Chapter 5
Module 5.1
Genes and Behavior
•
Monozygotic
, or identical, twins develop
from a single fertilized egg and have identical
genes.
•
Dyzygotic
, or fraternal, twins develop from
two eggs and share only half of their genes,
like any other sibling set.
• Studying sets of twins is a useful way to learn
more about the influence of genes on
Genes and Behavior
• From twin studies and other genetic research we know that genes play a big role in development, but these things are still unclear:
– How genes shape mental processes and behavior
– Which aspects of the environment are most important in influencing psychological processes
– How genes and environment work together to shape mental processes and behavior
Genetic Principles
• Chromosomes
– Most animal and plant cells contain a nucleus
with hereditary material – instructions in the form of strands called chromosomes.
– Humans have 46 chromosomes – 23 pairs – in every body cell except for the sex cells. Sperm and ova each contain 23 unpaired chromosomes that unite at conception.
Genetic Principles
• Genes
– The genes that form the sections of the
chromosomes control the chemical reactions that direct an individual organism’s development.
– Genes control protein production in order to
produce specific characteristics – a specific group of genes will exert a large influence over height, weight, or eye color.
Figure 5.1
Figure 5.1 Genes are sections of chromosomes in the nuclei of cells (scale is exaggerated for illustration purposes).
Genetic Principles
• Genes
– Genes are composed of DNA, special
chemicals that control the production of
RNA. RNA in turn controls the production
of proteins.
– The proteins either become part of the
individual’s body, or control the rate of
chemical reactions in the body.
Genetic Principles
• Genes
– Cells that contained paired chromosomes also contain paired genes.
– If both genes of a pair are identical, the individual has received a homozygous pair.
– If the genes are different, the individual is heterozygous for that trait.
Genetic Principles
• Genes
– If an individual receives one gene for wavy hair and another for straight hair, that individual’s hair will be wavy.
– The gene for wavy hair is a dominant gene. It is referred to as dominant because it will exert its effects even if the inheriting individual is
Genetic Principles
• Genes
– A
recessive gene
will only show its effects
in the homozygous condition. You must
receive a gene for blue eyes from both
parents in order to develop blue eyes.
– The gene for blue eye color is a recessive
gene.
Concept Check:
If you are wavy-haired but your brother has straight hair, are you homozygous or heterozygous for that trait, or is it impossible to say without looking at your genes?
It is impossible to say without genetic testing.
Concept Check:
What about your brother? What type of gene
pair did he inherit?
Your brother must be homozygous recessive.
Recessive genes only exert influence in the
Concept Check:
If both parents have blue eyes, what can we
predict about their children?
Genetic Principles
• Sex-linked genes
– The sex chromosomes determine whether an individual will become a male or female.
– There are two types of sex chromosomes, called X and Y.
– Females receive an X from each parent; males receive an X from mother and a Y from father.
Figure 5.5
Genetic Principles
• Sex-linked versus sex-limited genes
– Sex-limited genes are present in both
sexes, but are activated by the presence of
sex hormones.
– Behavior differences between the sexes
(such as the tendency for males to be
more aggressive) are thought to be
influenced by sex-limited genes.
Concept Check:
A man who is colorblind marries a woman
who is homozygous dominant for normal
color vision. What is the likely outcome for
any children they might have?
None of their children will be colorblind.
The daughters of the union will be carriers of
the condition.
Genetic Principles
• Genetic screening
– Genetic diseases have been of great concern. – Some examples of these are:
• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Huntington’s Disease
• PKU
Genetic Principles
• Genetic screening – Ethical questions:
– Choice to have children.
– Should health insurers be able to know what a person’s genetic make-up is?
Genetic Principles
• Heritability
– Some traits are easily traced to a single
gene.
– An example of such a trait is Huntington’s
Disease. There are many others.
Genetic Principles
• Heritability
– But even traits traced to a single gene may be strongly environmentally influenced.
– An example of this kind of gene is PKU, which
caused mental retardation, but only if the affected person’s diet includes foods containing a certain enzyme.
– If the person with the PKU gene is kept on a strict diet for the first two decades of life, he will have normal intelligence.
Genetic Principles
• Heritability– The concept of heritability helps us to rephrase the question to make it more useful.
– Does a difference in behavior or outcome depend
more on differences in genetic make-up or differences in environment?
Genetic Principles
• Heritability
– Heritability is measured from 0 to 1.
– 0 means that almost none of the variance in the trait in due to heredity – what religion a person practices has no basis in heredity.
– 1 signifies that variance in the trait is due entirely to heredity. If you have Huntington’s Disease or not will depend solely on whether you get the gene.
Genetic Principles
• Heritability
• Some behaviors that have been shown to have a moderate degree of heritability:
– Time spent watching TV – Religious devoutness – Dietary preferences
• These differences can be traced to biological factors that genes influence (activity levels, digestive
Temperament and Gene-Environment Interaction
• Research suggests that temperament is stable over much of the lifespan.
• Kagan was able to strongly relate infant temperament to later levels of sociability.
• Genetic influences make contributions to temperament, although environment is also a factor.
The Fetus and the Newborn
• Prenatal Development
– The growth and changes that occur before
birth are referred to as prenatal
development. There are identifiable stages
of this period of life.
The Fetus and the Newborn
• Prenatal development
– Zygote Fertilized egg cell – Blastula
– Gastrula
– Embryo 2 to 8 weeks after conception
The Fetus and the Newborn
• Prenatal development
– Prenatal brain development
• By seven weeks the hindbrain and midbrain are developed enough to produce movements.
• By 36 weeks those brain structures produce head and eye movements in response to sounds, a
sleep-wake cycle, and REM sleep.
• The cerebral cortex is relatively inactive during this period.
The Fetus and the Newborn
• Prenatal development
– The maternal-fetal connection
• Everything that mother consumes reaches the baby through the placenta.
• If mother’s nutrition and prenatal care are poor or deficient, baby will also be deprived.
• If mother drinks, uses drugs, or smokes, baby will receive these substances, often with serious
The Fetus and the Newborn
• Prenatal development– Fetal alcohol syndrome
• If mother drinks alcohol during pregnancy, the baby is likely to be born with fetal alcohol
syndrome (FAS).
• FAS is characterized by stunted growth of the head and body, facial, cranial and ear
malformations, neurological damage, learning disabilities, and mental retardation.
Figure 5.12a
Figure 5.12a The more alcohol a woman drinks during pregnancy, the more likely her baby is to have anomalies of the head, face, and organs. (Based on data of Ernhart et al., 1987)
The Fetus and the Newborn
• Prenatal development
– There is a milder version, fetal alcohol effects (FAE).
– A child with FAE appears normal but has
impaired academic skills and mild behavioral problems.
– The more alcohol mother drinks, and the longer she continues drinking, the greater the risk to the developing baby.
– There is no “safe” level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
The Fetus and the Newborn
• Prenatal development – Maternal smoking
• Smoking (before and after birth) has been associated with an increased risk of SIDS.
• Conduct disorder has been found to correlate with mother’s smoking during pregnancy more strongly than with father’s antisocial behavior, SES, lack of supervision, or use of harsh punishment by the parents.
The Fetus and the Newborn
• Prenatal Development
– To maximize the chance of having a healthy baby with an undamaged brain, a pregnant woman
should avoid using alcohol, tobacco and other
recreational drugs; follow a nutritious diet; receive regular prenatal care; and consult with her health care provider before using any prescription or
Module 5.2
Figure 5.14
Figure 5.14 Infants pay more attention to faces than to other patterns. These results suggest that infants are born with certain visual preferences. (Based on Fantz, 1963)
Behavioral Capacities of the Newborn
• Newborns’ learning and memory
– Infants as young as one month old can discriminate between phonemes.
– Infants show a marked preference for their mother’s voice over another woman’s voice.
– They showed this preference on the day of their birth, suggesting that they have some memory of her voice from before birth.
Behavioral Capacities of the Newborn
• Newborns’ learning and memory
– Older infants (2-3 months old) show ability to learn responses and remember them for days afterwards, such as kicking their legs to make a mobile move.
– Nine-month-olds can learn to press a lever to move a toy train around a track, and can retain this memory for a fairly long time.
• There are two types of research design used in studying human development
– A cross-sectional study compares groups of individuals of different ages simultaneously.
– A longitudinal study follows a single group of individuals as they develop.
– A sequential design combines cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, studying groups of
people of different ages at multiple points in each group’s lifespan.
Research Designs for Studying
Development
Table 5.1
Research Designs for Studying
Development
• Sources of bias in developmental research
–
Selective attrition
, or differential survival,
is the increased probability of some kinds
of subjects dropping out.
–
Cohort effects
are a form of bias created
because groups of contemporaries all have
the same experience, knowledge or
Concept Check:
Follow-up of a 10-year-long study of a group of adults with infant children who agreed to take parenting classes and job training in exchange for public assistance until gaining employment shows high overall levels of satisfaction.
What type of study is this?
What source of bias would be of great concern in this study?
What type of study is this? Longitudinal
What source of bias would be of great concern in this study?
Jean Piaget’s Views of Development
• Piaget believed that the effect of any experience on a person’s knowledge or thinking depended on the person’s maturity combined with previous
experiences.
• He began his psychological career administering IQ tests, and became fascinated by the incorrect
Jean Piaget’s Views of Development
• Piaget came to believe that children think
differently from adults.
• Piaget used his own extensive observational
studies of children to support his conclusions.
An Overview of Piaget’s Theory
• Piaget believed that a child constructs new mental processes as he or she interacts with the
environment.
– Behavior is based on schemata (singular - schema.)
– A schema is an organized way of interacting with objects in the world.
– New schemata are added, and old schemata are changed as the child matures.
An Overview of Piaget’s Theory
• Adaptation of old schemata takes place through two processes.
– Through assimilation, a person applies an old schema to a new object.
– Through accommodation, a person modifies an old schema to fit a new object.
– People in all stages switch back and forth between these two strategies, but ultimately cognitive change is accomplished through accommodation.
An Overview of Piaget’s Theory
• The four stages of intellectual development
– Sensorimotor Birth to 1 years of age – Preoperational 1 to 7 years of age
– Concrete Operations 7 to 11 years of age
An Overview of Piaget’s Theory
• The sensorimotor stage
– Piaget called the first stage the sensorimotor
stage because at this early age behavior consists primarily of simple motor responses to sensory
stimuli.
– Examples of these would be the grasping and sucking reflexes.
– Piaget believed that infants respond only to what they see and hear, not what they remember or imagine.
An Overview of Piaget’s Theory
• The sensorimotor stage– Object Permanence
• Jean Piaget believed that infants lacked a concept of object permanence during the early months of life.
• Object permanence is the idea that objects
continue to exist even when one cannot see them or otherwise sense them.
• According to Piaget, an infant does not know that a hidden object is still there until about 8-9 months of age.
An Overview of Piaget’s Theory
• The Sensorimotor stage
– Recent research by Baillergeon suggests that infants 6-8 months old who are tested differently from methods used by Piaget do have a limited ability to understand object permanence.
– Baillergeon’s research results suggest that
infants can differentiate between possible and physically impossible events.
p.170
Possible event. The block appears to be behind the track, and the car passes by the block.
Impossible event: The raised screen shows a box on the track right where the car would pass, After the screen lowers the car goes down the slope and emerges on the other side.
An Overview of Piaget’s Theory
• The Sensorimotor Stage
– As infants progress through the sensorimotor stage, they seem to develop a concept of self. – At about 1 year of age, they begin to show signs
that they recognize themselves.
– They also begin to show self-conscious emotions such as embarrassment.
An Overview of Piaget’s Theory
• The Preoperational stage
– Piaget called the second stage of cognitive
development the preoperational stage because the child lacks operations.
– The term “operations” refers to reversible mental processes.
– The lack of operations leads to errors in cognition such as egocentric thinking – the child for
example knows that he has a brother, but doesn’t understand that he is his brother’s brother.
An Overview of Piaget’s Theory
• The Preoperational Stage
– Another example of a concept that
preoperational children lack is
conservation
.
– The inability to conserve results in a failure
to recognize that changes in shape and
arrangement do not always signify
changes in amount or number.
Figure 5.24 A child sits in front of a screen covering four cups and watches as one adult hides a surprise under one of the cups.
Figure 5.24A child sits in front of a screen covering four cups and watches as one adult hides a surprise under one of the cups.
Figure 5.24 Then that adult and another (who had not been present initially) point to one of the cups to signal where the surprise is hidden. Many 4-year-olds consistently follow the advice of the informed adult; 3-year-olds do not.
Table 5.2
An Overview of Piaget’s Theory
• The Concrete Operations stage
– From about age 7 children begin to exhibit
reversible operations and seem to understand the conservation of physical properties.
– According to Piaget, during the stage of concrete operations children can perform mental
operations on concrete objects.
– They may, however, have trouble with abstract or hypothetical ideas.
An Overview of Piaget’s Theory
• The Formal Operations stage– Formal Operations is Piaget’s term for the mental processes used to deal with abstract, hypothetical situations.
– These are processes that demand logical, deductive reasoning and systematic planning.
– Piaget proposed that children reach this stage just before adolescence (at about age 11.)
– Researchers have found that some people take
longer to reach formal operations, and some people never do.
Table 5.3
An Overview of Piaget’s Theory
• Are Piaget’s stages distinct?
– Piaget believed that the four stages of
intellectual development were discrete, and
that each one represented a major
reorganization in cognitive processes.
– More recently though, researchers have
shown that this conclusion is not entirely
warranted.
An Overview of Piaget’s Theory
• Are Piaget’s stages distinct?
– Preoperational children can answer different versions of the conservation tasks correctly.
– In general, the progression between the stages appears to be gradual, so that the difference
between stages may not be one of either having the ability or not; it may actually be that the
younger child has the same ability but only uses it for simple tasks.
Figure 5.27
Figure 5.27 (a) With the standard conservation-of-number task, preoperational children answer that the lower row has more items. (b) With a simplified task, the same children say that both rows have the same number of items.
An Overview of Piaget’s Theory
• Implications for education: Piaget
– Children must discover certain concepts on their own.
– Children’s attention must be directed to key
aspects of concepts when they are ready to learn those concepts.
– The teacher needs to determine the child’s level of functioning and then teach material appropriate to that level.
Module 5.3
Erikson’s Ages of Human Development
• Erikson divided the human life span into eight
ages, each with its own social and emotional
conflicts.
• In this way he sought to provide a model of
why people behave the way they do, given
the decisions that they are facing according
to age.
Erikson’s Ages of Human Development
• When the conflict is resolved in a positive and
constructive manner, the person moves into
the next stage in a psychologically healthy
state.
• If the conflict is not resolved, the negative
effects will most likely carry over into future
stages, and have a detrimental effect on the
challenges that are yet to be faced.
Erikson’s Ages of Human Development
• Ages 0 - 1– The infant faces the issue –
• “Is my social world predictable and supportive?”
• The conflict is basic trust versus basic mistrust. • Ages 1 – 3
– The toddler asks the question –
• “Can I do things for myself or must I always rely on others to help me?”
Erikson’s Ages of Human Development
• Ages 3 – 6– The preschooler needs to figure out –
• “Am I a good person or a bad person?” • The conflict is initiative versus guilt.
• Ages 6 – 12
– In an expanding social world, the school-aged child wants to know –
• “Am I successful or am I worthless?”
• The preadolescent faces the struggle with a sense of industry versus inferiority.
Erikson’s Ages of Human Development
• Adolescence
– Teenagers seek independence and the answer to a fundamental question –
• “Who am I?”
• The adolescent must resolve the conflict between a settled identity versus role confusion.
• Young Adulthood
– Young adults deal with the importance of companionship and connection –
• “Shall I share my life with another person or live alone?” • The conflict is that of intimacy versus isolation.
Erikson’s Ages of Human Development
• Middle age
– In the mid-adulthood one seeks to have contributed meaningfully to society
-• “Will I add anything of value to the world?”
• The conflict is the achievement of generativity versus stagnation. • Late Adulthood
– Toward the end people face a deep question
-• “Have I lived a meaningful life, or squandered my time?” • We struggle to determine whether we have arrived at a stage of
Table 5.4
Infancy and Childhood
• Attachment theory– Attachment is a long-term feeling of closeness between a child and a caregiver
• Early developmental psychologists believed that
feeding was the primary cause of attachment between mother and child.
• Later, John Bowlby (1973) and other developmental psychologists theorized that infants who develop a
good sense of attachment to adults who care for them have a better sense of safety and confidence as they start to explore the world around them.
Infancy and Childhood
• Early attachment in humans
– Some researchers wanted to know why the quality of attachment between human children and their parents seemed to vary so much in quality.
• Mary Ainsworth devised a test called the Strange Situation to examine what factors might contribute to this variation.
Infancy and Childhood
• Early attachment in humans
– In the Strange Situation study:
• A mother and infant (12 to 18 months of age) enter a room with toys in it.
• A stranger enters the room. • Mother leaves the room. • Mother returns to the room.
• Mother and the stranger leave the room. • The stranger returns to the room.
Infancy and Childhood
• Early attachment in humans
– The psychologists who observed the
Strange Situation classified the infants’
responses as follows:
• Securely attached
• Anxious or insecurely attached
• Anxious and avoidant
Infancy and Childhood
• Early attachment in humans
– Uses of the Strange Situation:
• Has been used with fathers as well as mothers and children
• Predicts the quality of the child’s future relationship with parents
• Has also been used with grandparents and grandchildren, and even pets and their
Infancy and Childhood
• Early attachment in humans
– When interpreting these results remember:
• Parental behavior does have an effect on attachment. • The effect of parenting on the child’s innate
temperament also needs to be considered. • A child who is born with a pleasant and calm
temperament may elicit more affectionate behaviors from a parent than a less predictable and fussier
infant.
• The study may have limited applicability across cultures.
Infancy and Childhood
• Social development in childhood
– The quality of a child’s friendships appears to be of crucial importance during middle childhood
• Some children are popular and have little trouble making friends and gaining admirers.
• Some children are rejected, outcast and avoided by most other children.
• Controversial children are accepted by some peers and rejected by others.
– In most cases, these statuses remain consistent from year to year.
Adolescence
• Over the course of the twentieth century, adolescence in our society has lengthened.
– It is generally recognized to begin at puberty, the onset of changes that result in sexual maturity.
Adolescence
• The turbulence of adolescence is seen in
moodiness, conflict with parents, and
tendency to risky behavior.
• These trends may reflect hormonal
fluctuations and brain maturation, but may
also be culturally influenced.
• There are many cultures in which there is no
adolescence. Teenagers are married and
Adolescence
• The secular trend of earlier puberty and a societal movement toward a lengthened education and
postponement of marriage have influenced the American experience of adolescence.
Adolescence
• Identity development– Adolescence is the time of “finding oneself.”
• Western society offers many choices to teenagers. • This is invigorating and yet also can cause anxiety.
• An adolescent’s concern about the future and achieving self-understanding has been referred to as the identity crisis.
• The crisis may or may not be so turbulent, depending on the adolescent.
Adolescence
• Identity development
– James Marcia developed a set of identity
statuses based on two major elements of identity development.
• Whether or not one is actively exploring the issues of identity development – “crisis”
• Whether or not one has made any decisions – “commitment”
Adolescence
• Identity development
– Having given decisions no real thought and having no clear sense of identity is identity diffusion.
– Having made firm decisions without giving them much thought is foreclosure.
– Seriously considering issues without making any decisions is a state of moratorium.
– Having explored the possibilities and made one’s own decisions is a state of identity achievement.
Adolescence
• Identity development
– Marcia’s statuses are useful for thinking about the important dimensions of finding a stable identity. – It is possible that identity achievement does not
happen “all at once.”
– One may settle on a career well before finding a committed relationship.
– It is also possible or even common to rethink decisions later in life.
Adolescence
• The “Personal Fable”
– According to David Elkind, teenagers are particularly prone to harbor beliefs such as:
• “It won’t happen to me!”
• “Nobody understands how I feel.”
• “Everyone cares about how I look and what I am wearing.” – also known as the “imaginary
audience.”
– These beliefs may be adaptive in some situations, but can also lead to risk-taking behavior and feelings of alienation from parents and peers.
Adulthood
• The beginning of young adulthood is marked
by commitments in the areas of career,
relationships and lifestyle.
• The quality of the period known as middle
age is influenced in part by the outcome of
these early adult decisions.
Adulthood
• The midlife transition
– The “midlife crisis” is a dramatic expression for the reassessment of personal goals that many people experience.
• A more low-key and accurate term is midlife transition.
• Some abandon unrealistic goals set in youth and set new goals that fit with their current lives.
• Others try to fulfill some of those early life dreams, or set new ones.
Adulthood
• Old age
– Despite the stereotypes we hold, old age is not a uniform experience for humans.
• Some people do deteriorate rapidly, either physically or intellectually.
• Others remain active and alert into their 80s and well beyond.
• In general, the elderly in our society have been experiencing improved health, activity, and
Adulthood
• Old age
– A commonly voiced concern is how to maintain a sense of dignity and self-esteem
• The course of youth and middle age influences this sense.
• The amount of regret about how that time was used also has an effect.
• Cultural attitudes towards aging are also important. • The more a culture values its elders, the easier it
Adulthood
• Old age
– Elderly people generally differ from younger people in some of their social habits.
– They will more frequently seek the company of familiar people.
– The elderly will often try to retain some control over their lives, even when faced with failing health.
Adulthood
• The psychology of facing death– Death can occur at any age, but we usually associate it with the later years of life.
• The way we deal with death is culture-based and is constantly evolving.
• Terror-management theory states that we cope with our deep fear of death by actively avoiding the
thoughts of it and maintaining an optimistic and hopeful world-view.
• Even being casually reminded of mortality increases people’s defense of their belief system, whatever that may be.
Social and Emotional Developmental Issues
• The things that you do at an earlier age no
doubt have some effect on your later life.
• You can change your life at any age, but the
earlier you decide what is important to you
and how you want to spend your limited time,
the easier it will be to live your life in a
Module 5.4
• Diversity: Gender, Culture and Family
• There are many interesting differences
between men and women.
• People tend to have strong opinions about
what causes these differences, but there is
little basis for certainty about the causes.
Gender Influences
• Cognitive differences
– Females tend to perform better in language-related tasks, especially language fluency.
– Males generally do better on difficult spatial and mathematical tasks.
– It has been proposed that male ability in spatial tasks is related to our early hunter-gatherer
lifestyle, but male rats seem to exhibit this quality also.
Gender Influences
• Differences in social situations
– There are large and consistent differences in
male and female play, but these are only evident in social contexts.
– Girls’ play tends to be more cooperative and quiet and boys’ tends to be more competitive and more likely to dissolve into disputes about rules.
– In unsupervised situations, boys often dominate and intimidate girls.
Gender Influences
• Male-female relationships
– By the time adolescence begins, males and females may not be prepared to communicate with each other.
• Males tend to demand what they want, and women tend to cooperate.
• Males are more concerned with issues of status compared to other men.
• Women prefer expressions of sympathy from listeners; men often fail to understand this. – These are generalizations. Not all male-female
Ethnic and Cultural Influences
• Membership in a minority group molds a person’s development in two ways:
– The customs of the group may differ significantly from those of other groups.
– Members of the minority group are affected by the attitudes of other people who may treat them differently or expect certain behaviors of them based on stereotypes.
Ethnic and Cultural Influences
• Acculturation is a transition from feeling
connected to the culture of origin to feeling
like part of the culture of a new country.
• It is a gradual process and may take more
than a generation to complete.
Ethnic and Cultural Influences
• Some immigrants remain partially connected to their cultural heritage and develop a bicultural identity, alternating between memberships in two cultures depending on context.
• To some extent we are all multicultural, as varying contexts of work and our social lives may present us with different rules and norms to follow.
• However, for the immigrant or first generation resident of the United States, these transitions are more pronounced and intense.
The Family
• Research has not shown any reliable connection between birth order and personality or other
qualities.
• The fact that older and younger children may behave in certain ways in the home is probably specific to that situation.
• Family size does appear to have some influence on children’s IQ scores, with smaller families showing higher IQ scores than larger ones.
Figure 5.29
Figure 5.29 Children from small families tend to score higher on IQ tests than children from large families. However, within a family of a given size, birth order is not related to IQ. If we combine results for families of different sizes, first borns have a higher mean score, but only because many of them come from small families. (Adapted from Rodgers et al., 2000)
The Effects of Parenting Style
• Diane Baumrind described four basic styles of parenting based on the dimensions of warmth and control:
– Authoritative parents impose controls but show warmth and encouragement to the child.
– Authoritarian parents impose control but tend to be emotionally distant from the child.
– Permissive parents are warm but impose few limits. – Uninvolved parents are distant and do little more than
The Effects of Parenting Style
• Children of authoritative parents tend to be most self-reliant and cooperative.
• Children of authoritarian parents tend to be obedient but also distrustful and not very independent.
• Children of permissive parents are frequently socially irresponsible.
• Children of uninvolved parents tend to be impulsive and hard to discipline.
The Effects of Parenting Style
• Reasonably consistent links have been found
between the parenting styles and child
behavior.
• These results do not necessarily apply across
ethnic groups and cultures.
• It is unclear if the parents’ behavior shapes
the children’s behavior; the children’s
behavior shapes the parents’, or if both are
true to some degree.
The Effects of Parenting Style
• The Nurture Assumption
– Studies of adopted children and their parents show little correlation between parenting style and child behavior.
– Harris and other researchers believe that parenting style only influences child behavior at home.
– Parents exert influence by controlling the environment in which the child is being raised.
– Harris proposes that the peer group is the strongest influence on the personality of the child.
Parental Employment and Child Care
• Although we tend to assume that western models are the norm, child-rearing practices vary greatly between world cultures
– Communal child rearing, use of paid help, and many other variations exist from our traditional model of the stay-at-home mother.
– In general, whether loving stay-at-home parents rear children or children receive high quality day care for part of the day, child development
Nontraditional Families
• Some models of family life that are considered “nontraditional” are:
– Single mothers
– Gay and lesbian couples raising children
– Mother as primary breadwinner while father stays at home
• Research indicates that what matters most is that the child has a stable, emotional relationship with at least one adult.
Parental Conflict and Divorce
• Not so long ago, divorce was an unusual outcome for marriage.
– An estimated 75% of African-American and over one-third of European-American children will
experience the divorce of their parents.
– These children show more academic, social, and emotional problems than children whose parents have not divorced
– This may be partly explained by the reduced attention and increased economic hardship experienced by these children.
Parental Conflict and Divorce
– It may also be related to the prolonged exposure to conflict that often accompanies divorce.
– The younger the child is when the divorce occurs, the milder the effects generally tend to be.
– Longitudinal studies suggest an increased tendency to conflict with parents and other children among children of divorce.
Parental Conflict and Divorce
• During the first year after the divorce, children
exhibit more attention seeking and pouting behavior, and boys tend to be more aggressive at home and school.
• Effects were often worse if a non-working mother took a job outside the home immediately afterwards. • Girls frequently have problems adjusting to life with
a stepfather, but stepsiblings in “blended” families often get along better than do biological siblings.
Parental Conflict and Divorce
• Results vary across cultures. In African-American families extended family members often pitch in to ease the burden. • Children of all backgrounds show a variety of adjustment
patterns. Many are amazingly resilient.
• Should parents stay together for the “children’s sake”? • The answer depends on the level of conflict. Children
appear to suffer most of all, whether parents split up or stay together, when parents are constantly battling.
