Chapters 3: Nature, Nurture, and Human Diversity

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Unit 3 Human Development

• Chapters 3 Nature, Nurture, and Human Diversity
• Chapter 4 Developing Through the Life Span

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Behavior Genetics Predicting Individual
Differences

• Environment every external influence (i.e.
  parental style, home environment, personal
  experiences, peers, etc.)
• Behavior genetics focuses on human behavior and
  the effects of genetic predispositions

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Twin StudiesCheck out this video!

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v1gwnzW4jOMIfeature
  fvw

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Other related video links

• Genetic influence over diseases/disorders
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vM2HXoxfHBlwfeature
  channel

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Evolutionary Psychology

• Deals with what makes us so much alike as humans
• Natural selection nature selects advantageous
  variations from among mutations (random errors in
  gene replications) and new gene combinations
  created at the time of conceptions
• Gender Differences in Sexuality
• Males ? generally tend to have more liberal ideas
  toward sexual behavior
• Females ? generally tend to have more
  conservative ideas toward sexual behavior
• Heterosexual Mating Preferences
• Males ? prefer youthful looking women with
  hourglass figures (signs of fertility
  opportunity to carry on their genes)
• Females ? prefer healthy-looking men who
  seemmature, dominant, bold, and affluent (signs
  of security and protection)

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Parents and Peers

• Prenatal Environment
• Nurturance begins in the womb
• Toxic agents (teratogens) introduced into the
  womb affects the fetus
• Experience and Brain Development
• Experience enables neural connections to develop
• Parenting matters! Parents influence political
  attitudes, religious beliefs, and personal
  manners
• Personality matters! A childs personality is
  unique and can help to determine successes and
  failures.
• Peers matters! The tendency to conform in order
  to be accepted by peers is most evident during
  late childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood,
  but lessens somewhat thereafter

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Cultural Influences

• Culture the behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values,
  and traditions shared by a group of people and
  transmitted from one generation to the next
• Norms ? rules for accepted and expected behavior
• What are some norms that you have in your
  environment?
• Personal space ? the portable buffer zone we like
  to maintain around our bodies
• How much distance do you prefer a person to stand
  away from you to talk?

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Individualism vs. Collectivism

• Individualism

• Collectivism

• Prefer independence
• Seek career to promote ones own economic
  stability
• Does not depend or expect others to necessarily
  aid in happiness, economic security, or security

• Seek what is good or beneficial for the family
  unit
• Depends on family and friends to provide advice,
  opinions and help in meeting goals
• May sacrifice ones own goals and ambitions for
  the good of the family or friends

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Gender Roles

• Gender identity our sense of being male or
  female
• Gender-typed exhibiting traditionally masculine
  traits and interests (for boys) or traditionally
  feminine traits and interests (for girls)
• Factors to consider
• Social learning theory children learn gender
  behaviors by observing and imitating or by being
  rewarded or punished
• Example Boys dont cry! Girls are made of
  sugar, spice, and everything nice.
• Gender schema theory social learning theory
  cognition your experiences help form a web of
  knowledge about the world through the lens of
  gender

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Gender Role

• ABC NEWS REPORT ON CHANGING GENDER ROLES
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vl51rxnKJRfkNR1
• DOCUMENTARY ON CHANGING GENDER ROLES
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v1CFldTTDNm0feature
  related

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Chapter 4 Developing through the Life Span
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Fact or Falsehood?

1. If a mother drinks heavily, her baby may be
   mentally retarded. (T or F)
2. Newborns see only a blur of meaningless light and
   dark shades. (T or F)
3. Before age 2, infants cannot think. (T or F)
4. Infants initially develop close attachment to
   their mothers merely because they provide
   nourishment. (T or F)
5. Most abusive parents were themselves battered or
   neglected as children. (T or F)

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Developmental Psychologists

• Psychologists who specialize in the physical,
  cognitive, and social changes throughout the
  human life cycle

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Prenatal Development

• Zygote fertilized human egg called this from
  the point of conception until 2 weeks
• Embryo the developing human organism from about
  2 weeks until 2 months after conception
• Fetus the developing human organism from about 2
  months after the conception until birth.
• The expectant mother has to be careful to not
  intake TERATOGENS (any toxic or harmful agents to
  the body)
• Cigarette smoke and chemicals
• Alcoholic beverages
• Harsh prescription drugs
• Illegal drugs
• Other toxic materials (paints, cleaning agents,
  etc.)

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Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

• About 40 of alcoholic expectant mothers have
  babies with FAS.
• Symptoms
• Small, disproportioned head
• lifelong brain abnormalities
• Mental retardation

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The Competent Newborn

• Newborns have survival skills
• Rooting reflex babies tend to turn toward the
  touch, when something touches their cheek in
  anticipation of feeding time
• Newborns tend to turn their heads toward human
  voices and have some perception of the human face
• Are extremely flexible
• Has a death grip ? the ability to hold their
  body weight for an extended period of time

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Infancy and Childhood

• Physical Development the brain rapidly develops
  as new experiences help to develop neural
  connections (schemas)
• Maturation orderly sequence of genetically
  designed biological growth processes
• Motor Development
• Roll over
• Sit unsupported
• Crawl
• Walk (25 of babies walk by 11 months 50 by
  their 1st birthday)
• Memory ? most toddlers have their first long term
  memory between the ages of 2-5.

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Cognitive Development

• Schemas ? mental molds into which we pour our
  experiences or brain webs of information
• Assimilate ? interpreting new experiences in
  terms of our current understandings
• Accommodate ? adjust our schemas to fit the
  particulars of new experiences that are unlike
  any previous experience

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Jean Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development
Theory

• (See handout)

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Sigmund Freuds Psychosexual Development Theory

• (See handout)

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Social Development

• Stranger anxiety development of a fear of
  strangers develops soon after child has learned
  the concept of object permanence
• Attachment a bond and a survival impulse that
  keeps infants close to their caregivers
• Deprivation of Attachment
• Total isolation from caregiver/parent figure?
  abnormal behavior emotionally scarred tendency
  to be violent or commit crimes
• Assimilation with peers ? more normal behavior
• Separation Anxiety ? sense of insecurity when
  caregiver leaves/is removed causes emotional
  stress because of the unknown
• Totally adjusted children with parent figure and
  peers develops a sense of basic trust (i.e.
  life is predictable, calm, reliable)

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Child-Rearing Practices

1. Authoritarian ? expect strict rules and expect
   children to obey rules without questioning
2. Permissive ? allows childrens desires to dictate
   the environment few demands are made and little
   punishment is used
3. Authoritative ? both demanding and responsive
   democratic allows children voice their opinions
   or ask questions final decision is the parents

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Adolescence

• Life between childhood and adulthood

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Adolescence Physical Development

• Adolescence begins with PUBERTY the time when
  one is maturing sexually
• PRIMARY SEX CHARACTERISTICS the reproductive
  organs and genitalia
• SECONDARY SEX CHARACTERISTICS nonreproductive
  traits such as breasts, pubic hair, and hips
  (girls) and facial pubic hair, and deepened
  voice (boys)
• MENARCHE ? first menstrual period (for girls
  between ages 11-16)
• SPERMARCHE ? first ejaculation (for boys
  between ages 11-16)

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Adolescence Cognitive Development

• Develop the ability to reason (formal operations
  Piagets theory)
• Develop a sense morality

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Adolescence Social Development

• (See Eriksons Stages of Psychosocial Development)

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Adulthood

• (Ages 18 until death)

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Adulthood Physical Development

• Physical abilities (i.e. muscular strength,
  reaction time, sensory keenness, and cardiac
  output) peak in the mid-twenties and gradually
  declines thereafter.
• As one ages, the bodys disease-fighting immune
  system weakens and slows our neural processing

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Social Development

• Social clock the cultural expectation of the
  right time to
• Leave home
• Get a job
• Get married
• Have children
• Retire
• Intimacy vs. Generativity
• Intimacy forming close relationships
• Generativity being productive and supporting
  future generations

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Social Development - LOVE

• Marriages that tend to be more enduring
• When couples marry after age 20 and are well
  educated
• When the couple DOES NOT cohabit (live together)
  before marriage
• When the couple have similar family backgrounds,
  religious values, and life goals

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Middle Age Physical Changes

• Women
• Fertility declines between 35 and 29
• Perimenopause the 5-10 year time span when women
  experience changes in her hormone levels that may
  cause irregular menstrual cycles, irritability,
  hot flashes, memory lapses, etc.
• Menopause (12 consecutive months without a
  menstrual cycle) perceived as the time of
  freedom to most women
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?ve3NxFuOoDV4feature
  related
• Men
• Experience a gradual decline in sperm count,
  testosterone level, and speed of erection and
  ejaculation
• May deal with mid-life crisis

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Aging Intelligence

• Crystallized intelligence accumulated knowledge
  as reflected in ones vocabulary and analogies
  test deals with every day knowledge,
  experiences, and skills
• INCREASES with age
• Fluid intelligence reasoning ability with
  abstract concepts and with speed
• DECREASES with age
• Inquiring Minds The Aging Process
• http//player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?gui
  dAssetId3CD36978-4E0C-4434-AD14-320A11814D61blnF
  romSearch1productcodeUS

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Dementia Alzheimers Disease

• Dementia mental erosion caused by small
  strokes, a brain tumor or brain damage caused by
  alcoholism
• Alzheimers Disease disease that affect 3 of
  the worlds population
• 1st ? Begins to lose short term memory
• 2nd ? Begins to lose the ability to reason
• 3rd ? Becomes emotionally flat
• 4th ? Becomes disoriented and disinhibited
• 5th ? Becomes incontinent
• 6th ? Becomes mentally vacant

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Death Dying

• Dealing with death is an individual issue. Here
  are some facts
• Those who express the strongest grief immediately
  do not purge their grief more quickly.
• Bereavement therapy and self-help groups do
  little to help the healing power of time and
  supportive friends.
• Terminally ill and bereaved people do not go
  through predictable stages (i.e. denial ? anger ?
  etc.)
• Everyone grieves in their own way some grieve
  long and passionately, others are lightly and
  briefly

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Video Clips on Aging