Biological Theory of Personality
The Biological Theory of Personality suggests that genetic, neurological, and physiological factors play a significant role in shaping an individual's personality. It emphasizes the influence of biological processes, such as brain structure and neurotransmitter levels, on personality traits and behaviors. This theory highlights the interplay between genetics, brain functioning, and environmental influences in shaping an individual's personality.
7 Key excerpts on "Biological Theory of Personality"
- Nancy Fenton, Jessica Flitter(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Research & Education Association(Publisher)
...Chapter 5 Biological Bases of Behavior Biological psychology can be traced to the beginnings of psychology because it has its roots in physiology. The field of biological psychology, also called neuroscience, focuses on how genes, the nervous system, and the endocrine system influence behaviors and mental processes. Technological advances have allowed biological psychologists to provide a more complete understanding of what occurs on a physiological level during a psychological experience such as thinking or memory. Heredity, Environment, and Evolution An important aspect of the study of psychology is the interplay among genetic, environmental, and evolutionary influences. Complex human traits, such as intelligence, aggression, altruism, and personality, are influenced by all of these factors. For instance, psychologists attempt to determine how an individual’s level of aggression is impacted by inheritance and exposure to violence, as well as why aggressive tendencies were naturally selected. Biologists and psychologists are both interested in the various influences of nature and nurture on human traits. Biologists study physical traits, such as height and eye color, or susceptibility to diseases, such as cancer. In contrast, psychologists are interested in behavioral traits and psychological illnesses. Behavioral traits include aggression, intelligence, personality, etc.; psychological illnesses include anxiety, schizophrenia, depression, etc. The scientific discipline of behavioral genetics attempts to integrate the influences of heredity, environment, and evolution in terms of their effect on human behavior. Heredity Biological psychologists are interested in the study of heredity, or how the traits of parents are transmitted biologically to offspring. The nucleus of each human cell contains forty-six chromosomes, twenty-three donated by each parent. Chromosomes that determine gender are known as the X and Y chromosomes...
eBook - ePub- Colin Cooper(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...They also have to suggest that the environment (including social processes) is all important in maintaining adult personality. Biological theories, by way of contrast, suggest that all children are not equal at birth because of variations in their genetic makeup which lead to individual differences in the structure and function of their brains and nervous systems. They stress the importance of genetic factors and biological mechanisms (sometimes directly related to the amount of activity in certain regions of the brain) in determining behaviour. Finally it is important to consider the interaction between biological and social factors, for any biological predisposition to behave in a certain way can only show itself given an appropriate environment; for example, a child brought up in social isolation is unlikely to show many signs of Extraversion, even if they are genetically predisposed to do so. The problem with genetic analyses is that the biological mechanisms they identify are not very specific, unless we start looking at the effects of individual genes (and their interactions) on personality – a field known as molecular genetics. However most of the literature addresses a much more general question – the extent to which our genetic makeup as a whole influences each personality trait. We will see in Chapter 15 that Extraversion is moderately heritable – which basically just tells us that some aspect of our biological makeup is linked to how extraverted we are. We can guess that the genes which are involved are likely to influence our brains – but as we know that many genes are involved and each gene affects a great number of brain and other systems, we cannot use this approach to pinpoint exactly what is going on at the cortical level to cause some people who experience some environments to become extraverted. Studying brain damage presents similar problems...
eBook - ePubPersonality Psychology
The Basics
- Stanley Gaines Jr.(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...In any event, biological perspectives on personality are compatible with theoretical and empirical developments within the modern-day field of animal psychology (see Gosling & Harley, 2009). One can distinguish broadly between two classes of biologically orientated personality theories: (1) Anatomical and physiological theories that focus on the impact of person-level brain structure and function on personality characteristics across individuals (e.g., the reinforcement sensitivity theory of J. A. Gray, 1970; and the neurotransmitter theory of; Depue, 1995); and (2) behaviour genetics and evolutionary psychology theories that focus on species-level heritability of differences and similarities in personality characteristics across individuals (e.g., the temperament theory of personality development by A. H. Buss & Plomin, 1975; and the sexual strategy theory of D. M. Buss & Schmitt, 1993). Within these broad groupings (following Haslam, Smillie, & Song, 2017), one can make further distinctions (a) between anatomical and physiological theories (see Cervone, 2005) and (b) between behaviour genetics and evolutionary psychology theories (Funder, 2001). Thus, we shall review examples of anatomical, physiological, behaviour genetics, and evolutionary psychology theories in turn (following Funder & Fast, 2010). ANATOMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL THEORIES JEFFREY GRAY’S REINFORCEMENT SENSITIVITY THEORY One of the more curious theories from pre-Scientific Revolution Era medicine was humourism (i.e., the belief that imbalances among the proportions of individuals’ bodily fluids give rise to various mental and physical disorders; J. F. Brennan, 2003)...
eBook - ePubThe Causes and Cures of Neurosis (Psychology Revivals)
An introduction to modern behaviour therapy based on learning theory and the principles of conditioning
- H. J. Eysenck, S Rachman(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Chapter 3 THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF PERSONALITY BEHAVIOUR of human beings is determined by biological as well as by social factors. It is notable that during the last twenty or thirty years, the attention of clinical psychologists has been largely attracted by social factors, to the virtual exclusion of biological ones. This is unfortunate, because any tendency to over-stress one aspect of human personality must lead to a disregard for important and relevant factors. It is not the purpose of the book to deny the importance of social factors and to over-stress in turn the influence of biological ones; what we are trying to do in this Chapter is to adduce some evidence to show that biological factors are indeed important and should not be dismissed out of hand in a discussion of the causes and cures of neurosis; it will become apparent that only by using these factors appropriately will it be possible to work out a proper scheme of treatment which shall be less one-sided and perhaps more successful than those currently in favour. Any proof for the existence of a biological basis of personality must begin with a discussion of the influence of hereditary factors. Most of the work done in this field has, of course, made use of the convenient appearance of certain types of twins (identical or monozygotic twins) who share completely identical heredity, and whose similarities and dissimilarities may be compared with those appearing in fraternal or dizygotic twins, i.e. twins who share heredity only to the extent of 50 per cent, which is, of course, not different from that shown by ordinary siblings. The notion underlying all work with twins may be simply put in the following way...
eBook - ePub- Matt Jarvis(Author)
- 2005(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...they reduce complex psychological phenomena to simple biological processes. This can have negative consequences. In the example given above, for example, whilst old paint might be one contributing factor in the relationship between poverty and intellectual development it certainly isn’t the only factor or even the most important one. We could not remove the impact of poverty just by repainting all old properties, and it is dangerous and misleading to suggest that we could. There will always be some aspects of psychology that cannot be explained by adopting a physiological approach. For example, we might know that people suffering from depression typically have lowered levels of serotonin, and that we can correct this with drugs. However, this does not tell us why people who lost a parent in early childhood are more likely to suffer depression as an adult. That requires another level of explanation that can be provided by one of the other theoretical approaches. Summary Biological approaches to psychology use three key ideas from biology, genetics, evolution and physiology to understand psychology. Behavioural genetics is the study of the heritability of psychological characteristics. Genes have been implicated in a number of psychological variables, including intelligence and some mental disorders. Evolutionary psychologists have suggested that many of our characteristics and abilities have developed through a process of evolution because they are useful to us in some way. Neurophysiology focuses on the structure and function of the brain and nervous system and the ways in which these contribute to psychological functioning. New scanning techniques have allowed us to gain an increasing knowledge of brain function. One area of study in neurophysiology concerns bodily rhythms. Our knowledge of circadian rhythms has allowed us to understand the effects of jet lag and shiftwork. An understanding of ultradian rhythms has enriched our knowledge of sleep and dreaming...
eBook - ePub- G Neil Martin(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...There are some terms used to describe specific types of biological psychology (and, therefore, biological psychologist) and there are other terms that are synonymous with it. Some of the terms that are interchangeable with biological psychology include psychobiology and physiological psychology – to all intents and purposes, all of these terms refer to the same discipline. Other terms that refer to specific areas of biological psychology include neuroscience, neuropsychology, histology and psychoneuroimmunology. Neuroscience Neuroscience is an area of study where psychology, physics, chemistry and biology converge. It refers to the study of the neural basis of behaviour, and much of the work in the area is cellular in nature. Neuroscientists are interested in how specific brain cells, types of brain cell or groups of brain cells contribute to brain function and to behaviour. For example, neuroscientists may be interested in discovering whether specific types of cell are involved in specific behaviours (such as object or face recognition); they might be interested in discovering which chemical systems in the brain become active or inactive during certain psychological states such as sleep, mental impairment, depression, schizophrenia, and so on. It is sometimes prefaced by 'cognitive' to indicate that the study involves the neural basis of aspects of cognition such as using language, recognising objects, places and faces, recognising and experiencing emotion, performing mental arithmetic tasks, engaging in visual imagery, and so on (Posner and DiGirolamo, 2000). Some psychologists combine what seem on the surface to be entirely different branches of the discipline, such as neuroscience and social psychology...
eBook - ePubMetapsychology and the Foundations of Psychoanalysis
Attachment, neuropsychoanalysis and integration
- Simon Boag(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...2 THE BIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF PERSONALITY Drives and affects Introduction Addressing the metaphysical ground prior to theory development provides a foundation for understanding persons and explaining human activity, and given the metaphysical position developed in the previous chapter, a ground-up approach to psychoanalytic theory means assessing whether psychoanalytic accounts satisfy the requirements of a realist, determinist psychology. Freud was also clearly cognisant of such assumptions, and grounded his theory of personality in Triebe, translated by Strachey as ‘instincts’ but now commonly referred to as ‘drives’ (e.g. McIntosh, 1986; Solms & Turnbull, 2002; Zepf, 2001). These drives are wedded to the economic component of Freud’s specific metapsychology, giving rise to the ‘drive-discharge’ model that became a focal point for criticisms of Freudian metapsychology, and instigating dissent (Bowlby, 1969; Holt, 1976; Klein, 1976). As will be argued, the drive-discharge model is fatally flawed, but whether the concept of drive is necessarily problematic depends upon what is specifically meant by ‘drive’. On the position to be developed here, drives anchor mind and personality within the body, which, in conjunction with cognition and the environment, provide a physiological–motivational basis for understanding both rational and irrational actions (cf. Maze, 1983). The economic viewpoint The ‘economic’ viewpoint entails hypothetical nervous energies which can increase, decrease, accumulate, etc., and so can loosely be termed ‘quantitative’, and are products of the drives. Drives (‘instincts’) and their mental representatives (which are prototypically ‘wishes’) accumulate energy and operate within a mental apparatus that functions according to laws similar to the theory of thermodynamics (see Laplanche & Pontalis, 1973)...
