Transcript Memory - Lone Star College

Nature, Nurture, and Human
Diversity
1
Environmental Influences on
Behavior
Module 9
2
Parents and Peers
 Parents and Early Experiences
 Peer Influence
3
Cultural Influences
 Variations Across Cultures
 Variation Over Time
 Culture and the Self
 Culture and Child-Rearing
 Developmental Similarities Across
Groups
4
Gender Development
 Gender Similarities and Differences
 The Nature of Gender
 The Nurture of Gender
Reflections on Nature and
Nurture
5
Parents and Peers
Parents and Early Experiences
We have looked at how genes influence our
developmental differences. What about the
environment? How do our early experiences,
our family and peer relationships, and all our
other experiences guide our development
and contribute to our diversity?
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Experience and Brain Development
Early postnatal experiences affect brain
development. Rosenzweig et al. (1984) showed
that rats raised in enriched environments
developed thicker cortices than those in an
impoverished environment.
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Experience and Faculties
Early experiences during development in
humans shows remarkable improvements in
music, languages and the arts.
Courtesy of C. Brune
8
Brain Development and Adulthood
Brain development does not end with
childhood. Throughout our lives, brain tissue
continues to grow and change.
A well-learned finger-tapping task leads to
more motor cortical neurons (right) than baseline.
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How Much Credit (or Blame) Do
Parents Deserve?
Parents do matter, influencing the success of individuals
and showing up in political attitudes, religious beliefs,
and personal manners. But in siblings, shared
environment typically accounts for less than 10% of
differences.
Although raised in the same family,
some children are greater risk takers.
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Peer Influence
Children, like adults, attempt to fit into a group
by conforming. Peers are influential in such
areas as learning to cooperate with others,
gaining popularity, and developing interactions.
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Cultural Influences
Human nature seems designed for culture.
(Baumeister, 2005)
Culture: the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes,
values, and traditions shared by a
group of people and transmitted from one
generation to the next.
12
Variation Across Culture
Cultures differ. Each culture develops norms – rules for
accepted and expected behavior. For instance, North Americans
prefer a greater personal space – buffer zone of space around
our bodies – than do Latin Americans or Arabs.
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In Arab cultures men often greet one another with a kiss.
Variation Over Time
Cultures change over time. The rate of this
change may be extremely fast. Consider how
much Western culture has changed just since
1960.
This change cannot be attributed to changes in
the human gene pool because genes evolve very
slowly.
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Culture and the Self
Some cultures give priority to an individual’s
goals over those of the larger group, supporting
individualism, but if the group’s goal are instead
more important, that society supports
collectivism.
Individual identities within each society are
defined accordingly.
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Culture and the Self
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Culture and Child-Rearing
Child-rearing practices reflect cultural values
that vary. Western cultures often put more
emphasis on self-fulfillment and Asian cultures
on the family-self.
Jose Luis Palaez, Inc./ Corbis
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Culture and Child-Rearing
Westernized Cultures
Asian-African Cultures
Responsible for your self
Responsible to group
Follow your conscience
Priority to obedience
Discover your gifts
Be true to family-self
Be true to yourself
Be loyal to your group
Be independent
Be interdependent
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Developmental Similarities Across
Groups
Despite diverse cultural backgrounds, humans
are more similar than different in many ways.
We share the same genetic profile, life cycle,
capacity for language, and biological needs.
We may differ in surface
ways, but as members of one species we seem
subject to the same psychological
forces.
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Gender Development
Gender Similarities and Differences
Based on genetic makeup, males and females are alike, since
the majority of our inherited genes are similar.
Males and females differ biologically in body fat, muscle,
height, onset of puberty, and life expectancy.
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Some differences are relatively small, such as self-esteem scores. Hyde (2005)
Gender and Aggression
In surveys, men admit to more aggression –
physical or verbal behavior meant to hurt
someone, than do women. Experiments confirm
this difference.
The nature of this aggression difference is
physical rather than relational.
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Gender and Social Power
In most societies, men are socially dominant
and are perceived as such. Gender differences
in decision making and the election of more
men into positions of power, support this
inequality.
In 2009, men accounted for 82% of the
governing parliaments worldwide.
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Gender Differences and
Connectedness
Young and old, women are more interdependent
than men, spending more time with friends and
less time alone.
Dex Image/ Getty Images
Oliver Eltinger/ Zefa/ Corbis
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The Nature of Gender
Biological sex is determined by the twenty-third pair of
chromosomes.
The mother contributes an X chromosome, found in both men
and women, while the father contributes an X or a Y
chromosome, the chromosome found only in men.
If the pair is XX, a female is produced. If the pair is XY, a male
child is produced.
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Sexual Differentiation
In the mother’s womb, the male fetus is exposed to
testosterone, the principle male hormone (because
of the Y chromosome), which leads to the
development of male genitalia.
If low levels of testosterone are released in the
uterus, the result is a female.
Biological differences can be seen in adults as well.
There are several differences in brain anatomy in
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men and women.
The Nurture of Gender
Gender Roles
In psychology, a role is a cluster of prescribed
actions.
Our culture shapes our gender roles —
expectations of how men and women are
supposed to behave.
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Gender and Child-Rearing
Society assigns each of us to a gender, and the result is
our, gender identity, a sense of being male or female.
To an extent we are also gender typed, showing more
masculine or feminine traits.
Social learning theory assumes that children learn
gender-linked behaviors through observation and
imitation.
Cognition also matters, children form gender schemas, a
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lens through which they see the world.
Reflections on Nature and Nurture
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