PSYC 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Open Adoption, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Birth Order
SP18 PSYC 1: 1
Lecture 8: Nature VS Nurture 04-18-2018
Biological vs
Adopted Relatives
If parenting has
influence, why are
siblings so different?
Temperament
• 1950s: common to separate twins at birth
• Present: twins are usually kept together
o Open adoption is more common now
o Gives opportunity to compare genes and environment
o On average, people are more similar to their natural parents than
adopted parents
• Adoptive parents influence
o Religious values
o Political attitudes
o Manners/ politeness
o Habits (eg. smoking)
• Negligible correlation between adopted parents, children, and siblings
• Judy Harris’ researh oluded that parets hae irtually NO EFFECT o
personality development
o This is bad
o Parenting could become worse/ neglect/ abusive
o If touted, laws could be passed that make children stay in an abusive
household
1) Only share 50% of genes with siblings
2) Genetic differences become amplified when people react to you and
siblings in different ways
3) Siblings are raised in slightly different families
a. Birth order matters (eg. first born gets more attention,
parenting develops, physical relocation is possible/ different
cities/ schools)
• All babies are born with a temperament that appears to be genetic
• Three types of babies:
o Difficult (10%)
▪ Mothers may have been addicted to drugs, babies born addicted
▪ Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (only speculated because mothers usually
do’t adit to drikig)
▪ Fussy, difficult to feed
o Easy (40%)
o Slow-to-warm 15%
▪ Afraid of other people/ overstimulation
▪ Enjoy staying by themselves
▪ Less active
▪ These babies end up taking in the environment more (more
aware) than easy babies
• What happens as these children age?
o Difficult: many will be diagnosed with ADHD (may be FAS that has been
ignored)
▪ More aggressive, more intense reactions
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