1. Child & Adolescent Psychology
Welcome to Seminar #3

2. 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.

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

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

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

6. 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?

7. Interaction of heredity and environment

8. 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 .

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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?

12. Genetics and I.Q.

13. 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?

14. 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)

15. So do we inherit our personality?

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

17. 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%)

18. 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)

19. 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)

20. 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

21. Have a great week!