Download Culture, gender, and other environmental influences

CULTURE, GENDER, AND
OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL
INFLUENCES
Module
12
EARLY LEARNING EXPERIENCES
In our early years there are so many neural
networks forming – wired to master certain
skills (grammar, accent of language, visual
perception)
A stimulating and enriching environment helps
create and maintain these networks – “use it or
lose it” (pruning)
Rosenzweig and Krech’s rat experiment
Touch and massage – extremely important –
helps premature babies gain more weight and
develop faster neurologically
PARENTAL AND PEER INFLUENCE
Despite “popular psychology” – parental influence
is limited to: values, education, religion, politics,
manners
Parents don’t influence personality (genes)
Parents influence at the extreme end –
abuse/neglect
Peers influence food willing to eat, accent of
language/slang, styles, music, habits, popularity
path
Selection effect – similarity to peers may result
from kids seeking peers with similar attitudes and
interests
CULTURAL INFLUENCES
Culture – the enduring behaviors, ideas,
attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group
of people
Our norms – understood rules for accepted and
expected behavior – vary across cultures
influencing different behaviors
Cultural variation can occur even within one
culture
 These cultural changes occur too fast to be
rooted in genetic change.
CULTURAL INFLUENCES
Individualism – giving priority to one’s own goals
over group goals and defining one’s identity in
terms of personal attributes rather than group
identifications
 Westerners – US, Western Europe, Australia
 Still want group harmony but will switch groups more
easily to fit own needs
 Seek independence, value self-esteem, personal goals,
personal rights, and liberties
 Raise children to be independent and pursue dreams
CULTURAL INFLUENCES
 Collectivism – giving priority to the goals of one’s
group and defining one’s identity accordingly
 Easterners – Asia, Africa
 Duty to family, great respect for elders/superiors,
value interdependence, tradition, and harmony
 Raise children to honor the family
 More differences within cultures than across cultures
 Differences between race/ethnicity a result of
biological/cultural interaction
 Cultural diet differences, educational values
GENDER
Gender – the biologically and socially influenced
characteristics by which people define male and
female
Biological differences
Mental/behavioral differences
Aggression
Social power
Social connectedness differences
Nature of Gender
XX=females, XY=males
7 weeks hormones surge creating external
gender difference
Testosterone – male hormone but present in
both sexes. Responsible for stimulating the
growth of male sex organs in the fetus and the
development of the male sex characteristics
during puberty
4-6 months of pregnancy – sex hormones bathe
fetal brain creating difference
 Thicker frontal lobe women – verbal fluency
 Thicker parietal lobe in men – space perception
 Differences in hippocampus and amygdala as well
Nature of Gender
 Excess testosterone in female embryo (affect
through puberty)
 masculine appearing genitals,
 More aggressive in play, dress like males
 BUT still view self as female
 Some are lesbian but most are heterosexuals
 Biological and environmental influence
(interaction)
 Behave/look more masculine – influences how people
respond
 Sex-reassignment not successful for genital
damage in males – proof of genetic influences on
gender
 Genes and environment together result in
behavioral and cognitive differences between the
sexes
Nurture of Gender
 Role – set of expectations about a social position, defining
how those in the position ought to behave.
 Gender role – set of expected behaviors for males or for
females
 Gender roles and gender attitudes vary over time and place
 Social learning theory – we learn social behavior by
observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished
 From this we develop a gender identity – our sense of being
male or female
 Gender typing – the acquisition of a traditional masculine or
feminine role.
 Can happen despite parents discouraging it
 Cognition matters – form schemas(concepts), gender schemas
 Transgender – describing people whose gender identity or
expression differs from that associated with their birth sex.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5P9kUz0yO0
BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL APPROACH