1. Biological Approachesto Personality

2. Palmistry • determination of an individual’s characteristics by interpreting the various irregularities and folds of the skin

3. The Barnum Effect

4. EME Questionnaire • When troubled I seek out • People • Action • Solitude • I prefer • physical comfort • physical adventure • Privacy • The time of my life I favor is • Childhood • Early adulthood • Later years

5. EME Questionnaire • What would bother me most would be • being cut off from other people • being closed off in small places • being exposed to endless noise • When in a group I like to • Mingle • take charge • take off • I prefer to • let things take their course • do things • observe what is going on

6. EME Questionnaire • The thing I like most is • eatingexercisetime to myself • The qualities that fit me best are • tolerance and love of peoplelove of power and leadershipa highly developed self-awareness

7. EME Questionnaire • Conduct a frequency count of 1, 2, 3s • 1 = Endomorph • 2 = Mesomorph • 3 = Ectomorph

8. Sheldon’s Body Type Theory

9. Endomorph • soft body • underdeveloped muscles • round shaped • Associated personality traits:

10. Mesomorph • hard, muscular body, mature appearance • rectangular shaped, thick skin • upright posture • Associated personality traits:

11. Ectomorph • thin, delicate build , young appearance • tall, lightly muscled • stoop-shouldered , large brain • Associated personality traits:

12. From Body Types to Brain Structure

13. PhineasGage(click here) • After Accident • fitful, irreverent • grossly profane • impatient and obstinate • lack of emotion • Prior to Accident • capable and efficient foreman • well-balanced mind • shrewd • business man

14. Becky and Lucy • Chimps (1935) • Easily frustrated, vicious • Frontal lobes operated on… • Chimps became mellow • Egas Moniz was present • Procedure then applied to humans

15. Egas Moniz • Nobel Prize in 1949 • 1937 – lobotomy • thalamus-prefrontal cortex incision

16. Famous Recipients • Francis Farmer (actress) • Rosemary Kennedy (1941) • Received lobotomy for mood swings • Implication • less emotional, but not emotionally responsive and future anticipation becomes erratic and disorganized • Ability to make decisions falls apart

17. Role the Amygdala • Part of limbic system • Reptilian Brain • Implicated in emotions • When removed: • less aggressive and less fearful • try to eat inedible things • increased sexual behavior

18. Charles Whitman(click here) • University of Texas (summer, 1969) • Killed wife and mother • 14 others killed the next day • Autopsy • tumor next to amygdala

19. Role of Cerebral Hemispheres • Right • Negative emotions • Damage to: • Bipolar Disorder • Mood swings • Energy fluctuations • Left • Positive emotions • Damage to: • Schizophrenia • Disorganized • Illogical thinking

20. Brain Structure to Humors

21. Humoural Theory • Hippocrates (460?-377? B.C.) • Galen (A. D. 130 - 200?) • Somatogenic Hypothesis • sanguine, melancholic, choleric, phlegmatic

22. Aristotle

23. Kant (1724-1804) • descriptions of the four temperaments • traits cluster together • prototypical model of personality

24. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) • reorganized the four types • two dimensions • degree of emotionality • degree of changeability • dimensional model of personality

25. Click here for video link Hans Eysenck 1916 - 1997 Click here

26. Eysenck • critical of psychoanalysis • at worst – fictional • at best – untestable • 700 neurotically maladjusted patients • Reviewed case histories • Developed a two-factor model

27. Eysenck • used factor analysis - two factors • Neuroticism • Disorganized personality, dependency, narrow interests, dismissal from military service, parental psychopathology, unsatisfactory home • Two groups • Neurotically maladjusted (obsessive, anxiety) • Hysterical (physical problems with no physical basis)

28. Neuroticism • negative affect, sleepiness, irritability, feelings of inferiority, sluggish • heightened right hemisphere activity

29. Neuroticism • use poor coping strategies (i.e., self-blame) • irrational ideas • less able to control their impulses

30. Eysenck • Two Types of E-I • Introversion • Anxiety, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, reactive depression neuroses, irritability, apathy, self-conscious, moody, prone to day dreaming • Extraversion • Hysterical neurosis, bad work history, hypochondriacal, prone to stammer, accident prone, disgruntled, prone to aches and pains

31. Eysenck • introverts prone to: • anxiety-depressive disorders • coined the term “dysthymia” • extraverts prone to: • hysteria-psychopathic disorders

32. Eysenck • Enter Pavlov • Studies in conditioning • excitatory and inhibitory processes • Establishing a CR due to excitatory processes • Extinguishing CRs due to inhibitory processes

33. Extraversion • Extraversion • talk more when they meet people • more eye contact • sales, personnel work, nursing and teaching • impulsive • gamble more often

34. Extraversion • sexual • permissive in their sexual attitudes • higher sex drive • feel good about life • less responsive to punishment • persist in the face of punishment • don't tend to learn from their mistakes

35. Extraversion • when Es are given a stimulant, they behave like Is • when Is are given an depressant, they tend to act like Es • Is are more sensitive to stimulation • pupil reaction of Es is slower • nervous system of Is is more sensitive

36. Eysenck

37. Eysenck

38. Yerkes-Dodson Law optimal performance performance arousal level

39. Yerkes-Dodson Law Neurotic Extrovert performance arousal level Easy Task

40. Yerkes-Dodson Law normal extravert performance arousal level Hard Task

41. Psychoticism • Eysenck proposed in mid 1970s • dimensional • at extreme, psychotic reactions/antisocial • moderate, unusualness and artistic • Polygenic personality trait • “PEN” captured in EPQ

43. Criminality? • High scores PEN • Impulsivity migrates to P factor • Primary and Secondary Psychopaths • Primary –higher P relative to N • Secondary – higher N relative to P

44. PEN • Psychoticism • aggressive, cold, egocentric, impersonal • antisocial, unempathic, creative • Extraversion • social, lively, active, assertive, • carefree, dominant, surgent • Neuroticism • anxious, depressed, guilt-prone • irrational, shy, moody emotional

45. Gray’s Conception • Neuropsychologist • Basic theory: • Personality based on the interaction of two systems • Approach • Inhibition

46. Gray • Approach System • Located in the Septal area and the lateral hypothalamus • Causes one to be sensitive to potential rewards and to be motivated to seek rewards

47. Gray • Inhibition system • Controlled by septo-hippocampus • Causes one to be sensitive to potential punishments and to be motivated to avoid those punishments

48. Gray and Eysenck Integrated

49. Gray • Added a third dimension • Flight or Fight system • Controls tendency to be aroused or aggressive • Controlled by amygdala • Parallel to Eysenck’s “psychoticism”

50. Neural Effects on Personality