A Researcher Is Interested in the Relationship Between Personality Type and Face Recognition

Assignment 3

A researcher is interested in the relationship between personality type and face recognition skills. He assumes that people with the best face recognition skills as measured by the Cambridge Face Memory test (CMTF) will be the most outgoing as measured by the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionairre (ZKPQ). Read the article at the bottom of this assignment and check out the prosopagnosia research group website.

Assignment: 1. (Figures 1 and 2) Create a frequency distribution table and a frequency distribution histogram for both the ZKPQ scores and the CMTF (prospoagnosia) scores. Use one piece of graph paper for each set of scores and, on each, one include: a. The frequency distribution table b. The histogram c. The mean median and mode Use a group width of five for each histogram and make the lowest value in the first group of the ZKPQ scores 0 and the lowest value for the CMTF scores 30. 2. (Figure 3) On a third sheet of graph paper, create separate male and female histograms for the CMPF and, again, include the mean median and mode for each histogram. 3. On a fourth sheet of typed paper, describe the nature of each distribution (normal, skewed, multi-modal) and use figure 3 to comment on the possibility of a gender difference in face recognition skills. Face Gender ZKPQ Score M 12 55 M 13 62 F 22 64 F 6 63 M 10 45 F 14 49 M 26 50 M 23 59 F 15 44 F 22 49 F 16 59 F 12 57 M 9 54 F 21 62 F 21 56 F 30 53 M 21 55 M 5 63 F 21 57 M 13 57 M 23 44 F 14 55 F 14 57 F 26 45 M 10 58 F 25 57 F 8 67 F 19 51 M 13 35 F 25 57 F 20 59 F 18 52 M 5 41 F 23 52 F 10 70 F 22 65 F 8 64 Link to Prosopagnosia Research Group

http://www.faceblind.org/

Article on Sensation Seeking

University of Delaware Office of Public Relations UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 19, Feb. 13, 1997 Sensational study: Psychology prof's work ranks among world's best

Prof. Marvin Zuckerman's landmark 1971 article on "sensation seekers" ranks as one of the 50 most influential works in the history of psychology-along with work by such researchers as Sigmund Freud, B.F. Skinner, Jean Piaget and others-in the newly released book, Notable Selections in Psychology , compiled by Terry F. Pettijohn. Zuckerman's article, "Dimensions of Sensation Seeking," describes a comprehensive personality-assessment tool known as the Sensation-Seeking Scale (SSS). By prompting respondents to agree or disagree with such statements as, "I sometimes like to do things that are a little frightening" and "I like doing things just for the thrill of it," the SSS helps psychologists gauge sensation-seeking tendencies. A personality category first identified by Zuckerman in 1964, sensation seekers crave "varied, novel, complex and intense sensations and experiences," he explained. Zuckerman's studies of sensation seekers have had "a profound impact on our understanding of personality traits," said book editor Pettijohn, a psychology professor at Ohio State University. "I have admired Marvin's work for many years, and so I was delighted to include one of his papers in my book." The honor was the latest example of Zuckerman's status as a leading authority on personality, according to Thomas R. Scott, arts and science. "Marvin was also recently listed as the 12th most cited social or personality psychologist, meaning that other researchers frequently refer to his works," he said. "Freud was first on that same list of 100 authors, published by the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin."

IN SEARCH OF SENSATION SEEKERS

The first version of Zuckerman's Sensation-Seeking Scale, created more than 30 years ago, was designed to predict an individual's response to sensory deprivation. Since then, the personality-assessment tool has been refined to gauge four key tendencies: thrill and adventure seeking; experience seeking; disinhibition; and susceptibility to boredom. "Thrill seekers" get a kick out of activities or sports that provide unusual sensations and experiences- even if they involve risk. Motorcycle racing or water-skiing, for example, might appeal to this category of sensation seekers, Zuckerman explained in the Encyclopedia of Psychology (1994, Wiley Interscience). "Experience seekers" enjoy novel experiences-say, travel to exotic locations, listening to unusual or exciting music, experimenting with drugs or living a "non-conformist" lifestyle, Zuckerman said. "Disinhibitors" are constantly searching for opportunities to lose their inhibitions at "wild" parties involving heavy drinking and sexual activities with strangers, he added. Finally, sensation seekers are very easily bored by repetitious, predictable experiences and people, or by routine work assignments. In general, Zuckerman said, men usually demonstrate a stronger overall sensation-seeking tendency than women. People who have been divorced score higher, on average, than married or single people. Sensation-seeking behaviors seem to peak among those in their late teens and early 20s, and they decline with age in both men and women. People who regularly practice a conventional religion are more likely to be classified as low sensation seekers. The Sensation Seeking Scale has been used to identify teenagers who may be jeopardizing their health and safety by using drugs, engaging in frequent sexual activity with many partners, driving recklessly or under the influence of alcohol. With researcher Paula Horvath, Zuckerman reported in 1993 that sensation-seeking tendencies among college students (as measured by the SSS)-and reports of sensation-seeking behaviors among peers-were strong predictors of their own risky behavior, especially criminal activity and social violations. Zuckerman's analytical techniques might also be used to develop the teaching methods best suited to children's individual learning styles, or to match job assignments with employees' personality traits. "High sensation seekers like risky or even periodically stressful vocations, like air pilots, air-traffic controllers, emergency-room hospital workers or occupations providing a great deal of varied social contacts," Zuckerman said. "They're dissatisfied and bored by routine, repetitious jobs that don't involve social interaction or challenging and changing activities."

NATURE? - OR NURTURE?

For psychologists, the ages-old question is whether personality traits are primarily influenced by nature-genetically inherited physiological characteristics and biochemicals in the brain-or "nurture" in the form of childhood experiences. In the 1970s, Zuckerman and research associates in England sought to answer this question by comparing sensation seeking among identical twins, whose genetic profile is identical, and fraternal twins, who share half their genes. Among a sample of British twins, Zuckerman said, 60 percent of their similarity on the sensation-seeking trait could be attributed to genetic factors-a surprisingly high figure for personality traits. A subsequent study of Minnesota twins who were separated at birth, or shortly after birth when they were adopted into different families, yielded the same estimate of genetic influence, even though the subjects did not share a common environment during their formative years (Lykken, 1992, Personal Communication). This last year, two different sets of investigators in Israel and at the National Institute of Mental Health in the United States independently discovered one of the specific genes associated with the sensation-seeking personality trait, Zuckerman said. The gene produces D4, a dopamine receptor in the brain. In 1979, Zuckerman had hypothesized that dopamine-a neurotransmitter that mediates nerve-cell transmissions- might be involved in sensation seeking, in part because several researchers had found that people with high brain levels of an enzyme called monoamine oxidase (sometimes a dopamine regulator) are less likely to be sensation seekers. High dopamine activity may be characteristic of sensation seekers, Zuckerman said. Along with dopamine, other neurotransmitters also may be involved in sensation seeking. Low activity in serotonin, for instance, may account for a lack of inhibition and impulsiveness among many sensation seekers, and low noradrenergic reactivity could account for the fearlessness of sensation seekers in risky situations. During his upcoming sabbatical, Zuckerman plans to work in the molecular genetics laboratory of Robert Plomin at the Maudsley Institute of Psychology in London. They will be searching for additional genes connected with impulsive sensation seeking, as well as other personality traits. Zuckerman joined the UD faculty in 1969. He recently published his fifth book, Behavioral Expressions and Biosocial Bases of Sensation Seeking. His previous book, Psychobiology of Personality, has received wide attention in the field of personality psychology. -Ginger Pinholster