Article Questions Read the article and answer these

Article Questions Read the article and answer these questions. • 1. What aspects of the article support nurture? (learned from the environment) • 2. What aspects of the article support nature? (genetic) • 3. Do you think gender is more nature or nurture? WHY? • 4. List 3 things about yourself that you believe are influenced by nature and 3 that are influenced by nurture

Chapter 3: Nature and Nurture of Behavior

Agenda 1. Bell Ringer: Effects of Gender article 1 a. Go over experiment from last class. (5) 2. Lecture: Genetics (20) 3. What do you look for in a partner? (10) 4. Twins Reunited Clip (12) 5. Gender Roles in Society (15) 6. Review Guide/Question Session (15)

Agenda Day 2, Chapter 3 1. Pass out Unit 4 information, Review Guide 2. Lecture: Environmental Influences 3. Handout 3 -2 Evolutionary Psychology 4. Learning Gender Roles 3 -9 a/b 5. Sibling Discussion 6. 20/20 Report

Genes • Chromosomes – threadlike structures made of DNA that contain the genes – Total of 46… 23 from Mom, 23 from Dad. • DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) – complex molecule containing the genetic information that makes up the chromosomes – has two strands-forming a “double helix”- held together by bonds between pairs of nucleotides

Genes • Genes – Small segments of your chromosomes – Have about 30, 000 – a segment of DNA capable of synthesizing a protein •

Genes • Nucleotides: biochemical letters that make up genes. Some 3 billion paired nucleotides define the genes that determine your individual biological development. Letters: A T C and G. • Sequence of nucleotides is what makes humans, human…pigs, etc.

Genome • Genome – the complete instructions for making an organism – consisting of all the genetic material in its chromosomes

Positives and Negatives of Genetic Engineering? • Human Genome Project: goal is to map the human genome down to the nucleotide and identify all the genes present in it.

The Nature of Gender • X Chromosome – the sex chromosome found in both men and women – females have two; males have one – an X chromosome from each parent produces a female • Y Chromosome – the sex chromosome found only in men – when paired with an X chromosome from the mother, it produces a male child

Nature of Gender • Testosterone – the most important of the male sex hormones – both males and females have it – additional testosterone in males stimulates • growth of male sex organs in the fetus • development of male sex characteristics during puberty

Question Reflection: Positives and Negatives of Genetic Engineering? 1. If it were possible, would you want to take a genetic test telling you which diseases you are likely to suffer from later in life? 2. If you or your spouse were pregnant, would you want the unborn child tested for genetic defects? 3. Do you think it should be legal for employers to use genetic tests in deciding whom to hire?

Evolutionary Psychology • Based on the ideas of Charles Darwin and natural selection: the principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations, those contributing to survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations • Mutations – random errors in gene replication that lead to a change in the sequence of nucleotides – the source of all genetic diversity

Evolutionary Psychology • Evolutionary Psychology: the study of the evolution of behavior using the principles of natural selection. • Believe that nature selects physical as well as behavioral traits that prepare humans to survive, reproduce, and send genes into the future.

Evolutionary Example • Evolutionary Psychologists believe we favor sweets and fats now since in the prehistoric era these were harder to come by and allowed ancestors to survive famine. • Problem today?

Gender and Evolutionary Psychology • Gender: in psychology, the characteristics, where biologically or socially influenced, by which people define male and female • Evolutionary Psychologists have found major gender differences in both attitudes and behaviors towards sex.

Gender Differences in Attitudes and Behaviors • Attitudes: Males tend to have a much more recreational approach to sex vs. women’s relational approach. • Behavior: Males are more likely to be promiscuous and aggressive towards sex than females. • Men tend to perceive a women’s friendliness as a sexual come-on

How would Evolutionary Psychologist Explain this Difference? • Women most often send their genes into the future by pairing wisely • Men by pairing widely

Mate Selection • Both men and women rated mutual attraction-love, dependable character, emotional stability, maturity and pleasing disposition as most important • Least important- chastity, similar religious backgrounds and similar political backgrounds • More Important to Males- good looks and chastity • More Important to Females- financial security and ambitious

Preferred by Males 1. Kindness 2. IQ 3. Physical Attractiveness 4. Exciting personality 5. Good Health 6. Adaptability 7. Creativity 8. Desire for Children 9. College Graduate 10. Good Heredity 11. Good Earning capacity 12. Good Housekeeper Preferred By Females 1. Kindness 2. IQ 3. Exciting Personality 4. Good Health 5. Adaptability 6. Physical attractiveness 7. Creativity 8. Good earning capacity 9. College graduate 10. Desire for children 11. Good heredity 12. Good housekeeper 13. Religious orientation

Gender Roles in Society • What are gender roles? • How are they perpetuated in society today? • How have gender roles changed over the past 100 years?

Gender Differences and Attraction • Across the board men and women prefer youthful appearance.

Gender Differences and Attraction • Men tend to be especially drawn to “physical attractiveness. ” • Women are especially attracted to males who seem mature, dominant, and affluent.

Gender Differences and Attraction How would Evolutionary Psychologist explain this? • Men look for youth – b/c young women have more childbearing years and men just want to send their genes into the future • Men prefer women who’s waists are 1/3 narrower than their hips – a sign of future fertility

How would Evolutionary Psychologist Explain this? • Women prefer mature, dominant and affluent men b/c they are more able to protect and provide for the family • Men tend to be risk takers (or stupid) b/c they need to show their women “ look at me! I have so much strength and skill that I am fearless. I will survive no matter how much I drink or how fast I drive. ” • Women spend more time on appearance and money • Men spend more time on status and dominance • Men are constantly trying to out do other men to compete for fertile women

Criticisms of Evolutionary Approach: Do you Buy It? • Men and women are a lot more similar – Want single, long term partners • Evolutionaries focus too much on nature

Behavior Genetics • Behavior Genetics – study of the power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior • Environment – every non-genetic influence, from prenatal nutrition to the people and things around us

Behavior Genetics and Use of Twin Studies • Identical Twins – develop from a single zygote (fertilized egg) that splits in two, creating two genetic replicas Identical twins Fraternal twins Same sex only Same or opposite sex • Fraternal Twins – develop from separate zygotes – genetically no closer than brothers and sisters, but they share the fetal environment

How Have Psychologists Used Adoption Studies? • Genes Matter – Adopted children are more similar to their biological parents than their adoptive parents –Especially in personality – Parents do have an influence on values, manners , faith and politics

Behavior Genetics • Temperament – a person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity • Difficult- irritable, intense and unpredictable • Easy- cheerful, relaxed and predictable – Hereditary

Behavior Genetics • Heritability: the proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes

Behavior Genetics • Interaction – the effect of one factor (such as environment) depends on another factor (such as heredity) – Our genes affect how people react to and influence us Molecular Genetics – the subfield of biology that studies the molecular structure and function of genes – Ex: Human Genome Project – Designer babies?

Influence of Environment Starts in the Womb • Prenatal Environment: first stage of nurture, when embryos and fetuses receive differing nutrition and varying levels of exposure to toxic agents.

Influence of Environment Starts in the Womb • Two placental arrangements in identical twins

More Environmental Influence • Experience affects brain development Impoverished environment Rat brain cell Enriched environment Rat brain cell

Experience and Brain Development • More stimulation= better brain development • Stimulation and touch can help premature babies • Language development in children before age 8 • Don’t use it, you lose it

Peer Influence • Peer influences may exceed parental influence • Parents can help shape schools, neighborhoods, etc.

Environmental Influences • Culture – the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next • Norm – an understood rule for accepted and expected behavior • Personal Space • Expressions

Environmental Influences • Memes – self-replicating ideas, fashions, and innovation passed from person to person.

Nurture of Gender • Gender Role – a set of expected behaviors for males and females • Gender Identity – one’s sense of being male or female

Nurture of Gender • Social Learning Theory – theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished • Gender Schema Theory – theory that children learn from their cultures a concept of what it means to be male and female and that they adjust their behavior accordingly

Nature or Nurture? • Percentage agreeing “The activities of married women are best confined to home and family” Percentage 70 60 Men 50 40 30 20 10 Women 0 1967 ‘ 71 ‘ 75 ‘ 79 ‘ 83 ‘ 87 ‘ 91 ‘ 95 Year

Evolutionary Psychology Questions You are on a boat that overturns, It contains your five year old and 1 year old children (both the same sex). The boat sinks and you can only save one. Whom do you choose? 5 Year old 1 year old

That same boat contains your 40 -year old child and your 20 -year old child. Neither can swim, who do you save? 20 -year old 40 -year old

Would you rather marry someone older or younger than yourself? Older Younger

Of the following six, which three are the most important in the selection of your mate? 1. Good financial prospects 2. Good looks 3. A caring and responsible personality 4. Physical attractiveness 5. Ambition and industriousness 6. An exciting personality

You and your spouse are the proud parents of a new child. The grandparents are ecstatic. Who do you think will be kinder to the child? Mother of the mother Mother of the father

Who will mourn more at the death of a child? 1. Father Mother 2. Father’s Parents Mother’s Parents 3. Younger Parents Older Parents

Which will elicit more grief? a. Death of a Son Death of a Daughter b. Death of an unhealthy child Death of a healthy child