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AP PSYCH 2.1 Interaction of Heredity and Environment

  • Charles Darwin was not a psychologist, but the principles he discovered have influenced the field
  • His book “The Origin of Species” was published 20 years before Wundt set up the first psychology laboratory
  • His theory of evolution is the basis for a “still-active” approach to psychology
    • AKA the evolutionary approach
  • Essentially, human beings evolved certain characteristics to help us, as a species, survive, thrive, and reproduce

The Evolutionary Approach

  • All animals have behaviors and traits because they were ‘designed’ that way
  • Heredity and environment is NOT the nature vs. nurture debate, but it can contribute to the conversation and the terms are similar to the individual concepts
    • Heredity is known as nature, and is what your genes and body contain
    • Genetics are not destiny
    • Environment is known as nurture, and includes the influence of what’s around you, what you’ve lived through, and what you could potentially achieve

Babies as an Example

  • Reciprocal determinism is when an environment affects a person, who reacts, affecting the environment in turn
  • A baby’s temperament may be hereditary, like if they are ‘easy,’ ‘difficult,’ slow to calm down, etc.
    • It’s not just what you’re born with, but what you’re conceived with
    • These factors come from the DNA inside you from the moment the two parent cells meet
  • Certain aspects of a baby and more evidently, a child/adult, can come from the environment as well
    • Parenting style is very impactful on a person’s final personality
    • They parent’s own personality and skills will influence their child
    • Parents can have one of four styles: Authoritarian, permissive, authoritative, and neglectful
  • These terms and concepts will be revisited in Unit 6

Epigenetics

  • Epigenetics is the concept that environmental pressures can change the way genes affect someone, but not their structure
    • Those changes can affect metabolic processes and behaviors
    • These changes can also be passed on
    • This means that, in a sense, experiences can be inherited; at least, the effects of them
  • Sustained environmental pressure not only affects the current generation experiencing it, wherein genes are turned on or off depending on what is needed in the context

    • But it also affects the next generation

Helpful Terms

  • This vocabulary may help you put some related concepts into words
  • Polygenic means relating to many genes; if a behavior or trait is genetic, it is likely caused by many genes, not just one
  • Diathesis are related psychological disorders; many disorders might have a genetic predisposition alongside an environmental trigger
  • Maturationism relates to child development and the patterns they all (typically) follow; sitting up, crawling, then walking is a genetic progression, but when they do these is environmentally-influenced
  • Plasticity is the brain’s ability to change on a cellular level to environmental events
    • Note: epigenetics cause slow changes from genes being applied or not, these changes are for the benefit of the species
    • Plasticity causes quick changes where the brain physical morphs, this is important for learning and therapy