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lecture 2 Flashcards

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1
Q

what are the 3 domains in Eysenck’s PEN theory?

A

psychoticism
extraversion
neuroticism

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2
Q

what does it mean by domains are orthogonal?

A

they are statistically independent- one trait does not affect the other

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3
Q

what are the four sources of support for Eysenck’s PEN theory?

A

psychometric evidence
biological basis
theoretically plausible
predictive of social issues

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4
Q

what are the two types of extraversion?

A

introvert
extrovert

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5
Q

what are the two types of neuroticism?

A

neurotic
emotionally stable

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6
Q

what are the two types of psychoticism?

A

psychopath
sociable

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7
Q

what is the difference between psychoticism and the other domains?

A

exhibits a skewed, not a normal, distribution

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8
Q

what is the key assumption for the biological basis for personality?

A

personality traits reflect individual differences in brain structure and function

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9
Q

what are the key regions of the brain involved in personality?

A

reticular formation and ARAS
cortex
limbic system

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10
Q

what is the reticular formation and ARAS?

A

networks of nuclei located in the brainstem
includes ascending pathways to the cortex (ARAS) and descending pathways to the spinal cord

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11
Q

what is the cortex?

A

outermost layer of the brain
contains sensory, motor and association areas

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12
Q

what is the limbic system?

A

‘deep’ brain structures, such as the hippocampus and the amygdala

involved in emotional processing and homeostasis

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13
Q

what are the two arousal systems?

A

reticulo-cortical circuit
limbic system

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14
Q

which domain is the reticulo-cortical circuit related to?

A

extraversion

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15
Q

which domain is the limbic system related to?

A

neuroticism

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16
Q

how does the reticulo cortical circuit control extraversion?

A

controls the ortical arousal generated by incoming stimuli
ARAS acts as a gate- controls overall arousal levels
introverts display higher levels of activity in the ARAS- let too much in- seek situations with low stimulation (opposite for extroverts)

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17
Q

what shape can the relationship between performance and arousal be represented by?

A

inverted U shape

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18
Q

how does the limbic system control neuroticism?

A

controls the response to emotional stimuli

more aroused in neurotic individuals in emotion enducing situations

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19
Q

how does the limbic system relate to the limbic system/neuroticism?

A

limbic system regulate the sympathetic nervous system- part of the automatic nervous system producing involuntary responses

sympathetic nervous system is in charge of the body’s fight or flight

remains constantly active at a basic level to maintain homeostasis

high neuroticism= hypersensitivity in the sympathetic nervous system- react more strongly to potentially threatening situations

increased limbic system activation needed to regulate their response

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20
Q

what is the biological origin of psychoticism?

A

originally unspecified- possibly related to the regulation of serotonin or dopamine or sex hormones

recently- thought to be the amygdala- brain’s fear centre- psychopathy characterised by extremely low fear

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21
Q

what is reliability?

A

the measurements are consistent

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22
Q

what is validity?

A

the measurements represent true findings

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23
Q

who used questionnaires to investigate the PEN model?

A

Eysenck, Eysenck and Barrett, 1985

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24
Q

what is the short scale EPQ-R?

A

48 questions
answered with a yes/no response
12 for each domain, and an additional 12 to assess for honest responses

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25
what do you expect the results to be for the short scale EPQ-R?
reliability across repetition high similarity within scales/domains low similarity between scales/domains
26
what was found with the results for the short-scale EPQ-R? (Eysenck et al, 1985)
within domains: good internal consistency for extraversion and neuroticism (approx 0.85), but questionable for psychoticism (approx 0.6) between domains: orthogonal- didn't correlate with each other
27
what is the alternative model to Eysenck's PEN theory?
Gray's Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory
28
what did Gray conduct research using?
animals
29
what did Gray agree with Eysenck about?
personality traits have a psychological basis
30
what is Gray's reinforcement theory?
differences in personality differ from the extent to which people respond to rewards/punishment
31
what is the result if people are highly sensitive to positive reinforcement?
tend to seek rewards and positive experience learn faster when offered pleasant stimuli
32
what does it mean if people are highly sensitive to negative reinforcement?
tend to avoid punishment and negative experiences learn faster when there are aversive stimuli
33
what are the three independent systems Gray (1982) proposes?
behavioural activation system behavioural inhibition system fight-flight system
34
what is the behavioural activation system?
sensitive to rewards and pleasant stimuli behaviours are approach and impulsivity mediated by dopamine
35
what is the behavioural inhibition system?
sensitive to punishment and aversive stimuli behaviours are avoidance and anxiety mediated by noradrenaline and serotonin septo-hippocampal pathway
36
what is the fight-flight system?
unconditioned response and fear sympathetic nervous system
37
how does Gray's model relate to Eysenck's model?
30 degree rotation- can use one system to predict where a person would be with a different trait
38
how can we measure BAS using questionnaires?
three different subscales: reward responsiveness, drive and fun seeking
39
who revisited RST?
Gray and McNaughton (2000)
40
how was the behavioural activation system modified?
largely unchanged sensitive to conditioned and unconditioned responses to reward
41
how was the fight-flight system modified?
now the fight-flight-freeze system avoidance and escape system in threatening situations sensitive to conditioned and unconditioned stimuli fear association
42
how was the behavioural inhibition system modified?
resolves the conflict between the FFFS and the BAS
43
what are the key assumptions of both models?
personality traits reflect individual differences in brain structure and function
44
what questions do we want to answer when evaluating both models?
do the traits described by the models have a biological basis? are the biological bases accurately described by the models?
45
what are the four ways we can assess whether the models have a biological basis?
temporal stability similarity across species cross cultural evidence hereditary/genetic contributions: behavioural genetics
46
what was found about temporal stability for the PEN model?
Costa and McCrae (1994) meta analysis extraversion stable within participants, correlation of 0.64, no substantial cross sectional age differences neuroticism stable within participants, correlation of 0.64, substantial cross sectional age differences in women didn't investigate psychoticism, but less stability reported for this trait
47
what was found about temporal stability for the RST model?
Carver and White (1994)- test-retest reliability of the BAS-BIS questionnaires after 8 weeks were between 0.59-0.69 only an acceptable correlation and only 8 weeks later= issue
48
what was found about similarity across species for the PEN model?
Gosling and John (1999) reviewed 19 studies which examined the presence of extraversion and neuroticism in 12 animal species many, but not all, displayed extravert and neurotic behaviour
49
what was found about similarity across species for the RST model?
Gray (1970) extrapolated findings to humans showed that rats have separate systems controlling their behaviour in reaction to rewarding/punishing stimuli
50
how can we improve studying animals?
inter-rater reliability test-retest reliability
51
what is inter rater reliability for animals?
do raters agree when classifying animal's personalities
52
what is test-retest reliability for studying animals?
do the animals show the same personalities at different points in time
53
what was found about cross cultural evidence for the PEN model?
Barrett et al (1998) EPQ-R in 34 countries- domains were grouped similarly across cultures Caruso et al (2001) internal consistency of the four domains from datasets in different countries internal consistency good for extraversion and neuroticism, but questionable for psychoticism
54
what was found about cross cultural evidence for RST?
similar values of internal consistency have been found across different countries
55
how can we assess hereditary or genetic contributions?
compare traits in biologically and non biologically related family members
56
what are identical twins?
monozygotic 100% shared DNA 100% shared environment
57
what are non identical twins?
dizygotic 50% shared DNA 100% shared environment
58
what was found about PEN for behavioural genetics?
Plomin et al (1994) heritability accounts for 51% for extraversion and 46% for neuroticism
59
what was found about RST for behavioural genetics?
Takashaki et al (2007) during childhood and adolescence, stable genetic influences on BAS and BIS
60
what are characteristic gene studies?
associations between genetic variation within genes of interest, and specific traits
61
ed to BAS scores
62
what is the issue with candidate gene studies?
many of the findings were not replicated most genes are polygenic- influenced by multiple genes
63
what are genome wide association studies?
looking at millions of SNPs across the entire genome
64
what are SNPs?
single nucleotide polymorphisms most common type of genetic variation amongst people represent a difference in a single DNA building block (nucleotide)
65
what is the issue with genome wide association studies?
method requires many comparisons need to avoid a Type I error this sets a very high threshold for significant results, so significant results are obtained from very large thresholds
66
what are examples of structural brain measures?
cortical thickness volume/surface area gyrification
67
what is cortical thickness?
the grey matter between the pial and white surface
68
what is gyrification?
folding of the cortex
69
who investigated the link between cortical thickness and extraversion/neuroticism?
Wright et al, 2006
70
what did Wright et al find out about cortical thickness?
measured cortical thickness to look at the neuroanatomical correlates of extraversion and neuroticism extraversion negatively correlated with cortical thickness in prefrontal regions (even when age and gender controlled) neuroticism negatively correlated with cortical thickness in the orbitofrontal cortex (not significant after controlling for gender)
71
what do functional brain measures do?
measure and analyse the functional properties of the brain
72
who used fMRI to look at BAS scores and brain activation?
Barros-Loscertales et al (2010)
73
how did Barros-Loscertales et al investigate BAS scores and brain activation?
used fMRI used a letter discrimination task- letters put onto a background image which is neutral, appetitive or aversive, asked if the letter is a vowel or not sensitivity to reward scale- measures individual differences to positive stimuli
74
what were the hypotheses for Barros-Loscertales?
appetitive pictures activated BAS related regions regions known to modulate the action of the BAS correlate positively with SR scores aversive pictures activate the BIS-FFFS structures regions known to modulate the action of the BIS-FFFS correlate negatively with SR scores
75
what were the results for Barros-Loscertales?
appetitive picture condition activated regions within the limbic system related to the BAS in some regions, activation positively correlated with SR scores aversive picture condition activated regions within the limbic system related to BIS activation in these regions did not correlate with SR scores regions in the frontal lobes were activated during both the erotic and aversive picture conditions

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