Developmental Psychology: Our Story from Seed to Soil

1
Developmental Psychology Our Story from Seed to
Soil

• Unit 6, Part 3 of 3
• Whose Fault Is It That I Am What I Am?(The
  Nature versus Nurture Debate)

2
Warmup/Wakeup

• Do our parents make us what we are? Well, hell,
  Im a well-adjusted psychopath, and I credit my
  mother. She said all these things mothers
  allegedly arent supposed to say.
• "How on earth can you see the TV sitting so far
  back?"
  
• "Yeah, I used to skip school a lot, too"
• "Just leave all the lights on ... it makes the
  house look more cheery"
  
• "Let me smell that shirt -- Yeah, it's good for
  another week"
  
• "Go ahead and keep that stray dog, honey. I'll be
  glad to feed and walk him every day"
  
• "Well, if Rahul's mamma says it's OK, that's good
  enough for me."
  
• "The curfew is just a general time to shoot for.
  It's not like I'm running a prison around here."
  
  
• "I don't have a tissue with me ... just use your
  sleeve"
  
• "Don't bother wearing a jacket - the wind-chill
  is bound to improve"

3
Think About This Before We Begin

• You must take personal responsibility. You
  cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or
  the wind, but you can change yourself. That is
  something you have charge of.
• Jim Rohn
• I am what I am what I am Popeye
  the Sailor Man

4
Unit Outline

• Nature of Nature versus Nurture Debate
• Blaming ones parents
• Personality differences
• Sex differences
• Intelligence differences
• Stephen Pinker on the Blank Slate

5
Nature of Nature vs. Nurture Debate
Please be dogged in your quest for knowledge!
6
Nature and Nurture

• What shapes us as individual human beings? Our
  biological inheritance (nature) or how we are
  raised and our early childhood experiences
  (nurture)?
• Are we Lockean blank slates that our parents
  write on?

7
Nature and Nurture

• Nature and nurture operate together to produce
  observable characteristics.
  
• The debate about which is more important tends to
  be irrational, emotional, and based on political
  ideology.
  
• Leftists emphasizing environment
• Rightists emphasizing heredity
• Two useful metaphors
• Hebbs area of rectangle
• Iron rusting

8
Blaming Ones Parents
9
Blaming Ones Parents

• We get our genes from them, but we cant blame
  them for breeding, can we?
  
• We get our early environment from them, but we
  cant blame them for their situation in life, can
  we?
  
• They have the potential to do great harm by
  mistreating us, but relatively few do so, for
  parents of all species are hardwired to care for
  their young.
• So what do we get from them

10
Blaming Ones Parents

• Observational learning
• We learn most of what we learn incidentally by
  observational learning.
  
• Monkey see and emulate what monkey parent do
  monkey not pay attention to Do as I say, not as
  I do.
  
• Examples reading, ethical behaviour, religious
  beliefs, etc.
  
• But.

11
Blaming Ones Parents

• Observational learning
• We, in modern industrialized nations, spend very
  little time with our parents after the very first
  years of life.
  
• We learn most of what we learn incidentally by
  observational learning from our peers i.e.,
  those our own age in classrooms and after school
  socializing.
• Our peers are by definition as immature as we
  are, so not exactly useful guides to mature
  behaviour.
  
• An aside on home-schooling.

12
Blaming Ones Parents

• Random factors
• Our parents cannot control random events that can
  profoundly affect us.
  
• Illness and accidents (e.g., artist friend and
  birth defect)
  
• Really good or bad teachers or friends (e.g., Mr.
  Lynch)
  
• Events that trigger an inherent fascination
  (e.g., off to join the circus purchase of piano,
  a book read)

13
Blaming Ones Parents

• Personal Responsibility
• Maturity is marked by accepting ones situation
  and nature and taking responsibility for trying
  to change whatever in ones situation or nature
  one feels need changing.
• And it includes not blaming others for ones
  situation or nature, for that serves no purpose
  and more often than not is just a pathetic excuse
  for not trying to change oneself.
• We are shaped by the genes we inherit, the way
  our parents raise us, the random events that
  occur as we grow up, but dems da breaks, good or
  bad!
• We have to believe we have the will and power and
  responsibility to control the game of our lives,
  no matter what hand weve been dealt.

14
Personality Differences
15
Personality Differences

• Why should we be different from dog breeds?
• Yes, you may eventually train a Chihuahua to swim
  and retrievemaybe.
  
• But how much training does a Labrador Retriever
  need?
  
• There are genetic predispositions that can be
  bred forand are bred for.
  
• Admitting individual differences, the fact
  remains that personality is largely genetic.
  
• Ask any parent of more than one child!

16
Personality Differences

• HOW MANY DOGS DOES IT TAKE CHANGE A LIGHT
  BULB...
  
• Golden Retriever The sun is shining, the day is
  young, we've got our whole lives ahead of us, and
  you're inside worrying about a stupid burned-out
  light bulb?
• Border Collie Just one. And then I'll replace
  any wiring that's not up to code.
  
• Dachshund You know I can't reach that stupid
  lamp!
  
• Toy Poodle I'll just blow in the Border collie's
  ear and he'll do it. By the time he finishes
  rewiring the house, my nails will be dry.
  
• Rottweiler Make me!!
• Shi-tzu Puh-leeze, dah-ling. Let the humans do
  it.
  
• Lab Oh, me, me!!! Pleeeeeeze let me change the
  light bulb! Can I? Can I? Huh? Huh? Can I?
  
• Malamute Let the Border collie do it. You can
  feed me while he's busy.
  
• Cocker Spaniel Why change it? I can still pee on
  the carpet in the dark.

17
Personality Differences

• HOW MANY DOGS DOES IT TAKE CHANGE A LIGHT
  BULB...
  
• Jack Russell Terrier I'll just pop it in while
  I'm bouncing off the ceiling.
  
• Doberman Pinscher While it's dark, I'm going to
  sleep on the couch.
  
• Mastiff Mastiffs are NOT afraid of the dark.
• Irish Wolfhound Can somebody else do it? I was
  at the pub last night and I've got this
  hangover....
  
• Pointer I see it, there it is, there it is,
  right there........
  
• Greyhound It isn't moving. Who cares?
• Old English Sheep Dog Light bulb? That thing I
  just ate was a light bulb?
  
• Westie Dogs do not change light bulbs. People
  change light bulbs, I am not one of THEM. So the
  question is, how long will it be before I can
  expect my light?
• Hound Dog I like it dark....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
  Z
  
• Australian Shepherd First, I'll put all the
  light bulbs in a little circle...

18
Sex Differences
19
Sex Differences

• Get real boys are different from girls by
  nature.
  
• Albeit not as different as once believed!
• Again a call to parents real personal
  experiences is a remedy to ideology.
  
• Everyone should have equal opportunity to realize
  their potential, something certainly not true for
  females of our species for most of history.
  (Women had damn good reason to be annoyed!)
• But that doesnt mean that there arent
  differences in potential that is just bad
  science, even if considered politically incorrect
  and dangerous to say.

20
Sex Differences

• Sex differences in academic skills
• Extensive overlap in IQ scores of males and
  females
  
• Differences in means
• Males higher on many nonverbal areas
• Females higher on many verbal areas
• Why overall average IQ the same?
• Answer its rigged!

21
Intelligence Differences
22
Intelligence Differences

• The Bell Curve Controversy
• We get our knickers in a knot about anyone saying
  what is simply common sense and empirical
  evidence folks are different.
  
• And we misapply and misinterpret statistics.
• And folks get really upset when unscientific
  concepts like race and IQ are mixed up with
  all this.

23
Intelligence Differences

• The Bell Curve Controversy
• IQ is a dubious concept. Something that will be
  discussed in a later unit. But for now note that
  it is a crude measure that correlates with
  potential for certain types of abstract
  reasoning.
• Race is an even more unscientific term. There is
  no such thing! However, there are groups of
  people with similar gene pools because they have
  lived together and mated.

24
Intelligence Differences

• The Bell Curve Controversy
• There are genetic markers for high IQ scores on
  chromosomes 4, 6, and 22.
  
• Marker on chromosome 6 is carried by one-third of
  people with high IQ and one-sixth of people with
  average IQ.
  
• These are not big differences, but they are
  statistically significant.
  
• There are differences in average IQ in different
  samples from different gene pools, which should
  not be confused with the meaningless concept of
  race.
• These are not big differences, but they are
  statistically significantif not socially
  significant.

25
Intelligence Differences

• The Bell Curve Controversy
• Example of Ethnic (gene pool) differences
• Compared with middle-class white norms
• Aboriginal students score 20 points lower on
  verbal scales, but 5 points higher on performance
  scales
  
• African-American school children score 10 to 15
  points lower than white middle-class students
  
• Asians score substantially higher than white
  North American students.
  
• Not surprisingly these gaps narrow between groups
  in response to improved (or less nurturing)
  environments.

26
Intelligence Differences

• The Bell Curve Controversy 3 Things to Note
• Extensive overlap in scores of all ethnic groups
  (selected gene pools) is far greater than between
  group differences, so social concern with
  scientific findings is largely politically
  motivated and often vicious and irrational.
• All findings are based on using the culturally
  biased measure called IQ.
  
• And again many studies refer to race which is
  not a scientific way of sorting members of our
  species.

27
Intelligence Differences

• Bell Curve Controversy 3 More Things to Note
• We are not all equally endowed with every
  traitgood or bad.
  
• You may be smart with fixing things and stupid
  with doing math.
  
• We all have limitations.
• Not everyone can be a Wayne Gretsky or an Albert
  Einstein or a Rembrandt.
  
• Some genetic gene pools may favour one or another
  trait.
  
• Hungarians seem to have a disproportionate number
  of brilliant mathematicians.
  
• This doesnt mean that if you are not a native
  born Hungarian you cant be a brilliant
  mathematician.

28
Intelligence Differences

• Concept of Heritability
• Much misunderstood!
• Heritability of IQ (in so many ways a trivial
  measure) is the fraction of the variance in IQ in
  a population that is accounted for by genetic
  effects.
• Depends on variability (consistency) in the
  sample for other factors.
  
• E.g., if the environment for two individuals is
  virtually identical, heritability number will
  obviously be higher but if the environment is
  radically different, the genetic factor will be
  less important.

29
Intelligence Differences

• Concept of Heritability
• Adoption studies
• There is a stronger correlation between IQs of
  adopted children and biological parents than
  adoptive parents.
  
• But of course environment also has an effect
  because if a child is placed in better
  environment, his or her IQ increases.

30
Intelligence Differences

• IQ score correlations suggesting a strong genetic
  component.

31
Are We Blank Slates?
32
Nature and Nurture

• Pinker The Blank Slate
• (Quirks and Quarks audio clip)
• http//www.cbc.ca/quirks/archives/02-03/nov09.html

21 m
33
Conclusion

• We are what we are because
• of our genetic inheritance
• the experiences weve had
• and our ability to make the most of both of the
  above.
  
• We should acknowledge all of the above (the first
  two over which weve had little or no control),
  but accept responsibility for being what we are
  because of our success or failure in the last
  listed.

34
Thats all folks!