoms of schizophrenia reflect too much dopamine * Transmission in certain parts of the nervous system is too easy * When too many messages are being sent, communication is disrupted

Question 41

Antidepressants

Answer 41

* Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) - Moderate to mild depression - Broader responses * People’s personalities undergo changes that are subtle but profound and pervasive: more confident, more resilient, more decisive, more dominant