Topic 5: Temperaments and the heritability of personality traits Flashcards
genetic influence on personality
- monozygotic twins: 100 % alike genetically
- dizygotic twins: 50 % genetically alike
heritability: index of genetic influence on a trait
- represents the variability in the population that’s accounted for by inheritance in the given trait
- the higher the heritability, the stronger evidence that genes matter
- does not indicate what amount of a behavior is inherited, or why genes matter
what personality qualities are genetically influenced
Mary Rothbart: Temperaments
-temperaments: inherited personality trait present in early childhood
3 types:
1. approach: approach rewards, some resemble sociability
2. avoidance: resemble emotionality, avoid threats
3. effortful control: being focused and restrained, suppress approaching when it’s not situationally appropriate. planning vs impulsiveness
3 dimensions of individual differences
Buss and Plomin
- activity: a person’s overall energy or behavior
- two correlated aspects: vigor (intensity) and tempo (speed)
- high: prefer high intensity, fast paced activities
- low: more leisurely approach - sociability: prefer being with other people, sharing activities. value intrinsically the process of interacting with others
- emotionality: tendency to be emotionally aroused.
early twin studies have proven that these temperaments are inherited.
similarities between temperaments and the Big Five
- avoidance temperament/emotionality and neuroticism
- approach temperament and extraversion
- sociability and agreeableness: are not identical; agreeableness suggests easy to get along with and liking to be with others
genetics and environment
evidence that genes influence behavior, but the hard part is to separate whether it is the genetics that influences the behavior or if it is the traits/temperament that influence behavior
non-shared environmental effect: environment generally make twins different, not alike
