questions from n

How does culture play a role in how people behave?
Different cultures have different beliefs, and therefore, one culture will behave differently than another. How people react towards close personal space, body contact or a bad grade in school, ass depends on their culture.
How do the studies of twins help us to understand the genetics behind psychology?
“If genes influence traits such as emotional instability, might they also influence the social effect of such traits?”
Twins that are identical come from the same egg and therefore have the same genes. The twin could be the “contro

l” in an experiment. The different between their environments and how they grow up can be the difference between where nurture plays and role and where nature plays a role in life.
Explain how evolution plays a role in psychology
“Does natural selection explain our human tendencies?”
“Evolutionary psychologist – behavioral tendencies and a capacity for thinking and learning that prepared out Stone Age ancestors to survive, reproduce, and send their genes into the future.” The theory suggests that evolution could explain why someone may think or act a certain way because of ancestors human descended from.
How does technology play a role in helping us to understand the brain and its functions better?
Machines that are used to read or scan the brain can show brain patterns in certain situations. How the brain reacts and what part of the brain is used can be shown to link things and ideas together.



(nedjine)

Culture (121-125)
-the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next
Culture is transmitted across generations partly by what Harris calls “parents’-group-to-children’s-group-effect”
Culture Terms:
Norm: an understood rule for accepted and expected behavior. Norms prescribe “proper” behavior
Personal space: the buffer zone we like to maintain around our bodies
Memes: self=replicating ideas, fashions, innovations passed from person to person

Cultures vary in their pace of life
Children of communal cultures grow up with a stronger sense of “family self”
Within a larger culture, ethnic subgroups may differ in their behavior and yet be influenced by the dame underlying processes

(nedjine)

influence

Parental Influence and Interference  (117-118)

                -typically: parents are praised for a child’s success and shamed for a child’s failure

“The major source of human misery” is the “neglect, wounded child” in each of us. (Bradshaw)

-Shared environment influenced typically account for less than 10% of children’s personality differences “Two Children in the same family [are on average] as different from one another as are pairs of children selected randomly from the population.” Robert Plomin and Denis Daniels

 

Peer Influence (120-121)

-Peer power: as we develop we must play/ work/ mate/ partner with peers. Children and the youth are very sensitive and responsive to peer influence

-“When in Rome, they become Romans.” (Harris)

-part of similarity to peers may result from “selection effect”

Parental nurture is like nutrition***

(Nedjine )

def.

The New Frontier: Molecular Genetics (115-116)

                -the subfield of biology that studies the molecular structure and function of genes *a quest to identify the specific genes that influence behavior

“The most powerful potential for DNA, is to predict risk so that steps can be taken to prevent problems before they happen.” Robert Plomin and John Crabbe (2000)

                -Science that will genetically alter traits/sex of a(n) egg/sperm: will doing so be successful? Will it confuse a child in the future? Might deprive the world of those who are “different”?

(nedjine)

Heritability (112-113)
Proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. The heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studies
              -extent to which variation among individuals can be attribute to their differing genes

Gene-Environment Interaction (114)
     -people are a product of a cascade of interactions (dependence of the effect of one factor on another factor) between their genetic predisposition and their surrounding environments
     -our genes affect how people react to and influence us

*nurture via nature

(Nedjine)

definitions

Adoption studies (pg 111-112): adoptive studies show the difference between two groups.

1)      genetics relatives (biological parents) vs. 2)environmental relatives (adoptive parents)

Personalities – biological vs. environmental = equal difference of personalities

However, traits are more similar to biological parents than adoptive parents

Twins’ personalities are just as different reared together than apart

*Nature vs. Nurture 

Temperament Studies (112)

person's characteristic emotional

reactivity & intensity (for infants this includes inborn emotional excitability)

(Nedjine)