Biological Development and the Chi-Square Test

Biological Development: Focuses on the interplay between nature (genes) and nurture (experience).
Lab Report: Working with data, specifically using the Chi-Square test for Hypothesis 1.

Developmental psychology is at the intersection of scientific and social realities.
It deals with potentially sensitive and personally meaningful psychological, social, and biological traits and behaviors.
Scientific language progresses slower than lay language.

The interplay between genes, phenotype, and environment (or experience) is very complex.
These elements are interconnected in the development of every child.

Background: Julia is highly educated and works in academia.
Childhood:
- Lived in a developing outer suburban part of Melbourne.
- Parents were the eldest in large families and left school early to work.
- Both parents had younger siblings who were university-educated.
- Mother, Emily, didn’t drive initially, limiting excursions to walking distance or local bus routes.
- Emily loved reading and took Julia to the mobile library weekly.
- Julia would sit among the children’s books and pull them off the shelves.
Home Environment:
- Emily would read while Julia looked at picture books; there was little talking during this time.
- Julia’s father would sometimes read to her from these books until she fell asleep.
School Years:
- Julia became a voracious reader, borrowing books from both school and home.
- She often read books that were too difficult but persevered.
- In year 5, her teacher questioned her understanding of the books she read, making her shy.
- The teacher advised her mother to be more careful about the books she gave Julia.
- Julia stopped discussing the books she read at school but continued reading throughout secondary school.
Present Day:
- Julia’s home is filled with books, including children’s books.
- She enjoys reading and listens to audiobooks to fall asleep.
- She dislikes walking or using public transport.

Consider a person and identify a feature, characteristic, or behavior.
Chart how the five inter-relationships between genotype, phenotype, and environment/experience have played out in the expression of this characteristic or behavior.

What are some alleles you are confident you share with family members?
What is an example of a gene-environment interaction in your parent’s behavior towards you?
What would be an example of your active selection of your own environment that might have influenced your subsequent development?
What aspects of your environment might have had epigenetic effects on your gene expression?

Steps:
1. Ahead of the Analysis (Steps 1-4)
2. Familiarizing yourself with JASP (Steps 5-9)
3. Running the Chi-Square Test for Hyp 1 (Steps 10-24)
4. Preparing & Planning for Hyp 2 (Steps 25-26)
Variables:
- Identity Status
- Friendship quality
- Age (Categorical)
Sample size: n=621
Categories for the two variables evenly or unevenly distributed?
For each variable, which category had the highest count and which had the lowest count?

Biological development involves relationships between phenotype, genotype, and environment.
Lab report analysis supports testing Hypothesis 1 using the Chi-Square Guide, FAQ page, PowerPoint, Canvas discussion board, and consultations.
Support for testing Hypothesis 2 & finding Method information from the same resources.

Next week: Run the test for Hypothesis 2 and continue crafting the Introduction, Method, and Results sections.
Lab 4 (week 7): Lab Report Discussion and Cognitive Development (part 1).