Title: Nature/Nurture & Cultural Differences by Kelly Hughes
Headings: Nature/Nurture & Cultural Differences
Nature/Nurture & Cultural Differences
Outline
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Nature
How twin & adoption studies explain the influences of environment & heredity
The interaction between
genes & environment
Do genes determine
our behavior?
Evolutionary, Parental,
& Peer Influence
"In some domains it looks as though are identical twins reared apart are… Just as similar as identical twins reared together. Now that's an amazing find and I can't assure you none of us would have expected that degree of similarity." Thomas Bouchard, 1981
The relationship between
temperament & personality
"If you want to blame your parents... you are entitled to blame the genes they gave you, but not, by any facts I know... the way they treated you." M. Seligman, 1994
"We share half our genes with the banana."
Evolutionary biologist Robert May, 2001
"Men resemble the times more than they resemble their fathers." Arab proverb
"Men's natures are alike; it is their habits that carried
them far apart." Confucius, 500 B.C.E.
"Heredity deals the cards; environment plays
the hand." Charles L Brewer, 1990
"Evolution opens fields for far more important researches.
Psychology will be based on new foundations" Charles Darwin, 1859
How nature & nurture contribute to gender differences
"When [someone] has discovered why men in Bond Street wear black hats he will at the same moment have discovered why men in Tibuctoo wear red feathers." G.K. Chesterton, 1903
Nurture
Evolutionary, Parental,
& Peer Influence, cont.
"We carry to our graves the essence of the zygote
that was first us." Mary Pipher, 2009
"Genes & experiences are just two ways of doing the same thing- wiring synapses." J. LeDeoux, 2001
How cultural norms affect behavior
&
"Genes, by themselves, are like seeds dropped on pavement: powerless to produce anything." F. Waal, 1999
Cultural Differences

Content: it's an interplay among biological dispositions, developmental experiences, & current cultural situations
Nature: differing sex chromosomes & levels of sex hormones
Nurture: Gender roles & gender identity
Social learning theory: we learn by observation, imitation, reward, & punishment
Cognition: schemas help organize a child's world
The relationship between
temperament & personality
Forget nature versus nurture; think nature via nurture
"If you want to blame your parents... you are entitled to blame the genes they gave you, but not, by any facts I know... the way they treated you." M. Seligman, 1994
Natural selection: behaviors that increase one's likelihood of survival are most enduring
Second Darwinian revolution: the application of evolutionary principles to psychology
"We share half our genes with the banana." Evolutionary biologist Robert May, 2001
"Men resemble the times more than they resemble their fathers."