Spill The T(&P)
Describe an individual high in N/NE (at least one characteristic attributable to their T&P)
-Emotion: susceptible to negative moods (sadness, guilt, shame, fear, anger)
-Appraisal: experience the world as distressing or threatening; pessimistic
-Motivation: aversive/defensive; tendency to work hard to avoid punishment
What is a meta-analysis?
A set of statistical methods for aggregating results across studies
Is the brain ever really at rest?
No, although it only comprises ~2% of the adult body mass, the brain consumes ~20% of the body's oxygen and glucose at rest. Importantly, this consumption is only modestly altered when subjects are actively engaged in performing mental tasks.
Childhood temperament and adult personality are fundamentally similar or different? Name 1 piece of evidence to support your claim.
More alike than different; show substantial continuity; do not differ in many 'traditional' criteria (i.e. they are both heritable, biological, early appearing, evident in nonhuman animals, etc.)
True or False? Recent meta-analyses have found that targeted interventions can improve self-control.
True. Recent meta-analyses have found that targeted interventions can lead to (modest) increases in dispositional self-control.
True or False? Traits are maladaptive to the extent that they are a good fit with the environment.
False. Traits are *adaptive* to the extent that they are a good fit with the environment.
Which statistical test could we use to quantify the stability of individual differences in T&P (e.g. N/NE)?
Test-retest correlation
What is the significance of correlations between "N/NE/Anxious Temperament" and "Amygdala Activity" in humans and monkeys?
The major takeaway from these studies is that they provide evidence that traits, specifically N/NE/AT, are associated with chronically higher activity in the amygdala, a region thought to be involved in triggering or orchestrating neg mood, in the absence of overt threat or other trait-relevant challenges (i.e. at "rest")
BUT...
the major limitation of the evidence is that going to an MRI assessment is scary. Getting a needle in your arm for FDG-PET is scary and painful, doubly so for the monkeys because there is no forewarning or informed consent. They're just grabbed out of their homecage and the needle jabbed ..... soooooooo, none of these experiments is a truly quiescent, emotionally neutral experience- they're all mildly to moderately aversive.
True or False? Someone with an E/PE of a 4 will always look like a 4.
False. Traits are probablistic, so someone with an E/PE of 4 may often look like a 3, 4, or 5 in different contexts.
What did McNulty and colleagues find in the newlyweds study?
- explicit (questionnaire) and implicit/pre-conscious attitudes toward the spouse were uncorrelated
- implicit (but not explicit) predicted marital satisfaction 4 years later
- implication: many behaviors reflect a combination of explicit and implicit processes; relying exclusively on self-report will not provide a complete understanding of T&P; need to use implicit behavioral or biological measures, in addition to paper-and-pencil questionnaires
Major depression is especially likely to develop in individuals characterized by high levels of ____ *and* low levels of _______? Fill in the blanks using 2 of the Big 5.
N/NE - high
E/PE - low
Correlation and variance “explained:” If two variables are correlated R = .5, the amount of variance accounted for is:
0.5 * 0.5 = 0.25 = 25%
Which brain imaging techniques could one use to assess group differences in brain activity ‘at rest,’ in the absence of any particular task or experimental challenge?
Which 2 Big 5 traits are most predictive of physical health, sickness, and premature death?
C/SC and N/NE
What’s one problem with using a small sample (say, 30 subjects) to estimate a correlation between T&P and outcomes (e.g. major depression, educational attainment)?
-Small samples yield wildly imprecise estimates of the correlation (e.g. somewhere between +.60 and -.15)
- Inconsistencies and replication failures across labs
What did Bolger & Schilling's daily diary study show?
Showed that the impact of N/NE on daily negative affect reflects multiple pathways, of which tonic or endogenous effects are most important
True or False? Longitudinal research studies can prove causation.
False. Longitudinal research studies cannot prove causation, because they do not manipulate the putative cause of the outcome.
In what type(s) of contexts did Drew Fox and colleagues show that amygdala metabolism predicted differences in dispositional anxiety?
In stressful AND secure contexts
Stressful contexts: alone in the novel testing cage, human intruder
Relatively secure contexts: home cage alone, home cage with usual cagemate
What is one key limitation of "Average of States" model of T&P?
This model is too simple, insofar as...
-it does not specify where traits come from
-it makes no attempt to explain why individuals differ in the frequency of particular thoughts, feelings, or behaviors
-By statistical definition, the average model is true, but it seems far from complete, and utterly lacking in mechanistic explanation...so not very scientifically generative
Describe one criticism of the lexical hypothesis.
-Has been criticized on the grounds that there is no guarantee that every key aspect of T&P is captured by single word adjectives (e.g., relationships or processes)
-Has been criticized as problematic, because untrained individuals are surprisingly inconsistent and imprecise in how they use words
Individuals with elevated N/NE are more likely to ____ in their interpersonal relationships (provide at least one response)
-Encounter daily conflicts
-Escalate negative affect during conflict
-Express toxic social behaviors (criticism, contempt, and defensiveness)
Factor analysis is useful for (name at least one reason):
Drew Fox and colleagues show that amygdala metabolism predicted differences in dispositional anxiety in both stressful and relatively secure contexts. What model discussed in class is this most consistent with?
the Endogenous/Tonic Model
Briefly explain one of the following models:
-Endogenous/Tonic Model
-Trait x Trait-Relevant Challenges
-Endogenous/Tonic Model: Traits (e.g. N/NE) predict states (e.g. distress) in the absence of a specific, acute emotional challenge
-Trait x Trait-Relevant Challenges -> States Model: aka Gas/Matches model, Traits (e.g. N/NE) predict the intensity of emotional states (e.g. distress) evoked by trait-relevant emotional challenges (e.g. threat)
Samiha is a rigorous personality researcher; indeed, she was trained by Richie Davidson himself! Based on Richie’s work, she hypothesizes that High-E/PE individuals show a persistent, long-lasting neural response to positive stimuli and rewards. How could she test this prediction?
- present positive stimuli
- measure the width of the response to positive images or the time to recover to baseline
- compute the correlation between E/PE and width of response to positive stimuli