Psy. 412A Ch. 2 Flashcards
Nativism
The idea that human characteristics are innate or inborn, not acquired or learned.
Human Genome
The complete set of genes for the creation and development of the human organism.
Preformationism
The 17th century theory of inheritance that hypothesized that all characteristics of an adult were prefigured in miniature within either the sperm or the ovum.
Genetic Determinism
The idea that human qualities are genetically determined and cannot be nurture or education.
Eugenics
A philosophy that advocates the use of controlled breeding to encourage child breeding among individuals with characteristics considered “desirable” and to discourage (or eliminate) childbearing among those with “undesirable” traits.
Tabula Rasa (“Blank Slate”)
The notion, usually associated with the philosopher John Locke, that nothing about development is predetermined, and that the child is ENTIRELY a product of his or her environment and experience.
Heritability
The extent to which a phenotypic trait is genetically determined.
Twin Studies
A method for estimating heritability in which the degree of similarity in a trait that is observed among IDENTICAL twins is compared with that observed among FRATERNAL twins.
Identical Twins
Twins born when a single fertilized egg divides, resulting in the birth of two individuals whose genetic makeup is identical.
Fraternal Twins
Twins born when two separate eggs are fertilized, who are therefore no more alike genetically than other brothers and sisters.
Adoption Studies
A method for estimating heritability in which similarities between children and their adoptive parents are compared with similarities between children and their biological parents.
Family Related Studies
A method for estimating heritability by comparing the similarity of children who vary in their genetic relatedness (e.g. Siblings, half-siblings, and step siblings)
Shared Environment
In behavioral genetics, the environment that siblings have in common.
Nonshared Environment
In behavioral genetics, the environment that siblings do not have in common, such as the peers with whom they are friends.
Theory of Evolution
Typically refers to the variant of the model of evolution formalized by Charles Darwin, which asserts that organisms evolve and change through the process of natural selection.
Survival of the Fittest
Within Darwin’s theory of evolution, the notion that organisms that are best equipped to survive in a given context are more likely to reproduce and pass their genetic material on to future generations.
Natural Selection
Witching Darwin’s theory of evolution, the process through which ADAPTIVE traits that are heritable become more common while MALADAPTIVE traits that are heritable become less so.
Epigenesis
The gradual process through which organisms develop over time in an increasingly differentiated and complex fashion as a consequence of the interaction between genes and the environment.
Stem Cells
Primitive, undifferentiated cells or “precells,” found in large numbers in the embryo.
Bipedalism
Being able to stand and walk on two feet.
Canalizations
The degree to which an element of development is dictated by the common genetic program that ALL humans inherit.
Chromosomes
Strands of DNA that carry genes and associated proteins.
Base Pairs
Pairs of adenine and thymine and of guanine and cytosine that make up the “rungs” of the DNA molecule.
Gene
A segment of DNA, occupying a SPECIFIC place on a chromosome.
Genotype
The UNDERLYING makeup of an individual organism (contrast with phenotype.
Phenotype
The OBSERVABLE traits and characteristics of an individual organism (contrast with genotype).
Mitosis
The process through which cells other than gametes reproduce, on which a cell divides and each resulting cell receives a full copy of all 46 chromosomes.
Gametes
Reproductive cells, sperm in males and ova (eggs) in females.
Meiosis
The process through which gametes are produced, in which each resulting gamete has half of the genetic material of the parent cell.
Alleles
Different forms of the same gene occupying the same location the same location on each of the chromosomes that make up a chromosomal pair.
Additive Heredity
The process of genetic transmission that results in a phenotype that is a mixture of the mother’s and father’s traits.
Dominant/Recessive Heredity
The process of genetic transmission where one version (allele) of a gene is dominant over another, resulting in the phenotypic expression of only the dominant allele.
Regulator Genes
Genes whose function is to turn other genes on or off at different points in the life cycle or in response to events in the environment.
Mutations
Copying errors in the replication of DNA that alter the proteins a gene or chromosome produces.
Microsystem
In Bronfenbrenner’s ecological perspective on development, a setting in which the child interacts with others face-to-face, such as a family or classroom.
Mesosystem
In Bronfenbrenner’s ecological perspective on development, the system of interconnected Microsystems.
Exosystem
In Bronfenbrenner’s ecological perspective on development, the layer of the context that includes the larger settings that children know only in part, such as the neighborhood and settings in which children themselves do not participate, such as parents’ workplaces.
Macrosystem
In Bronfenbrenner’s ecological perspective on development, the layer of the context that includes the larger forces that define a society at a particular point in time, including culture, politics, economics, the mass media, and historical events.
Familism
Placing a high value on the interests of the family rather than the individual.
Gene Expression
The process through which genes influence the production of specific proteins, which in turn influence the phenotype.
Cross-Fostering
In animal research, the process of removing an offspring from its biological parents and having it raised by other adults, often with different attributes than the biological parents.
Gene-Environment Interaction
The process which genotypes produce different phenotypes in different contexts.
Reaction Range
An array of phenotypic possibilities that a genotype has the potential to produce as a result of the context in which the organism develops.
Passive Gene-Environment Correlations
Similarity between the results of genetic and environmental influences due to the fact that the same parents provide both genes and environments for their children.
Evocative Gene-Environment Correlations
Similarity between the results of genetic and environmental influences due to the fact that genotypically different individuals elicit different responses from their environments.
Active Gene-Environment Correlations
Similarity between the results of genetic and environmental influences due to the fact that children select contexts that they find rewarding, and that therefore tend to maintain or strengthen their genetically influenced traits.
Niche-Picking
The process through which individuals select the environments in which they spend time.
