1.4: Topics in Development
- Page ID
- 233799
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Image Source: Mother's Love. Photo by Mark Colomb, CC BY 2.0. Wikimedia Commons
Nature and Nurture
Why are people the way they are? Are features such as height, weight, personality, being diabetic, etc. the result of heredity or environmental factors, or both?
This question has puzzled philosophers, psychologists and educators for hundreds of years. This is frequently referred to as the nature vs. nurture debate -- are we the result of nature (our genetic background) or nurture (our environment)? Today, most researchers agree that child development involves a complex interaction of both nature and nurture. It is difficult to isolate the root of any single behavior as a result solely of either nature or nurture.
- Nature refers to all the genes and hereditary factors that influence who we are:
- our physical appearance
- our personality characteristics
- Nurture refers to all the environmental variables that impact who we are,:
- our early childhood experiences
- how we were raised
- our social relationships
- our surrounding culture
Image Source: Different colored Lego building blocks. Photo by Mourizal Zativa on Unsplash
Building Blocks
Think of the influences listed below as building blocks.
- genetics
- parents and parenting
- friends, family, and other relationships
- experiences
- education
While most people tend to have the same basic building blocks, the components can be combined in an infinite number of ways. Consider your own overall personality...
- How much of who you are today was shaped by your genes?
- How much of who you are today is a result of your lifetime of experiences?
From the earliest moments of life, the interaction of heredity and the environment works to shape who children are and who they will become. While the genetic instructions a child inherits from his parents may set out a road map for development, the environment can impact how these directions are expressed, shaped or even silenced.
The complex interaction of nature and nurture does not just occur at certain moments or at certain periods of time; it is persistent and lifelong.
A Closer Look at the Nature vs. Nurture Debate
Nature
Some philosophers such as Plato and Descartes suggested that certain things are inborn, or that they occur naturally regardless of environmental influences. Nativists take the position that all or most behaviors and characteristics are the result of inheritance. Advocates of this point of view believe that all our characteristics and behaviors are the result of evolution. Genetic traits handed down from parents influence the individual differences that make each person unique.
Nurture
Other well-known thinkers such as John Locke believed in what is known as tabula rasa, which suggests that the mind begins as a blank slate. According to this notion, everything that we are, and all our knowledge is determined by our experience.
Empiricists take the position that all or most behaviors and characteristics result from learning. Behaviorism is a good example of a theory rooted in empiricism. The behaviorists believe that all actions and behaviors are the results of conditioning. Theorists such as John B. Watson believed that people could be trained to do and become anything, regardless of their genetic background.
Consider...
- When a person achieves tremendous academic success, did they do so because they are genetically predisposed to be successful or is it a result of an enriched environment?
- If a man abuses his wife and kids, is it because he was born with violent tendencies or is it something he learned by observing his parent’s behavior?
Examples of biologically determined characteristics (nature) are generally observable:
- eye, hair, and skin color
- blood type
- dimples and freckles
- curly hair
- tongue rolling
- earlobe attachment
However, genetic diseases which may or may not be observable are also biologically determined. Something like life expectancy and height have a strong biological component, but they are also influenced by environmental factors, for example nutrition and lifestyle.
Some characteristics are tied to environmental influences (nurture):
- a child's behavior can be linked to influences good and bad:
- observing parents treating others with respect (good)
- observing older children engage in violent behavior on the playground (bad)
Kevin Davies of PBS's Nova described one fascinating example of this phenomenon:
- Perfect pitch is the ability to detect the pitch of a musical tone without any reference:
- Researchers have found that this ability tends to run in families and believe that it might be tied to a single gene.
- They've also discovered that possessing the gene alone is not enough to develop this ability. Instead, musical training during early childhood is necessary to allow this inherited ability to manifest itself.
- Height is another example of a trait that is influenced the interaction of nature and nurture.
- A child might come from a family where everyone is tall, and he may have inherited these genes for height
- if he grows up in a deprived environment where he does not receive proper nourishment, he might never attain the height he might have he had grown up in a healthier environment.
What researchers do know is that the interaction between heredity and environment is often the most important influence of behavior and development -- it's not either nature or nurture, but some combination of both.
- genetic factors interact with one another
- environmental interact with one another
- family circumstances
- social experiences
- overall culture
- both genetic and environmental influences interact with one another
Continuity versus Discontinuity
Is human development best characterized as a slow, gradual process, or is it best viewed as one of more abrupt changes? The answer to that question often depends on which developmental theorist you ask and what topic is being studied.
The theories of Eric Erikson and Jean Piaget are called stage theories. Stage theories or discontinuous development assume that developmental change often occurs in separate and distinct stages that are qualitatively different from each other, and in a set, universal sequence. At each stage of development, children and adults have different qualities and characteristics. Thus, stage theorists assume development is more discontinuous.
Others, such as the behaviorists and Lev Vygotsky, assume development is a more slow and gradual process known as continuous development. For instance, they would see the adult as not possessing new skills, but more advanced skills that were already present in some form in the child. Brain development and environmental experiences contribute to the acquisition of more developed skills.
Figure 1.3. – The graph to the left shows three phases in the continuous growth of a tree. The graph to the right shows four distinct stages of development in the discontinuous growth cycle of a ladybug.
Image Source: Siegler, Robert. Cognitive Development in Childhood NOBA Project. Carneige-Mellon University. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Active versus Passive
How much do you play a role in your own developmental path? Are you at the whim of your genetic inheritance or the environment that surrounds you?
Some theorists see humans as playing a much more active role in their own development. Piaget, for instance believed that children actively explore their world and construct new ways of thinking to explain the things they experience. In contrast, many behaviorists view humans as being playing a more passive role and their behaviors are acquired through conditioning via consequences or reward,or influenced by stimuli their environment.
Developmental Screening Tools
Children tend to develop in similar patterns and in similar stages. We will learn more about this development though out the course. These patterns allow us to look for developmental milestones - behaviors or physical skills seen in infants and children as they grow and develop. Milestones are sets of functional skills or age-specific tasks that most children can do at a certain age range.
Although each milestone has an age level, the actual age when a normally developing child reaches that milestone can vary quite a bit. Every child is unique! There are many different tools that a pediatrician or a teacher can use to examine how a child is developing. It is important to look closely at the tool being used to see what areas of development are being looked at and that the tool is current and researched based.
One screening tool that is often used is the ASQ- Ages and Staged Questionnaire. Many pediatricians and childcare sites will ask families to fill out this tool. This can help everyone understand the development of the child and is often used in goal setting. In some cases, this tool may highlight some concerns in the child’s development that may need a closer look.
Sources
- Cherry, Kendra. "How Genes Influence Child Development." VeryWell Mind . Updated. April 5, 2023By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Updated on
- Cherry, Kendra. "How Nature vs. Nurture Shapes Who We Become: Are we born or made this way? Short answer: It's both." VeryWell Mind . Updated January 27, 2025.
- Lally, Martha and Suzanne Valentine-French. Lifespan Development: A Psychological Perspective by Martha Lally and is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
- Siegler, Robert. Cognitive Development in Childhood NOBA Project. Carneige-Mellon University. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0