DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTERS 3 AND 4

Genome

Genome is the set of complete instructions for making an organism,

containing all the genes in that organism.

Twins and Procedures

Behavior geneticists study effects of shared and unique environments on total

or partial genetic makeup.

Adoption Studies

Adoption studies, as opposed to twin studies, suggest that adoptees (who may

be biologically unrelated) tend to be different from their adoptive parents and

siblings.

Temperament Studies

Temperament refers to a person’s stable emotional reactivity and intensity.

Identical twins express similar temperaments, suggesting heredity

predisposes temperament.

Heritability

Heritability refers to the extent to which the differences among people are

attributable to genes.

Group Differences

If genetic influences help explain individual diversity in traits, can the

same be said about group differences?

Not necessarily. Individual differences in weight and height are heritable and yet

nutritional influences have made westerners heavier and taller than their

ancestors were a century ago.

Nature and Nurture

.Genes provide choices for the organism

to change its form or traits when environmental variables change.

Therefore, genes are pliable or self-regulating.

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 impoverished environment.

Culture and the Self

If a culture nurtures an individual’s personal

identity, it is said to be individualist, but if a

group identity is favored then the

culture is described as collectivist.

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Culture and the Self

Gender Roles

Our culture shapes our gender roles — expectations of how men and women are

supposed to behave.

Gender Identity — means how a person views himself or herself in terms of

gender.

Gender Roles: Theories

Gender Schema Theory suggests that we learn a cultural “recipe” of how to be a male or a female, which influences our gender- based perceptions and behaviors.

Social Learning Theory proposes that we learn gender behavior like any other behavior—reinforcement, punishment, and observation.

iClicker Questions for

Chapter 3: Nature and Nurture

Psychology, 8th Edition by David G. Myers

Karla Gingerich, Colorado State University

1. Premature babies are especially likely to gain weight if stimulated

by:

A. sound and music.

B. light and colors.

C. touch and massage.

D. movement and acceleration.

2. The tendency to exaggerate the impact of parents' child-rearing

practices on children's personality development has been most

characteristic of: A. behavior geneticists.

B. Freudian psychologists.

C. gender schema theorists.

D. evolutionary psychologists.

3. Adoptive parents are least likely to influence the ________

of their adopted children.

A. personality traits

B. religious beliefs

C. political attitudes

D. moral values

4. The expectations that men initiate dates and that women select

wedding gifts best illustrate aspects of:

A. sexual orientation.

B. gender identity.

C. behavior genetics.

D. gender roles.

5. Because he believes that worrying is a feminine trait, 14-year-old

George has difficulty perceiving his own fears. His experience best

illustrates dynamics highlighted by:

A. social learning theory.

B. behavior genetics.

C. gender schema theory.

D. evolutionary psychology.

6. Concepts of maleness and femaleness that influence our

perceptions are called gender:

A. norms.

B. schemas.

C. roles.

D. complexes.

7. You and the President share __________ of your DNA.

A. very little

B. one fourth

C. half

D. nearly all

8. If a culture emphasizes personal goals and individual achievements, it is mostly likely a(n) ________ culture.

A. interdependent

B. individualist

C. collectivist

D. naturalist

9. Little Bethany loves new faces and stimuli, and laughs easily.

People respond to her with playful smiles and tickles, which makes her

giggle and ask for more. This represents ___________ between

genetic predispositions and environments.A. an interaction

B. natural selectionC. heritabilityD. gender typing

Critical Thinking Questions

10.Sugar and spice and everything nice, that’s what little girls are made of. . .This saying

reflects perspectives about human beings. Which of the

following perspectives does this saying reflect?A. nature

B. nurture

C. both nature and nurture

D. neither nature nor nurture

11.You are what you eat. This saying reflects perspectives

about human beings. Which of the following perspectives does

this saying reflect?A. nature

B. nurture

C. both nature and nurture

D. neither nature nor nurture

12.All men are created equal. This saying reflects perspectives about human beings. Which of the following perspectives does

this saying reflect?

A. nature

B. nurture

C. both nature and nurture

D. neither nature nor nurture

13.The Head Start Program, founded in 1965, has become one of the major

successes in education. Which of these conclusions can be drawn from

this statement? A. Good nutrition has only a minor impact on school

performance.B. Preschool is essential for children to succeed in school

later on.C. Intelligence is determined mostly by genetic background.D. The preschool environment plays a large role in

intellectual development.

14.Which of the following is NOT among the most common criticisms

of twin studies?

A. Adoption agencies tend to place separated twins in similar homes.

B. There are not enough available comparisons of fraternal and identical twins for this line of research to be convincing.

C. After being reunited, many twins spend years getting acquainted before being tested by researchers.

D. Twins look alike, evoking similar responses from the environment.

15.If weight were 50 percent heritable, it would be most

accurate to say that: A. your weight is equally influenced by nature and by

nurture.B. your mother’s genes are responsible for half of

your weight, and your father’s genes explain the other half.

C. nature explains about half of the differences we observe among people.

D. there is very little you can do to override the power of your genes in influencing your weight.

Developing Through the Life Span

Chapter 4

Developmental Psychology

Issue Details

Nature/Nurture

How do genetic inheritance (our nature)

and experience (the nurture we receive)

influence our behavior?

Continuity/Stages

Is developmental a gradual, continuous

process or a sequence of separate stages?

Stability/Change

Do our early personality traits persist through life, or do we become

different persons as we age.

Maturation

The development of the brain unfolds based on genetic instructions, causing various bodily and mental functions to occur in sequence— standing before

walking, babbling before talking—this is called maturation.

Maturation sets the basic course of development, while experience adjusts it.

Cognitive Development

Piaget believed that the driving force behind intellectual development is our

biological development amidst experiences with the environment.

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Schemas

Schemas are mental molds into which we pour our experiences.

Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking

Theory of Mind

Preschoolers, although still

egocentric, develop the ability to understand

another’s mental state when they begin forming a theory of mind.

Origins of Attachment

Harlow (1971) showed that infants bond with surrogate mothers because of bodily contact and

not because of nourishment.

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Origins of Attachment

Like bodily contact, familiarity is another factor that causes attachment. In some

animals (goslings), imprinting is the cause of attachment.

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Attachment Differences Ainsworth

Placed in a strange situation, 60% of children express secure attachment, i.e., they explore their environment happily in the presence of their mothers. When their

mother leave, they show distress.

The other 30% show insecure attachment. These children cling to their mothers or caregivers and are less likely

to explore the environment.

Insecure Attachment

Harlow’s studies showed that monkeys experience great anxiety if their terry-

cloth mother is removed.

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Self-Concept

Self-concept, a sense of one’s identity and

personal worth, emerges gradually around 6 months.

Around 15-18 months, children can recognize themselves in the mirror. By 8-10

years, their self-image is stable.

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Child-Rearing Practices

Practice Description

AuthoritarianParents impose rules and

expect obedience.

PermissiveParents submit to children’s

demands.

AuthoritativeParents are demanding but responsive to their children.

Frontal Cortex

During adolescence, neurons in the frontal cortex grow myelin, which speeds up nerve conduction. The frontal cortex lags behind

the limbic system’s development. Hormonal surges and the limbic system may

explain occasional teen impulsiveness.

Developing Morality

Kohlberg (1981, 1984) sought to describe the development of moral reasoning by posing moral dilemmas to children and adolescents, such as “Should a person

steal medicine to save a loved one’s life?” He proposed stages of moral development.

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Moral Thinking

Preconventional Morality: Before age 9, children show morality to avoid punishment or gain reward.

Conventional Morality: By early adolescence, social rules and laws are upheld for their own sake.

Postconventional Morality: Affirms people’s agreed-upon rights or follows personally perceived ethical principles.

Social Development

Aging and Intelligence

Longitudinal studies suggest that

intelligence remains relative as we age. It is believed today that

fluid intelligence (ability to reason speedily) declines

with age, but crystalline intelligence

(accumulated knowledge and skills)

does not.

Reflecting on Piaget’s Theory

Piaget’s stage theory has been influential globally, validating a number of ideas regarding growth and development in many cultures and societies. However,

today’s researchers believe the following:

Development is a continuous process.Children express their mental abilities

and operations at an earlier age.Formal logic is a smaller part of

cognition.

Assimilation and Accommodation

The process of assimilation involves incorporating new

experiences into our current

understanding (schema). The

process of adjusting a schema and

modifying it is called accommodation. Jean Piaget with a subject

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Developing Reasoning Power

According to Piaget, adolescents can handle abstract problems, i.e., they can perform formal operations. Adolescents can judge

good from evil, truth and justice, and think about God in deeper terms.

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iClicker Questions for

Chapter 4: Developing Through the Lifespan

Psychology, 8th Edition by David G. Myers

Karla Gingerich, Colorado State University

1. Cell differentiation begins when the prenatal organism is a(n):

A. zygote.

B. fetus.

C. embryo.

D. single cell.

2.Infants' tendency to gaze longer at novel stimuli than at

familiar ones provides compelling evidence regarding

their:

A. self-concepts.

B. egocentrism.

C. stranger anxiety.

D. memory capacities.

3.Two closed, pyramid-shaped beakers containing clearly identical

amounts of a liquid are suddenly judged by a child to hold different

amounts after one of the beakers is inverted. The child apparently lacks a:

A. sense of object permanence.

B. concept of conservation.

C. capacity for habituation.

D. secure attachment.

4.Jack is learning to understand algebra. He loves to discuss

philosophical issues with his friends, and is exploring various religious beliefs. Jack is in Jean Piaget’s

__________ stage. A. preoperational

B. sensorimotor

C. formal operational

D. concrete operational

5.After Nadia learned that penguins can't fly, she had to modify her existing concept of birds. This best illustrates the

process of: A. conservation.

B. assimilation.

C. habituation.

D. accommodation.

6.Although 3-year-old Adam happily explores the attractive toys located in

the dentist's waiting room, he periodically returns to his mother's side for brief moments. Adam most clearly

displays signs of: A. secure attachment.

B. object permanence.

C. egocentrism.

D. stranger anxiety.

7."I don't care whether you want to wash the dishes, you will do so

because I said so!" This statement is most representative of a(n) ________ parenting style.

A. preconventional

B. authoritative

C. formal operational

D. authoritarian

8.According to Erik Erikson, the task of the adolescent is to:

A. find intimacy.

B. establish an identity.

C. become autonomous.

D. conquer their sense of inferiority.

9.Marissa resents the burden and constraints of caring for her infant daughter and frequently ignores

her cries for attention. As a consequence, her daughter is most likely to display signs of:

A. egocentrism.B. accommodation.C. insecure attachment.D. habituation.

10.Research on developmental stability and change indicates

that:

A. at the age of 1 or 2, adult personality traits are still largely unpredictable.

B. development is almost completely dominated by discontinuity over time.

C. temperament is a particularly unstable trait.

D. none of the above are true.

11.People differ the most in their learning and memory abilities

during:

A. late adolescence.

B. early adulthood.

C. middle adulthood.

D. later adulthood.

12.As Ellen ages, which of the following abilities will show

improvement?

A. recall of the states and their capitals

B. mental rotation of a three-dimensional figure

C. performance on a crossword puzzle

D. solving new logic problems

Critical Thinking Questions

13.John’s two-year-old twins are constantly fighting over toys. This

behavior is driving John crazy because the twins are hitting each other and pulling toys from each other. He decides to have a talk

with them to explain that their behavior has to change. He tells each of them that the other one

feels bad when being hit and that they should learn to share. Continued on next slide

To his dismay, the behavior continued as if he hadn’t done anything. According to Jean

Piaget, why might this be happening?

A. Two-year-olds are egocentric and cannot understand things from another’s point of view.

B. His children are simply misbehaving and stronger punishment is required.

C. During this age children are learning conservation and they are trying to get all the toys for themselves.

D. Sibling rivalry cannot be controlled. It is just a phase.

Continued from previous slide

14.Three-year-old Jorge sees his sister Isabel put on their father’s big boots and walk around outside in the

fresh snow. Isabel asks Jorge, “When mommy comes home and sees the footprints, who will she think was

walking around in the snow outside?” Jorge will reply,A. “Daddy!”

B. “Mommy!”C. “Me!”D. “You!”

15.Your four-year-old child firmly believes in Santa and has no difficulty in accepting that he comes down the

chimney with toys and goodies—despite the fact that your house has no fireplace or chimney. What would

Jean Piaget say about this?A. Your child might need some extra help in distinguishing

fantasy from reality.B. Your child is acting too young for her age.C. Your child is perfectly normal.D. Your child should be encouraged to reason things out.

16.Your nine-year-old child is fascinated with playing board and card games. He insists on reading all of the rules and following guidelines exactly.

What characteristic of the concrete operational stage is he exhibiting?

A. The child is exhibiting object permanence.B. The child is exhibiting conservation of mass.C. The child is exhibiting reversibility of thinking.D. The child is exhibiting the increase in logical

thinking.