Module 9: Environmental Influences on Behavior

The Importance of the Environment: Environment- every non-genetic influence, from prenatal nutrition to the people and things around us Experience and Brain Development: -Experience preserves and increases activated connections -Inexperience allows unused connection to degenerate Kolb & Wishaw (1998) -Rat experiments It is true; if you dont use it, you lose it. -Language and vision are examples Culture: Is the behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next What do cultures vary in? Variations in Culture: -Norms: Understood rules for accepting and expecting behavior. Norms prescribe proper behavior -Personal Space: The buffer zone we maintain around our bodies. Scandinavians, North Americans and the British prefer more than Latin Americans, Middle Easterns and the French. -Culture also varies in expressiveness and punctuality **Affects on generalization Variations Over Time: Compared to the 1960s, Americans now use email more, take their cell phones everywhere and live in two-person income households. However, increase in doubled divorce rate, tripled rate of teen suicide, fewer hours of sleep, time with family/friends, quintupled prison population, etc -Biological genes cannot describe these increases

Culture and Child-Rearing -Child rearing practices reflect cultural values and vary in time and places Similarities Across Groups: We shared many similarities due to our shared biology across cultures -Within group differences are greater than between group differences; For example, we share the same life cycle, speak to infants and respond to them in similar manners, we are less hostile if our parents are warm and supportive -Differences attributed to race may be a result of other factors: -High blood pressure -School achievement and delinquency Gender Similarities and Differences Gender: The characteristics, whether biologically or socially influenced by which people define male and female -Men and women are mostly alike: 45 out of 46 chromosomes are unisex -Men are 4 times more likely to commit suicide/alcoholism -Women are twice as vulnerable to depression and anxiety and 10 times greater risk for eating disorder Gender and Aggression Aggression: Physical and verbal behavior intended to hurt someone. Men admit to more aggression. There are two types of aggression: - Physical aggression (hitting someone) vs. Relational aggression (excluding someone) Gender and Social Power Key Points -Men: dominant, forceful, independent. Women: differential, nurturing, affectionate. -Men tend to be autocratic leaders, women tend to be democratic -Men are more likely to offer opinions; women are more likely to offer support -Gender difference tend to lessen as people age -These behaviors help sustain power inequalities Gender and Social Connectedness Key Points: -Men are more individualists while woman are relationship-oriented -Gender differences surface in childhood -In conversation, women explore relationships; men communicate solutions -Women and men alike are likely to turn to women for support -Vocations are more oriented to people and less to things for women

The Nature of Gender- there is a biological influence in gender roles -The mother provides an X chromosome, the father provides either an X (girl XX) or Y (boy XY). -During the 4th/5th prenatal months, different brain-wiring patterns develop depending on the level of testosterone and the female ovarian hormones. The Nurture of Gender- gender roles are socially constructed too Social Learning Theory- The theory that we learn Roles- A cluster of prescribed actions, expected behavior Gender Roles- our expectations about the way men and women should behave Gender Roles and Culture -Gender roles are not rigidly fixed by evolution because they vary across cultures -Nomadic societies of food gatherers; minimal divisions of labor by sex -Agricultural societies: Women stay home and men roam herding cattle -Industrial societies: Gender roles vary Gender and Child Rearing Gender Identity- Our sense of being male or female; Culture increases this Gender Typed- The acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role However three things to note: -Differences in how parents rear boys versus girls is not enough to explain gendertyping -When families discourage traditional gender typing; children organize themselves into boy and girl worlds -We develop concepts including a scheme for our own gender **Nature and nurture are interconnected