Practise Exam Question-Chapter 5

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'An individuals personality is largely fixed at birth' Evaluate evidence for and against this claim.

All perspectives on personality acknowledge the role the environment plays in shaping personality.

Traits & temperaments have shown to be relatively fixed over lifetime-Cattell, Costa & McCrae.

Eysneck Type Theory-Type is determined by biology, type then determines traits and traits determine behaviour. Individual difference in brain structure & functioning are inherited so therefore a significant part of personality is genetically determined.

BOTH nature (genes) AND nurture (environment) interact with each other and are essential to life and development.

Buss & Plomin- Temperament is the subset of personality traits that are genetically inherited. Three basic temperaments; emotionality, activity & sociability that can be observed in childhood will predict adult personality.

Heritability Studies- Twin studies- Findings suggest that most temperaments & personality traits are associated with high levels of genetic influence. Loehlin study showed that shared environment (being brought up in same family) had little or no influence on temperament & personality. BUT genetic contribution counts for LESS than half of the variability in personality measurements.

Social Learning- Children's personalities are shaped by subtle systems of reward & punishments from their parents and others. This is below the level of consciousness.

Difficult to separate parents personality to children's as parent's perception of their child's temperament influences development.

Mishel- Situationism- Personality not consistent behaviour, it is controlled by environment & situation-Zimbardo's prison experiment.

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