Physiological approaches to personality |  |
Learning ObjectivesUpon completing this chapter, you will be able to:
| Discuss Sheldon's physiological approach to personality, including brief discussions of the three body types and the personality traits with which Sheldon argued they are associated. |
| Describe the key physiological measures used by modern personality researchers, including electrodermal activity, cardiovascular activity, brain electrical activity, and chemical analyses of blood and saliva. |
| Discuss Eysenck's original and revised theories about individual differences in extraversion-introversion. Be able to briefly define the characteristics of someone who is high on extraversion or high on introversion. |
| Review some of the key findings generated by work inspired by Eysenck's theory |
| Discuss Gray's Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory, including a discussion of how Gray's theory is similar to and different from Eysenck's theory. |
| Describe the personality dimension of sensation seeking as originally presented by Zuckerman, including a discussion of how Zuckerman used Hebb's theory of optimal level of arousal to generate his theory about sensation seeking. |
| Discuss some of the key correlates of sensations seeking, according to recent work by Zuckerman and others. |
| Discuss recent research and theory on the relationships between neurotransmitters and personality traits. Include a discussion of Cloninger's Tridimensional Model of personality. |
| Discuss historical and current work on the "strength of the nervous system," including the original theory and work by Pavlov, and later work by researchers such as Strelau. |
| Describe the personality dimension of morningness-eveningness, and discuss identified relationships of this dimension with circadian rhythms. |
| Describe the defining features of temporal isolation studies, including why they are conducted and what they have revealed. |
| Discuss some of the key practical consequences of individual differences in morningness-eveningness. |
| Discuss recent work suggesting that asymmetry in frontal brain activity may predict affective style. Discuss the identified relationships between brain asymmetry, and personality and affective traits. |
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education