5 Nature and Nurture
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Transcript of 5 Nature and Nurture
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Nature vs. Nurture
One of the most important
questions in psychology is:
How much of human
behavior is caused by our
physical make up, our
genes (nature) vs. how
much is what we learn byexperience in our
environment (nurture). How much of your personalityis from your parents genetics
And how much did you just learn
From living your life?
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The Human Genome
The human genome is a complete set of
instructions for making a human. The human genome has 3 billion bonded
pairs of nucleotides organized as DNA
sequences. They are being mapped out so
that doctors will know what each one does.
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The Human Genome Project
This Human Genome Project hasthe potential to save more lives than
any other technology, it also raisesserious ethical questions regardingcloning and human engineering.
Human traits are influenced by genecomplexes many genes workingtogether. There is no angry gene,but a number of genes workingtogether could make someonespersonality more aggressive. This
type of study is called moleculargenetics.
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Evolutionary Psychology
Natural Selection - The theory that organisms with
the genetic trait variations are more likely to
reproduce and survive.
For example people are predisposed to enjoy sweets
and fats because our ancestors knew that food
would help them survive famines however, now
this trait can be a cause of obesity in a world wherefood is plentiful, perhaps in a million years there will
be people who are mostly predisposed to eat less?
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Gender
In general men are more likely to initiate sexual
activity regardless of culture or where you live.Men are more attracted to youthful, healthy
looking, females who waists are a third narrower
than the hips (a sign of many child bearing years
to come).Woman are attracted to healthy looking, mature,
dominant, bold and affluent men traits that
denote the ability to support and protect.
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The most important human trait
The most important human trait however, is
our amazing ability to use our mind andreason to adapt to any situation and
condition. This perhaps more than anything
else has made humans a successful species
as well as one that is very hard to predict anddefine.
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Twin Studies
Behavior genetics - The study of the
relative power of genes or environment toinfluence behavior.
Environment every non genetic influence.
Includes prenatal nutrition, post natal care,
etc. Psychologists have extensively used Twin
Studies to study nature vs. nurture.
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Twin Studies
Identical Twins Twins whodevelop from a single
fertilized egg that splits intwo, creating two geneticallyidentical people.
Fraternal Twins Twinswho develop from twoseparate eggs and sperm.Genetically they are nocloser than normal sistersor brothers but they doshare a fetal environment.
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Identical Twins developed from
the same egg and sperm
Fraternal twins from a racially mixed
marriage. They come from two separate
eggs and sperm coming together.
Identical vs. Fraternal
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Separated Twins/Adoptive Studies
By studying separated twins and adoptive
children who dont grow up with their parentswe can learn even more about how heredity
and environment affect behavior.
For example will adoptive children have
temperaments (how a person emotionallyreacts to things) closer to their birth parents
or to their adoptive parents?
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Development video
http://www.learner.org/resources/series138.ht
Heritability the proportion of variationamong individuals that we can attribute to
genes. This does NOT apply to individual
circumstance but only measurements among
people as a whole.
http://www.learner.org/resources/series138.html?pop=yes&pid=1502http://www.learner.org/resources/series138.html?pop=yes&pid=1502 -
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Gene-Environment Interaction
Genes and the environment both influenceus but its more complicated than thatbecause they also continuously influenceeach other.
For example, a baby with a predisposition tosmile a lot not only inherited that trait, butbecause people will want to play with thatbaby more they will also be influenced bytheir environment!
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Infant Development
Prenatal environment is very important for infant
development, even placenta placement canaffect twins and cause one to thrive more than
the other.
Experience causes brain development. Up to
20% more neural synapses have been recordedin rats that have enriched environments to
develop in. Attention is needed for the brain to
develop. Some animals who receive no attention
after birth even if they are fed regularly will die.
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Other Environment Influences
Peers Children often listen to their peers more
than their parents. Teens almost always doCulture People self enforce culture norms such
as personal space. Memes are used to describe
the creation of cultural ideas that are passed on.
Culture also affects child rearing promotingindependent ideals or teaching loyalty to the
group
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Gender Nature or Nurture?
The physical characteristics of male and
female are obviously affected by nature.However, research shows that mental
dispositions can be affected as well by
genetic control of hormones.
Nurture controls gender roles or what societyexpects a certain gender to do.
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Social Learning Theory
Theory that we learn social behavior by
observing and imitating what we see beingrewarded and punished.