1. NATURE vs. NURTURE

2. What makes you you? Is human behavior instinctive or is it learned?
How does our individual heredity predispose our differing personalities, preferences & abilities?
To what extent are we shaped by our heredity and our environment?

3. Genes: Our Biological Blueprint
Genetics is the study of how heredity-
the manner in which traits & characteristics are passed from parent to offspring.
A trait is the characteristic being expressed: a crooked little finger, a dimple in the chin.

4. In 1867, Gregor Mendel, a Moravian abbot, gave modern genetics its start, when he reported the results of his research on breeding peas.
Mendel believed that every trait was controlled by elements that were transmitted from one generation to the next.

5. He called these elements:
Genes: the biochemical units of heredity
Many genes together make up chromosomes
Genes contain a segment of DNA,
containing the code for a particular protein,which is the building block of our physical development.

6. Chromosomes Threadlike structures made up of DNA 46 pairs in each cell
23 received from each parent

7. Chromosomes

8. Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)
A complex molecule
Contains the genetic information of each chromosome

10. Nucleotides The four letter code to distinguish genes
Letters A,T,C, or G are used

11. The Genetic Makeup of One Cell

12. Genome The complete genetic instructions for a given organism
All the genetic material in an organism’s chromosome pattern

13. Mutation
Random errors in the replication of genes from parent to child which result in change of an individual’s genetic code
Can be desirable or undesirable changes

14. Behavior Genetics
Studies the relative influences of genetic and environmental influences on behavior

15. Environment
Any influence, other than genetic, on an individual’s behavior
Include:
The culture someone is raised in
One’s family
Socioeconomic group

16. Nature and Nurture Issue
Nature side entails the genetic code passed from parent to child.
Nurture side involves all environmental influences from prenatal development on.
Which parts of human behavior can we attribute to nature and which can be attributed to nurture?

17. Predisposition
The possibility of something happening through the genetic code
Genetics creates the potential for something
The environment may or may not trigger the predisposition

18. Nature and Similarity

19. Similarities
Despite our differences, human beings throughout the world share a number of similarities

20. Evolutionary Psychology
The study of evolution of behavior and the mind
Uses the principle of natural selection

21. Natural Selection
Darwin’s principle that those traits contributing to the survival of the species will most likely be passed on to the next generation

22. Nature and Individual Differences: Twin Studies

23. Identical Twins Twins who developed from a single fertilized egg
Are genetically identical
Called monozygotic twins

25. Fraternal Twins Twins who developed from separate eggs
Genetically no different than other siblings
Called dizygotic twins

27. Heritability
The proportion of an individual’s characteristics that can be attributed to genetics (heredity)
The degree to which traits are inherited

28. Twin Studies Used to determine the heritability of a given trait
Data is collected from both identical and fraternal twins on the trait
Compare the data between the two groups
Important not to conclude that a specific behavior is inherited

29. Nature and Individual Differences: Adoption Studies

30. Adoption Studies
Compare adopted children’s traits with those of their biological parents and their adopted parents
Trait similarities with biological parents: attribute the trait to heredity
Trait similarities with the adopted parents: attribute the trait to the environment

31. TEMPERAMENT STUDIES
Temperament is a person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.
Heredity seems to predispose human temperament differences.

32. HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
Ask your parents what your temperament was like when you were a child?

33. Environment Matters: Early Learning and Brain Development

34. Early Brain Development
Early experience is critical in brain development.
In later life continued use is necessary to maintain neural connections in the brain.

35. Environment Matters: Peer and Parent Influence

36. Peer Influences Peer influence in adolescence is very powerful.
Many studies suggest a peer group is correlated with school performance, smoking, and other behaviors.

37. Environment Matters: Cultural Influences

38. Culture Shared attitudes, beliefs, norms and behaviors of a group
Culture is communicated from one generation to the next

39. Norms Understood rules for accepted and expected behavior
Consist of the “proper behavior” within a group

40. Individualism
Giving priority to one’s goals over the goals of the group
Defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than the group’s identification
Tend to see people as separate and independent

41. Collectivism
Giving priority to the goals of one’s group over one’s personal goals
Defining one’s identity in terms of the group’s identification rather than personal attributes
See people as connected to others
Individual needs are sacrificed for the good of the group.

42. Gender
The shaping of gender illustrates the effects of nature vs nurture.
Genes & hormones define gender, as well as our environment and our culture.

43. Your sex is determined by your 23rd pair of chromosomes.
The pair that came from your mother was an X chromosome.
The pair that came from your father,
Is either an X chromosome (a girl) or a
Y chromosome (a boy).

44. Gender is socially constructed.
Our gender roles, a set of expected behaviors for males and females, are determined by our culture’s norms.
Society assigns each of us to a:
gender, the category of being male or female,
with the result being our

45. Gender identity, our sense of being male or female
and we become
Gender-typed, the exhibition of demonstrating traditional masculine or feminine roles.

46. SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
States that children learn gender based behaviors by observing, imitation and by
Being rewarded or punished.

47. GENDER SCHEMA THEORY
States that children learn gender from their cultures.
They learn a sense of what it means to be a male or female from their culture, and then must adjust their behavior to fit what their society expects of them.

48. Name of Concept
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