fiogf49gjkf0d Baby Scent and Dads
Even the toughest dads can get warm and fuzzy when it comes to their kids. Now researchers studying monkeys have found that’s not just an attitude, it’s a physical response to the mere scent of their infant. This ScienCentral News video explains.
Interviewee: Toni Ziegler, Wisconsin National Primate Research Center
Copyright © ScienCentral, Inc.
Your textbook defines personality as characteristic thoughts, emotional responses, and behaviors that are relatively stable in an individual over time and across circumstances. This video looks at research on the personalities of male marmoset monkeys and suggests that personality may not be all that stable.
|
1. fiogf49gjkf0d This video is about monkeys, not humans. Is it even appropriate to apply the term “personality” to the thoughts, emotional responses, and behaviors of any species other than humans? Give your own opinion, but also take into account the discussion in the section, “What Are the Biological Bases of Personality?” starting on page 590. |
|
2. fiogf49gjkf0d fiogf49gjkf0d Your textbook explains that the personality traits of animals are similar to humans, but not identical. Dr. Gosling and his colleagues have identified many traits that are shared by humans and other animals, and then they have used a statistical technique called “factor analysis” to cluster the many traits into a smaller number of “factors.” What are the five factors that have been found as personality dimension that can be applied to some animals, like hyenas? |
|
3. fiogf49gjkf0d The video focuses on one particular type of behavior—or personality trait—of male marmoset monkeys. First, what is this type of behavior that psychologist Toni Ziegler is studying? Second, using the factors you identified in the previous question (#2), which of those factors is closest to the personality dimension discussed in the video? |
|
4. fiogf49gjkf0d Is it reasonable to suggest that a behavior that is influenced by hormone levels and neurotransmitter levels can be a personality trait? Is this approach consistent with anything in your textbook? |
|
fiogf49gjkf0d Threat and politics: Are political views rooted in biology?
If you got into an argument during the most recent election season with someone who supported the other candidate, chances are neither of you won. Maybe it’s not just stubbornness. New research has found that people with strong opposing political views might also have very different physical responses to threat.
Interviewee: John Hibbing, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Copyright © ScienCentral, Inc.
The term “personality” is not used in this video, but it is not outrageous to suggest that liberals and conservatives have, in very general terms, different personalities. Let’s see if we can make a case for that proposition.
|
5. fiogf49gjkf0d To give ourselves a starting point for discussing personality, let’s look at the Big Five model of personality, which your book says has been used a great deal by psychologists in recent times. What are the five Big Five personality dimensions? |
|
6. fiogf49gjkf0d Based on the video and on your reading of the information in this chapter, on which trait pairs would we expect the two groups distinguished in this video to differ on the most systematically? Note that the video specifically avoids calling the groups liberals and conservatives, so we will do so as well. |
|
7. fiogf49gjkf0d fiogf49gjkf0d Based on your answer to question 6, would you say that the differences between the groups are more at the trait level or at the superordinate level? |
|
fiogf49gjkf0d fiogf49gjkf0d Violence not what attracts video gamers, says study.
What kind of person likes to play video games? In particular, what kind of person enjoys games that allow the player to commit murder and mayhem? This video suggests that the answer to that question is not as obvious as many people assume.
Interviewee: Richard Ryan and Andrew Przybylski, University of Rochester, Craig Anderson, Iowa State University
Copyright © ScienCentral, Inc.
|
8. fiogf49gjkf0d Using information from the video and your own ideas, what has been the general assumption—prior to the research discussed in the video—about the personality characteristics of people who play violent video games? |
|
9. fiogf49gjkf0d According to Dr. Ryan’s new study, what is it about these violent video games that actually appeals to people? |
|
10. fiogf49gjkf0d fiogf49gjkf0d Previous research has had a problem, so it failed to show that violence was not the key characteristic that games enjoyed. What was this problem with prior research? |
|
11. fiogf49gjkf0d fiogf49gjkf0d When the researchers took the killing out of the video games and turned them into games of tag, they left the shooting, type of action, and high level of activity in the games. What personality traits might be associated with enjoyment of these games according to Hans Eysenck’s theory? Explain what would draw certain people to these games according to Eysenck’s theory. |
|