Unit 2 - Prenatal Development

• Recent years emphasizes on the study of diversity and is a developing area of research in field of developmental psychology
• Field of developmental psychology is an ethnocentric one dominated by a Euro-American perspective
• The dominant knowledge base of current developmental psychology comes from Euro-American researchers studying the development of children from their own cultural experience
• Studies looked diversity issues through positivistic methods more than holistic and integrative ones
• Since 1960s, when examining cross-cultural demography came into the fore in mainstream psychology
• This discipline has fragmented into independent parts the understanding and study of various issues of diversity (e.g., sexual orientation, sex/ gender, race/ethnicity, aging, disability)
• Minimum studies are coherent to examine diversity within a more complex framework
• Diversity


  The presence of difference
• The most common usages of diversity refer to social difference, or differences among people
• Ways people can differ

  • Gender
  • Race
  • Disability
  • Weight
• Gender


  • The study of gender, including related topics like sex roles and sex differences, is by far the most-researched aspect of diversity
  • Gender is a good case study for understanding that majority-group status is conferred by status and control over resources and not mere statistical majority
• There are about 97 males in America for every 100 females and, because women tend to live longer than men, they become more of a statistical majority as they age
• Even with legal protections against discrimination of women in the workplace, in 2011, a gender wage gap still existed such that women earn about 80 cents for every dollar earned by men
• Race


  • Racial distinctions are based on physical and facial characteristics, skin color, and hair type and color that developed in response to particular geographic and climatic forces
  • The most common race labels are limited in that they combine color-based racial notions (e.g., White, Black) with ethnic and linguistic (e.g., Asian, Hispanic) elements
  • Many people now identify themselves on government surveys as biracial or multiethnic (e.g., having parents from different racial or ethnic groups)
• Disability


  • Disability takes many forms and includes any condition that affects individuals' vision, hearing, mobility, learning and memory, or communication ability
  • Disability increases with age
  • Disability rates tend to be slightly higher in women than in men, and higher in White and Black Americans compared with other minority groups
  • People with disabilities also have lower incomes and higher rates of living in poverty than do able-bodied people
• Weight


  • Body shape and size is a visible aspect of diversity
  • Research on the consequences of overweight and obesity for health, social opportunity, and well-being has exploded in the past several years
  • Currently, about two out of every three American adults are overweight (having a body mass index, or BMI, over 25), and one in three is obese, having a BMI of 30 or more
  • Obesity rates are higher among women than among men, among racial and ethnic minority groups than among Whites, and among lower income compared with middle- and high-income persons
  • Body size informs self-image and self-esteem
  • Prejudice and discrimination against people because of their (heavy) weight is widespread and, unlike most other forms of discrimination, legal
  • Overweight and obesity are associated with tremendous loss of social status and opportunity
• These statistics offer a glimpse of the extent of social differences around us
• Diversity


  A good thing or a bad thing, something to be preserved and celebrated, or something to be overcome
• Diversity can be approached from several intellectual perspectives, each imparting a different meaning to the concept
• Psychology of diversity


  • Considers how individuals' thoughts, feelings, and behavior are intertwined with their diverse social environments
  • Social difference is constructed and maintained by individuals
  • Social difference exerts influence on individuals
• Diversity is socially constructed

  • As individuals living in a social world, we confront and process volumes of social information each day
  • We tend to rely on information that is most available in our memory banks to help us make judgments about other people, and this information leads us to make mistakes in judging the diversity of our social environments
• The individual is a social actor


  • We typically bring into our interactions with other people a set of beliefs and expectations about them
  • These expectations can function in two ways: guiding the way we act toward other people and influencing the way others react to us
  • Our behavior toward others actually alters the extent of difference in our social environment
  • Our actions toward socially different others are also driven by our feelings about ourselves
• Diversity is a social influence


  • Our behavior is influenced by a variety of social forces, one of which is our differences from others
  • The experience of diversity acknowledges that we live among people who, themselves, are constructors of their social world
  • Other people categorize you based on dimensions of social difference
• Influence on identity


  • Our identities—whom we regard ourselves as—incorporate the impressions and beliefs others hold regarding us
  • The discrepancy between our identities and the way other people identify us has profound implications for our psychological well-being and social adjustment
• Influence on behavior


  • Others' beliefs and expectations about the traits and behaviors of the members of a social group comprise a role—a script for conducting oneself in the ongoing drama of life
  • Social roles are a double-edged sword: they are comfortable contexts in which to live because playing the expected role brings the approval of others, but they are also limiting and constrain what a member of a social group should be or do
• Biology affects behavior also through mechanisms of heredity regulated by genetic principles
• Nature versus nurture controversy

  How much of our behavior is due to inherited factors and how much to environmental factors
• Genetics


  • The study of heredity, the manner in which traits and characteristics (for example, eye color) are passed from parent to offspring
  • Each human cell, except sex cells, contains 23 pairs of chromosomes, a total of 46
  • Sex cells—the sperm and the egg—each contain 23 chromosomes but form a total of 46 when they unite
  • Chromosomes are strands of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) in the nuclei of cells that carry genetic information, genes
• Genetic studies in psychology

  • Researchers in the field called behavioral genetics study, through both family and twin studies, the way in which genetic factors affect behavioral traits
  • In family studies, the focus is on the investigation of blood relatives to see how similar they are with respect to some trait
  • Twin studies compare identical twins and fraternal twins for various similarities in appearance and behavior to see which traits/behaviors are affected by genetic makeup
  • Studies of genetic defects (for example, certain types of developmental disabilities) also provide pertinent information on the effects of heredity/environment upon behavior
• Influence of genes on child development

  • While some aspects of development may be strongly influenced by biology, environmental influences may also play a role
  • From the earliest moments of life, the interaction of heredity and the environment works to shape who children are and who they will become
• Heredity/environment


  Factors that influence behavior
• Influence of Genes on Child Development

  • Genetics
  • Parenting
  • Experiences
  • Friends
  • Family
  • Education
  • Relationships
• Child development involves a complex interaction of both nature and nurture
• While some aspects of development may be strongly influenced by biology, environmental influences may also play a role
• Conception


  1. Ovulation

  2. Sperm penetrates egg

  3. Sperm and egg fuse to form zygote
• Genotype


  All of the genes that a person has inherited
• Phenotype


  How the genes are actually expressed
• Genotype


  Represents a blueprint for how children grow up
• Environment


  Determines how the genes will be expressed
• Factors That Influence How Genes Are Expressed

  1. Interaction of genes with other genes

  2. Interaction between genotype and environment