jan 19 2012- psych 215.docx

Thursday, January 19th, 2012 Nature and Nurture A lot of studies are concerned with how much about you was shaped by what is around you and how much is inherent? (2) The chances are the both nature and the environment have made some contributions. So now the question has changed from an either or question to one of mechanisms and combinations. Eventually, when you have kids, you can start to wonder how much of the child is nature and how much is nurture, for example, gender clothing. Brenda/David Reimer At birth, the twins were both boys. When they decided to raise the child as a boy, they gave him surgical and hormonal treatment. Next Slide Looking back, it is apparent that there are some gender things that you are born with that will make sure that you fit in with your assigned sex. Today, it is believed that even though nurture plays a significant role, nature plays an important one too. Limits to the power of socialization What the study showed. Theory of Evolution Plays a huge role in our current reflections on why human beings are the way that they are. Not only do we need the parts to ensure that we survive, we also need the behaviour. Charles Darwin Put forward the theory of evolution with the biggest impact. He had written all of this, but refused to publish it because his wife was very religious. Therefore he held back his document for over 20 years, and only published it because someone else was going to beat him to it. Evolution This is the model that has helped us pull it all together when we try to understand why living systems are the way that they are. The main point is that species have characteristics that will maximize the survival of their theory. Fitness is the degree to which characteristics that you have fit the environment that we live in. If you have a characteristic that reduces the probability that you will be successful in carrying out the delivery of your genes (ie: living to reproductive maturity), chances are your genes will be removed from the gene pool (your genes will die with you). Evolution and Survival Within any species, while most of the species looks the same, there will be genetic diversity that allows the species to survive. This is because if there is some sort of change in the environment, at least some members of the species will be able to live on, and after some time they come to define the gene pool. Evolution and Sex Differences One of the results of evolution is that we will start to see differences in how males and females behave. Darwin, when pondering, could not believe that peacocks would have developed such a large, ornate tail just to attract females. Darwin thought that there were just too many disadvantages to it (cumbersome, problems evading predators, etc) for it to be an advantage overall. Sexual Selection Basically, males and females of the species will be developing different types of behaviours that play a role maximizing the probability that they will reproduce. Since the male and female roles are different, they will have different behaviours. For example, the brighter and bigger the female is, the more they will be killed and this is not good (eg: peacocks). On the other hand, males are expendible. Next Slide For sexual survival,