EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY EIGHTH EDITION IN MODULES David Myers PowerPoint Slides Aneeq Ahmad Henderson State University Worth Publishers, © 2011

2 Nature, Nurture, and Human Diversity

3 Environmental Influences on Behavior Module 9

4 Parents and Peers  Parents and Early Experiences  Peer Influence

5 Cultural Influences  Variations Across Cultures  Variation Over Time  Culture and the Self  Culture and Child-Rearing  Developmental Similarities Across Groups

6 Gender Development  Gender Similarities and Differences  The Nature of Gender  The Nurture of Gender Reflections on Nature and Nurture

7 Parents and Peers We have looked at how genes influence our developmental differences. What about the environment? How do our early experiences, our family and peer relationships, and all our other experiences guide our development and contribute to our diversity? Parents and Early Experiences

8 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 an impoverished environment.

9 Experience and Faculties Early experiences during development in humans shows remarkable improvements in music, languages and the arts. Courtesy of C. Brune

10 Brain Development and Adulthood Brain development does not end with childhood. Throughout our lives, brain tissue continues to grow and change. A well-learned finger-tapping task leads to more motor cortical neurons (right) than baseline.

11 How Much Credit (or Blame) Do Parents Deserve? Parents do matter, influencing the success of individuals and showing up in political attitudes, religious beliefs, and personal manners. But in siblings, shared environment typically accounts for less than 10% of differences. Although raised in the same family, some children are greater risk takers.

12 Peer Influence Children, like adults, attempt to fit into a group by conforming. Peers are influential in such areas as learning to cooperate with others, gaining popularity, and developing interactions.

13 Cultural Influences Human nature seems designed for culture. (Baumeister, 2005) Culture: the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

14 Variation Across Culture Cultures differ. Each culture develops norms – rules for accepted and expected behavior. For instance, North Americans prefer a greater personal space – buffer zone of space around our bodies – than do Latin Americans or Arabs. In Arab cultures men often greet one another with a kiss.

15 Variation Over Time Cultures change over time. The rate of this change may be extremely fast. Consider how much Western culture has changed just since This change cannot be attributed to changes in the human gene pool because genes evolve very slowly.

16 Culture and the Self Some cultures give priority to an individual’s goals over those of the larger group, supporting individualism, but if the group’s goal are instead more important, that society supports collectivism. Individual identities within each society are defined accordingly.

17 Culture and the Self

18 Culture and Child-Rearing Child-rearing practices reflect cultural values that vary. Western cultures often put more emphasis on self-fulfillment and Asian cultures on the family-self. Jose Luis Palaez, Inc./ Corbis

19 Culture and Child-Rearing Westernized CulturesAsian-African Cultures Responsible for your selfResponsible to group Follow your consciencePriority to obedience Discover your giftsBe true to family-self Be true to yourselfBe loyal to your group Be independentBe interdependent

20 Developmental Similarities Across Groups Despite diverse cultural backgrounds, humans are more similar than different in many ways. We share the same genetic profile, life cycle, capacity for language, and biological needs. We may differ in surface ways, but as members of one species we seem subject to the same psychological forces.

21 Gender Development Based on genetic makeup, males and females are alike, since the majority of our inherited genes are similar. Males and females differ biologically in body fat, muscle, height, onset of puberty, and life expectancy. Gender Similarities and Differences Some differences are relatively small, such as self-esteem scores. Hyde (2005)

22 Gender and Aggression In surveys, men admit to more aggression – physical or verbal behavior meant to hurt someone, than do women. Experiments confirm this difference. The nature of this aggression difference is physical rather than relational.

23 Gender and Social Power In most societies, men are socially dominant and are perceived as such. Gender differences in decision making and the election of more men into positions of power, support this inequality. In 2009, men accounted for 82% of the governing parliaments worldwide.

24 Gender Differences and Connectedness Young and old, women are more interdependent than men, spending more time with friends and less time alone. Oliver Eltinger/ Zefa/ Corbis Dex Image/ Getty Images

25 The Nature of Gender Biological sex is determined by the twenty-third pair of chromosomes. The mother contributes an X chromosome, found in both men and women, while the father contributes an X or a Y chromosome, the chromosome found only in men. If the pair is XX, a female is produced. If the pair is XY, a male child is produced.

26 Sexual Differentiation In the mother’s womb, the male fetus is exposed to testosterone, the principle male hormone (because of the Y chromosome), which leads to the development of male genitalia. If low levels of testosterone are released in the uterus, the result is a female. Biological differences can be seen in adults as well. There are several differences in brain anatomy in men and women.

27 The Nurture of Gender In psychology, a role is a cluster of prescribed actions. Our culture shapes our gender roles — expectations of how men and women are supposed to behave. Gender Roles

Gender and Child-Rearing Society assigns each of us to a gender, and the result is our, gender identity, a sense of being male or female. To an extent we are also gender typed, showing more masculine or feminine traits. Social learning theory assumes that children learn gender-linked behaviors through observation and imitation. Cognition also matters, children form gender schemas, a lens through which they see the world. 28

29 Reflections on Nature and Nurture