Title: Explaining Personality: Biological Approaches and Trait Theories | Introduction to Psychology
Headings: Explaining Personality: Biological Approaches and Trait Theories
Explaining Personality: Biological Approaches and Trait Theories
Learning Objectives
Biological Approaches
Try It
Temperament
Connect the Concepts: Body Type and Temperament
Try It
Think It Over
Trait Theories
Link to Learning
Try It
The Big 5
Link to Learning
Try It
Think It Over
Cultural Understandings of Personality
Personality in Individualist and Collectivist Cultures
Approaches to Studying Personality in a Cultural Context
Try It
Think It Over
Glossary

Content: Explaining Personality: Biological Approaches and Trait Theories | Introduction to Psychology
Explaining Personality: Biological Approaches and Trait Theories
Learning Objectives
Explain biological approaches to understanding personality, including the findings of the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart, heritability, and temperament
Discuss the early trait theories of Cattell and Eysenck
Describe the Big Five factors and categorize someone who is high and low on each of the five traits
Discuss personality differences of people from collectivist and individualist cultures and compare the cultural-comparative approach, the indigenous approach, and the combined approach to studying personality
Biological Approaches
How much of our personality is in-born and biological, and how much is influenced by the environment and culture we are raised in? Psychologists who favor the biological approach believe that inherited predispositions as well as physiological processes can be used to explain differences in our personalities (Burger, 2008). In the field of behavioral genetics, the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart—a well-known study of the genetic basis for personality—conducted research with twins from 1979 to 1999. In studying 350 pairs of twins, including pairs of identical and fraternal twins reared together and apart, researchers found that identical twins, whether raised together or apart, have very similar personalities (Bouchard, 1994; Bouchard, Lykken, McGue, Segal, & Tellegen, 1990; Segal, 2012). These findings suggest the heritability of some personality traits. Heritability refers to the proportion of difference among people that is attributed to genetics.