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Lesson 4 The Three Major Issues in Human Development

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42 views

Lesson 4 The Three Major Issues in Human Development

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Catherine Lee
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Lesson 4: The Three Major Issues in Human Development

The following are considered to be the three major issues in human development:

I. Nature versus Nurture


The degree to which human behavior is determined by genetics/biology (nature)
or learned through interacting with the environment (nurture)

A. Nature
 Behavior is caused by innate characteristics: The physiological/biological
characteristics we are born with.
 Behavior is therefore determined by biology.
 A Determinist view- suggests all behavior is determined by hereditary factors:
Inherited characteristics, or genetic make-up we are born with.
 All possible behaviors are said to be present from conception.
 Genes provide the blueprint for all behaviors; some present from birth, others
pre-programmed to emerge with age.
 Is a developmental approach

B. Nurture
 Behaviorist theories are nurture theories - behavior is shaped by interactions
with the environment.
 Born an empty vessel- waiting to be filled up by experiences gained from
environmental interaction.
 No limit to what they can achieve - depends on quality of external influences
and NOT genes.
 The quality of the environment is KEY -You can become anything provided the
environment is right.

Nature - Nurture Interaction


Behavior is often a result of the interaction between nature and nurture. An
individual’s characteristics may elicit particular responses in other people e.g.
Temperament: how active, responsive or emotional an infant is influences in part
determines their caregivers’ responses. Gender: people tend to react differently to boys and
girls due to expectations of masculine and feminine characteristics.

Supporting Approaches & Perspective

Nature Nurture
- Physiological - Social (e.g. Helping Behavior)
- Individual Differences - Behavioral
- Developmental

II. Continuity versus Discontinuity


Continuity and discontinuity are two competing theories in developmental psychology
that attempt to explain how people change through the course of their lives, where the
continuity theory says that someone changes throughout their life along a smooth
course while the discontinuity theory instead contends that people change abruptly.
These changes can be described as a wide variety of someone's social and behavioral
makeup, like their emotions, traditions, beliefs, habits, personality and so on.
Furthermore, continuity and discontinuity disagree with one another in how they
assess the changes that someone undergoes throughout the course of their life. The
continuity theory examines the way someone changes in a quantitative and
continuous respect. Discontinuity theory, on the other hand, looks at these
changes through the lens of a qualitative analysis with an emphasis on the
discontinuous nature of how someone changes.
Developmental psychology encompasses a very wide array of observations related
to how people think, behave and interact with their environment as well as other people.
This field, at first, was focused on how young children develop but, in recent years, it has
expanded past the pediatric setting to encompass studies of how people change
throughout the course of their entire lives, up until the point of their death.

Is Child Development continuous or discontinuous?


Not all psychologists, however, agree that development is a continuous process.
Some view development as a discontinuous process. They believe development
involves distinct and separate stages with different kinds of behavior occurring
in each stage.

What is the theory of development?


Developmental stage theories are theories that divide child development into
distinct stages which are characterized by qualitative differences in behavior.
There are a number of different views about the way in which psychological and physical
development proceed throughout the life span.

III. Stability versus Change


This deals with the issue of whether or not personality traits present during
infancy endure throughout the lifespan.

The stability-change debate describes the developmental psychology discussion


about whether personality traits that are present in an individual at birth remain constant
or change throughout the life span. For example, does a naturally extroverted and
talkative baby remain that way for their entire life? The stability vs. change debate is one
of the fundamental questions in developmental psychology along with nature vs. nurture.
Typically cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are used in research concerning stability
vs. change.

Change Theorists- argue that personalities are modified by interactions with


family, experiences at school, and acculturation.

Studies of children have often revealed impressive stability over time in aspects of
development such as the attachment to their parents or in personality. However, there is
evidence which suggests a contrary view, that change is both possible and indeed, is
likely under appropriate conditions.

Freud was one of the first psychologist to emphasize the critical nature of our
early experiences for our later development. He believed that how we resolve our sexual
and aggressive urges is strongly tied to the nature of our personality as adults.
Psychoanalysts believe that personality traits developed in the first 5 years predict adult
personality.

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