Chapter 3- Notes PDF

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teacher- niady torres...

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Chapter 3 Focus on biological influences that play a significant role in human development

MODERN EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVES - Ethology – scientific study of the evolutionary basis of behavior and how that behavior contributes to the species survival and development • The evolutionary viewpoint, as expressed in ethology, is that humans are born with a number of adaptive attributes that have evolved through natural selection  Natural Selection – individuals with characteristics that promote adaptation to the environment will survive, reproduce and pass these traits along while those who lack adaptive characteristics eventually die out Ethologists recognize that: ◦ Humans are influenced by their experiences ◦ Certain adaptive characteristics are most likely to develop during sensitive periods: ◦ period of time that is optimal for the development of a particular capability or behavior - Modern evolutionary theorists: ◦ Have searched for preselected motives, such as altruism, that ensure the survival not of individuals, but of individuals’ genes. Criticisms ◦ Very hard to test and is not falsifiable ◦ Ofen retrospective ◦ Predictions and conclusions have ofen difered from actual behavior ◦ Prone of cultural bias BEHAVIORAL GENETICS Aspects of one individual’s personality = interactions between genetics and environmental influences -

Focus on biological bases for variation Genotype – inherited genes Phenotype – observable expression of genes

STUDYING HEREDITARY INFLUENCES  Methods of Studying Hereditary Influences  Selective breeding : researchers choose a trait and they breed this traits into ofspring METHODS OF STUDYING HEREDITARY INFLUENCES (CON’T)

◦ Family Studies

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Twin Studies ; Identical Twins vs. Fraternal Twins (same household)

METHODS OF STUDYING HEREDITARY INFLUENCES (CON’T) ◦ Family Studies - twin Studies - Identical Twins raised apart Epigenetics - The development and maintenance of an organism is orchestrated by a set of chemical reactions that switch parts of the genome of and on at strategic times and locations. Epigenetics is the study of these reactions and the factors that influence them. ◦ Family Studies - Adoption Studies – Adoptees compared with biological and adoptive relatives ESTIMATING THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF GENES AND ENVIRONMENT - Concordance rates - % of cases in which a particular attribute is present for one member of a twin pair if it is present in the other (other possible groups: parents and adoptive children) Example: In a pair of identical twins, if one twin has schizophrenia, the other is about 50% likely to be diagnosed with the disease at some point. In fraternal twins, the concordance rate for schizophrenia drops to about 15% -

Nonshared environmental influences – environmental factors or influences that are not shared by family members (living together) and thus are unique to an individual; Example: identical twins who are put in different classrooms in school -

Shared environmental influences – environmental factors or influences that are shared by members of a family (living together) that should make those individuals similar to each other

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Dizygotic twins If intelligence is same it must be due to environment If intelligence is different it must be due to genetics

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Monozygotic twins If intelligence is same it must be due to genetics If intelligence is different it must be due to the environment

Homosexuality in Twins -

CONCORDANCE RATES FOR HOMOSEXUALITY IN 110 MALE TWIN PAIRS. FROM THE HIGHER CONCORDANCE FOR IDENTICAL TWIN PAIRS, WE CAN INFER THAT GENES INFLUENCE ONE’S SEXUAL ORIENTATION.

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YET TH E FACT THAT ONLY HALF THE IDENTICAL TWIN PAIRS SHARE THE SAME SEXUAL ORIENTATION DESPITE THEIR IDENTICAL GENES ALSO IMPLIES THAT ENVIRONMENT CONTRIBUTES TO ONE’S SEXUAL ORIENTATION AS WELL (ADAPTED FROM

Family studies reveal that the genes people inherit influence their intellectual performances, such core dimensions of personality as introversion/extroversion and empathic concern

HEREDITARY CONTRIBUTIONS TO PERSONALITY AND MENTAL HEALTH Which aspects of environment influence personality? ◦ Shared environmental influences - Moral, Religious and Political values ◦ Nonshared environmental influences - Personality traits (e.g, taste is music) - Siblings are ofen treated diferently by parents - Are at least as important as genetics

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Recent evidence suggests that many mental and behavioral disorders have a genetic component - Schizophrenia - .46 concordance rate for identical twins, .14 for fraternal twins  Still, identical twins are most often discordant when it comes to mental illness (1 in 20 for most disorders), indicating that it is a predisposition towards a particular disorder that is inherited, not the disorder itself

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Behavioral geneticists believe that our genes may influence the types of environments we experience ◦ Passive genotype/environment correlations – parental genes influence the type of environment they create for their children ◦ Example: athletic parent ◦ Evocative genotype/environment correlations – heritable attributes influences other’s behavior towards us Example: attractiveness, and temperament HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT AS DEVELOPMENTAL CO-CONSPIRATORS ◦Active genotype/environment correlations – the environments that we seek out are those that are most compatible with our genetic predispositions Example: Introversion / Extroversion

CRITICISMS OF BEHAVIORAL GENETICS

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Descriptive overview of development rather than an explanation Definition of the “environment” is very general and does not specify how the environment act on individuals Studies are primarily correlational

Brofenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory • Views development as the product of interactions between an ever-changing person and an ever-changing environment. • The innermost environmental layer,or microsystem, refers to the activities and interactions that occur in the person’s immediate surroundings. • The mesosystem is the second layer, and refers to the interconnections among individual’s immediate settings or microsystems. • The exosystem, or third environmental layer, consists of contexts that children and adolescents are not a part of but which may influence their development. Country you live in for example • The macrosystem(universal values)is the larger cultural or subcultural context in which development occurs. It is the outermost environmental layer. • According to Brofenbrenner, each of these interacting contexts are also influenced by the chronosystem, or the changes that occur over time in the individual or in other environmental contexts.

Criticisms of Ecological Systems Theory • Ecological Systems Theory falls short of being a complete account of human development. • It has very little to say about specific biological contributions to development. • We must still understand how children and adolescents process environmental information and learn from their experiences before we can fully understand how environments influence human development. • Ecological systems approach complements but does not replace other developmental theories. Modern Cognitive Perspectives Lev Vygotsky Sociocultural Theory • Social elements plus Cultural elements are critical for development • Beliefs for the social element: • Knowledge is built in steps over time • Social interaction is a critical element • All knowledge is socially constructed Sociocultural Theory (cont.) • Beliefs for the Cultural element • Cultural information is passed through language and the use of language • Children progress from a less skilled ability to a higher skilled ability with the help of an adult • The language, thinking and thoughts of a child are the product of many interactions between a child and their elders within their culture Sociocultural Theory (cont.)

• Zone of Proximal Development • the diference between : - (1) what a child can do with help - (2) what he or she can do without guidance Criticisms of the Sociocultural Perspective • Vygotsky's work has not received same level of intense scrutiny that Piaget's has, partly due to the time consuming process of translating Vygotsky's work from Russian. • Also, Vygotsky's sociocultural perspective does not provide as many specific hypotheses to test as did Piaget's theory, making refutation difficult, if not impossible • Perhaps the main criticism of Vygotsky's work, concerns the assumption that it is relevant to all cultures. • Rogof (1990) dismisses the idea that Vygotsky's ideas are culturally universal and instead states the concept of scafolding - which is heavily dependent on verbal instruction - may not be equally useful in all cultures for all types of learning. • Indeed, in some instances observation and practice may be more efective ways of learning certain skills The Social Information- Processing (or Attributional) Perspective • Social cognitive theory stating that the explanations we construct for social experiences largely determine how we react to those experiences Premise of Social Information- Processing Theory • Humans are active processors of social information who are constantly generating explanations or causal attributions: • Conclusions drawn about the underlying causes of our own or another person’s behavior. • Personality development depends not so much on experiences but on the attributions we make of them. • We are largely a product of our interpretations of our social experiences. • Same experiences can have very diferent efects on individuals who make diferent attributions about it. Inferring Dispositional Attributes • Heider diferentiated between two types of causal attribution – personal and situational. • Personal attributions refer to factors within the person, such as their personality characteristics, motivation, ability and efort. • Situational attributions refer to factors within the environment that are external to the person. Criticism of the Social Information-Processing Perspective • Social information-processing theorists can be rather vague about the factors responsible for developmental changes in the attributions children made.

• Components of Emotion • Feelings that you have (pos. or neg.) • Physiological responses (e.g., heart rate, sweat, brain activity, chemical changes) • Cognitions (thoughts, memories associated with that emotion) • Overt Behavior based on what you are feeling (what people see)

Theory of Emotions and Emotional Development • Discrete-emotions theory • Each human emotion is biologically programmed, and accompanied by a particular set of facial and bodily reactions • products of our evolutionary history • apparent very early in life Examples Interest: brows raised; mouth may be rounded; lips may be pursed. Fear: mouth retracted; brows level and drawn up and in; eyelids lifed. Disgust: tongue protruding; upper lip raised; nose wrinkled. Sadness: Corners of mouth turned down; inner portion of brows raised. Joy: bright eyes; cheeks lifed; mouth forms a smile. Anger: mouth squared at corners; brows drawn together and pointing down; eyes fixed straight ahead. - Functional perspective on emotions theory • Major purpose of an emotion is to establish, maintain or change one’s relationship with the environment • emotions develop over time • their purpose is to promote some action toward achieving a goal • Children must learn to control or regulate their emotions to successfully adapt to their environments APPEARANCE & DEVELOPMENT OF DISCRETE EMOTIONS • Even with young infants, adults are very good at being able to distinguish diferent emotional cues in infants • Better at distinguishing diferent positive emotional cues (e.g., happiness vs. interest) • Not as good at distinguishing negative emotional cues (e.g., anger vs. fear) -

Evolutionary purpose for adults being better at distinguishing positive emotions in infants is that infants that displays more negative than emotional cues are less likely to survive (they may be sick, or something is wrong with them) • We also like positive reactions better that negative

Sequencing of Discrete Emotions in the First Year

• Primary/Basic Emotions • Biologically programmed emotions that are either present at birth or emerge during the 1st year • Change over time due to the environment • At birth, babies show facial expressions of interest, distress, disgust, and contentment • Anger, sadness, joy, surprise and fear appearing by the middle of the first year Development of a Positive Emotion: Happiness - Rudimentary smile – Newborns - A reflex (not as a response to social stimuli) ◦ Full tummy ◦ Rocking ◦ Stroking - Social smile – 6-10 weeks of age ◦Interactions with caregivers/directed at people ◦ Learning to control their environment -

Positive afect sharing – 3-6 months infants smile more at smiling adults

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Social gestures – 6-7 months infants smile more at familiar people

Development of Negative Emotions • Generalized Distress – newborns • Anger & Sadness – 2 months of age • Fear–6 to 7monthsofage - Stranger anxiety - Peaks – 8-10 months • Separation anxiety - Starts – 6-8 months (Western cultures) - Peaks – 14-18 months Development of Self-Conscious Emotions • Secondary, or self-conscious, emotions • Involves enhancement or damage to the sense of self • Embarrassment, pride, shame, and guilt • Emerge in the second (or third) year, after self- recognition and standards for evaluating their conduct

- Parental influence on self-conscious emotions • Determines whether a child focuses on being proud of success or ashamed of failure

IDENTIFYING AND UNDERSTANDING OTHERS’ EMOTIONS

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Social Referencing – 7-10 months of age the process by which infants assess how they ought to be feeling or behaving in a variety of uncertain situations - Prior to 3 years of age, children are able to understand various behavioral emotional cues, but are unable to consistently identify diferent emotions verbally -

] - 3-5 years of age, children are better able to verbalize ◦ First label positive emotions, then negative ◦ Labeling focuses on less “complex” emotions Understanding the Causes of Emotions • Children learn a great deal about the causes of basic emotions during the preschool years • Causes of more complex emotions(pride, guilt, jealousy)may not be understood until late elementary or middle school • Not clear exactly how or when this develops due to language difficulties Understanding the Causes of Emotions • Parents may promote young children’s understanding of emotions by talking about the child’s mental states and their emotional consequences, particularly if they use a rich, elaborative style

Birth

attraction & withdrawal

2-3 Months

Social smile, respond to facial expressions

3-4 Months Laugh at active stimuli 6-8 Months Anger, fear, attachment 8-12 Months

Social referencing

18-30

Self-conscious emotions (shame,

Months

guilt, pride)

LEARNING TO REGULATE EMOTIONS - Emotional self-regulation: - Process of adjusting/controlling one’s emotions to an appropriate level of intensity to accomplish one’s goals ◦ Young infants rely totally on their caregivers ◦ By 6 months of age, infants are able to engage in some basic, learned self-soothing techniques - Myth: infants learn to “self-soothe” themselves to sleep through the “cry-it-out” method - Alternative to the pure “cry-it-out” technique  Research shows the pure “cry-it-out” technique makes children more prone to emotional issues while children whose parents have used the alternative “cry-it-out” technique have better emotional development ◦ By 2 years of age, children are good at displaying the emotions that they know will provide them with regulatory support Self -regulation ◦ Mischel's Marshmallow Test - Waiting to eat the marshmallow was a good predictor of future self control and success • Emotional Display Rules - Children as young as 3 years of age have some understanding and capabilities • Culture defines rules regarding which emotions should or should not be expressed under which circumstances -

With age, children are more able to display positive emotional reactions afer receiving a disappointing gif

TEMPERAMENT AND DEVELOPMENT • Temperament – a person’s “typical” modes emotional and behavior responding to events in the environment

mperament

Description

Dension Fearfulness

Wariness or withdrawal in new situations or to new stimuli

Irritable distress

Fussiness or crying when desires are frustrated

Positive affect

Frequency of smiling, laughing and willingness to approach others

Activity level

Amount of gross motor activity

Attention span/persistence

Length of time an infant focuses on objects or events of interest

Rhythmicity

Regularity of bodily functions

Measuring Temperament - Interviews or questionnaires by parents, pediatricians, teachers, and others. ◦Rothbart’s Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ); Child Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ) ◦ Pros - Convenient - Depth of knowledge ◦ Limitations - Biased & subjective

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Laboratory experiments

◦ Exposing children to laboratory situations in which temperamental variations of interest are likely to be observed. ◦ Limitations ◦ Not looking at overall temperament ◦ Only looking are up to 2 dimensions of temperament ◦ Are you really seeing behavior that is general temperament or is it more reflective of that infant’s mood that day? • Is Temperament Biological? • At best, it is moderately heritable • Temperament develops with age • Can be modified by experiences • Identical twins have more similar temperaments than fraternal twins Average correlations in infant temperament among identical twins, fraternal twins, and nontwin siblings born at diferent times. Temperament (con’t) • Stability of Temperament • Some components of temperament such as activity level, irritability, fearful distress, and behavioral inhibition are moderately stable over time • Stability is greatest for individuals at the extremes of a temperamental dimension Early Types of Temperament ◦ Easy/Flexible (40%) – quickly establish regular routines, generally cheerful, adapts well to new experiences ◦ Difficult/Fiesty (10%) – irregular, slow to accept new experiences, reacts negatively and intensely ◦ Slow-to-warm-up/Fearful (15%) – mild reactions, adjusts slowly to new experience ◦ Mixed or not classified (35%) ◦ Temperament & Goodness-of-Fit - Determines whether children actually develop problems related to temperament - Creation of child-rearing environments that recognize temperament and encourage adaptive functioning

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Difficult children - Are at risk for adjustment problems because they withdraw and react negatively - Western parents tend to resort to angry, punitive discipline--The child responds with defiance/disobedience

• Cross-cultural studies

• Desirability of temperamental attributes varies from culture to culture • Shyness

US

Negative

Less popular Get married, have children and establish careers later in life

China Positive

More popular; seen as socially mature by teachers

Swed Moderately en Negative

Men – Later marriage & children, No effect on career Women – Less educated and spouses less successful, No difference in timing of marriage or children...