Perspective on Nature and Nurture

Human development- change and stability

Life-span development- human development as long life process

Life-span perspective- development as lifelong, multidimensional and multidirectional

DOMAINS OF DEVELOPMENT

  • Physical development

  • Cognitive development

  • Psychosocial development

Social construct- invention of particular culture or society

Stability-change issues- early traits or characteristics persist thru life or change

Continuity-discontinuity

  • Continuity- gradual change

  • Discontinuity- thru stages

Maturation- natural sequence of physical changes and behavior patterns

Behavioral genetics- genetic and environmental differences responsible for differences in traits

Heritability- trait in large people linked to genetic differences

Gregor Mendel- studied heredity in plants

Selective breeding- breed animals to determine if trait is heritable

Concordance rate- study pairs of people if both display the traits

Epigenetics- genes turn and off in patterned ways

Gene-environment interaction- effects of genes depend on what kind of environment we experiences

3 FACTORS CONTRIBUTE INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN EMOTIONALITY

  1. Genes

  2. Shared environmental influences- similar; common experiences

  3. Nonshared environmental influences- difference; unique experiences to individual

3 KINDS OF GENE-ENVIRONMENTAL CORRELATIONS

  1. Passive gene-environment- influenced by parent genotype

  2. Evocative gene-environment- influenced by reactions from other people

  3. Active gene-environment- child genes influence kinds of environment they seek

Heredity- provided by parents (nature)

Environment- influence from outside (nurture)

CONTEXT OF DEVELOPMENT

  1. Family

    • Nuclear family- first family (parents and children only)

    • Extended family- living with parents and other relatives

  2. Socioeconomic status- economic and social factors

  3. Culture- groups total way of life

    • ethnic gloss- simplistic categorical label used to refer ethnocultural groups

    • race- biological category

  4. Gender

  5. History

  • Normative influences- biological or environmental events

    • Normative age-graded influences- same age share particular development or experiences

    • Normative history graded influences- share same experiences during time period

      • Historical generation- group of people who experience event at formative time

      • Age cohort- group of people born at same time

  • Nonnormative- unusual events that disturb expected sequence of life cycle

  • Imprinting- instinctively following first moving object they see

  • Critical period- event has specific impact on development

  • Sensitive periods- responsive to certain kind of experience

  • Plasticity- ability to adjust

  • Theory- logically related concepts

  • Hypothesis- fact based opinion

  • John Locke- “tabula rasa” —> blank state

    • human at birth is on blank state

  • Jean Jacques Rousseau- “noble savages” —> children develop according to their own positive natural tendencies

  • Mechanistic model- people are like machines; react to environmental input; predictable responses

  • Organismic model- set their own development in motions; initiate events

  • Continuous/Discontinuous

  • Quantitative change- change in number

  • Qualitative change- emergence of new phenomena

  • Evolutionary psychology- adaptation, reproduction; “survival of the fittest”