Lecture 23: Critical Thinking About Individual Differences Flashcards
What are the two types of questions in psych
Behavior X:
1. How does X work; intra (within) individual differences —> mechanisms (process models), more about scores
2. Why do people differ in X; inter (between) individual differences —> correlates and causes
What is the difference between intelligence and cognition
Cognition is about mechanisms, intelligence is about individual differences
What three misconceptions does mixing up intra and inter lead to
- Intra individual model is not informative on inter individual differences
- Intra individual methods and instruments are too unreliable to be used at the individual level (diagnostics)
- Inter individual results can not be generalized to the individual level
Why are tests developed in experimental psychology often not useful in testing individual differences
Becaus test-retest reliability is low
What the effect of low test-retest reliability for diagnostic uses and comparing scores between groups
Low test-retest reliability is particularly problematic for diagnostic uses, but less problematic when the test is used to compare average scores between groups
What happens with the heritability coefficient if all children grow up in perfect conditions
It increases to close to 1
Is the heritability coefficient about inter or intra individual differences
Inter individual
T/F: an h2 of 1 means that environment plays no role on the development of the trait
False, if we all grow up in very equal and optimal environments the h2 is close to 1, if environments are extremely different the h2 is close to 0 (but that does not mean that genes play no role)
What is the relationship between the big five and the phenomenon of personality
The big five is a model of inter (between) individual differences but is often interpreted as intra-individual model, personality is a within person (intra) phenomena
What is the latent variable model
Its a model that involves unobservable factors (latent variables) inferred from observable indicators. It helps capture underlying structures or traits that aren’t directly measured, providing a way to understand and analyze complex psychological phenomena.
What is local independence
Once you account for an individual’s level on the latent trait, the responses to different items are independent of each other
What is the positive manifold of general intelligence
People who score well on one cognitive test, are likely to score well on other cognitive tests —> this occurs for many different tests etc.
What is an alternative to general intelligence
Mutualism: an index of different factors that influence each other and have a combined influence on intelligence, this model allows for change
What is Simpson’s paradox
A correlation within and between persons can be very different, the danger is to generalize between person correlation to within person mechanisms
What are 3 sources of individual differences
- Selective neutrality; genetic drift
—> no natural selection at all, this is not very likely because its been proven that small natural advantages keep existing/implausible given large populations - Mutation selection balance
—> 50% of genetic material is involved in development of intelligence (/higher cognitive abilities), because there is a large pool of genes involved in intelligence there is many new mutations every time a child is born —> balance between natural selection tries to get out all mutations but because there is so many genes involved this does not fully work —> this also holds for diseases like autism and schizophrenia - Balancing selection
Balance of selection forces:
- overdominance - occurs when heterozygotes (individuals with two different alleles at a particular gene locus) have a fitness advantage over both homozygotes (individuals with two identical alleles)
- antagonistic pleiotropy - refers to a situation in which a single gene influences multiple traits, but those traits have opposite effects on fitness
- environmental heterogeneity - refers to variations in environmental conditions within a specific area or habitat, populations facing diverse or changing environments may experience different selection pressures, affecting the distribution of traits within the population
- frequency-dependent selection - occurs when the fitness of a particular phenotype depends on its frequency in the population
—> diversity can be good so we don’t all compete for the same recourses —> if balance is skewed this is negative for environment and selection balances it out
