Behavior Genetics and Cultural Influences

Behavior Genetics

• Behavior genetics studies genetic influences on behavior.
• Nature vs. nurture debate focuses on the relative roles of genes and environment in shaping behavior.
• Twin studies indicate environment has minimal impact on personality.
• Evolutionary psychology explains behavior through evolutionary adaptations.
• Genes (heredity) affect traits through DNA sequencing variations.
• Balyaev and Trut's fox experiment demonstrated that selective breeding can alter traits, like temperament.
• Rozenweig and Krech studied environmental effects on rat brain development.

Cultural Influences

• Culture comprises shared beliefs and practices.
• Norms are social rules guiding behavior within cultures.
• Chromosomes (46 total, 23 from each parent) carry genetic information.
• Collectivist cultures prioritize group goals, while individualistic cultures emphasize personal achievements.
• Social learning theory emphasizes learning through observation and imitation.

Developmental Stages

• Puberty is the period of sexual maturation.
• Menarche marks a female's first menstrual cycle.
• Zygote is a fertilized egg, embryo (2-8 weeks), and fetus (9 weeks-birth).
• Placenta provides nutrients to the fetus.
• Teratogens are harmful agents (chemicals, viruses) affecting fetal development.
• Fetal alcohol syndrome results from alcohol exposure during pregnancy.
• Symptoms include low birth weight, head size issues, and developmental delays.
• Automatic responses (rooting, swallowing, stepping) are important.
• Habituation is decreased responsiveness to repeated stimuli.
• Temperament describes emotional reactivity.
• Heritability measures the extent of variation in a trait attributable to genes.
• Maturation refers to biological growth processes, independent of experience.
• Developmental milestones (sitting, crawling, walking) have typical ages, but variations exist.
• Schema is a mental concept that organizes knowledge about experiences.
• Assimilation is incorporating new experiences into existing schemas.
• Accommodation adjusts schemas when new information contradicts existing ones.
• Object permanence is understanding objects continue to exist when out of sight.
• Self-awareness is recognizing oneself in a mirror.
• Egocentrism is difficulty understanding others' perspectives.
• Conservation is understanding that properties are preserved despite changes in form (e.g., mass, volume).

Cognitive Development

• Theory of Mind is understanding other people's mental states.
• Inner speech (Vygotsky) helps self-regulation.
• Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years): exploring with senses and actions.
• Preoperational stage (2-7 years): using words and images, intuitive reasoning
• Concrete operational stage (7-11 years): logical thinking with concrete events.
• Formal operational stage (12+ years): abstract reasoning.

Attachment and Social Development

• Attachment styles vary regarding security to attachment figures.
• Secure, anxious, and avoidant attachment types show different behaviors in relationships.
• Stranger anxiety: fear of strangers is displayed typically around 8 months.
• Critical period: when development is most sensitive to certain stimuli.
• Imprinting facilitates the forming of attachments, typically in early life.
• Parenting styles (authoritarian, permissive, authoritative) relate to child outcomes.
• Moral Development stages (Kohlberg) are stages of increasing ethical reasoning.

Other significant factors

• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): characterized by communication, social, and repetitive behavior issues.
• Cognitive abilities (Crystallized and fluid intelligence): reflect a cognitive progression over lifetime; Fluid intelligence tends to diminish with age, while crystallized intelligence reflects accumulated knowledge.
• Cross-cultural studies examine behavior variables between different cultures.