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Individual Differences: Personality & Intelligence

Question: What kinds of evidence do researchers draw on when considering the effects of Nature and Nurture on personality?

Answer: Nature and Nurture are two themes that pervade all aspects of psychology. Does Nature shape our psyche through biological (e.g. hereditary) means or does environment (e.g. families) and social interactions Nurture our inner selves? This debate runs through attempts at defining/explaining the concept of personality. The definition of personality can be simple ie\" the sum total of all behaviours an......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: ‘Nature-nurture is a false dichotomy.’ Explain this statement using examples from either Book 1 Chapter 4, or Book 1 Chapter 5.

Answer: The question of whether genetics (nature) or environment (nurture) determine human behaviour is at the centre of a debate that dominated psychology between the mid 1950s and the early 1980s (EPoCH CD-ROM, 2002) and is still present in current psychology. Nature or nurture is a false dichotomy as it is nature and nurture that together, in interaction, are essential to life and development. To i......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: ‘Give an account of any two theoretical approaches to identity and explain the ways in which they are different.’

Answer: Henri Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory (S.I.T) arose from a reaction to Erikson’s theory of focussing on the individual. It suggests that when we categorise ourselves and others, we develop conceptions of in-groups and out-groups. An in-group is somewhere we perceive to belong, i.e. social class race, religion etc and an out-group therefore are people who are not of the same group as us. This l......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Describe, with your reasoning, the features of Eichmann’s upbringing that Adorno might have considered important and critically discuss whether the concept of the Authoritarian personality (Adorno et al., 1950) is adequate explanation of Eichmann’s attitude and behaviour.

Answer: In an attempt to link the nature of prejudice to a certain personality type, the Authoritarian Personality (Adorno et al., 1950, cited in Brown, 1995) was developed. This theory has a psychodynamic basis and proposes that some people are more likely to be attracted to racist ideology than others. According to this theory, a certain type of social upbringing results in an individual with a complian......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: What are the main issues in the nature/nurture debate and how do these concepts help in our understanding of children?

Answer: What do we mean by the expressions ‘Nature’ and ‘Nurture’? ‘Nature’ is the direct result of biological inheritance, the innate potential of our genetics. The ‘Nature’ viewpoint argues that our genes predetermine who we are: how we look and act. It emphasises, for example, that we may physically look like our parents and display similar behaviour patterns. ‘Nurture’ means the in......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Write an essay (up to 1000 words in length) examining the extent to which any one of the following is determined by individual characteristics or environmental influences;

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Altruism
Aggression (Chosen)
Sexual orientation

Answer: Aggression can be defined as any action or series of actions where the direct purpose is to cause injury or damage (Cardwell, 2000). Whereas most people understand this basic concept, the root causes of this behaviour are, like many psychological dilemmas, in constant dispute by many opposing theories. Whereas the question of what determines aggression could be attempted using a ‘nature versu......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Freud or Fraud? Discuss the contribution of Freudian theory to the false/recovered memory debate.

Answer: Many observations have been made condemning Freudian theory – especially the involvement of his theory of repression as being the underlying influential cause of the recovered memory movement that has seen a rise in reported alleged ‘recovered’ memories of child sex abuse, with estimations made by Frederick Crews (1994) in addition to others that a million people have, along with the help of......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Should Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory and Allport’s trait approach be classified as idiographic or nomothetic?

Answer: This essay will discuss whether Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory and Allport’s trait approach should be classified as idiographic or nomothetic. “The idiographic approach takes the view that we are unique individuals and should be studied as such.” (Abbott, 2001 p9) In contrast the nomothetic approach “attempts to unearth general principles about human behaviour” (Ewen, 1998 p286) It ......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Is Hothousing an Effective Technique for Increasing Children’s Intelligence?

Answer: Hothousing refers to the process of creating a stimulating environment (by modifying such variables as sound and colour) to help promote the development of skills in infants, and based on the three extracts available, it is difficult to refute that the concept of this technique exists. Whether the information at hand goes to support or reject the reliability of such a method is another question e......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Describe and criticise an intelligence theory and an intelligence test of your choice.

Answer: Most people have an intuitive notion of what intelligence is, and many words in the English language distinguish between different levels of intellectual skill: bright, dull, smart, stupid, clever, slow, and so on. Yet no universally accepted definition of intelligence exists, and people continue to debate what, exactly, it is. Fundamental questions remain: Is intelligence one general ability or s......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

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Individual Differences: Personality & Intelligence

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