Course Recap (Combining content across topics) Flashcards
Week 12 (9 cards)
Following the completion of this course how are nature and nurture viewed in a modern lense?
- nature via nurture
- theoretical debates now focus on the relative contribution of nature and nurture and how they interact
What is the relevance of Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development?
key concept of how environment facilitates development
How does universal vs culturally-mediated development related to nature vs nurture?
Stress on maturation -> development is universal
Stress on experience -> development is context-dependent
What does cross-cultural evidence tell us about whether development is universal vs culturally-mediated?
Lecture 2: cultural practices can affect motor development
Examples all demonstrate effects of nurture
How do nature and nurture come together?
No denying there are things in our genetic code that influence who we become
* Direct effects
* Indirect effects (because they influence our environment)
In some cases, environment has qualitative influence, e.g. what language we learn, what faces we become expert at recognising, the content of our pretense play
In other cases, environment influences more quantitative parameters, e.g. timing of ToM development
Nature-nurture is bi-directional
Development is a complex, dynamic process, in which sequence and timing matter
Truly understanding who we are as adults requires us to appreciate the intricacies of how we came to be
* How does adult cognition trace back to childhood cognition
* How does behaviour serve us as a species
What are the different kinds of innateness?
Innate knowledge (Spelke’s core knowledge)
Lack innate knowledge but are born especially prepared to learn about crucial environmental aspects
Determine timing of critical periods for learning
What are the nature-nurture interactions through the lifespan?
Not necessarily that influence of biology diminishes as we age (and that its overtaken by environmental influences)
E.g. child’s auditory system shaped by experience even before birth
E.g. PFC doesn’t reach full maturity until adolescence - biological development linked to developmental changes in executive functioning skills
Joint influences of nature and nurture can be observed at most points throughout lifespan
How does continuinty and discontinuity appear in development?
Differs depending on focus (either age-related changes in behaviour or in underlying processes)
Developmental stages can be perceived as new stage in ability to do something or shift due to culminative effects of underlying processes
Changes can be looked at in terms of arbitrary boundaries or significant landmarks (roadtrip across Aus example)
* From certain perspective all development is ongoing and continuous
* Taking note of significant milestones is useful to assess developmental change
How does each of the following evidence relate to the nature vs nurture debate?
* Biological: twin studies, epigenetics
* Perceptual: perceptual narrowing
* Cognitive I: humans universally over-imitate
* Cognitive II: universal development trajectory for ToM (cultural effects on timing)
* Play: pretense, universal but impact of culture on content and amount
* Social & Emotional: temperament, parenting styles & attachment
* Moral: temperament, parenting styles
* Developmental disorders: neuroconstructivist approach to developmental disorders; nature vs nurture in WS?
Biological:
* twin studies: interactionist re heritability focus, nurture in rat adoption studies re parenting studies
* epigenetics: interactionist as looking at variance in gene expression due to environmental influences e.g. SES and IQ
Perceptual:
* perceptual narrowing: interactionist as neural architecture is attuned to environmental needs e.g. kitten studies
Cognitive I
* humans universally over-imitate: nature as seen from birth (infant facial expression imitation) and thought to be evolutionarily benefitial. Ability facilitates cultural transmission as complex nature of societies need to be taught for development e.g. complex tools - ability is nature but skills learnt are nurture as no innate knowledge of them prior to experience.
Cognitive II:
* universal development trajectory for ToM (cultural effects on timing): nature as born w/ ability to develop ToM & generally universal timing for passing of ToM tasks e.g. Sally Anne tasks. Nurture re timing from cultural education e.g. Japanese vs German children, Japanese children faster to learn ToM task (thought to be due to collectivistic nature of culture)
Play
* pretense: nature as universal process and shown to benefit social-cognitive development.
* universal but impact of culture on content and amount: nature on ability but nurture on frequency (e.g. Mayan parents condemning it but still occuring) and content (e.g. American (fantasy) vs Taiwanese (social routines & proper conduct themes) children)
Social & Emotional:
* temperament: nature as biological and emotional foundation of personality then highlights importance of parenting style (nurture and Eisenbergs theory)
* parenting styles: nurture as impact other cognitive development and future attachment styles
* attachment: nature as innate ability in infancy but nurture determines developmental trajectory (ie. parenting styles)
Moral:
* temperament: nature and determines best parenting style, also moral judgements are mostly stable across development (adolescents and adult moral judgement study)
* parenting styles: nurture e.g. coercive family environments vs positive adolescent-parent communication
Developmental disorders:
* neuroconstructivist approach to developmental disorders: interactionist as dynamic approach (disagrees with innate structures and Tabula Rasa)
* nature WS: condition due to genetic abnormalities, features/symptoms of condition (physical face, medical CVS, social-behavioural (affective empathy only and failure in emotional recognition), neurological brain, cognitive verbal strengths)
* nurture WS: vast heterogeneity across cases (IQ, CVS)
