· Personality as Human Nature – need to belong, helping and altruism, universal emotions, laughter and humor

· Sex differences in Personality – aggression, jealousy, sexual variety, mate preference

· Individual Differences – restricted and unrestricted mating strategies (see notes, fatherless daughters)

· Evol limitations: inferences only, doesn’t explain complex psychological mechanisms, current day conditions are different, competing evol theories for the same phenomenon, untestable and therefore not proven nor disproven

· Products of Evol Process: Adaptation – a mechanism that evolves because it provokes a solution to a specific problem; Adaptation by-products – aspects of an adaptation that do not directly contribute to a solution – they incidentally co-vary with the adaptation; Evolutionary Noise – random variations – difference in characteristics that are inherited and yet seem to serve no function towards adaptability

· Evol Domain Specificity – each adaptation has evolved to address a specific problem

· Evol Numerousness – because adaptive mechanisms are domain-specific, we have numerous mechanisms and we need them to address each additional problem we have consistently faced

· Evol Functionality – each adaptive mechanism evolved to accomplish a particular goal

· Deductive/Inductive – see notes

· Brain Asymmetry/Affective Style: positive emotions à left hemisphere, negative emotions à right hemisphere; greater activity in the right hemisphere; brain asymmetry may show a predisposition to mood disorders; depressed patients showed more resting right side activity than a non-depressed

· Natural Selection/Sexual Selection: natural – survival selection, the processes whereby characteristics and behaviors that allow an organism to survive and reproduce are selected and those that do not are weeded out; sexual – characteristics that increase an organism’s chances of mating are selected and passed along (two factos include intrasexual competition and interseuxal selection)

Great Dinner was to be had the other day

· Genes and Inclusive Fitness: Differential gene reproduction – different organisms will have more or less repro success based on adaptive behaviors; Inclusive Fitness Theory – inclusive means behaviors that not only enhance personal reproduction but also the reproduction of genetic relatives… the more closely related the relative, the more likely you will take risks to share their survival

· Impulsivity: consists of risk-taking and liveliness; risk-taking consists of sensation-seeking and venturesomeness

· Sensation-Seekers: prefer high level of stimulation, have lower levels of MAO à abundance of neurotransmitters at the synapse à less inhibition of CNS à less behavioral controls à desire for more environmental stimulation; 4 facets include disinhibition, thrill/adventure seeking, experience seeking, boredom-susceptibility; more liberal sexual attitudes for both sexes (more playful, permissive, more sexual experience, more partners), BUT! Female social status is unrelated to risky behavior while male social status is more positively correlated with risky behavior; for general deviance, those ss’s score highly on the subfacet of disinhibition; relationship between Es and psychopathy is due to the disinhibition facet of impulsivity

· Cloninger’s Tridimensional: Novelty-seeking (lower levels of DA), Harm Avoidance (lower levels of ST – becomes sensitive to cues of pain/punishment – sensitive to BIS?), Reward dependence (lower levels of NE), perseverate to work towards things that will bring reward – sensitive to BAS?)

· Morningness and Eveningness:

· Preferred levels of arousal for I/Es: I’s are more arousable, need less stimulation, can be over-aroused, results in avoidance of social situations; E’s are lses arousable, require more stimulation, can become under-aroused and “stimulus hungry”; Weiser study with music and lights, Geen study (in book)

· Gray’s BIS/BAS: based on two dimensions: anxiety and impulsivity – notes

· Tests/Conceptualizations of BIS/BAS: Beauchine et al. and PEP

· Gorenstein and Newman’s Theory: in rat studies, rats received brain lesions in the area associated with BIS – perseveration continued in spite of punishment or extinction – this was predicted because E’s have more reactive BAS systems and relatively weaker BIS – more sensitive to reward

· Extraversion and Psychopathy? Studies in perseveration showed that perhaps punishment actually strengthens the response of the E’s – like psychopaths – but this does not mean the extraverts are psychopaths… maybe they share similar brain mechanism and perhaps environment and circumstance help to develop where the perseveration occurs

· Phys measures currently used: Electrodermal Conductivity (skin conductance), Cardiovascular activity (bp and heart rate), Brain Electrical Activity (EEG, fMRI, PET)

· Historical Perspectives on I/E: Jung (where your psychic energy is directed), Eysenck (used factor analysis; indentified facets and sub-facets: high E’s: talkative, outgoing, sometimes impulsive, easily bored, hates routine — low E’s: quiet, withdrawn, prefer being alone, like routines and familiarity)

· Stability of I/E – very high (corr = ~ .72) – with two exceptions: higher when measured during childhood and > 30 years old, less consistent in adolescence and middle adulthood

· Eysenck’s Bio Theory of I/E: diff in functioning of ascending reticular activating system or ARAS; it was first proposed that introverts have a higher level of ARAS at rest, but the revised theory proposed that introverts are just more reactive to mdoer levels of stimulations with no significant difference during resting state; transmarginal inhibition is the mechanism by which a threshold of stimulation has been reached and stimulus decreases arousal – organism shuts down; Lemon drop test

· Experimental Methods: purpose is to approach causality – does one variable influence another? Make sure to manipulate one more variables, control study conditions, and have equivalency of participants in each condition; look for statistical difference

· Correlational Studies: determine relationships among variables, measure variables rather than manipulate them; do variables co-vary? r values and direction of relationship; limits are that correlation does not equal causations, third-variable problem, directionality problem?

· Case studies: purpose is to study an individual in great detail – can identify more specific factors to study

· Which design? Experimental – when you want to examine - or infer - causality; Correlational - when you want to explore relationships as they occur naturally; Case studies – when you want to thoroughly study a rare phenomenon and identify variables for future study

· Historical Phys Theories of Personality: Bodily-fluid theory (phlegmatic, sanguine, choleric, melancholic); Sheldon’s Somatotypes (ectomorphs, mesomorphs, endomorphs)

· Validity Types: Does it really capture the concept? Construct validity, face validity, predictive validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity, content validity

· Generalizability: the degree to which the measure is applicable across conditions, situations, or even populations

· Methods for construction: theoretical approach – base measures on theoretical descriptors of the construct, rational approach – based on commonbase understandings of the construct, empirical approach – based entirely on statistical procedures

· Factor Analysis: used to evaluate a measure or construct a measure; it’s a correlational, widely-used statistical procedure in personality research to reduce a large number of variables (items) into clusters of variables (factors); a factor is an underlying common theme responsible for items clustering together – it gives them meaning but involves subjectivity

· Personality traits are descriptors of average tendencies – personality as a whole is comprised of traits and mechanisms that are organized and relatively enduring

· Basic topics studied: how many fundamental traits are there, how are they organized, how did they originate, their correlations and consequences

· Three levels of personality analysis – as human nature, (individual and) group differences, and individual uniqueness; as human nature and groups differences use the nomothetic (academic) approach while individual uniqueness uses the idiographic (clinical) approach

· Purposes of a good theory: guide for researchers, organize known findings, and make predictions about our behavior

· Sources of Personality Data: Self-report (interviews, periodic self reports, questionnaires), Observer-report, Test-data (standardized testing, physiological data, projective tests), Life-Outcome Data (criminal and medical records)

· Reliability Types: has to do with consistency! test-retest, parallel forms, internal consistency (split-half, Cronbach’s alpha, average item total reliability, average inter-item reliability)