Overview of Exam 1 A 35 45 Multiple Choice Questions B Should take roughly 45 minutes to complete but you have the full time and I ll stay slightly longer too time is not an issue C Questions will be based primarily on information in the lecture slides in class lecture For studying purposes start with this outline and the slides The readings are probably best used as a reference when something from your notes or the slides is unclear or when you want to add a bit more depth to your understanding of a concept or finding If a topic or term is not on the outline below it will NOT be on the exam I will ask you to know some of the key findings from research studies we ve discussed in the lectures D E Intro to Personality Science Ch 1 8 28 lecture Topic Outline for Exam 1 The value of being able to infer others traits states to predict their behavior Prediction One of the most important functions our brains have evolved to perform is to make predictions about the environment and one of the most important features if our environment is other people It s adaptively valuable to be motivated and able to quickly infer people s states and traits so we can predict how they might behave respond Social Brain Hypothesis Proposed by anthropologist Robin Dunbar who argues that human intelligence did not evolve primarily as a means to solve ecological problems but rather intelligence evolved as a means of surviving and reproducing in large and complex social groups Studies of thin slices of personality perception We re good Personality detectors even with little information Ambady Rosenthal videotapes 13 college professors teaching Showed sample of students a 30 second no volume clip of each teacher Compared ratings from 30 second thin slices with end of semester ratings from students in the course Found strong significant correlations for 9 of 15 traits and an overall correlation of 76 Biases in impression formation Halo effect perceiving one or two positive or traits The tendency to assume predominantly positive or traits based on Stereotyping Negativity Bias Dispositional Bias Na ve Realism The tendency to assume and perceive personality traits in an individual based on their social group membership s and then to pay greater attention to that information that confirms the stereotype Illusory correlation Ex Pygmalion when teachers expect students to do well and show intellectual growth they do and vice versa negative trait information than positive trait information The tendency for impression formation to be more heavily influenced by determinants of others behaviors and attributing their action to dispositional traits Fundamental Attribution Error The tendency to ignore situational The tendency to think we a uninfluenced by our surroundings Ex Washing hands causes harsher moral judgments of others less guilt after lying and lower volunteering rates The Science Game 2 non scientific ways of knowing 1 Experience and intuition 2 Tradition and authority Empirical Evidence Empirical Testing either verifying or falsifying a claim and that is independent of the observer Empirical evidence an observation or measurement that contributes to which allows a claim on truth to be verified or falsified Empirical testing any situation or procedure that creates empirical evidence The golden rule primary assumption of science Assumption If an object of study exists in nature it is knowable in other words its possible to fully define describe and explain even highly complex things like brains beliefs time and personality The object of study is also lawful if we could perfectly control all of the input variables we could perfects predict and control the outcome produce empirical evidence Rule scientific claims answers must be subject to empirical tests that Ch 2 Evolutionary Perspectives 9 4 Lecture Evolution 101 Principles of Variation Inheritance Adaptation particular species show variation in their traits Principle of variation Organisms of different species and organisms within a Its nature s protection against environmental and unknowable future Variability and individuality differences are the rule Importantly evolutionary processes have no foresight we re not evolving toward and end goal Species change with environmental changes since we don t know what traits we ll need it s best to keep variability around In humans some mechanisms seem to ensure variability The Westermarck effect or reverse sexual imprinting is a hypothetical psychological effect through which people who live in close domestic proximity during the first few years of their lives become desensitized to later sexual attraction T shirt study In it men each wore the same t shirt for 2 days The shirts were then put into identical boxes Various women were asked to smell the shirts and to indicate to which shirts they were most sexually attracted The results showed that women were most attracted to men with an MHC most dissimilar from their own passed from one generation to the next The principle of inheritance Traits are heritable such that they will be The principle of adaptation some traits enable individuals to be better adapted to the selective pressures of their environments to have increased fitness the ability to survive and reproduce offspring who will be able to survive and reproduce Natural Sexual Selection Two types of selective pressures 1 Natural selection think survival a Darwin s finches The most important differences between species are in the size and shape of their beaks and the beaks are highly adapted to different food sources b Humans appetite and disgust response protection from contagions 2 Sexual selection many organisms compete for reproductive opportunities and some traits become exaggerated via being sexually selected a Peacock tail inter sexual competition b Giraffe neck c Creativity d Humor Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness EEA The evolution of complex traits requires 1 000 to 10 000 generations to evolve 20 000 to 200 000 years in humans This means the vast majority of our physiological and psychological traits are evolved for fitness in an EEA that no longer exists and hasn t for 10 000 years We re living in a modern world with stone age minds The Logic of Functionalism the Adapted Mind for people to think feel and behave the way they do Functionalism is a perspective for explaining why it may have been adaptive Wary Altruist theory in the book its Socioanalytic Theory It s functional to be both aggressive
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