PSYC 206 Lifespan Development Bilge Yagmurlu

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory Zone of Proximal Development: The gap between what children can accomplish independently and what they can accomplish when interacting with others who are more competent. Scaffolding: children learn better through finely tuned interactions with others who are more competent.

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory Zone of Proximal Development

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory Scaffolding (Jerome Bruner) has come to be used for “interactional support” often in the form of adult-child dialogue (vertical relationships rather than horizontal ones) structured by the adult to maximise the growth of the child’s functioning includes the gradual withdrawal of adult control and support as a function of children’s increasing mastery of a given task.

Popular Model within Education Scaffolding recognizes the social aspect of learning With appropriate scaffolding, children can learn quicker and more effectively than they are able to by trial-and-error problem solving alone.

Popular Model within Education

Plasticity of the Trait Phenotypic canalization “auto-regulatory mechanism”: a process that produces a consistent phenotype in spite of varibale genetic or environmental features.

Heritability Assessed through kinship studies: Behavioral Genetics Methods Family Studies Twin Studies Adoption Studies

Genetic Inheritance Chromosome Ovum contains 23 Sperm contains 23 Zygote contains 46 or 23 pairs

Genetic Inheritance Chromosomes containing DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) are situated in the nucleus of a cell. Genes are functional units of heredity which are composed of DNA.

Human Genome Project Genome is the set of complete instructions for making an organism, containing all the genes in that organism Completed in 2003, the HGP was a 13-year project coordinated by the U.S. with contributions from UK, Japan, France, Germany, China, etc. Some goals: identify all the approximately 20,000-25,000 genes in human DNA transfer related technologies to the private sector address the ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) that may arise

Heritability Assessed through kinship studies: Family Studies: Studies that correlate degree of genetic overlap among family members with degree of similarity in developmental outcomes

Heritability Family Studies Example: a disorder might be described as “running in a family” if more than one person in the family has the condition Example: “Anxiety disorders run in families”: 70% had a 1st degree relative with an anxiety disorder 45% had a 2nd degree relative with an anxiety disorder role of inheritance and environment

Heritability: Twin Studies Identical twins Fraternal Same sex only Same or opposite sex Identical Twins develop from a single fertilized egg that splits in two, creating two genetically identical organisms Fraternal Twins develop from separate eggs genetically no closer than brothers and sisters

Heritability Twin Studies: Monozygotic Twins (100% shared genes) Dizygotic Twins (50% shared genes) If identical twins are more alike than fraternal twins, then the increased similarity can be due to genetic influences Relies on the “equal environments assumption”

Heritability Twin Studies: Equal environments assumption: contribution of the shared environment to twin resemblance is equal for MZ and DZ twins Differences in twin correlations might be at least partly explained by treatment effects from parents etc.

Phenomena of Niche Construction: Refers to how behaviors, activities, and choices of individuals actively shape and modify the environment in which they live Example: unusually quiet infants

Heritability Adoption Studies: Examine the correlations between adopted children and their adoptive parents, or adopted children and their genetic parents

Adopted / Separated Twins Investigators have also studied identical twins who were separated early in life and reared apart. Any similarities in traits between them should be primarily genetic and should permit a direct estimate of heritability.

III. The Coevolution of Culture and Biology the process that emerges from the interaction of biological evolution and cultural evolution.

III. The Coevolution of Culture and Biology Example 1. The skeletal structure of humans and other primates are highly similar. But there are two main differences that might have caused early humans to develop high technology: 1) bipedalism - walking erect on two feet: gave humans the advantage of free hands to use 2) using thumb in opposition with the other four fingers: made the hand a skillful tool that can perform fine movements and complex functions These two skillful hands enabled humans to make tools, which is the foundation of technology.

III. The Coevolution of Culture and Biology Example 2. Brain needs more calories than other organs to function, so a large brain is an expensive luxury to afford. At some point of human evolution, our ancestors started to comsume cooked (not raw) meat, which can supply very high energy due to the fat it contains. This high energy intake enabled humans to have larger brains. And larger brains enabled humans to make the giant progress that has made them different from the rest of the animal kingdom.