2. Personality researchers have identified general inherited dispositions called
temperaments. Psychologists argue that temperaments are largely inherited
and that these inherited dispositions interact with experiences to form adult
personality traits. Children identified as inhibited show a fear of unfamiliar
situations that other children do not. There is evidence that this tendency is
inherited and that it remains fairly stable throughout childhood.
3. Evolutionary personality psychology uses the concept of natural selection
to explain the development and survival function of human personalitycharacteristics. Theorists point out that anxiety often results from events
related to social rejection. They argue that because social isolation de-
creases the chances of survival and reproducing, the evolution of anxietyhas helped the species survive.
4. Research on temperament has important implications for teaching. Studies
find that children identified with a difficult temperament pattern and thoseidentified with a slow-to-warm-up pattern perform more poorly in school
than children identified with an easy temperament pattern. The goodness
of fit model suggests that children will learn best when the demands of thelearning environment match the child ’s temperament.
5. Personality researchers have often used physiological measures in their
research. Some researchers use EEG data to look at individual differencesin emotions. They find that differences in the activity levels of the right
and left halves of the cerebral hemispheres are associated with differences
in mood. Some research indicates that people inherit different base-rate
levels of brain activity in the two hemispheres and that this difference
may make them more vulnerable to certain emotional experiences.
6. One strength of the biological approach is that it ties personality psychol-
ogy to the discipline of biology. In addition, research in this area has iden-
tified realistic limitations for the blank slate model of personality
development. Another strength of the biological approach is its strong em-phasis on research. Criticisms of the approach include the difficulty re-
searchers have when testing some of their ideas. Other criticisms are that
researchers have not agreed upon a single model for temperament and thatthe biological approach provides little information about behavior change.
KEY TERMS
behavioral approach
system (p. 226)
behavioral inhibition
system (p. 226)cerebral asymmetry
(p. 244)
goodness of fit model
(p. 242)inhibited/uninhibited
children (p. 233)temperaments (p. 230)
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flashcards, and more.Summary 249