Chapter 2 IQ's Flashcards

1
Q

what 2 factors interact with the environment to shape our well-being

A

genetic and epigenetic factors

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2
Q

chromosomes

A

strings of genetic material in the nuclei of cells

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3
Q

DNA

A

makes up chromosomes and genes

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4
Q

Genes

A

units of a chromosome that control/influence inherited traits

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5
Q

genome

A

all of the DNA an organism posesses

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6
Q

heredity

A

passing of traits to offspring

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7
Q

mendelian traits

A
  • hereditary traits under the control of a single gene
  • aka: monogenic inheritance
  • predicting its expression is fairly simple
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8
Q

polygenic traits/inheritance

A
  • hereditary traits influenced by many genes

- predicting its expression is complex

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9
Q

multifactorial inheritance

A
  • both genes and the environment influence the trait
  • nature and nurture interact
  • predicting its expression is complex
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10
Q

epigenetics

A
  • heritability can be operating above the genetic level

- “epi” = “upon” -> another layer of our genetics influences gene function

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11
Q

epigenome

A

inherited and acquired modifications to the genome

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12
Q

gene expression

A
  • gene sequence is active

- “turned on”

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13
Q

gene silencing

A
  • gene sequence is made inactive

- “turned off”

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14
Q

how does maternal care affect epigenetics?

A
  • maternal care can alter epigenetic structures in offspring
  • ex. mother rat that nurtured her pups more resulted in calmer pups (this change persisted into adulthood)
  • even some acquired epigenetic modifications in the lifetime of the parent can be passed on in both animals and humans
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15
Q

why compare identical and fraternal twins to assess heritability of traits?

A

if identical twins (whose genes are the same) raised apart are more similar than fraternal twins or non-twin siblings (whose genes are similar, but not identical) raised together, heredity must play a role in the trait

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16
Q

are intelligence and attitudes completely genetics-based?

A

No, there’s a strong genetics component, but because a perfect correlation wasn’t found, we know the environment (and maybe even epigenetic variables) play a role as well

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17
Q

how are epigenetic variables influenced by the environment?

A
  • over time, environmental variables (ie. diet, smoking, fitness levels) can cause changes in epigenetic markers
  • we know this because young twins have the same epigenetic patterns, whereas middle-aged twins had big differences in epigenetic patterns
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18
Q

ethology

A
  • genetically determined survival-based behaviours

- ex. “stranger anxiety” ensures that babies/kids don’t run away with strangers

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19
Q

behaviour genetics

A
  • our genes can predict behaviour

- ex. heredity affects intelligence, shyness, and aggressiveness

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20
Q

sociobiology

A
  • using biological explanations for social behaviour
  • ex. humans have best chance for survival when they live in groups -> evolution provided us with genetic programming to help us cooperate
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21
Q

how will human genomics influence disease prevention?

A
  • can help treat multifactorial diseases (ie. cancer, heart disease)
  • help us understand that external and personal factors influence epigenetics, which can influence our risk of disease
  • by understanding epigenetics, we can use this to control/prevent diseases
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22
Q

humanistic theory

A
  • focus on positive aspects of development, accept that behaviour is motivated by internal drives and emotions
  • share Rousseau’s premise of innate goodness
  • assume most important internal drive is each individual’s motivation to achieve his/her full potential
  • Maslow (who did self-actualization) is key figure
23
Q

motives

A
  • deficiency motives: maintaining physical or emotional homeostasis (ex. eating, drinking, sex, love, respect)
  • being motives: desiring to understand, give to others, and grow (achieve self-actualization)
24
Q

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (from top to bottom)

A
  • self-actualization (being motives)
  • esteem needs - superiority, respect (deficiency motives)
  • love and belongingness needs - affection from others, being with others rather than alone (deficiency motives)
  • safety needs - stable environment, freedom from anxiety and chaos (deficiency motives)
  • physiological needs - food, water, sex, oxygen, sleep, elimination (deficiency motives)
25
Q

learning theories

A
  • development results from accumulation of experiences
  • aligned with Locke -> children are neither good nor bad, and their behaviour is shaped for better or for worse by their environment
  • ex. suggest that infants put objects into their mouths because it’s rewarding, or to learn not to do it again if it tastes bad
26
Q

holism

A

whole is greater than sum of its parts

27
Q

adaptive adjustment

A

according to systems theory, contributes to growth and holistic health/wellness

28
Q

6 contexts of Bronfenbrenner’s theory

A
  • individual
  • microsystem
  • mesosystem
  • exosystem
  • macrosystem
  • chronosystem
29
Q

individual (Bronfenbrenner)

A

internal factors (genetics, chromosomes, etc.)

30
Q

microsystem (Bronfenbrenner)

A

people we regularly interact with (parents, friends, siblings, etc.)

31
Q

mesosystem (Bronfenbrenner)

A

interactions between people in our microsystem (relationship between parents, or between parents and in-laws)

32
Q

exosystem (Bronfenbrenner)

A

socio-economic factors (available resources, like the cost of an undergrad degree)

33
Q

macrosystem (Bronfenbrenner)

A

socio-cultural factors (sociocultural values and beliefs, like the inequality btwn. men and women in certain cultures)

34
Q

chronosystem (Bronfenbrenner)

A

sociohistorical factors (social norms present in a historical period - ex. most women will go back to work after having a baby)

35
Q

what is the ecobiodevelopmental framework

A
  • believe interdisciplinary interventions (combining nature and nurture) are needed to combat disease
  • believe in early intervention to maximize health and prevent disease (ie. from prenatal to early childhood)
36
Q

implications of the ecobiodevelopmental framework

A
  • best way to improve health is to focus on prenatal and early childhood periods of development
  • may include strategies that reduce disruptive effects of adversity (ie. toxic stress due to maltreatment, malnutrition, etc.)
37
Q

toxic stress response

A
  • occurs when children endure persistently elevated physiological arousal due to strong, recurring adversity (ie. abuse, neglect, etc.)
  • creates chronically high levels of stress which can disrupt normal brain and body development
38
Q

biological theories (main idea, pros, cons)

A
  • Biological and physiological processes (ex. Those involving genes, hormones, and NT’s) influence traits and behaviours
  • expand our understanding of human heath and disease prevention; help discover the role that interitance plays in human health and the importance of early intervention
  • may negelet the impact of psychological factors, socio-cultural factors, and family conditions on development
39
Q

genetic theories (main idea, pros, cons)

A
  • Emphasizes genetic origins of human behaviour
  • Relevant to many fields; has contributed to advances in medicine and biotechnology
  • Ethical issues around genetic testing, discrimination, privacy, etc.; our genetic makeup accounts for only a portion of human traits
40
Q

epigenetic theories (main idea, pros, cons)

A
  • The environment and life experiences have immediate and long-term influences on gene expression, the genetic code, and human behaviour and health
  • Contributes to our understanding of inheritance factors in vulnerability and resilience to disease; focuses attention on need to promote early interventional strategies in early childhood
  • Precise mechanisms by which the evironment and experiences can alter epigenetic markings remain largely unknown
41
Q

evolutionary theories (main idea, pros, cons)

A
  • The genetic makeup of populations changes over generations by favourite traits that enable individuals to survive and reproduce
  • Focuses attention on the importance of early-life influences on later behaviour and health outcomes
  • Underestimates the impact of the environment and places too much impact on heredity; the theories are difficult to prover
42
Q

humanistic theories (main idea, pros, cons)

A
  • Emphasizes basic goodness of human; each individual has a unique potential and an inborn drive for personal growth and self-actualization
  • Shifted focus of development to individual choices moreso than emotional, biological, or society forces; optimistic and gives people more credit for controlling and determining their well-being
  • Concepts difficult to test because the propositions aren’t stated clearly enough (ex. How do we measure self-actualization?)
43
Q

Maslow’s theory of motivation (main idea, pros, cons)

A
  • One is motivated to satisfy a range of physical, societal, and psychological needs; the ultimate goal in life is to achieve self-actualization
  • Focused on healthy development
  • The terms and hierarchical ranking of Maslow’s list of needs are unproven
44
Q

behavioural theories (main idea, pros, cons)

A
  • Behaviour determined by environment through conditioning; concerned with observable behaviour; data collected through careful observation and measurement
  • Learning theories can explain both consistency and changes in behaviour; optimistic about possibility of behavioural change if reinforcement system changes; provides an accurate picture of the way many behaviours can be learned
  • Traditional learning theorist’s approach isn’t developmental; doesn’t tell us much about change over a lifespan
45
Q

Pavlov’s classical conditioning theory (main idea, pros, cons)

A
  • Learning happens when neutral stimuli become so strongly associated with natural stimuli that they elicit the same response
  • Useful in explaining how emotional responses (like phobias) are learned
  • Explanation of behavioural change is too limited to serve as a comprehensive theory of human development
46
Q

skinner’s operant conditioning theory (main idea, pros, cons)

A
  • Development involves behaviour changes that are shaped by reinforcement and punishment
  • Basis of many useful strategies for managing and changing human behaviour
  • Humans aren’t as passive as Skinner claimed; theory ignores heredity, cognitive, emotional, and social factors in development
47
Q

cognitive theories (main idea, pros, cons)

A
  • Behaviour can be largely explained in terms of how the mind operates
  • Based mainly on lab experiments; contributed to many effective therapeutic interventions
  • Much research involves artificial lab tasks, such as learning lists of words, and therefore doesn’t always fully describe how the mind works in the real world
48
Q

Piaget’s theory (main idea, pros, cons)

A
  • Reasoning develops in four universal stages from birth through adolescence; in each stage the child builds a different kind of scheme
  • Helps explain how children of different ages think about and act on the world
  • Piaget was inexact about some of the ages at which children develop particular skills; the stage concept may cause adults to underestimate children’s reasoning abilities; may be additional stages in adulthood
49
Q

information-processing theory (main idea, pros, cons)

A
  • Human cognitive functioning; encoding, storage, and retrieval processes change with brain maturation and practice, causing changes in cognitive functioning
  • Helps explain how much info people of different ages can manage at one time and how they process it; provides a useful framework for studying individual differences in people of the same age
  • Human information processing very complex; theory doesn’t provide overall picture of development
50
Q

vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory (main idea, pros, cons)

A
  • Cognitive development is strengthened through social interactions that involve speaking during guided problem-solving tasks
  • Stresses the importance of sociocultural interaction for cognitive development
  • Verbal instructions may not benefit cognitive development in some cultures
51
Q

bandura’s social-cognitive theory (main idea, pros, cons)

A
  • People learn from models and what is learned depends on how they interpret the situation; a child’s level of cognitive development affects his or her impressions and reactions to circumstances; we both shape and are shaped by our environment
  • Helps explain how models influence behaviour; adds further to our understanding of human development by integrating cognitive, emotional, social, and environmental factors
  • Doesn’t provide overall picture of development - biological influences are underemphasized
52
Q

systems theory (main idea, pros, cons)

A
  • Provides an interdiciplanary perspective to the study of human development; both humans are their environments are active in the developmental process
  • Captures the complexity of individual and contextual variables and the interactions among these variables
  • it’s hard to form generalizations and predictions because of the complexity of interactions among variables
53
Q

Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory (main idea, pros, cons)

A
  • Human development is a product of individual and contextual variables interacting over time
  • Highlights the need for research examining the complex interactions among individuals and contextual variables
  • Underplays physical environmental influences (ranging from pollution to poor nutrition or disease)
54
Q

ecobiodevelopmental theory (main idea, pros, cons)

A
  • Need for science-based approach towards creating early childhood policies and interventions aimed specifically at health promotion and disease prevention
  • Promotes advocacy across all levels of socioeconomic and political spectrums with healthcare professionals taking on a lead role
  • Determining causal links among developmental variables raises research, methodological, and ethical challenges