Nature-Nurture Flashcards
Tabula Rassa
When the child is born they are a blank tablet to be filled
Locke
Rousseau
Continuum
John Locke
Empiricist (based his work on evidence)
Viewed children as a blank state
According to John Locke, through social interaction children learn…?
Speech
Emotions
Morals
How to exist within society
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Philosopher interested in the work of Locke
Agreed that society was a strong part in a child’s development
Children are born ‘angelic’
Coined the phrase the noble savage - a good child becomes corrupted by society and all that is wrong with it
Nativism
The view that may skills or abilities are ‘native’ or hard wired into the brain at birth, the result of genetic inheritance
Empiricism
The view that humans are not born with built-in ‘core knowledge’ or mental content and that all knowledge or mental content results from learning experience
Is IQ due to nature or nurture?
A combination of both
Who invented the first intelligence test?
Binet (1905)
Mental age
Who introduced the intelligence quotient (IQ)?
Stern (1912)
IQ= (MA/CA) x 100
(Mental and chronological age)
Jensen (1969)
Found that white children were more intelligent than black or low SES children
Accused of scientific racism
More recent evidence on IQ gap
15-18 point gap between black and white children
Group differences are 50-80% heritable
Correlation of IQ between pairs of identical twins is about…
0.87
Correlation of IQ between pairs of identical twins reared apart is about…
0.75
Correlation of IQ between pairs of dizygotic twins is about…
0.55
Correlation of IQ between pairs of dizygotic twins raised apart is about…
0.35
What is missing heritability?
The failure to find any genes associated with a cognitive ability
How much of the variance in IQ is due to environment?
About 40%
How much of the variance in IQ is due to genetics?
About 50%
Breastfeeding and IQ
Children who are breastfed are healthier and develop higher IQs
Likely to be due to fatty acids present in breast milk
There is a gene involved in the genetic control of fatty acid pathways and has been linked to brain development
Variant of this gene allows breastfed children to score around 7 points higher on IQ tests
Another variant shows no difference in breastfeeding on IQ
Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study (1976)
Tested IQ scores of black or interracial children adopted by white advantaged families
At 7 years - Black and interracial children scored above white population average
Black children adopted by age 1 scored 20 points above
At 17 years - IQ scores for all groups were lower but differences remain
Environment is important for ability at school level
The Flynn Effect
Environmental effects of cognitive development
IQ rates increase by 3 points per decades in Western societies
IQ tests standardised for this
Raven’s Progressive Matrices
Non-verbal tests with items arranged in order of difficulty
Scores have increased by 20 points over 50 years
What is happening to the Flynn Effect?
Reducing in the UK
Increasing in China and India
Children who have an inadequate diet have _____ brain development?
Reduced
Sure start
Guidance on health and nutrition
Improve child behaviour through parent-child interactions
Setting expectations, limits, and consistent strategies for behaviour management and non-compliance in children
