Psych 140 Exam 1
Culture -✅✅ -Material & symbolic tools that accumulate through time, are passed
on through social processes, & provide resources for the developing child
✅✅
Material tools - -Cultural tools, including physical objects & observable patterns
of behavior such as family routines & social practices
✅✅-Cultural tools, such as abstract knowledge, beliefs, & values
Symbolic tools -
Mediation - ✅✅-The process through which tools organize people's activities &
ways of relating to their environments
Social enhancement - ✅✅ -The most basic social process of learning to use
cultural resources, in which resources are used simply because others' activities
have made them available in the immediate environment
✅✅
Imitation - -The social process through which children learn to use their
culture's resources by observing & copying the behaviors of others
✅✅
Explicit instruction - -The social process in which children are purposefully
taught to use the resources of their culture
Cumulative cultural evolution -✅✅ -The dynamic ongoing process of cultural
change that is a consequence of variation that individuals have produced in the
cultural tools they use (e.g., developing technologies)
Heredity -✅✅-The biological transmission of characteristics from one generation
to the next
Genes - ✅✅ -The segments on a DNA molecule that act as hereditary blueprints for
the organism's development
•Human genome is about 30,000 genes in 23 chromosome pairs
Genotype -✅✅-The genetic endowment of an individual
Phenotype - ✅✅-The organism's observable characteristics that result from the
interaction of genotype with the environment
Natural selection -✅✅ -The process through which species survive & evolve, in
which individuals with phenotypes that are more adaptive to the environmental
conditions survive & reproduce with greater success than do individuals with
phenotypes that are less adaptive
,Chromosome - ✅✅
-A threadlike structure made up of genes. In humans, there are
46 chromosomes in every cell except sperm & ova
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) - ✅✅ -A long, double-stranded molecule that makes
up chromosomes
•Made of pairs of nucleotides (Adenine>Thymine; Guanine>Cytosine)
Zygote - ✅✅-The single cell formed at conception from the union of the sperm &
the ovum
Germ cells - ✅✅ -The sperm & ova, which are specialized for sexual reproduction &
have half the number of chromosomes normal for a species
Somatic cells - ✅✅-All the cells in the body except for the germ cells (the sperm &
ova)
Mitosis - ✅✅ -The process of cell duplication & division that generates the
individual's cells except sperm & ova
•It occurs throughout the life of the individual
Meiosis - ✅✅ -The process that produces sperm & ova, each of which contains
only half of the parent cell's original complement of 46 chromosomes
•Represents the initial stage of shuffling genetic material from the parent generation
to produce new genetic variations in the offspring
Monozygotic (MZ) twins - ✅✅-Twins who come from one zygote & therefore have
identical genotypes
✅✅-Twins who come from two zygotes
Dizygotic (DZ) twins -
X chromosome - ✅✅-One of the two chromosomes that determine sex; in females,
both members of the 23rd pair of chromosomes are X, & in males, one member of
the 23rd pair is
•Females: XX
•Males: XY
Y chromosome - ✅✅-One of the two chromosomes that determine sex; in males,
one member of the 23rd pair of chromosomes
✅✅-The specific form of a gene that influences a particular trait
Allele -
Homozygous - ✅✅-Having inherited two genes of the same allelic form for a trait
Heterozygous - ✅✅-Having inherited two genes of different allelic forms for a trait
,Dominant allele - ✅✅ -The allele that is expressed when an individual possesses
two different alleles for the same trait
Recessive allele - ✅✅ -The allele that is not expressed when an individual
possesses two different alleles for the same trait
Carriers -✅✅ -Individuals who are heterozygous for a trait with a dominant &
recessive allele & thus express only the characteristics associated with the dominant
allele but may pass the recessive allele, including for a recessive disorder, on to their
offspring
Incomplete Dominance - ✅✅ -Outcome in which a trait is affected by both alleles &
will display characteristics that are intermediate between those associated with the
two alleles
•E.g., red allele + blue allele = purple flower phenotype; Human skin pigment
(melanin) alleles
Codominance - ✅✅ -Outcome in which a trait that is determined by two alleles is
different from the trait produced by either of the contributing alleles alone (e.g.,
children with type AB blood may have a type-A mother & a type-B father
Polygenic inheritance - ✅✅ -Refers to the contribution of a variety of genes
(sometimes very many) to the phenotype of a particular trait (e.g., behavioral traits
like empathy, intelligence, aggression, & risk-taking)
•Usually NOT one gene for a given trait
✅✅-An alteration in the molecular structure of an individual's DNA
Mutation -
Gene pool - ✅✅-The total variety of genetic info possessed by a sexually
reproducing population
Chromosomal disorders (examples) - ✅✅-•Down syndrome: Extra copy of
chromosome 21
•Klinefelter syndrome: Extra X chromosome in males (XXY)
•Turner syndrome: Lack of an X chromosome in females (XO)
, Phenotypic plasticity (low vs high) - ✅✅ -The degree to which the phenotype is
open to influence by the environment, rather than determined by the genotype
•In traits with low plasticity (such as eye color) the genotype is strongly influential &
the phenotype develops in a highly predictable manner, irrespective of environmental
factors
•In traits with high plasticity, the genotype exerts less pressure, so phenotype is
easily influenced by the environment & develops less predictably (e.g., intellectual
skills & abilities)
Canalized - ✅✅ -A trait that is canalized follows a strictly defined path, regardless
of most environmental & genetic variations
✅✅
Heritability - -A measure of the degree to which a variation in a particular trait
among individuals in a specific population is related to genetic differences among
those individuals (e.g., height has a heritability of 90%)
Kinship studies - ✅✅ -Studies that use naturally occurring conditions provided by
kinship relations to estimate genetic & environmental contributions to a phenotypic
trait
•Children share 50% of their genes with each parent & siblings (except for MZ twins)
share 50% of their genes with each other
Family study - ✅✅ -A study that compares members of the same family to
determine how similar they are on a given trait
Twin study - ✅✅ -A study in which groups of monozygotic twins & dizygotic twins of
the same sex are compared to each other & to other family members for similarity on
a given trait
Adoption study - ✅✅ -A study that focuses on children who have been reared apart
from their biological parents
Niche construction - ✅✅ -How behaviors, activities, & choices of individuals actively
shape the environments (niches) in which they live
•E.g., An unusually quiet & nondemanding infant girl may have lacking social &
communication skills among entering school because she may receive little social
interaction or stimulation from her busy family
C0-construction - ✅✅ -The shaping of environments through interactions between
children & their caregivers, neighbors, & siblings
•E.g., The quiet baby may have fared differently in a less busy family in which a
caregiver took a great deal of pleasure & time interacting with a quiet &
companionable baby
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