The “big picture” concept of development as change occurring within a dynamic social system (nurture) that is interacting in complex bidirectional ways with our genetic endowment (nature) is something I aim to incorporate into all of my developmental courses. Although our concepts of both nature and nurture are in reality far from simple, and the interaction between the two is equally complex, it is nonetheless beneficial to start students off with a simple example from which to build. It is additionally beneficial to show students how to appropriately apply animal research studies to human behavior. Below is an example of an activity that aims to demonstrate how both nature and nurture interact using a cross-fostering study in rhesus monkeys.

Learning Outcomes:

Prior to beginning this activity, students will have already been exposed to the attachment styles proposed by Mary Ainsworth, parenting styles proposed by Diana Baumrind, and temperament classification proposed by Jerome Kagan.

Upon completion of this activity, students will be able to:

1. Describe the monkey temperament, attachment, and parenting behaviors and relate them to behaviors seen in humans
2. Describe the study design used and explain the results
3. Recognize the relationship between temperament, attachment and parenting behaviors

Activity:

In addition to the assigned reading, watch the following video and write a short post that addresses the questions below. Once you have submitted your own post, comment on another student’s post, focusing on their answer to question 4.

1. Describe the 2 types of monkey temperaments. How do they relate to Jerome Kagan’s classification of human temperament?
2. Knowing what you do about attachment (Mary Ainsworth & John Bowlby) and parenting styles (Diana Baumrind) in humans, how would you classify the attachment and parenting styles of the monkeys?
3. Describe the study design, and explain why the researchers used it. What did their results demonstrate regarding temperament, attachment and parental behaviors?
4. How can these results be applied to human parent-child dyads? What are the limitations of this kind of research?