PSY 352 QUESTIONS AND CORRECT
ANSWERS
Three physiological measures of particular interest to personality psychologists - Answ✔✔electrodermal
activity
cardiovascular
activity in the brain
(amount of hormones in blood also of interest)
sympathetic nervous system - Answ✔✔branch of ANS that prepares body for action
autonomic nervous system (ANS) - Answ✔✔the part of the peripheral nervous system that connects to
vital bodily structures associated w/ maintaining life & responding to emergencies (storing and releasing
energy), like heart beat
electrodermal activity/skin conductance - Answ✔✔degree to which the skin carries (or conducts)
electricity, which locate depends on the amount of water present in the skinGenome -
Answ✔✔complete set of genes an organism possesses
genetic junk - Answ✔✔the 98% of the DNA in human chromosomes that are not protein-coding genes;
scientists believed that these parts were functionless residue. Recent studies have shown that these
portions of DNA may affect everything from a person's physical size to personality, thus adding to the
complexity of the human genome
Eugenics - Answ✔✔the notion that we can design the future of the human species by fostering
reproduction of people with certain traits and discouraging reproduction of people w/o those traits
percentage of variance - Answ✔✔refers to the fact that individuals vary, or are different from each
other, and this variability can be partitioned into percentages that are due to different causes
heritability - Answ✔✔a statistic that refers to the proportion of observed variance in a group of
individuals that can be accounted for by genetic variance
,heritability describes - Answ✔✔the degree to which genetic differences can cause differences in an
observed property
heritability formal definition - Answ✔✔the proportion of phenotypic variance that is attributable to
genotypic variance
phenotypic variance - Answ✔✔Observed individual differences, such as in height, weight, or
personality.
genotypic variance - Answ✔✔individual differences in the total collection of genes possessed by each
person
Environmentality - Answ✔✔the percentage of observed variance in a group of individuals that can be
attributed to environmental differences
Heritability and environmentality relationship - Answ✔✔larger the heritability the smaller the
environmentality and vice versa
heritability refers to only differences in a ____________ or _________, not to an individual -
Answ✔✔sample or population
Misconception about heritability - Answ✔✔-that it can be applied to a single individual
-it is constant
-absolute precise statistic
heritability is a statistic that applies only to a population at - Answ✔✔one point in time and in a
particular array of environments
T/F heritability always generalizes across persons and places - Answ✔✔False; DOES NOT generalize
,heritability is regarded as an ________ of the percentage of phenotypic differences due to genetic
differences - Answ✔✔estimate; NOT precise, NOT referring to an individual, NOT eternally fixed
nature-nurture debate - Answ✔✔the arguments concerning whether genes or environments are more
important determinants of personality
selective breeding - Answ✔✔the process of selecting organisms with desired traits to be parents of the
next generation
family studies - Answ✔✔correlate the degree of genetic relatedness among family members with the
degree of personality similarity
twin studies - Answ✔✔To estimate trait heritability, gauge whether identical twins (who share 100% of
genes) are more similar to each others than fraternal twins (who are 50% of genes)
monozygotic twins (MZ) - Answ✔✔identical twins
dizygotic (DZ) twins - Answ✔✔twins that derive from two zygotes; fraternal twins
Equal Environments Assumption (EEA) - Answ✔✔(twin method) assumes that the environments
experienced by identical twins are no more similar to each other than are the environments experienced
by fraternal twins
adoption studies - Answ✔✔examine the correlation between adopted children and their adoptive
parents
Pro of adoption studies - Answ✔✔get around the equal environments assumption; genetic parents
don't provide the environmental influences thus unconfounding genetic and environmental causes
Con of adoption studies - Answ✔✔-assumption of representativeness; assume adopted children, brith
parents, and adoptive parents are representative of a general pop.
, -selective placement
studies directly confirmed assumption of representativeness holds for - Answ✔✔cognitive abilities,
personality, education level, SES
selective placement - Answ✔✔if adopted children are placed with adoptive parents who are similar to
their birth parents, this may inflate the correlations between the adopted children and their adoptive
parents
________ can take place only if the desired characteristics are under the influence of heredity -
Answ✔✔artificial selection
most commonly studied personality traits in behavioral genetic designs - Answ✔✔extraversion and
neuroticism
Minnesota Twin Study - Answ✔✔showed that traditionalism - as evidenced by attitudes favoring
conservative values over modern values
________ ______ are generally regarded to be part of personality: they show wide individual
differences; they tend to be stable over time; and at least sometimes they are linked with actual
behavior - Answ✔✔stable attitudes
shared environmental influences - Answ✔✔Features of the environment that siblings share; for
example, the number of books in the home, the presence or absence of a TV and VCR, quality and
quantity of the food in the home, the values and attitudes of the parent, and the schools, church,
synagogue, or temple the parents send the children to.
nonshared environmental influences - Answ✔✔Features of the environment that siblings do not share.
Some children might get special or different treatment from their parents, they might have different
groups of friends, they might be sent to different schools, or one might go to summer camp while the
other stays home each summer. These features are called "nonshared" because they are experienced
differently by different siblings.
ANSWERS
Three physiological measures of particular interest to personality psychologists - Answ✔✔electrodermal
activity
cardiovascular
activity in the brain
(amount of hormones in blood also of interest)
sympathetic nervous system - Answ✔✔branch of ANS that prepares body for action
autonomic nervous system (ANS) - Answ✔✔the part of the peripheral nervous system that connects to
vital bodily structures associated w/ maintaining life & responding to emergencies (storing and releasing
energy), like heart beat
electrodermal activity/skin conductance - Answ✔✔degree to which the skin carries (or conducts)
electricity, which locate depends on the amount of water present in the skinGenome -
Answ✔✔complete set of genes an organism possesses
genetic junk - Answ✔✔the 98% of the DNA in human chromosomes that are not protein-coding genes;
scientists believed that these parts were functionless residue. Recent studies have shown that these
portions of DNA may affect everything from a person's physical size to personality, thus adding to the
complexity of the human genome
Eugenics - Answ✔✔the notion that we can design the future of the human species by fostering
reproduction of people with certain traits and discouraging reproduction of people w/o those traits
percentage of variance - Answ✔✔refers to the fact that individuals vary, or are different from each
other, and this variability can be partitioned into percentages that are due to different causes
heritability - Answ✔✔a statistic that refers to the proportion of observed variance in a group of
individuals that can be accounted for by genetic variance
,heritability describes - Answ✔✔the degree to which genetic differences can cause differences in an
observed property
heritability formal definition - Answ✔✔the proportion of phenotypic variance that is attributable to
genotypic variance
phenotypic variance - Answ✔✔Observed individual differences, such as in height, weight, or
personality.
genotypic variance - Answ✔✔individual differences in the total collection of genes possessed by each
person
Environmentality - Answ✔✔the percentage of observed variance in a group of individuals that can be
attributed to environmental differences
Heritability and environmentality relationship - Answ✔✔larger the heritability the smaller the
environmentality and vice versa
heritability refers to only differences in a ____________ or _________, not to an individual -
Answ✔✔sample or population
Misconception about heritability - Answ✔✔-that it can be applied to a single individual
-it is constant
-absolute precise statistic
heritability is a statistic that applies only to a population at - Answ✔✔one point in time and in a
particular array of environments
T/F heritability always generalizes across persons and places - Answ✔✔False; DOES NOT generalize
,heritability is regarded as an ________ of the percentage of phenotypic differences due to genetic
differences - Answ✔✔estimate; NOT precise, NOT referring to an individual, NOT eternally fixed
nature-nurture debate - Answ✔✔the arguments concerning whether genes or environments are more
important determinants of personality
selective breeding - Answ✔✔the process of selecting organisms with desired traits to be parents of the
next generation
family studies - Answ✔✔correlate the degree of genetic relatedness among family members with the
degree of personality similarity
twin studies - Answ✔✔To estimate trait heritability, gauge whether identical twins (who share 100% of
genes) are more similar to each others than fraternal twins (who are 50% of genes)
monozygotic twins (MZ) - Answ✔✔identical twins
dizygotic (DZ) twins - Answ✔✔twins that derive from two zygotes; fraternal twins
Equal Environments Assumption (EEA) - Answ✔✔(twin method) assumes that the environments
experienced by identical twins are no more similar to each other than are the environments experienced
by fraternal twins
adoption studies - Answ✔✔examine the correlation between adopted children and their adoptive
parents
Pro of adoption studies - Answ✔✔get around the equal environments assumption; genetic parents
don't provide the environmental influences thus unconfounding genetic and environmental causes
Con of adoption studies - Answ✔✔-assumption of representativeness; assume adopted children, brith
parents, and adoptive parents are representative of a general pop.
, -selective placement
studies directly confirmed assumption of representativeness holds for - Answ✔✔cognitive abilities,
personality, education level, SES
selective placement - Answ✔✔if adopted children are placed with adoptive parents who are similar to
their birth parents, this may inflate the correlations between the adopted children and their adoptive
parents
________ can take place only if the desired characteristics are under the influence of heredity -
Answ✔✔artificial selection
most commonly studied personality traits in behavioral genetic designs - Answ✔✔extraversion and
neuroticism
Minnesota Twin Study - Answ✔✔showed that traditionalism - as evidenced by attitudes favoring
conservative values over modern values
________ ______ are generally regarded to be part of personality: they show wide individual
differences; they tend to be stable over time; and at least sometimes they are linked with actual
behavior - Answ✔✔stable attitudes
shared environmental influences - Answ✔✔Features of the environment that siblings share; for
example, the number of books in the home, the presence or absence of a TV and VCR, quality and
quantity of the food in the home, the values and attitudes of the parent, and the schools, church,
synagogue, or temple the parents send the children to.
nonshared environmental influences - Answ✔✔Features of the environment that siblings do not share.
Some children might get special or different treatment from their parents, they might have different
groups of friends, they might be sent to different schools, or one might go to summer camp while the
other stays home each summer. These features are called "nonshared" because they are experienced
differently by different siblings.
