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?

• If a mother drinks heavily, her baby may be
  mentally retarded. (T or F)
• Newborns see only a blur of meaningless light and
  dark shades. (T or F)
• Before age 2, infants cannot think. (T or F)
• Infants initially develop close attachment to
  their mothers merely because they provide
  nourishment. (T or F)
• 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

• Authoritarian ? expect strict rules and expect
  children to obey rules without questioning
• Permissive ? allows childrens desires to dictate
  the environment few demands are made and little
  punishment is used
• 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