COURSE NOTES: Introductory Psychology

Notes for Psychology 101: based on Myers's text, Exploring Psychology, with supplements and modifications by the instructor, Prof. Cloninger.

denotes a term that you should know how to define, and to recognize and give examples. denotes an important person. You should remember this person's name and what (s)he has done. denotes an important research finding. denotes an issue that you should be able to discuss or explain.

Are we "born that way"

or "raised that way"?

GENES: OUR BIOLOGICAL BLUEPRINT

basic genetic concepts

• 23 pairs of chromosomes
• containing genes, with DNA molecules
• deoxyribonucleic acid
• sequencing of 4 nucleotides (A, T, C, G)

Human Genome Project
similarity of 99.9% of genetics across people
similarity 98.4% between humans and chimpanzees
We are more similar than different!

EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY: MAXIMIZING FITNESS

example of selective breeding for "tameness" in foxes

natural selection

mutations
evolutionary psychology

Sexuality

gender

differences in sexual activity and casual sex
other gender differences
An Evolutionary Explanation
parental investment (reproductive cost)
youth and reproduction
health and reproduction
advertise appearance (females) or status and dominance (males)
potential for long-term relationships
Critiquing the Evolutionary Explanation
speculative
cultural expectations
cultural variation
learning

BEHAVIOR GENETICS: PREDICTING INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

behavior genetics
environment

Twin Studies

identical twins (single egg; genetically identical)
fraternal twins (two eggs; genetically like siblings)
separated twins
Bouchard's evidence: amazing similarity

• Could this be due to early prenatal environment?
• Could this be due to impact of genetics (appearance) on environment?

Adoption Studies

surprisingly little impact of shared environment

impact of child (unique genetics) on parental behavior

positive impact of adoption (screened families)

Temperament Studies

temperament

• innate emotional excitability
• "difficult" babies
• "easy" babies
• shyness
• Suomi: studies of monkeys
• Kagan: studies of human infants
• physiological reactivity

Group Differences

Nature Enables Nurture

Gene-Environment Interaction

interaction: the effect of one factor (e.g., environment) depends on another factor (e.g., heredity)
Genetics explain 40 to 50 percent of personality trait variation.

ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE

How Much Credit (or Blame) Do Parents Deserve?

5 important environmental influences:

• prenatal environment
• early experience
• peer influence
• culture
• gender

Prenatal Environment

Experience and Brain Development

• rat studies of enriched environment: brain weight increases
• touch or massage: beneficial to weight gain and neurological development in rats and human babies
• loss of unused neural connections

Implications

• beneficial effect of infant care on IQ at age 12
• early language learning
• vision requires experience: delayed cataract removal is ineffective

Peer Influence

impact of friends on smoking
Harris: peer impact
parental impact and peer impact are complementary

Culture

Variation Across Cultures
Variation Over Time
Culture and Child-Rearing
Developmental Similarities Across Groups

VARIATION ACROSS CULTURES

culture: the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next

as in various homogenous ethnic groups throughout the world, including traditional Japanese culture

norm: an understood rule for accepted and expected behavior. Norms prescribe "proper" behavior.

• taking off street shoes in the house (Japan); waiting in an orderly line (Britain)
• varying cultural norms for personal space (the portable buffer zone we like to maintain around our bodies)

VARIATION OVER TIME

• motivations for marriage
• pace of life
• crime
• etc.

CULTURE AND CHILD-REARING

individualism (Western)

collectivism (Asia, Africa)

• giving priority to group goals and identity
• sense of "family self"

DEVELOPMENTAL SIMILARITIES ACROSS GROUPS

• Perhaps the same forces are at work in all groups.
• analogy of salt and race differences in blood pressure

Gender

The Nature of Gender

X chromosome
Y chromosome
testosterone (influences male sex organs)
sexual differentiation in 4-5th prenatal month
includes brain wiring
Sex is biological; gender is social (according to many who use the terms).

The Nurture of Gender

role: a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave
gender role: a set of expected behaviors for males and for females
What is included in gender roles?

• rights and power
• aggression and dominance

Gender roles vary across cultures and over time

• more gender differences in agricultural societies than in nomadic societies

Gender and Child-Rearing

gender identity: one's sense of being male or female

gender-typing: the acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role

social learning theory

• observation of models
• imitation
• reward and punishment

gender schema theory

• emphasize cognition
• concepts (schemas) of gender

[Myers's] Postscript: Reflections on Nature and Nurture
 

Web Links:

Secret of the Wild Child (PBS transcript)

Students: You can also use resources for this text supplied by the publisher. These include a chapter overview, self-tests, and other resources.

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