environmental effects on behaviour Flashcards
what effects can environmental issues have on a young child: low birth weight, poor early growth and pre-birth famine
more prone too
-coronary heart disease
-non-insulin dependent diabetes
-blood pressure
-obesity
-stroke
-schizophrenia
-ageing
-age of menopause
-asthma
foetal origins hypothesis
-changes in nutrients and hormonal control during early periods of development may alter how foetal genes are expressed as they can effect the physiological processes
-causes long-term consequences and can increase risk of many diseases later in life
-foetuses need nutrient availability and good hormonal control in order to thrive later in life
examples of environmental cues activating alternative development pathways
-rural Gambians : lose weight during rainy season because crop is running out and diseases, but during harvest season they regain the weight
-best time to be pregnant in Gambia is June as there will be more food during pregnancy’s there is a positive effect on the babies weight
-depending on when the child is born (rainy or harvest) there isn’t much difference in child mortality rate but the ones born in rainy season have a higher adult mortality rate due to not enough nutrients as a child
red deer on the Scottish island of Rhum
-female red deer which age birth in late spring has reduced birthweight of offspring during cold spring (-8% every 1 degree celsius it decreases)
-females born with low birth rate are more likely to die in 1st and 2nd winter and bear lighter calves with reduced survival
what’s us behavioural development under the influence of
external social environment and internal hormonal environment
males and agression
-males are much more aggressive than females because they have testes with produce testosterone which goes to the brain and makes the male more aggressive to other males
experiment of manipulation if masculinity or feminisation in foetal brain
-some males (mice ) can develop between 2 females and some develop between 2 males
-more estradiol ( female hormone) in males which were sandwiched between 2 females than males surrounded by 2 males
-males surrounded by females were less aggressive
-females surrounded by 2 males have a higher home range size as they were exposed to more testosterone
-females next to males were more aggressive and less sexually attracted to males
-this shows that the environmental variable had effect on behaviour
co-twins and how prenatal masculinity affects them
-human babies exposed to testosterone can grow up to have masculine characteristics
-females with a twin brother have a lower chance of ever reproducing offspring than females with a girl twin
-females with twin brother have a lower number of children raised to 15 than girl twins- prenatal
imprinting
-young animals imprint when they’re young on the first thing they see
-therefore development of a behaviour is the result of an interaction between the genotype and the environment (material resources and hormones and sensory experiences)
anolis sagrei (lizard like) and their flexibility of behaviour
-some of these lizards have to climb wide branches so have longer legs are run faster
-some run on thin branches and have shorter legs for balance
anolis agrei leg size
-behavioural adjustments are made to provide advantages for individuals depending on their environment (thickness of trees)
developmental homeostasis of behaviour
-development of al behaviours isn’t flexible because its expensive- only worth it if benefits outweigh the cost
-environmental shortfalls are often ignored- these disrupt production
-animals need to acquire developmental homeostasis
what’s developmental homeostasis
the development of normal physiological and behavioural traits in different environments
famine in Holland after WW2
-very low birth weight in the city, higher in rural areas as they didn’t depend on transport of food as much
