Chapter 1 The Subject Psychology

The term psychology was derived from two Greek words

‘psyche’ and ‘logos’. Psyche means ‘soul’ and logos means
‘science or study of a subject’. Hence, the earliest definition
of psychology was, the study of the soul. As no meaning of
the word soul could be given and its nature could not be
defined, this definition was given away.
Later on psychology came to be defined as a science or study
of the mind. This definition was also not accepted because
mind as an object does not exist, what exists is only the brain.
The most widely accepted definition of psychology then
emerged. It is defined as, ‘the science of human and animal
behaviour; it includes the application of this science to
human problems’.
The first part of the definition calls psychology is a science
A science is a systematised knowledge that is gathered by
carefully observing and measuring events. We can call
psychology as a science because.....
• It follows the scientific method and approach in seeking
answers to questions related to human behaviour.
• As a science, psychology emphasizes on human
objective observation. It tries to study the relative
problems objectively and resorts to subjective
observation only when objective observation is not
possible.
 • Psychologist do experiments and make observations
which others can repeat. To gain knowledge concerning
the influence of a given factor upon human behaviour
psychologists use various forms of experimental
controls.
• As a science, it utilizes quantitative description.
Measurement is one of its main feature which others can
verify
• Psychology is a systematic science. It studies behaviour
systematically rather than casually. It follows a specific
set of procedures to understand behaviour both simple
and complex.
• Psychology is a positive, non- normative science. It is
non-judgmental in its approach.

The second part of the definition says that it is the science of

human and animal behaviour.
As a science, Psychology studies behaviour through
experiments and controls. A lot of these experiments cannot
be carried out on human subjects thus animal subjects are
used. Moreover, a lot of human an animal behaviour is alike
or similar and inferences drawn can be generalised.

The last part of the definition says behaviour. Behaviour

includes anything a person or animal does which can be
observed in some way. Behaviour are responses or reactions
we make or activities we engage in. It may be simple or
complex. Some behaviours are overt, they can be outwardly
seen or sensed by an individual or observed. Some behaviours
are internal or covert. The behaviour which we cannot see or
could be the cause of our overt behaviour is called as covert
behaviour. All behaviours, covert or overt are associated with
or triggered by some stimulus in the environment or changes
that happen internally .You may see a tiger and run or think
that there is a tiger and decide to flee.
The term response refers to behaviour that is the result of a
stimulus.
The term stimulus refers to any object or event that elicits a
sensory or behavioural response in an individual.
The next important aspect of psychology is whether it is a
science or an art.
Psychology is both a science and an art. The application of
scientific knowledge when used to solve real life problems is
the applied or application of psychology. It is a skill or knack
for doing things, which is acquired by study, practice and
special experience. The therapist talking to a worried client,
the educational psychologist advising a school board on a new
curriculum, etc. are all practicing the art of Psychology. Just
as a Doctor or an Engineer learns to use his scientific
knowledge to solve practical problems, these psychologists
have learned the knack or artistry, by special training to solve
problems.
Psychology as a discipline. Is it a biological science or a
social science?
Psychology studies behaviour, experience and mental
processes. Psychology, though is a very old knowledge
discipline, is a young science. However, what kind of science
is psychology, still remains a matter of debate, particularly
because of the new interfaces of it that have emerged in recent
times. Psychology is generally categorized as a social science
but it should not come to you as a surprise that not only in
other countries, but in India also, it is a subject offered in the
faculty of science both at undergraduate and postgraduate
level. In the first case, psychology considers itself as a
discipline, which focuses largely on biological principles to
explain human behaviour. On the other hand, psychology as a
social science focuses on how behavioural phenomena can be
explained in terms of the interaction that takes place between
the person and the social cultural context of which he or she is
a part. This brings us to the next topic, psychology as a
biological science and psychology as a social science.

Psychology as a social science

Social science is the study of the human society including all

its developmental issues and relationship. Psychology may be
considered a social science, as it deals with the human
relationships and processes of adjustments of individuals with
the society.
As has been said earlier, psychology is recognised more as a
social science because it studies the behaviour of human
beings in their socio- cultural context. Humans are not only
influenced by their social cultural context, they create them
too. Psychology as a social science discipline focuses on
humans as social beings.
Psychology is treated as one of the branches of social science
as:
• It studies psychological relations of human beings within
their socio -cultural context
• It traces the anthropological and sociological issues
associated with the development of human societies and
their effect on human behaviour.
The study and application of social psychology has been in
practise all over the world to help people to adjust with
their societies, solve their day-to-day problems and
understand the problems of other members of the society
as well. Attempts to analyse social problems from the
psychological perspectives has been there for a long time.
There are various analysis and explanations of the social
behaviours of human beings on the basis of psychological
perspective. Some of these are
• Attitudes and how attitudes can be changed.
• the process of attribution and interpersonal relationship
• Formation or prejudice, its results and ways to combat it.
• Altruistic behaviour of individuals and bystanders.
People grow up in different families under complex social and
cultural conditions. We can see some regularity in the
relationship of their nature, experiences and mental processes
with their social and physical environment. But at the same
time, there are variations in their behaviours and experiences
which would be difficult to predict using the known
psychological principles. One can understand, why and how
individuals in communities become quite helpful and self-
sacrificing in crisis but sometimes people become anti-social
under similar conditions indulging in looting and exploitation
when some crisis occurs. This shows that psychology deals
with human behaviour and experiences in the context of their
society and culture. Thus, psychology is a social science with
focus on individuals and communities in relation to their
social cultural and physical environment.

Psychology as a biological science

The idea of psychology as a biological science emerged

when new advancements and breakthroughs occurred in
the existing streams of research work. Certain ideas in
philosophy coupled with the methods and findings of
Physiology facilitated in establishing Psychology as a
biological science. If the history of psychology is
reviewed thoroughly, it is revealed that a great deal of
research has been done by a number of physiologists or
biological scientists. The basic psychological principles,
their causes and explanations have given a number of
physiologist. Psychology can be proven to be a branch
of biological science primarily through their research
work. Different correlations between human behaviours
or mental processes and biological and physiological
functioning have been observed some of them are:
• In case of sensory, perceptual and cognitive functioning,
different areas of the brain, spinal cord and nervous
system along with the five sense organs are involved
invariably.
• In case of thinking and other intellectual functioning,
motivation and even in emotions different areas of the
 brain, autonomic nervous system and glandular systems
are significantly responsible
• Few neurotransmitters, genes, DNA and glands are
implicated in case of certain psychological disorders such
as schizophrenia, mood disorders, and autism and
personality disorders.
Thus, it can be said that various mental processes or
behaviours find their expression through bodily processes.
Even various bodily processes are the concomitant of
different behaviours.

Schools of Psychology
Psychology as a separate area or branch of study split away
from philosophy, a little over 100 years ago. The biggest
question was, “What should be the subject matter of
psychology? What should psychology study?” Hence, the
various schools of psychology emerged
The first psychological lab was established in 1879 at the
University of Leipzig, Germany by a German psychologist
Wilhelm Wundt.
The first formal psychological lab in the U.S. was set up at the
John Hopkins University in 1883 and within a few years all
major Universities had their psychological labs and
departments.
1. Structuralism:
• This early school of psychology grew up around the
ideas of Wilhelm Wundt and was established in the
Cornell University by one of his students E.B.Titchener.
• The goal of the structuralist was to find the units or the
 elements which make up the mind.
• They thought that as in chemistry, a first step in the study
of mind should be a description of the basic or
elementary units of sensation, image and emotions which
compose it.
• For instance, the structuralist did experiments to find the
elementary sensations such as red, cold, sweet which
provide the basis for more complex mental experiences.
• The main method used by the structuralist to discover
these elementary units of mind was Introspection.
• Subjects were trained to report as objectively as possible
what they experienced in connection with a certain
stimulus, disregarding the meanings they had come to
associate with that stimulus.
• A subject might, for example be presented with a
coloured light, a tone or an odor and asked to describe it
as minutely as possible.
• These experiments using introspection have given us a
great deal of information about the kinds of sensations
people have but other psychologists of the time
challenged the idea that the mind could be understood by
finding its element and rules for combining them.
• It did not satisfy many other psychologists because it was
considered less scientific as the introspective reports
could not be verified by outside observers.
This led to the development of a new perspective in
psychology.

2. Functionalism:
• An American psychologist William James, along with
Harvey Carr and James.R.Angell at the University of
 Chicago proposed that psychology should study what
mind and behaviour do.
• They were specifically interested in the fact that mind
and behaviour are adaptive i.e. they enable an individual
to adjust to a changing environment
• They emphasized that psychology should study what
the mind does and how the behaviour functions in
making people deal with their environment.
• Instead of limiting themselves to the description and
analysis of mind, the functionalist did experiments on the
ways in which learning, memory, problem solving and
motivation helps people and animal adapt to the
environment
• In brief, as the name suggests this school of psychology
studied the functions of mind and behaviour.
3. Behaviorism:
• This school of psychology originated with John Watson.
• Watson rejected mind as a subject matter of psychology
and insisted that psychology be restricted to the study of
the observable and verifiable activities of people and
animal.
• In addition to its focus on behaviour as a proper subject
matter of psychology, behaviorism had three other
important characteristics:
a) The emphasis on conditioned response as the elements or
building blocks of behaviour.
b) Emphasis on learned rather than unlearned behaviour. It
denied the existence of inborn or innate behavioural
tendencies.
c) A third characteristic of behaviourism was its focus on
 animal behaviour. Watson held that there are no essential
differences between human and animal behaviour and
that we can learn much about our own behaviour from
the study of what animals do.
4. Gestalt psychology:
• This school of psychology was founded in Germany
by Max Wertheimer, and his colleagues Kurt
Koffka and Wolfgang Kohler.
• These pioneer psychologist felt that structuralist were
wrong in thinking of the mind as being made up of
elements and maintained that the mind is not made up
of a combination of simple elements.
• The German word ‘gestalt’ means form or
configuration. The gestalt psychologist
maintained that the mind should be thought of as
resulting from the whole pattern of sensory activity
and the relationships and organisation within this
pattern.
• For instance, we recognise a tune when it is transposed
to another key, the elements have changed but the
pattern of relationships have stayed the same.
To take another example when we look at the dots in figure
our mental experience is not just of dots or elements but of a
square and triangle sitting on a line. It is the organisation of
the dots and their relationships that determine the mental
experience you have
Thus, the point made by the gestalt psychologist in their
opposition to structuralism was that mental experiences
depend on the pattering and organisation of elements and is
not simply due to the compounding of elements.
• In other words, according to the Gestalt psychologists,
the mind is best understood in terms of the ways
elements are organised.

5. Psychoanalysis:
• Psychoanalysis is not essentially a school of
psychology, but it has had a great impact on the
thinking and theorizing of many psychologist
• Psychoanalysis was found in Vienna by the
psychiatrist Sigmund Freud.
• In the course of his practice with neurotic patients,
Freud developed a theory of behaviour and mind
 which said that much of what we do and think results
from urges or drives which seek expression in
behaviour and thought.
• A crucial point about these urges and drives according
to the psychoanalytic theory, is that they are hidden
from the awareness of the individual. In other words,
they are unconscious.
• It is the expression of these unconscious drives which
shows up in behaviour and thought.
• The term unconscious motivation thus describes the
key idea of psychoanalysis.
• Freud elaborated on this basic theme of unconscious
motivation which resulted in a theory and therapy
called as psychoanalysis.

Modern perspectives or the eclectic view of

psychology.

The discoveries made by the Structuralism, Gestalt and

Functional schools of psychology have become part of
the general store of psychological knowledge, but these
schools have vanished. Behaviourism and psychoanalysis
are still in modified forms, among the current
psychological perspectives. Together with these hardy
survivors, the new perspectives which have arisen in the
last 50 years or so give psychologist a rich variety of
viewpoints. These newer viewpoints include the
biological, cognitive, developmental, humanistic and
social perspective.
 To illustrate some current psychological perspectives,
we will look at their strengths and weaknesses also as
to how they try to deal with behavioural observations
such as the following
• On the playground, a 6 year old Sam pushes little
Samantha off her tricycle and rides away on it.
• Mr A, a 55 year old man finds that he is forgetting
important appointments and has trouble recalling
newspaper stories he read the day before.
• How might a psychologist with a behavioural,
biological, cognitive, developmental, humanistic or
social perspective try to understand these two
examples?

The Behavioural Perspective

A psychologist with a behavioural perspective might
answer that Sam learned to behave this way because the
behaviour paid off in the past.
In case of Mr. A, the 55 year old man with memory
problems, the behavioural perspective would focus on
the precise description of the changes in the man’s
behaviour. A psychologist with a behavioural perspective
might also be interested in trying to teach behavioural
skills to this man, so that he might learn to compensate
for other behavioural problems caused by his
forgetfulness.
The Biological Perspective
Psychologists with this perspective try to relate
behaviour to functions of the body i.e. the nervous and
the glandular systems in particular
In the case of Mr A, the biological perspective
psychologist would wonder whether he has a brain
problem, perhaps he’s in the beginning stages of
Alzheimer’s disease and the chemistry of the brain is at
fault or due to any hormonal problems.
The Cognitive Perspective
The word cognition refers to perception of the world
around us, some aspects of learning, memory, thinking
and comprehension of a social environment. Another
way to understand cognition is to say that it refers to the
processing or information that we receive through the
senses. Such processing is the basis of the experiences
we have which we call the mind. Differences in the ways
we process information may lead to differences in
behaviour.
A cognitively oriented psychologist will try to explain
Sam’s behaviour in terms of his perception of Samantha
as a weak little girl who can be bullied.
In the case of Mr A the cognitive perspective would look
at his memory problem. Memory is a major focus of this
perspective. Questions would be raised as to exactly
what was forgotten and what was remembered, how the
processing of information had changed and whether the
man could be helped by giving him new ways of
processing incoming information for storage in his
memory and later retrieval from his memory store.
The Social Perspective
Because social psychologist try to understand normal
social interactions, they would be interested in both Sam
and in Samantha and the setting of their interaction.

Social psychologist might well adopt the cognitive

framework described above or be interested in Sam’s
attitude towards little girls to determine whether his
behaviour towards Samantha is consistent with his
attitude.
With respect to the forgetful man Mr. A, the social
perspective would focus on how the memory deficit
affects Mr. A’s relationship with other people. In
particular this perspective would look for changes in the
number and quality of his relationships.

The Humanistic Perspective

This perspective emphasise the persons sense of self.
From this viewpoint, Sam’s behaviour might be seen as a
part of his quest for personal competence, achievement
and self-esteem. Ideally as he matures, Sam will find
ways of enhancing his sense of self that will not harm or
deprive others.
Regarding the 55 year old man, a humanistic
psychologist might be less concerned about the causes of
the man’s forgetfulness than about its effects. Will his
self-esteem be damaged? How will it affect his
competence at work and his effectiveness as a person?
 From the humanistic perspective such questions are of
central importance.

Fields of Psychology/Branches of psychology/Scope of

Psychology

Psychology has been defined as a science of behaviour.

behaviour has various aspects and it can be studied from
various angles one psychologist may use sensitivity training
groups to enhance human effectiveness while another may
study the development of intelligence during childhood.
Psychologist driven not only in their behaviour interest but in
the degree to which they are involved with the application of
psychology to life’s problems- The art of psychology.
Another way of describing the work of psychologists to
discuss some of the major subfields of psychology – clinical
psychology, counselling psychology, school and educational
psychology, social psychology, industrial and organisational
psychology.
I) Clinical Psychology:
a. Psychiatrist and clinical psychologist deal with the
behaviour of individuals which are ‘unusual’ or
‘atypical’.
b. Clinical psychologist specialize by helping clients
with behavioural problems by providing therapy for
various mental disorders and may be involved in
conducting interviews and administering
psychological tests to diagnose a client’s problem and
psychological methods for their treatments and
rehabilitations.
c. Many people are confused about the differences
between a clinical psychologist and a psychiatrist. The
clearest distinction between them is that a clinical
psychologist normally holds a PhD or M.A degree
whereas a psychiatrist holds a M.D degree.
d. The Ph.D. clinical psychologist has taken four or
five years or forced graduate work in psychology
department. The Clinical psychologist has about two
years of postgraduate work and usually works under
the supervision of a Ph.D. psychologist. The
psychiatrist, on the other hand has gone to the medical
school and has then completed three or four years of
residency training in psychiatry. This difference in
training means that the clinical psychologist who does
not have medical training, cannot prescribe drugs to
treat behavioural disorders. It also means that
whenever there is a possibility of a medical disorder, a
patient should be examined by a psychiatrist or other
physicians. On the other hand psychologists are
usually better trained in doing research; thus clinical
psychologists are somewhat more likely than
psychiatrists to be involved in systematically studying
better ways of diagnosing, treating and preventing
behaviour disorders.
e. Psychologists are also more likely than psychiatrist
to use psychotherapy methods that have grown out of
scientific research. Clinical psychologist also tend to
rely more heavily than psychiatrists on standardised
tests as an aid to diagnose behaviour disorders.
f. Confusion between the fields of clinical psychology
and psychiatry arises because both provide
psychotherapy. They both use various techniques to
relieve the symptoms of psychological disorders and
help people understand the reason for their problem.
The clinical psychologist and psychiatrist should also
be distinguished from a psychoanalyst. A
psychoanalyst is a person who uses the particular
psychotherapeutic techniques which originated with
Sigmund Freud. Anyone who has had a special
training required to use these techniques can be a
psychoanalyst. Since psychoanalysis originated in
Freud’s medical and psychiatric practice, it was first
adopted by psychiatrists and then today many
psychiatrists are also psychoanalyst. Clinical
psychologist who have had the psychoanalytic training
can also be psychoanalysts.
g. Opportunities in clinical psychology attract quite a
few to this field of psychology.

2. Counselling psychology
• The work of counselling psychologists quite
similar to that of clinical psychologist.
 • The difference between them is that counselling
psychologists generally work with people who
have milder emotional and personal problems.
• They may use psychotherapy in order to help
people with such problems
• Counselling psychologists are often consulted by
people with specific questions, like choice of
career or educational program.
• In their practice counselling psychologists may
make extensive use of tests to measure aptitudes,
interest and personality characteristics.
• A number of counselling psychologists try to help
people who are having problems with family
living, these are marriage and family counsellors.

3. School and Educational psychology:

• Much of the school psychologist job consist of
diagnosing learning difficulties and trying to remedy
them.
• Using tests and information gained from consultations
with the student and his or her parents, the school
psychologist tries to pinpoint the problems and suggests
action to correct it.
• For instance a school psychologist might suggest that the
poor reader be assigned to a remedial reading class.
Other school psychologists are involved in vocational
and other forms of counselling and are also called as
school counsellors.
• Educational psychology may include school psychology
but essentially educational psychologists are usually
involved with more general, less immediate problems
than are school psychologist or school counsellors.
• Educational psychologists are especially concerned with
increasing the efficiency of learning in school by
applying their psychological knowledge about learning
and motivation to the curriculum.
4. Industrial and organisational psychology:
• Deals with workplace behaviour focusing on both the
workers and the organisations that employ them.
• Industrial or organisational psychologist are concerned
with training employees, improving work conditions
and developing criteria for selecting employees.
• For example an organisation psychologist might
recommend that the company may adopt a new
management structure that would increase
communication between managers and staff.
• The background of industrial and organisational
psychologists often include training in cognitive and
social psychology.
5. Developmental psychology:
• Studies the physical, social and psychological
changes that occur at different ages and stages over
a life span, from conception to old age.
• The primary concern of developmental psychologist
is how we become what we are.
 • For many years the major emphasis was on child
and Adolescents development. Since changes in
behaviour occur rapidly in the early years of life,
child psychology, the study of children’s behaviour,
comprises a large part of developmental
psychology. However today an increasing number
of developmental psychologists shows strong
interest in adult development and ageing.
• The focus on the, biological, social cultural and
environmental factors that influence psychological
characteristics such as intelligence, cognition,
emotion, temperament ,morality and Social
relationships
• Developmental psychologists collaborate with
anthropologists, educationists, neurologist, social
workers, counsellors and almost every branch of
knowledge where there is a concern for growth and
development of human being.
6. Social psychologist:
• Explores how people are affected by their social
environments, how people think about and influence
others.
• Social psychologists are interested in such topics as
attitudes, conformity and obedience.
• The primary focus of social psychology is
understanding how individuals are affected by other
people. for example, it includes the study of the ways
 in which we perceive other people and how those
perceptions affect our behaviour towards them
• Social psychologists have developed and perfected
techniques for measuring attitudes and opinions.
Surveys of political opinions, consumer attitudes and
attitudes concerning controversial social questions
give needed information to politicians, business
executives and community leaders when they must
make important decisions.

Heredity And Environment

An important question that is addressed in psychology

is, “To what extent are various aspects of our
behaviour shaped by inherited tendencies (heredity)
and to what extent they are learnt (environment)”?
This is usually known as the nature nurture question.
The answer to such a question is not one suggesting
that either experience or heredity dominates rather
many aspects of our behaviour seem to represent the
complex function between these factors.

Heredity: All aspects of our behaviour including our

consciousness, results from complex biological
processes within our bodies. It is important to consider
the relationship of heredity to our behaviour. Heredity
can be defined as biologically determined
characteristics passed from parents to their off
springs. Many aspects of our biological nature are
inherited so in an indirect manner heredity can indeed
influence behaviour.
Every cell of our body contains a set of biological
blueprints that enables us to perform its essential
functions. This information is contained in the
chromosomes which are threadlike structures found in
the nuclei of nearly all the cells. This information is
contained in the chromosomes. Chromosomes contain
thousands of genes. Genes, are segments of DNA
which are the biological blueprints shaping our
development and all basic bodily processes. Our
genes are working in complex combinations, and
together with forces in the environment ultimately
determine many aspects of our biological make up.
Most cells in the human body contain 46
chromosomes existing in pairs and when they divide
the chromosome pair splits. The sperm and the ova
i.e., the male and the female sex cells contain 23
chromosomes and when they join to form a fertilized
zygote from which one human being develops with 46
chromosomes. For each of us half of our genetic
material comes from our mother and half from our
father.
These basic mechanisms explain why persons who are
related resemble one another more than persons who
are totally unrelated and also why the closer the family
of tie between individuals, the more similar they tend
to be physically. The closer such links the greater the
proportion of chromosomes and genes family
members share. Because genes determine many
aspects of physical appearance, similarity increases
with closeness of relationship thus siblings tend to be
more alike than cousins. In the case of identical twins
 or monozygotic twins a single fertilized egg splits into
two and forms two embryos in contrast non identical
or fraternal twins grow from 2 eggs fertilized by two
different sperm. Identical Twins sharing all of their
genes are usually remarkably similar in appearance.
They are surprisingly similar in other respects as well
including their religious beliefs, their television
viewing preferences and even their grief responses.
Genetic factors play a role in a wide range of physical
and mental disorders. For example, researchers have
discovered the gene that causes Huntington’s disease,
a rare, progressive neuromuscular disorder. Persons
afflicted with Huntington’s disease experience a
gradual and onset of uncontrollable jerky movements
in their limbs. Unfortunately there is at present no cure
for this disease. Children of an affected person have a
50% chance of inheriting the gene that causes the
disorder. The onset of symptoms usually appears after
age 40, long after many parents have their children and
therefore too late for them to reconsider the decision to
start a family. However merely possessing a particular
gene does not always mean that a specific effect will
follow. Genes do not control behaviour or other
aspects of life directly, rather they exert their influence
indirectly through their impact on chemical reactions
in the brain or other organs. These reactions, in turn,
may depend on, or be strongly influenced by
environmental conditions. One example is
phenylketonuria (PKU), a genetically based disorder
in which persons lack the enzyme necessary to
breakdown phenylalanine-a substance present in many
foods. Affected persons on a normal diet tend to
accumulate phenylalanine in their bodies. This in turn
interferes with normal development of the brain and
leads to mental retardation, seizures and hyperactivity.
Altering environmental conditions, however can
prevent this chain of events. If PKU is detected during
the first few weeks of life, babies placed on a diet low
in phenylalanine do not develop the PKU symptoms.
Dietary restrictions can then be relaxed in the child
after the majority of brain development is complete.
Hence, biology is not necessarily destiny where human
beings are concerned. Our genes do predispose us
towards showing certain patterns of behaviour or
developing certain physical conditions or
characteristics but the environments in which we live
play a major role in determining whether and to what
extent such tendencies become reality. So, while there
is increasing evidence for the role of genetic factors in
many aspects of human behaviour, heredity is only part
of the total story.

Environment: On the other hand, environment has

been found to play a major role in development as
well. Environment includes all the forces acting upon
an individual. The environmental forces start acting
upon an individual from the time of conception in the
mother’s womb.
The environment is of two types: physical and social.
The physical environment includes the climate, the
weather of the place or residence, the nature, the
geographical conditions.
 The social environment includes the neighborhood
and other people around us.
The superior biological factors do not work if a
conducive environment has not been provided to her
child.
A disturbed environment in the house can produce
anxieties in the child which can hamper his healthy
growth. In the formative years if the child does not get
proper nutrition, his physical growth will get affected
even though he has healthy genes. Research has shown
that proper language development takes place if the
child is exposed to the language in childhood and get
proper environment to learn. In adulthood spontaneous
and up to the mark language learning does not take
place.

Genetic And Environmental Effects

If both heredity and environment influence
human behaviour an important question is, how do we
separate these factors in order to determine the
relative contribution of each to any particular aspect
of behaviour? Psychologist have used twin studies and
adopted studies to address this question
Twin studies are helpful in detangling the relative role of
genetic and environmental factors in a given form of
behaviour because of the fact that identical twins share
all the same genes while fraternal twins do not. Under
normal conditions, however, twins are raised in
environments that if not identical are at least very similar
as twins generally are raised in the same home, attend
the same schools and so on.
A major problem with such joint studies is that the
environments in which twins are raised are often not
precisely identical. This is especially true for fraternal
twins, who may differ in gender and so experience quite
different treatment by parents and other persons. For this
reason, twin studies while suggestive, cannot provide
conclusive evidence on the relative role of genetic and
environmental factor
Adoption studies, however, do seem to come closer to
this goal. Research has focused on identical twins who
because they are adopted into different homes, are
separated very soon after birth. Because the twins have
identical genes, differences between them with respect to
various aspects of behaviour can reasonably be attributed
to environmental factors.
Adoption studies involving identical twins provide
evidence for the role of genetic factors in many aspects
of human behaviour and provide evidence for the role of
genetic factors in many aspects of human behaviour,
even when they are raised in sharply contrasting
environments. Identical twins show remarkable degree of
similarity in everything from various aspects of their
personality to attitudes and values, hobbies, career
choices and even job satisfaction.
Using such methods psychologists have been able to
arrive at estimates of what is known as heritability for
various traits.
This term refers to the extent to which variations among
individuals with respect to a given aspect of behaviour or
a given trait are due to genetic factors. For example if
heritability for a given trait is 50 this means that 50% of
 the variability in this trait appears to be shown by
individuals due to genetic factors. Suppose it was found
that the heritability of intelligence is.50, this means that
50% of the variation in intelligence among individuals in
the population for which heritability was estimated is due
to genetic factors. It does not mean that half of each
person’s intelligence is determined by genetic factors and
half by environmental factors .So heritability estimates
should be treated with caution.
The laws of heredity
Uniformity and variability
Uniformity; Out of a pair of contrasting character
present together, only one is able to express itself while
the other remains suppressed. The one that expresses is
the dominant character and the one unexpressed is the
recessive. The recessive character can express itself only
when the pair consists of both recessive.
Variation; Variation in the genetic code causes physical or
biological differences between individuals. Variation refers
to the fact that organisms belonging to a given species vary
in many different ways. Indeed such variations is a basic
part of life. Human beings come in a wide variety of shapes
and sizes and on countless numbers of dimensions.