Why Are People Different?Intro to Psych4/8/14

Human Universals What have we discussed so far?

Human Universals: what everybody shares

Language, emotions, development, rationality

Interesting stuff, but maybe not what we’re interested in????

Human Differences Today we’ll discuss:

Why we are different – theories about what makes us different in a psych way

Where do those differences come from?

How are people different? Sexual Identity: gender Sexual Orientation: who you are attracted

to Happiness: how happy are you?

Differences 2 Main Factors at the root of all human

differences: Personality Intelligence

How do we explain them, how do we characterize them, and why do they exist in the first place?

Differences: Personality A person’s style in dealing with the

world and with other people A stable trait across situations and time

(something you carry around with you) Words we use to describe someone’s

personality: Impulsive, irresponsible, lazy, good-

hearted, reliable, kind, angry, etc

Differences: Personality How do we scientifically describe

personality differences? Tests! Tests must be/have:

Reliable: no error in measurement, can be trusted over time

Validity: the measures what it’s supposed to measure

It’s important to remember something can be reliable but not valid and

something can be valid but not reliable

Differences: Personality Personality Tests

There are a gazillion, especially on the Internet

Let’s take one!http://

www.buzzfeed.com/keelyflaherty/which-peanuts-character-are-you

Differences: Personality Real Personality Tests

Rorschach Inkblot Test Originally used only for psychiatric cases,

but now very common About 80% of clinical psychologists claim to

use it Catholic seminaries use it for people who

want to join the seminary Idea is that saying what you see in the

inkblots gives great insight into nature of their personality, into what they are

Differences: Personality Created by a man named Hermann

Rorschach Devoted his entire life to the inkblot test His nickname as a teenager was “Inkblot”

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Rorschach Inkblot Test Turns out there are right and wrong

answers to the test Also turns out the test is totally useless But people love it and it gets used all

over the place That’s why the images are on the

Internet, for everyone to use But they’re totally worthless as

psychological measures of personality

Differences: Personality “The Big Five”

Five main personality factors that make us different “Neurotic vs Stable”

nutty & worrying or stable? Extrovert vs Introvert

Open to experience or closed to experience? Agreeable vs Non-agreeable

friendly vs rude, selfish Conscientious vs Not Conscientious

Careful & reliable vs careless & undependable

Differences: PersonalityO – openness C – conscientiousnessE – extroversion A – agreeableness N – neuroticism

Differences: Personality Is the theory of “The Big Five”

believable? Actually, yes! There is reliability

If people are tested over the years, the results don’t change much

Once you pass age 30, your personality traits become very stable & don’t change much

There is validity Different people agree on these traits to

characterize a person You leave a personality trail!

Differences: Personality Good predictors of real-world behavior

Conscientiousness Relates to how faithful you are to your

spouse Openness

Relates to how likely you are to change your job

Extroverted Relates to how often you look people in the

eye and to how many sexual partners you will have

Differences: Intelligence No easy definition of intelligence

Abstract reasoning, problem solving, capacity to acquire knowledge, memory, creativity, math, language, etc

It’s one of those things you just have a gut feeling about

You know it when you see it/experience it

Guess who the smart one is!

Differences: Intelligence

Nope!

Nope!Heck

no!

Intelligent!

Differences: Intelligence But we can’t just go around calling

people “smart” and “dumb” We need to be able to describe what is

“smart” and what is “dumb” We need to be able to define and

measure what is intelligence

Differences: Intelligence Charles Spearman

Two factors to intelligence “G” = general intelligence “S” = specific ability

Score on any given test depends on a combination of these two factors “G” accounts for the similarity in test results “S” accounts for the differences in test

results

Differences: Intelligence Sports will help us understand! You’re in Gym Class and there are a

bunch of different athletic tests Running test, basketball shooting test,

swimming test, fencing test, wrestling test, etc (Ten tests total)

We discover the scores on each test are NOT independent of each other

Differences: Intelligence People who are good at one athletic

thing tend to be good at another

The same is true for “G” and “S” “S” – how good you did on each athletic

test “G” – how good you did overall

Differences: Intelligence Modern Intelligence Tests The Wechsler tests

For children and adults Scoring:

Average is 100 68% get between 85 – 115 95% get between 70 – 130 0.13% have an IQ above 145

Differences: Intelligence How valid are IQ tests?

IQ is strongly related to many important educational occupational, economic, & social outcomes

IQ matters for: Social achievement Prestigious job positions On the job performance Other work-related variables

Differences: Intelligence Lots of controversy about why this

connection between IQ & success exists Is the effectiveness of an IQ test in

determining someone’s abilities a self-fulfilling prophecy?

If your IQ determines your success in life, are you doing things to find success to validate your IQ, or is your IQ bringing about this success?

Differences: Intelligence Example:

Your IQ is related to your success in getting into a good school like Harvard

But the reason for this is because they give you an IQ test to get in – the SATs

To get into graduate school, you have to take the GRE, another IQ test

So is it your IQ getting you in, or is the score you get that allows you in?

Differences: Intelligence A society that puts a lot of weight on IQ

tests as a determiner of success will eventually begin to put that importance on the IQ itself

Behavioral Genetics 2 reasons we are who we are:

Your genes Your environment

Shared environment: differences caused by phenomena people raised in the same household share Ex: I’m neurotic because I have lousy parents

Non-shared environment: everything else Ex: I’m neurotic because I won the lottery at 21

and all that money messed me up

Behavioral Genetics How do we figure out which

psychological differences are genetic and which are environmental?

We need to remember the clever things about genetics and environment like… Some people are clones

Identical twins! They share 100% of the

same genetic material

Behavioral Genetics Fraternal twins

Just like regular siblings Share 50/50 genetic material

Adopted siblings Zero shared genes

Behavioral Genetics What do all of these people have in

common? Some of them may not be genetically

the same, but remember, they are all the same in ENVIRONMENT

They were all raised in the same house by the same parents

Behavioral Genetics Studying families with identical,

fraternal, or adopted siblings can help psychologists learn more about what makes us different: environment or genetics

Are identical twins much more similar than fraternal twins? If so, big role of genes -- high heritability

Are identical twins just as similar as fraternal twins? If so, low role of genes -- low heritability

Behavioral Genetics Are adopted children highly similar to

their brothers and sisters? If so, high role of shared environment

What about identical twins raised apart? Genetically identical Environmentally different

Behavioral Genetics Studies have shown identical twins raised

apart are often VERY alike Similar views on death penalty, religion,

music, etc Similar rates of behavior in crime,

gambling, divorce Some even have weird similarities: getting

in trouble for fake sneezing in elevators, bursting into giggles at every moment

These things can’t be environmental, they weren’t raised together!

Behavioral Genetics 2 findings of behavioral genetics:

There is high heritability for almost everything Intelligence, personality, how happy you

are, how religious you are, your political orientation, your sexual orientation

IQ can be very different without any genetic differences at all The Flynn Effect

Behavioral Genetics The Flynn Effect

A finding that says people have been getting smarter

You are much smarter, on average, than your parents

IQ tests hide this Why??? Because the average is always 100 on the

test

Behavioral Genetics Example:

“Dad, I got 120 on my IQ test!” “Great son, I got 122 when I was your

age” But this doesn’t acknowledge that the

son’s test was WAY harder than the Dad’s As people get better at the test, it has

changed over the years to get harder and harder

Behavioral Genetics Almost everything that isn’t genetic is

due to non-shared environments Shared environment counts for little (or

nothing) When it comes to personality or

intelligence, an adopted child is no more similar to his siblings than he is to a stranger

Behavioral Genetics So then, do parents even matter? If non-shared environment is responsible

for so much, what role then do parents play in shaping us?

For starters, they played a huge role in actually SHAPING us physically – with their genes

But once we were conceived, they stopped having an effect on us

Behavioral Genetics But wait? Of course parents have an

effect on their children Good kids have good parents Religious kids have religious parents Bookish kids have bookish parents Poor kids have poor parents Brilliant kids have brilliant parents

These connections can be explained in different ways…

Behavioral Genetics People think parents do something that

affects their kids They do, they give their genes

But another possibility is the child affecting the parents

Maybe a bookish kid is more likely to get their parents to read to them

Maybe a troublemaker kid is more likely to cause their parents to hit them

Things that make you go HMMMMM…..