THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

PSYCHODYNAMIC: FREUD (1900S)

○ The first comprehensive personality theory

○ Based on clinical observation:
￫ Observed hysteria
↳ Hypnosis could temporarily alleviate hysterical symptoms
￫ Something unconscious must be overriding their conscious desires
○ Psychological difficulty/distress is the result of conflict between the conscious and unconscious

LEVELS OF AWARENESS/ CONSCIOUSNESS

○ Phenomena individuals are aware of at any given moment

CONSCIOUS
￫ Rational and goal-directed thoughts

○ Phenomena individuals can become aware of if they attend to them

PRECONSCIOUS ￫ Information easily made conscious
○ Sits on the threshold of awareness

○ Phenomena individuals are not, and usually cannot become aware of

UNCONSCIOUS
￫ Repressed irrational thoughts

STRUCTURES OF THE PSYCHE

○ Operates entirely at the unconscious level

○ Present from birth
ID ○ Basic impulses and desires
￫ Sexual and aggressive energy
○ Seeks immediate gratification; Irrational and impulsive
○ Operates according to the pleasure principle

○ Operates mostly at a preconscious level

SUPEREGO ○ A person’s conscience, ideals and morals
○ From parents

○ Operates mainly at a conscious level but also at a preconscious level

○ Mediator between ID impulses and the superegos inhibitions
EGO
￫ Balance between desire and reality
○ Rational
 DEFENCE MECHANISMS:
○ Conflict of id, ego and superego can cause anxiety/distress
○ Defence mechanisms = Psychological manoeuvres
○ Protect us from anything painful or unpleasant to consciously experience

MECHANISM DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE

REGRESSION To retreat to an earlier stage of behaviour or Thumb sucking in adulthood

development in response to fear or anxiety during extreme stress

The most fundamental mechanism that involves Repressing memories

REPRESSION the automatic response of pushing distressing associated with a traumatic
content into the unconscious mind event

No further modification or maturation can occur Unconsciously forgetting

PRIMAL REPRESSION to the repressed content as it is fixated or frozen traumatic early experiences
in development

Continued exclusion of any associations of the Avoiding thoughts or

REPRESSION PROPER originally repressed content from conscious conversations related to
awareness traumatic events

DENIAL The refusal to acknowledge the existence of a Rejecting a doctor's diagnosis

painful, undesirable or anxiety-inducing reality of a serious illness

Creating logical explanations or justifications for Failing an exam but saying it's
RATIONALISATION behaviors/ decisions motivated by unacceptable a blessing in disguise because
factors to avoid discomfort you didn't want to be a doctor

PASSIVE AGGRESSION Indirect expression of hostility or anger through Intentionally doing a task
subtle actions that harm/ annoy others poorly to annoy a coworker

PROJECTION Falsely attributing their own unacceptable/ A dishonest person accusing

undesirable traits to another others of being dishonest

DISPLACEMENT Redirecting negative emotions from their original Being upset at your boss but
source to a less threatening target yelling at your partner

REACTION FORMATION Expressing the opposite of one's true feelings/ Acting homophobic when
desires repressing homosexual desires

SUBLIMATION Conversion of unacceptable impulses into Becoming a successful boxer

socially acceptable behaviour
 DEVELOPMENTAL MODEL
○ Personality develops through the process of trying to satisfy our basic urges
○ Psychosexual stages focuses on erogenous zones and epresent broad psychosocial conflicts

PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES

○ Mouthing
○ Narrow interpretation:
ORAL STAGE ￫ Sucking provides physical (milk) and social (bonding) nourishment
(BIRTH - 18 MONTHS) ○ Broad Interpretation:
￫ Thoughts about dependence
￫ Difficulties experienced = Fixations occur
↳ Resulting in clingy adult behaviour

○ Conflicts with parents, particularly around toilet training (terrible twos)

○ Narrow interpretation:
ANAL STAGE ￫ Anus can cause pleasure
(2 - 3 YEARS) ○ Broader interpretation:
￫ Thoughts about order and cleanliness
￫ Difficulties experienced can result in
↳ Overly neat and punctual behaviour
↳ Overly messy and stubborn

○ Identifies with partent of the same-sex

￫ Imitating behaviour and adopting values
PHALLIC STAGE ￫ Much of adult personality is developed through identification
(4 - 6 YEARS) ○ Oedipus complex
￫ Repress Oedipal desire and identify with same-sex parent
○ Difficulties can lead to preoccupation with seeking a mate

○ Repress Oedipal desire and continue identifying with same-sex parent

LATENCY STAGE
○ Channel their sex and aggressive drives into activities (e.g., sports)
(7 - 11 YEARS)
○ Difficulties here results in an asexual persona

○ Narrow interpretation:
￫ Sexual thoughts resurface
GENITAL STAGE ○ Broad interpretation:
(12+ YEARS) ￫ Able to relate to others at a mature level
○ When experiencing stressful situations we can regress
￫ Child may suck her thumb (oral) or soil herself (anal)
 ERIKSON’S PSYCHOSOCIAL THOERY
○ The process of becoming aware of your identity begins as a child
○ Erikson developed a theory of psychosocial stages of development
￫ Each stage contributes to a unique sense of self → Encounter a psychosocial crisis
￫ Basic psychological conflicts occur → Positive or negative outcome
￫ New responsibilities are associated with new conflicts

ERIKSON’S STAGE THEORY

STAGE 1: Basic Trust vs Basic Mistrust

(BIRTH - 12-18 MONTHS) ○ Feeding
○ Form a loving relationship or develop a sense of mistrust
￫ Optimistic vs pessimistic personality

STAGE 2: Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt

(18 MONTHS - 3 YEARS) ○ Toilet training
￫ Learns control
￫ May experience shame

STAGE 3: Initiative vs Guilt

(3 - 6 YEARS) ○ Gaining independence
○ May be chastised for being forceful, leading to guilt

STAGE 4: Industry vs Inferiority

(6 - 12 YEARS) ○ Starting school
○ Learn new skills or feel a sense of inferiority

STAGE 5: Identity vs Identity Confusion

(ADOLESCENCE) ○ “Identity crisis”
○ Influenced by previous stages
￫ Weak trust: Difficulty selecting ideals to believe
￫ Low autonomy: Little exploration of alternatives
￫ Low industry: Difficulty selecting vocation which matches their interests

STAGE 6: Intimacy vs Isolation

(EARLY ADULTHOOD) ○ Commitment can be challenging
￫ Surrender some independence and redefine themselves
○ Intimacy = Cooperation, tolerance and acceptance of different values
￫ Promotes empathy and openness
○ Isolation = Hesitancy to form close relation
 STAGE 7: Generativity vs Stagnation/ Self-absorption
(MIDDLE ADULTHOOD) ○ Helping to guide the next generation
￫ Commitment expands beyond yourself and partner
￫ Concern for future generations
○ Anything that can outlive the individual
○ Stagnation: Self-indulgent, placing own comfort above sacrifice

STAGE 8: Ego Intergrity vs Despair

(LATE ADULTHOOD) ○ Coming to terms with your life
○ Integrity: Feel whole and satisfied with achievements (Meaningful life)
○ Despair: Feel they have made the wrong decisions (Hard to accept death)
 MOTIVATION AND EMOTION

MOTIVATION AND EMOTIONS ARE INTERTWINED

○ Emotions can create motivation
○ Motivations can drive our behaviour
○ Behaviour can produce emotions

MOTIVATION EMOTION

Set of factors that direct our behaviour Psychological events associated with behaviour

Physiological factors Physiological reaction

Emotional/cognitive factors Expressive reaction

Social factors Subjective experience

 MOTIVATION:

THEORIES AND CONCEPTS

THEORY APPROACH

○ Emphasises internal factors

○ Motivational force is seen as a drive
○ Seek and maintain homeostasis (physiological equilibrium)
DRIVE REDUCTION ￫ Imbalance of homeostasis causes needs
THEORY ○ Drive = A state of tension created by an imbalance
(“PUSH THEORY”) in homeostasis that motivates a person to engage
in activities to reduce that tension
￫ Motivated to reduce to drive
￫ Drive responds to needs

○ Focuses on external/environmental factors

○ Homeostasis cannot explain all motives (E.g., Eating when not hungry)
○ External stimuli can impact our motivation
INCENTIVE THEORY ￫ Incentive (reward): Goal that can motivate behaviour
(“PULL THEORY”) ↳ Grade on an exam
￫ Negative consequences (punishment): Avoid negative consequences
↳ Drive the speed limit to avoid a fine
○ Takes into account prior learning

○ Maslow argued that people are motivated by a desire for personal growth
○ Hierarchy of needs
HUMANISTIC ￫ Strive to reach full potential
￫ Lower needs fulfilled before moving to the
next level
○ Behaviours can reflect multiple needs

○ Instincts = Inbuilt fixed behavioural pattern

EVOLUTIONARY ￫ E.g., nest building, eating if hungry
○ Motives are a product of natural selection
○ Darwin believed that instincts are important in human motivation
 SUMMARY OF MOTIVATIONAL THEORIES

THEORY APPROACH

DRIVE THEORY Motivation arises from imbalances in homeostasis prompting internal drives that
(“PUSH THEORY”) push us to maintain homeostasis (optimum conditions)

INCENTIVE THEORY Behaviour is motivated by external stimuli and is directed towards attaining
(“PULL THEORY”) desirable stimuli and avoiding unwanted stimuli

HUMANISTIC Humans are motivated to satisfy their needs at each level before becoming
self-actualised

EVOLUTIONARY Natural selection favours individuals who are motivated to survive and reproduce,
along with protecting their gene pool
 MOTIVATION RELATING TO EATING:
EATING
○ Many reasons why we are motivated to eat
○ At its core, we eat to replenish energy
○ Metabolism: Transforming food into energy for moving, maintaining body heat, growth,
tissue repair, and operations of the nervous system

TWO PHASES OF METABOLISM

○ When ingesting food

ABSORPTIVE ○ Short-term storage: Store carbohydrates mainly in the liver
○ Long-term storage: Store lipids under the skin and in the abdomen

○ When no longer eating

FASTING ○ Converts stored glucose and lipids into energy
○ Eventually, use protein instead

○ Regulated by homeostasis
○ Mechanisms exist for
￫ Detecting state of the system → Low energy?
￫ Restoring the system → Eat until energy is restored
○ Homeostatic System has three key features:
1. Set point: Optimal level
2. Feedback mechanisms: Receptors to feed information to the brain
3. Corrective mechanisms: Restore to set point

HUNGER AND SATIETY

HUNGER The general state of wanting to eat

SATIETY The state of no longer wanting to eat

GLUCOSTATIC THEORY Hunger is caused by a decline in glucose in the bloodstream

Detected by the liver and brain
 HUNGER AND THE BRAIN
○ Hypothalamus is a key area of the brain involved in the control of hunger and eating
○ Activity in the ventromedial hypothalamus signals that there is no need to eat
○ Activity in the lateral hypothalamus stimulates eating
○ Stimulating the paraventricular hypothalamus results in reduced food intake
￫ Damage causes animals to become obese
○ Motivation to eat/not eat and what kind of food to eat is controlled by several internal factors

HORMONES AND THE HYPOTHALAMUS

INSULIN Needed for cells to extract glucose

GHRELIN Causes stomach contractions

CCK Sends satiety signals to brain

LEPTIN Sends signals regarding fat stores → Can reduce hunger

NEUROTRANSMITTERS AFFECTING EATING BEHAVIOURS

NEUROPEPTIDE Y Stimulates increased eating of carbohydrates

SEROTONIN Suppresses carbohydrate intake

GALANIN Motivates the eating of high-fat food

ENTEROSTATIN Reduces the eating of high-fat food

ENDOCANNABINOIDS Stimulate eating in general

○ External cues also play a role.

￫ Palatability of the food
￫ Variety: Sensory-specific satiety
￫ Presence of others (44% more)
￫ Sight and smell of food
￫ Eat at particular times (Classically conditioned hormonal responses; Woods, 2000)
 OBESITY
○ Modern health concern
○ World Health Organization (WHO) definition:
￫ Based on ‘Body Mass Index’ (BMI): Weight (kg) ÷ Height² (m²)
↳ Not the best indicator of individual health - Useful in a population sense
￫ BMI of 25 or more = Overweight
￫ BMI of 30 or more = Obese
￫ Aetiology (reasons) = complex → Treatment Difficult
○ Evolutionary perspectives suggest obesity is due to a historical lack of resources
○ Genetic predisposition
￫ Individual differences in eating behaviours from an early age:
https://youtu.be/aA0Oa8Wl2Rg
￫ Adoptees resemble biological parents more than foster parents.
↳ Inherit vulnerability to obesity

EATING DISORDERS
○ Women → Drive to be ‘thin’
○ Men → Muscularity
○ Disproportionately affects females
○ Views of female beauty and what is a desirable body size have changed over time.

COMMONLY RECOGNISED EATING DISORDERS

○ Affects 0.5% of young females, 0.1% of young males

○ Self-starvation; Self-induced vomiting; Excessive exercise; Laxative use
ANOREXIA NERVOSA ○ Body weight below 85% of normal
○ Serious permanent health consequences (20% mortality rate)
○ Complex aetiology

○ 5% general population; 20% general student population

○ Affects more women than men
BULIMIA NERVOSA ○ Person may be thin, normal weight or overweight
○ Binge-purge episodes
○ Non-life-threatening health consequences
○ Complex aetiology
 MOTIVATION RELATING TO SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR:

SEXUAL MOTIVATION:

○ Universal drive based on biological mechanisms

○ Driven by hormones and fantasies.
￫ Kinsey and colleagues (1948, 1953) introduced sexual behaviour into the area of
respectable scientific research

SEXUAL RESPONSE CYCLE

○ Masters and Johnson (1966): Human Sexual Response Cycle

PHASES CHARACTERISATION

Increased muscle tension, respiration rate, heart rate and blood pressure
EXCITEMENT
i.e., vasocongestion

Maximum arousal.
PLATEAU
Heart rate, respiration, muscle tension and blood pressure reach their peak

Experience is similar for males and females;

ORGASM
However, there can be more variation for females

Physiological and psychological functioning return to normal

RESOLUTION
For men: refractory period (unresponsive; few minutes to few hours)

HORMONES AND SEXUAL MOTIVATION

○ Sexual behaviours are under hormonal control

ORGANISATION Effects on the circuitry of the brain

Affecting aspects of the brain that cause psychobiological changes

ACTIVATIONAL Development of secondary sexual characteristics e.g., facial hair
Testosterone responsible for fluctuations in sexual arousal
 SEXUAL ORIENTATION
○ Direction of a person’s attraction
○ Stigma and religious values can cause people who are homosexual to behave as though
they are heterosexual
￫ Considered a psychological disorder until 1973
○ The incidence of homosexuality has varied across time and culture

MOTIVATION RELATING TO ACHIEVEMENT:

ACHIEVEMENT:
○ Psychosocial needs are less biological than hunger or sex
￫ Relatedness: Connectedness with others
￫ Agency: Achievement, autonomy and mastery

THREE MOTIVES OF ACHIEVEMENT GOALS

○ Motivated to reach a socially constructed/ external goal.

PERFORMANCE-APPROACH ￫ Focus on a concrete outcome
↳ Perform well in school, but may not genuinely enjoy the subject

○ Motivated by avoiding failure

￫ Focus on a concrete outcome
PERFORMANCE-AVOIDANCE
↳ Not falling when skiing
￫ Less intrinsic pleasure

○ Motivated by a desire to increase competence

MASTERY ￫ Pleasure in completing the task and improving skill
↳ Children get good grades and enjoy the subject
 EMOTION:

EMOTION:
○ Include a variety of responses
￫ Physiological (arousal)
￫ Behavioural (facial expression)
￫ Cognitive/ subjective experience (feelings)

BASIC EMOTION
○ Researchers tend to agree on six basic (hardwired?) emotions
○ Wide agreement when participants asked to provide labels for facial expressions (Ekman, 1992)
○ Anger, fear, happiness, surprise, disgust and sadness

EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE
○ Emotions lead to physiological arousal
￫ Autonomic nervous system; Preparing for fight or flight
○ Too much arousal can have negative effect
○ Arousal levels can offer explanations for our ability (or lack
of) to remember events clearly
￫ High arousal = poorer/distorted memory

POLYGRAPH TEST
○ Measures heart rate, blood pressure, and galvanic skin response
○ Assumption: Lying leads to greater emotion → Physiological arousal (autonomic nervous system)
○ Compare relevant and control questions
○ Interpret with caution
￫ Can control your arousal
↳ Increase arousal on control questions
↳ Decrease arousal on relevant questions
￫ Can lead to false positives
↳ Innocent people thought to be lying
↳ Can be as high as 75% (Saxe, 1994)
 THEORIES OF EMOTION

THEORY APPROACH

○ The subjective experience causes physiological responses

￫ Stimulus → Subjective Experience → Arousal
COMMON SENSE VIEW
￫ Interview → Nervous → Sweating
○ We experience an emotion which triggers physiological arousal

○ Activity in the peripheral nervous system = Cause of emotional experience

○ Emotions arise from awareness of specific peripheral (autonomic) responses
THE JAMES-LANGE ○ Reaction of the body drives the subjective experience
THEORY (1890) ￫ Stimulus → Arousal → Subjective Experience
￫ Interview → Sweating → Nervous
○ By eliminating all physiological responses from an emotion, nothing will
remain of the experience

○ We experience an emotion that triggers the physiological arousal

○ Cannon criticised James-Lange theory
￫ Body reacts the same way for many emotions
￫ E.g., increased heart rate = anxiety/ anger/ excitment
THE CANNON-BARD ○ Cannon argued that subjective experiences and physiological responses are
THEORY (1927) separate and independent processes
￫ Subject experience to stimuli occurs quickly
￫ Physiological responses can take longer to present
○ Emotional experience starts in the CNS; specifically in the thalamus
￫ Thalamus relays information from most sensory organs to the cortex
○ Thalamus receives sensory information → Sends signals to the ANS and the
cerebral cortex simultaneously → Emotion becomes conscious.
○ The brain generates direct experiences of emotion
￫ With or without feedback from peripheral responses

○ Emotional experiences emerge from a combination of two factors

TWO-FACTOR/ 1. Autonomic arousal
SCHACHTER-SINGER 2. Cognitive appraisal
THEORY (1962) ○ Emotional experience depends on the interpretation of physiological arousal.
￫ Provide a label for the arousal which determines the emotion
 ○ 1962 experiment investigating the cognitive processes of emotion
METHOD:
○ College students thought they were participating in a study about the effects
of vitamin injections on vision
￫ Actually injected with epinephrine or saline
￫ Promotes physiological arousal
○ Half the participants told to expect arousal
○ Other half were told to expect no reaction
○ Participants were then placed in a room with a confederate in the experiment
￫ The confederate either acted in one of two ways: euphoric or angry
FINDINGS:
○ Emotion was determined by expectation
SCHACHTER AND SINGER
￫ Told to expect reaction = Little emotional reaction
EXPERIMENT
￫ Told to expect no reaction = Great emotional reaction
○ Aroused but uninformed participants reacted in a way similar to confederate
￫ Euphoric → More likely to interpret the side effects as happiness
￫ Angry → More likely to interpret their feelings as anger

○ Schacter and Singer hypothesised that if people experienced an emotion for

which they had no explanation, they would then label these feelings using
their feelings at the moment.
○ Results suggested that participants who had no explanation for their feelings
were more likely to be susceptible to the emotional influences of the
Confederate in comparison to those who had been informed

○ The results of the experiment led to the proposal of the two-factor theory
○ Arousal = Necessary to experience emotion
○ Cognitive interpretation determines which emotion
￫ Labels the arousal which determines the emotion
 PSYC101: APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY

INTELLIGENCE: WHAT IS IT?

○ Difficult to define (Talked about as if it is a “thing” that can be measured)

○ Intelligence: Personal attributes that centre on skill at information processing,
problem-solving and adapting to new or changing environments (Bernstein p. 383)
○ “What intelligence tests measure” (Boring, 1923) → Circular reasoning
○ Commonly viewed as
￫ Problem-solving ability
￫ Knowledge about the world
○ Intelligence is: Multi-faceted and Culturally defined

INTELLIGENCE

○ People can excel in one domain, but not in others

○ Contradictions, caused theorists to explore different definitions
MULTIFACETED
￫ Intelligence (singular) OR intelligences (plural)?
￫ Psychologists disagree over this point

○ Intelligent behaviour serves a purpose

￫ “Capacity for goal-directed adaptive behaviour” (Sternberg & Salter, 1982, p. 3)
￫ Beneficial to evolution
○ Different cultures need different skills for survival
￫ Inuit: Harsh climate in “featureless terrain” → Strong visual memory
CULTURALLY DEFINED/ ￫ Kung Tribe of Africa: Desert with large predators
FUNCTIONAL ￫ Western culture: Problem-solving (maths) and verbal ability
↳ This view is used in intelligence tests
↳ Correlations with school success (r=.40 to .50)
↳ Predictive occupational attainment
○ Cultural practices teach people how to solve problems
￫ Western cultures: Verbal skills
￫ Kung Tribe: Practical skills
○ Is intelligence a property of an individual OR is it socially constructed?
 THEORIES OF INTELLIGENCE
○ NOT all people are:
￫ Equally intelligent (inter-person)
￫ Equally intelligent at all things (intra-person)

PSYCHOMETRIC APPROACH

○ Quantifies basic abilities and uses these to compare people

○ Identify items into groups that correlate highly with each other
○ High correlation = Indicative of underlying skill
WHAT IS IT? ○ Analysed using a statistical tool → “Factor Analysis”
￫ Statistically analyse whether one score is related to another score
↳ E.g., whether verbal reasoning is related to receptive language
￫ Once a factor is identified, we try to work out how they are related
↳ Factor = Multiple items that correlate

○ Charles Spearman (1863 – 1945)

￫ Factor analysis → Correlations between performance on multiple tests
SPEARMAN’S ￫ Concluded that all mental abilities share core factor
TWO-FACTOR THEORY ○ General intelligence (g-factor)
(1904) ￫ Arithmetical ability, general knowledge and
vocabulary
○ Specific intelligence (s-factors)
￫ Specific abilities unique to particular tests
￫ Explains intra-person differences

○ Thurstone applied a more extensive set of tests

THURSTONE’S THEORY ○ Found seven primary mental abilities
OF PRIMARY MENTAL 1. Verbal comprehension
ABILITIES 2. Verbal fluency
(1983) 3. Numerical ability
4. Spatial ability
5. Memory
6. Perceptual speed
7. Reasoning
 ○ Rejected the notion of g, in favour of seven primary abilities
￫ E.g., Good at verbal tasks BUT poor at mathematical tasks = Unlikely that
they are measuring the same thing
○ Difficult to deny the overall construct of some sort of general intelligence
despite Thurstone’s rejection

○ Raymond Cattell in 1943

○ The Gf-Gc model of intelligence concepts was introduced in 1963
○ Desire to have skill-specific scores rather than overall intelligence score

○ Two general intelligence factors

￫ Fluid intelligence (Gf)
GF-GC THEORY ↳ Problem-solving and information-processing ability
↳ Reasoning, memory and processing speed
(1963) ↳ Approaching novel problems
↳ Decreases with age

￫ Crystallized intelligence (Gc)

↳ An accumulation of knowledge and skills throughout life.
↳ Store and application of knowledge (e.g., vocabulary)
↳ Increases with age

○ Gf → Gc
○ Uses a capital G to distinguish itself from Spearman’s g

INFOMATION-PROCESSING APPROACH

○ Tries to understand the process of intelligent behaviour (Sternberg, 1999)

￫ How it happens rather than how much is presented
￫ Process rather than something measurable
WHAT IS IT? ○ Focus on three variables
1. Speed of processing
2. Knowledge base
3. Ability to acquire and apply cognitive strategies
 ○ Can describe people who are intelligent as “quick”
○ Correlates to IQ (Ryan, Sattler, & Lopez, 2000)
○ Test of mental quickness:
SPEED OF PROCESSING
￫ Are the letters identical physically or in name? (AA vs. Aa)
↳ Difference is the speed of memory search
↳ Correlates with academic achievement

○ Differences in intelligence often reflect knowledge base

￫ Amount of knowledge, organisation and accessibility for retrieval
○ Expertise has well-developed schemas to support encoding and retrieval
￫ Knowledge of Western foods
KNOWLEDGE BASE ￫ Create categories
↳ E.g., breakfast, sweet/sour
○ Person with a broad knowledge base = Seen as intelligent within their area of
expertise
￫ Easily retrieve information

○ Correlates with a measure of intelligence

ABILITY TO ACQUIRE AND
○ Cognitive strategies help solve tasks
APPLY COGNITIVE
￫ Remembering lists
STRATEGIES
○ If taught to use these strategies, performance can improve dramatically

BIOLOGICAL THEORIES

○ Evolutionary perspective
○ Intelligence is a trait that allows for behavioural flexibility
￫ Supports survival in the changing world/ Hereditary
○ Link between brain size and intelligence
WHAT IS IT? ￫ MRI: IQ scores and brain volume
￫ Enlarged target areas rather than overall increase
↳ Prefrontal cortex
↳ Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas
○ Neubauer (2000) suggests that some brains may function more efficiently
￫ More intelligent people = less brain activity
○ Biological theories may not fully explain the intricacies of intelligence
 CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES

○ Intelligence tests focus on the abilities required in school

￫ Academic intelligence
WHAT IS IT? ￫ What about different types of intelligence?
↳ Practical intelligence (plans into action)
↳ Emotional intelligence (reading people’s emotions)

○ Three factors for “successful intelligence”

1. Analytical intelligence
￫ Reasoning and evaluation
￫ Assessed in school work and IQ tests
2. Creative intelligence
￫ Generates new ideas
3. Practical intelligence
STERNBERG’S (1988) ￫ Ability to tackle everyday-life
TRIARCHIC THEORY OF problems
INTELLIGENCE ￫ Tacit knowledge:
↳ Implicit knowledge needed to work in an environment
↳ E.g., time management
○ All three can be measured and are uncorrelated
○ Few tasks draw upon each dimension of Sternberg’s triangle
￫ Existing tasks measure intelligence to varying degrees
￫ New tests are needed to fully examine each of these three dimensions
(Sternberg, 2003)
○ Schools should support children in developing each dimension
￫ Currently focus on analytical
￫ But, practical could support their learning
↳ E.g., Time management

○ Intelligence is “an ability or set of abilities that is used to solve problems or

GARDNER’S (1999) fashion products that are of consequence in a particular cultural setting”
THEORY OF MULTIPLE (Walters and Gardner, 1986, p. 165)
INTELLIGENCES ○ Includes practical intelligence
○ Can excel in only one intelligence or multiple
○ Explains how people can be skilled in one area but not in others
￫ Human behaviour is rich in a variety of skills and abilities
￫ Broaden’s conceptualisation of intelligence
○ Eight abilities were selected
1. Linguistic
2. Logical-mathematical
3. Spatial
4. Interpersonal
5. Intrapersonal
6. Naturalistic
7. Musical
8. Bodily-kinesthetic
○ Gardner has added additional abilities since the original model
9. Spiritual
￫ Attain a state of being → religious/spiritual leader/guru
10. Existential
￫ Understand place in the universe → philosopher

○ Gardner’s theory has been criticised

￫ Multiple intelligences or multiple talents?
￫ Descriptive based on case studies
↳ Lacks experimental support
↳ Gardner does not support traditional testing
○ However, it has been praised
￫ Intelligence should have a broad definition
￫ Recognises the importance of cultural context
￫ Can analyse intelligence in school and other environments
 SUMMARY

CONTENT SUMMARY

￫ Multi-faceted
INTELLIGENCE IS ￫ Functional
￫ Culturally defined

Psychometric approach
￫ Factor analysis to determine the underlying skills
THEORIES OF ￫ Different number of factors depending on type of factor analysis used
INTELLIGENCE
Information processing
￫ Faster you process, the more intelligent you are
￫ Better organised and accessible your knowledge, the more intelligent

Biological
￫ Some brains may function more efficiently than others

Contemporary
￫ Sternberg (1988) incorporates analytical, practical and creative dimensions
￫ Gardner (1999) proposed the theory of multiple (10) intelligences
 INTELLIGENCE TESTING
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

HISTORY OF INTELLIGENCE TESTING

BINET-SIMON INTELLIGENCE SCALE (1905):

○ Alfred Binet was asked to formulate a test to study and identify:

￫ Children performing poorly in school
￫ Which children would benefit from additional support
￫ Provide special educational programs

○ Assumed that reasoning, thinking and problem-solving all depend on intelligence

○ Binet and Simon developed the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale (1905)
￫ Consisted of 30 items/ mental tasks
￫ Test and measure a variety of cognitive abilities
￫ Highlights individual differences in children's abilities (Binet & Simon, 1905)
↳ Comprehension; Reasoning;Memory

○ Assumed cognitive abilities increase with age

￫ Tested on children of various ages
￫ Categorised each item according to the age a child had to be to get it correct
￫ Tests contained a set of age-graded items (Binet & Simon, 1908)
￫ E.g. ‘six-year-old item’ = Six-year-olds could answer correctly BUT five-year-olds cannot

○ The Binet-Simon test incorporated the concept of “mental age”

￫ Mental age = The age level of the most advanced items that the child could
consistently answer correctly.
￫ Gauge a child’s individual ability in comparison to other children and to their
chronological age (actual age)
￫ Children whose mental age equalled their chronological age were considered to be of
‘regular’ intelligence (Schultz & Schultz, 2000).
STANFORD-BINET INTELLIGENCE SCALE:

○ Terman (1916) further developed an English version of the Binet-Simon test

￫ Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (Terman, 1906, 1916)

○ Added items to extend the age range to adults (2 to 85 years)

￫ E.g., arithmetic reasoning skills

○ Used intelligence quotient (IQ) rather than mental age

￫ Compares intelligence across chronological age groups
￫ (Mental Age ÷ Chronological Age) x 100

￫ Average IQ is 100
↳

○ Allows for comparison of academic intelligence between people

PERSON 1 PERSON 2

MENTAL AGE 15 9

CHRONOLOGICAL AGE 18 7

MA ÷ CA 0.8333 1.29

(MA ÷ CA) x 100 83.33 129

IQ 83.33 129

○ Good predictor of academic performance

○ Test continues to be updated and used to assess
￫ Fluid reasoning
￫ Knowledge
￫ Quantitative reasoning
￫ Visual-spatial processing
￫ Working memory
YERKES ARMY TESTING (WW1)

○ US Army asked psychologists to develop group-administered tests

○ Identifies the cognitive ability of new recruits
○ Scores = Used to guide the assignment of each recruit to the most appropriate military job
○ Robert Yerkes was an American psychologist (president of APA)
○ Yerkes (1876 – 1956) developed two tests, alongside Goddard
￫ Army Alpha: Literate recruits (verbal skills)
￫ Army Beta: Illiterate and non-English speaking recruits (non-verbal skills)

ARMY ALPHA ARMY BETA

Defining words Visualising objects

Following oral direction Visual-Perceptual

Synonym-Antonym pairs Motor testing

Analogies Pictorial and gestural instructions

Information E.g., Charades

LIMITATIONS:
○ Verbal tests contained unfamiliar items to many recruits
○ Tests were often administered under stressful conditions
○ Resulted in almost half of the soldiers appearing to have the mental age of 13 or lower (Yerkes, 1921)
○ Leads testers to draw seriously incorrect conclusions about soldiers’ intelligence
 WECHSLER ARMY TESTING (WW2)

○ David Wechsler (1939, 1949) developed and administered intelligence tests for the army
○ Later appointed chief psychologist at Bellevue Hospital in New York City
○ Developed new intelligence tests
￫ ONE global score
￫ Designed to improve and correct the weaknesses of earlier tests
1. Included both verbal and non-verbal subtests.
2. Success in these tests depended less on having formal schooling.
3. Each subset was scored separately; resulting in a profile that describes an
individual's performance on all subsets

○ Combination of verbal and performance would yield a more valid measure

VERBAL ITEMS:

INFORMATION Recall fact: On what continent is London?

SIMILARITIES How two ideas are alike: In what way are a lion and tiger similar?

ARITHMETIC Solve a problem: If two pins cost 15c, what will be the cost of a dozen pins?

DIGIT SPAN Recall string: Repeat 3-J-4-A-1-S backwards

VOCABULARY Define word: What does chair mean?

COMPREHENSION Answer question requiring common sense: What do you use on a rainy day?

PERFORMANCE ITEMS:

PICTURE COMPLETION Point out a missing part of an object

PICTURE ARRANGEMENT Tell a story through images

BLOCK DESIGN Reproduce a picture

OBJECT ASSEMBLY Putting together a jigsaw puzzle

 WECHSLER INTELLIGENCE SCALES:

○ Special versions of these tests were developed for adults and children
○ Administered one-to-one, by a trained administrator
￫ Ensure cooperation of participant

ADULTS The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

CHILDREN (6 - 16) The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)

YOUNG CHILDREN (4 - 6 ½) The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI)

○ Altered how IQ was assessed:

￫ No longer calculated by dividing mental age by chronological age
￫ Points earned for each correct answer are added together
￫ Total score is then compared to scores earned by other people
￫ Average score obtained by people at each age level is assigned an IQ value of 100
↳ Approx. 68% fall between 84 and 116
↳ Creates a bell-shaped curve that approximates the normal distribution
○ Intelligence quotient (IQ): An index of intelligence that reflects the degree to which a
person’s score on an intelligence test deviates from the average score of others in the
same age group
 WHAT MAKES A ‘GOOD’ TEST?:

○ A “good” test consistently measures what it is supposed to

○ Reliability, validity and standardisation are required for a ‘good’ test

A ‘GOOD’ TEST

‘GOOD’ Meaningful, useful, interpretable, informative

RELIABILITY Consistency: Can the results be reproduced under the same conditions?

VALIDITY Accuracy: Do the results represent what they are supposed to measure?

The process of implementing, developing and conforming to a standard;

STANDARDISATION
Administering and scoring the test in the same manner for everyone

RELIABILITY:

○ This is a measure of the consistency of the results

￫ Does the response change over time?
￫ If reliable, a similar score will be obtained
￫ Reliability tends to be a question of degree
○ We can assess reliability in different ways:

RELIABILITY TEST DESCRIPTION

○ Same test administered twice

￫ May have practice effect or maturation
TEST-RETEST ￫ Correlation coefficient obtained (-1 to +1)
↳ Strong correlation vs. weak correlation
￫ Need an appropriate time between test

PARALLEL OR ALTERNATE ○ Two forms of the same test

FORMS ○ Can we develop identical test?

○ Scores from two halves of the same test compared

SPLIT HALF ○ What is there are systematic differences between the two halves?
￫ E.g., question difficulty
 VALIDITY:

○ This concerns how well a test measures what it is meant to

○ Validity: A test is valid to the extent that inferences made from it are appropriate,
meaningful and useful
○ The appropriate, meaningful and useful requirement, places an emphasis on the context
￫ “Are the NAPLAN results valid?”
￫ “Are the NAPLAN results valid for assessing students' literacy and numeracy abilities?”
￫ “Are the NAPLAN results valid for assessing students' creative abilities?”
○ Validity can be examined in terms of

VALIDITY DESCRIPTION

○ Does the content reflect what the measure aims to test?

CONTENT VALIDITY: ￫ Are all forms of the construct assessed?
￫ Expert opinions required

○ Does the psychological test relate to another e.g of the same construct?
CRITERION VALIDITY:
￫ Second measure does not need to be another psychological test

○ Does the psychological test predict performance?

PREDICTIVE VALIDITY:
￫ This is an application of criterion-validity

○ How well a test applies to a theoretical scheme or construct

CONSTRUCT VALIDITY: ￫ Are all forms of the construct assessed?
￫ Does the test relate to other areas as predicted by theory?

A TEST CAN BE RELIABLE BUT NOT VALID, BUT IT CANNOT BE

VALID WITHOUT BEING RELIABLE

STANDARDISATION:

○ In order for the tests to be meaningful we need to be able to make sense of the data
○ Standardisation: Assists with reliability and is necessary for results to be valid
○ Details of instructions, time limits, item presentation (e.g., order), test materials
○ Can develop norms from a representative population
 CROSS-CULTURAL ISSUES:

○ Intelligence tests are designed to measure the abilities deemed to help people in their daily
living
￫ Mathematical ability
￫ Reasoning
￫ Verbal skills
○ These skills are likely to vary across cultures
￫ Intelligence among the Kipsigi of Kenya includes obedience and responsibility (Super &
Harkness, 1980).
￫ Tend to be related to their culture and environment
￫ Western cultures value verbal and mathematical abilities useful in engineering
￫ Other cultures can define intelligence in terms of practical abilities
↳ E.g., knowledge of animal behaviour
GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES OF INTELLIGENCE
- NATURE VS. NURTURE:
○ Intelligence tests have demonstrated that people differ
￫ Individual differences in task performance
￫ Offered explanations of why they may differ
↳ E.g., differences in brain; multiple intelligences
○ How do these differences occur?
￫ Biological processes (genetics)
↳ Intellect determine through combination of genes
￫ Environment (parenting style; good school)

LONGITUDINAL STUDIES:

○ Stability of IQ can be assessed through longitudinal studies

○ The Seattle Longitudinal Study
￫ Examined mental abilities of 5000 adults
￫ Commenced in 1956
￫ Tested every seven years
↳ Verbal fluency
↳ Inductive reasoning
↳ Spatial ability
￫ Schaie and colleagues found greater stability throughout adulthood
↳ Age 25 to 60 = No decline
↳ After 60 = Begin to decline
↳ Great individual differences in performance in 80s
TWIN AND FAMILY STUDIES:

○ Twins and families are often used to examine heritability

○ Identical
MONOZYGOTIC TWINS:
○ Share 100% same genes

○ Not identical
DIZYGOTIC TWINS: ○ Share 50% same genes
○ No different from non-twin siblings

ADOPTED SIBLING: ○ Share none of the same genes

TWIN STUDIES:

○ Tease apart nature versus nurture

￫ Identical twins raised in the same home have same environment and genes
￫ Identical twins raised apart have the same genes but different environments
↳ If intelligence = biological, these children should have similar intelligence scores
↳ If intelligence = environmental, they would likely have different scores

GENETIC BASIS:

○ Evidence of intelligence having a genetic basis

○ IQ scores of twins are similar, regardless of if they have
been raised in the same family
￫ Twins raised together: r = 0.86
￫ Twins raised apart: r = 0.72
○ Low correlation for unrelated siblings raised together
indicates that environment has a lower impact (0.30)
than genetics (0.72)

HERITABILITY

○ Mathematical index to explore the extent that differences in IQ in a population can be

explained by genetic factors
○ Measures the role that genetic factors have in individual differences
￫ 50 – 70% for most twin studies, thus half of the difference is due to genetics
(Bouchard et al., 1990; Sternberg & Kaufman, 1998)
NATURE V.S NURTURE

○ Nature-nurture is difficult to resolve

￫ Difficult to control for environmental effects
○ Intelligence is a combination of genes and environment
○ The impact of nature v.s nurture is illustrated by the following scenario:
￫ Two flower pots with one bag of very similar seeds (genetic factors)
￫ Seeds equally divided between both pots
￫ One pot has fertile soil, the other has poor soil
￫ Within each pot, plants will grow and there will be differences in their
heights (individual differences)
￫ Plants in the fertile soil will grow stronger than those in the poor soil
(environmental factors)
 EXTREMES OF INTELLIGENCE:

○ Small percentage of the population are at the extremes (low or high IQ)
￫ 16% falling below 84 (low IQ)
￫ 16% fall above 116 (high IQ)
￫ Wechsler’s normal distribution

INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY

○ Low IQ = intellectual disability.

￫ Significantly below average intelligence (IQ < 70)
￫ Impairments first presented in childhood in more than one setting
￫ Difficulty in learning and reasoning
￫ Some cultures emphasise social deficits
￫ Other cultures emphasise intellectual abilities
○ Greater number of males
○ Many have biological causes
￫ Genetic abnormalities (Downs Syndrome, Fragile X Syndrome)
￫ Cerebral palsy
○ Some are environmental
￫ Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)/ Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD)
￫ Deprived environments
￫ Children with mild disabilities often have parents with low IQ and often come from
families living in poverty
GIFTEDNESS

○ High IQ = giftedness
￫ Giftedness relates to a specific talent
￫ In Western cultures, IQ > 130
○ Giftedness has been recognised for centuries
￫ Mozart (music); Einstein (science)
○ People try to detect this early to nourish the talent
○ Renzulli (2002) considers three factors to demonstrate giftedness
1. Above-average ability: Task-specific and ability to think quickly and abstractly
2. Commitment: Motivation → Persistence and practice
3. Creativity: Originality
○ Gifted children are thought to require special opportunities to develop the skills
￫ Schools may not challenge gifted children
￫ Individualised teaching is considered optimum/ most favourable
○ Terman (1925) conducted a longitudinal study of 1500 children with IQ > 140 in USA
￫ Greater chance of marital and job success
￫ Earned more degrees
￫ These children did not fit the “bookworm” stereotype
￫ However, may feel greater sense of not living up to expectations
○ Gross (1999) examined exceptionally gifted children (IQ > 160) in Australia
￫ Susceptible to social isolation
￫ Greater maturity than peers
○ One limitation of these correlations is the causation
￫ Most gifted children come from privileged homes

CREATIVITY:

○ Creativity is moderately related to giftedness

○ Creativity may not be found in all gifted people
○ Creativity is difficult to measure as not displayed in the same way
￫ Measure divergent thinking (e.g., how many uses for tomatoes)
￫ May be very creative in one area (e.g., science) but not in others (e.g., cooking).
￫ Not a general trait
 SUMMARY:
○ Psychological testing originated due to social and educational demands
○ Psychological testing has implications for individuals
○ Due to the implications that this can have, they should be
￫ Reliable
￫ Valid
￫ Standardised
○ Nature v.s. nurture
￫ Genetics have an impact as can be seen from twin studies
￫ The environment can influence intelligence due to the opportunities inherent within the
environment
 INTELLIGENCE

￫ The ability to learn from one's experiences, acquire knowledge, and use
DEFINITION resources effectively
￫ Intelligence is multifaceted, adaptive and context-specific

PSYCHOMETRIC ￫ Define the structure of intelligence by statistically analysing whether one

APPROACH score is related to another score using the tool “factor analysis”

THEORIES OF INTELLIGENCE

￫ General Intelligence (g-factor): A single, underlying factor responsible for

SPEARMAN’S TWO
overall intelligence
FACTOR THEORY (1904)
￫ Special Intelligence (s-factor): Specific abilities needed for particular tasks

￫ Identified 7 primary mental abilities: verbal comprehension, verbal fluency,

THURSTONE’S PRIMARY
number facility, spatial visualisation, perceptual speed, memory, and inductive
MENTAL ABILITIES (1938)
reasoning

￫ Fluid intelligence (Gf): Innate abilities like problem-solving and

CATTELL’S FLUID VS.
information-processing (Decreases with age)
CRYSTALLISED
￫ Crystallised intelligence (Gc): An accumulation of knowledge and skills
INTELLIGENCE (1963)
throughout life (Increases with age)

￫ Three factors for ‘successful intelligence’:

STERNBERG’S TRIARCHIC ￫ Analytical intelligence: The ability to evaluate information and solve problems
THEORY (1985) ￫ Creative intelligence: The ability to come up with new ideas
￫ Practical intelligence: The ability to adapt to a changing environment

GARDNER'S (1999) ￫ 8 semi-independent kinds of intelligence

THEORY OF MULTIPLE ￫ Linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, body-kinaesthetic,
INTELLIGENCES (1999)
intrapersonal, interpersonal and naturalistic