Is SelfConcept Learned or Innate

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Is Self-Concept Learned or Innate?

• ADE 6385June 12, 2001Dave Lewis

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Nature vs. Nurture Debate

• Genetics vs Environment
• Biology vs Psychology

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Psychology Perspective
Personality Psychology

• Shared human nature
• Dimensions of individual differences

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Personality Research

• Cognitive abilities
• Interpersonal styles
• methods of approaching and relating to others
• Emotional reactivity or stability

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Biological Perspective1953 - DNA
Genetics

• Watson Crick

Rosalind Franklin
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Gel Electrophoresis
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1975 Sociobiology The New Synthesis

• The study of Social Animals including Humans
• Proposes a genetic theory of social behavior

E.O. Wilson
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Counter movement to Sociobiology

• 1979 - Stephen J. Gould The Mismeasure of Man
• 1984 - Richard Lewontin, Steven Rose, Leon
  KaminNot in our Genes

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The Human Genome Project 1984-2000

• In a meeting convened jointly by the DOE and the
  International Commission for Protection Against
  Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens, the
  question was first seriously asked Can we,
  should we, sequence the human genome?

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Is Self-Concept Learned or Innate?

• Probably both
• The Environment plays a role
• Your Genetics play a role

You are who you are!