The document, titled "1.5 Developmental Psychology: Changing Men," delves into various aspects of developmental psychology. It extensively covers evolutionary perspectives on child development, the genetic foundations of development, and the role of natural selection and environmental factors in sh...
The Evolutionary Perspective on Child
Development (not relevant)
Natural selection → the evolutionary process by which those individuals of a
species that are best adapted are the ones that survive and reproduce. → they
pass on their characteristics to the next generation.
Over the course of many generations, organisms with the characteristics needed
for survival make up an increasing percentage of the population → over many
many generations this produces a gradual modification of the whole population.
Environmental factors (places, climates, food sources..) can also influence natural
selection → if environmental conditions change other characteristics might
become favored by natural selection, moving the species in a different direction.
Adaptive behavior → behavior that promotes an organism’s survival in the
natural habitat.
Evolutionary psychology emphasizes the importance of adaptation and
reproduction in shaping behavior
Exp → In the past men with certain physical characteristics and spatial thinking would be
more likely to survive (hunting more food) and reproduce (considered attractive males) →
over many many generations men with these characteristics might have become more
numerous in the population.
An extended childhood period evolved because humans require time to develop a
large brain and the complexity of human societies to become competent adults in
complex societies. Humans also take longer to become reproductively mature
than any other mammal.
Many evolved psychological mechanisms are domain specific → the
mechanisms only apply to specific domains → the mind is not a general-purpose
device that can be applied equally to all situations. Moreover, some of these
evolved mechanisms may no longer be adaptive in contemporary societies (in the
past food-scarce environment led to binging food when there was → this mechanism
might lead to obesity in today’s society where food is plentiful).
,Criticism of Evolutionary Psychology:
➢ It remains only a theoretical approach.
➢ Difficult to test
➢ Environmental and biological conditions influence each other → not one
side volutionism → evolutionary pressures influence biological structures
that then will lead to the individual to manipulate the environment, making
new environmental conditions.
Genetic Foundation of Development
Our DNA (genetic code) is not only inherited from our parents but it is what we as
species have inherited from other species that came before ours. Each of us life
began as a single cell that contained our entire genetic code → that code is
carried by our genes.
The Collaborative Genes
The nucleus of each human cell contains chromosomes which are threadlike
(filiforme) structures made up of DNA → DNA is a complex molecule that has a
double helix shape and contains genetic information of the organism.
Genes (units of hereditary information) are short segments of DNA. Genes direct
cells to reproduce themselves and to assemble proteins → building blocks of cells
,The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research
project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and
of identifying and mapping all of the genes of the human genome from both a
physical and a functional standpoint.
The human genome consists of many genes (not a single one!) that collaborate
both with each other and with internal and external nongenetic factors (genes are
collaborative)→ this collaboration also influences the activation (working to
assemble proteins) of a certain gene
The activation of a gene (gene expression) is also affected by the environment.
Exp → Hormones that circulate in the blood enter a cell, they turn a gene “on” and “off”.
The flow of the hormones is affected by environmental conditions such as light, nutrition
and behavior.
Genes and Chromosomes
The Chromosome in Prokaryotes
Prokaryotes are unicellular organisms that lack a nucleus, but, instead, generally
have a single circular chromosome: a piece of circular, double-stranded DNA
Plasmids → small loops of DNA that are extra copies of the genetic material of the
organism. They are NOT connected to the main chromosomal DNA. The plasmids
replicate independently of the chromosomal DNA
, Plasmids are not required by the cell under normal conditions but it helps the cell
to adapt to unusual circumstances.
Examples of prokaryotes are bacteria and archaea
Prokaryotes can reproduce by dividing.
The Chromosome in Eukaryotes
A eukaryote is an organism with complex cells, or a single cell with a complex
structures. In these cells the genetic material is organized into multiple linear
chromosomes in the cell nucleus. Animals, plants, algae and fungi are all
eukaryotes.
Most eukaryotes have multiple pairs of chromosomes and each chromosome
will carry a different set of instructions for the cell.
When the cell is not dividing, chromosomes are not visible → during this phase
DNA is in the form of chromatin
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