Individual Differences - part 1

All kids learn to talk but

there’s lots of variability 

The explanation of variability in language development is

the interaction between nature vs. nurture

nature is

your gene, innate (born with it)

nurture is

your environment (experiences with family, friends, cultures, etc.)

epigenetics (how gene expression changes based on our experiences) is an example of

the interaction between both nature vs. nurture

1930s has a

nature view of individual differences

believed in the science of controlling reproduction to

increase desirable heritable characteristics (eugenics)

Only the “best” can be reproduced because

those are the more rational ones

objective measure of IQ

Universal public school > identify children who would struggle to receive special education

Early approach: Francis Galton

English statistician; tried correlating intelligence with reaction time, sensory acuity, and head size → not very successful

Later approach: Alfred Binet

Lived in France; measure high-level abilities (problem solving, reasoning, judgement)

Later approach: Henry Goddard and Lewis Terman

Revised the Binet-simon intelligence test (Stanford-binet)

These people are psychometricians but also

Eugenics

Eugenic came from

studying families with a history of poverty, criminality, and mental illness → concluded heritability (these people are always bad)

Eugenics think that this is how you save the costs of society by

preventing these people (poor, uneducated) birth

1940-60s has a

nurture view of individual differences

basically, individual differences is based on

the environment in which you are raised

Rene Spitz study

WWII orphans and found negative outcomes including language

Harlow study

infant monkeys with two surrogate mothers — one made of wire that provided milk and one made of soft cloth that provided comfort

Harlow found that

The monkeys overwhelmingly preferred the cloth mother, clinging to it for security even though it offered no food.

Basil Bernstein study

restricted vs. elaborated code relates to language outcomes

restricted code is

shorter, simpler utterances and in familiar predictable situations (with friends and family)

elaborated code is

complex, detailed utterances and in unfamiliar situations with little shared backgroud

lower SES families only use

restricted code

Higher SES families use

both restricted and elaborated code

1970s has a

Nature view of individual differences focusing on language ability

believed language abilities stem from

innate, biologically based factors

William Labov found

low scores on standardized assessments for children who speak African American English (AAE)

The low scores on standardized assessments is due to

AAE grammatical feature differences and test context

One of the assessments is the SPELT (structured photographic expressive language test) which is

Ability to generate specific morphological structures via audiovisual stimuli

• Ex: pic of 2 book, there are 2 ____ (book or books)

Labov thinks that the test is

inadequate and not the children

Labov believed that all children naturally

acquire systematic language regardless of social class

Dialects like African American English aren’t the result of a poor environment or a lack of learning, but

a natural and complete linguistic system

Noam Chomsky believed that language is primarily the result of

inborn cognitive structure, not environmental teaching

Noam Chomsky: competence is

unconscious knowledge

Noam Chomsky: performance is

the ability to use unconscious knowledge in real life, individual differences are just noise 

regardless of the nature vs. nurture debate, 

parents are always to blame either genes or caregiving