CHFD 2950 Chapter 2 Notes From textbook Week Sept 5 11 Module 3 Genes Environment Scientists published a map of the human genome the complete set of genes for building and operating a human body What makes development happen 1 How have ideas about nature and nurture changed 2 What are genes What exactly do they do 3 What is the environment 4 How do the genetic code and environmental contexts interact in development Perspectives on nature and nurture Over the time four main views have been put forward 1 Development is driven by nature 2 Development is driven by nurture 3 Development is part nature part nurture 4 Development results from the interaction of nature within nurture Development is driven by nature The idea that intelligence and other characteristics are innate and inborn not acquired or learned called nativism The prevailing view was that the embryo was preformed a miniature adult whose future anatomy and behavior were already determined 17th Century The belief in preformationism was accompanied by beliefs about human nature In general Western culture has viewed children as innately bad This outlook comes from the biblical concept of original sin the belief that all human beings are descended from Adam and Eve while inheriting the weakness that led them to disobey God and eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge Jean Jacques Rousseau was an exception he rejected preformationism and the idea that children like wild horses need to be broken Rousseau believed that children are innocent birth and develop according to nature s plan much as a flower develops The environment matters but nature plays a leading role A Parent s job is to protect the child from harmful interference and let the child s development unfold Eugenics means good genes Eugenics advocated the use of controlled breeding to encourage childbearing among people with characteristics considered desirable and to discourage eliminate childbearing among those with undesirable traits 1 The best known example was Hitler s effort to purify the Aryan race Development is driven by nature Environmentalists hold that newborn is unformed like a lump of clay and the individual s characteristics are entirely the product of experience upbringing and learning John Locke 1960
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