Theories of Personality

Discuss Sheldon’s physiological approach to personality.

Describe the key physiological measures used by modern personality researchers, including electrodermal activity, cardiovascular activity, brain 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.

 Explain the process of neurotransmission and discuss recent research and theory on the relationships between neurotransmitters and personality traits.  

 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.