Child & Adolescent Psychology Welcome to Seminar #3

Tonight’s Seminar The focus of tonight’s seminar is on nature/nurture and how it helps us understand key features of development. Temperament and personality development will be provided as examples.

Nature-Nurture Issue Nature refers to an organism’s biological inheritance Nurture to its environmental experiences

Nature/Nurture What are some examples of influences from “nature” on development?

Nature/Nurture What are some examples of influences from “nature” on development? What are some examples from our environment (nurture) that influence development?

Nature/Nurture What are some examples of influences from “nature” on development? What are some examples from our environment (nurture) that influence development? How do you explain how both nature and nurture influence how people develop?

Interaction of heredity and environment

What do you think? A given behavior is not caused exclusively by genetic factors, nor is it caused solely by environmental factors. Ask students: Yes or no? See example using temperament. MULTIFACTORIAL TRANSMISSION: many traits determined by combination of both genetic and environmental factors; genotype provides particular range within which a phenotype may achieve expression; in many cases the environment determines the way in which a particular genotype will be expressed as a phenotype .

Can you restate that in regular words? What do you think? A given behavior is not caused exclusively by genetic factors, nor is it caused solely by environmental factors. Can you restate that in regular words? How about an example? Ask students: Yes or no? See example using temperament. MULTIFACTORIAL TRANSMISSION: many traits determined by combination of both genetic and environmental factors; genotype provides particular range within which a phenotype may achieve expression; in many cases the environment determines the way in which a particular genotype will be expressed as a phenotype

Studying Development Nonhuman animal studies Controlling genetics and environment Human studies Twin studies Adoption Family studies ThAsk: Which approach best addresses the nature/nurture best? General conclusion: virtually all traits, characteristics, and behaviors are joint result of the combination and interaction of nature and nurture. Genetic and environmental factors work in tandem, affecting and being affected by the other, creating the unique individual that each of us is and will become

Example: How about intelligence? Possible Sources of Intelligence Ask: What becomes the most appropriate question? How much of the behavior is caused by genetic factors and how much by environmental factors?

Genetics and I.Q.

What about environmental influences? Culture Parental encouragement Any other? Ask: What kinds of environmental influence is seen today to affect personality development? Media World events?

Heredity-Environment/Epigenetic View Development is the result of an ongoing, bi-directional interchange between heredity and the environment Heredity and environment operate together—or collaborate—to produce a person’s intelligence, temperament, height, weight, ability to pitch a baseball, ability to read, etc. (Gottlieb, Wahlsten, & Lickliter, 2006)

So do we inherit our personality?

A link look Two* of “Big Five” personality traits linked to genetic factors: Neuroticism (emotionality)* Extroversion* Agreeableness Conscientiousness Openness

Describing and Classifying Temperament Temperament – an individual's behavioral style and characteristic way of emotionally responding Chess and Thomas’ Classification Easy (40%) Difficult (10%) Slow-to-warm up (15%) no pattern (35%)

Biological Foundations and Influences Children inherit a physiology that biases them to have a particular type of temperament Physiological characteristics have been linked with different temperaments Inhibited (shy) temperament is associated with a unique physiological pattern high and stable heart rate high level of the cortisol (stress hormone) high activity in the right frontal lobe of the brain (associated with negative emotion) (Kagan & Fox, 2006) (LeDoux, 1998)

Temperament & Parenting Parents may have different reactions to temperament, depending on sex of the baby Many aspects of a child’s environment can encourage or discourage the persistence of temperament characteristics Goodness of fit -- the match between temperament and the environmental demands with which child must cope Children differ from each other very early in life differences have important implications for parent-child interaction attention to and respect for individuality structure the child’s environment avoid applying negative labels to the child (“difficult” child)(Rothbart & Putnam, 2002) (Kerr, 2001) (Cole & Tan, 2007) (Shiner, 2006)

Personality Development Personality -- the enduring personal characteristics of individuals Emotions and temperament form key aspects of personality According to Erikson, for example, the first year of life is characterized by the trust versus mistrust stage/crisis Erikson stressed that independence is an important issue in the second year of life Erikson’s second stage of development is identified as “autonomy vs. shame and doubt” autonomy builds as the infant’s mental and motor abilities develop when caregivers are impatient and do for toddlers what they are capable of doing themselves, shame and doubt develop

Have a great week!