Module 3

Issues on
Human
Development
MODULE 3

INTRODUCTION
Each of us has his/her own way of
looking at our own and other people’s
development. These paradigms of human
development while obviously lacking in
scholastic vigor, provide us with a
conceptual framework for understanding
ourselves and others. Scholars have come
up with their own models of human
development. Back up by solid research,
they take stand on issues on human
development.

THREE ISSUES IN
DEVELOPMENT
 Nature versus Nurture
 Continuity versus
Discontinuity
 Stability versus Change

Nature versus Nurture
The degree to which human behavior is
determined by genetics/biology (nature)
or learned through interacting with the
environment (nurture)
http://www.slideshare.net/ruthhewitt125/nature-nurture-powerpoint-

Nature
 Behavior is caused by innate
characteristics :The
physiological/biological characteristics
we are born with.
 Behavior is therefore determined by
biology.
 Also 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:
E.g. Piaget: children’s thought processes
change at predetermined age-related
stages changes in age are related to
changes in behavior.

Nurture
 An individuals behavior is determined
by the environment- the things people
teach them, the things they observe,
and because of the different situations
they are in.
 Also a determinist view- proposes all
human behavior is the result of
interactions with the environment.

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 individuals characteristics may elicit
particular responses in other people e.g.
Temprament: 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.
 Aggression: Displaying aggressive
behavior create particular responses from
other people. http://www.slideshare.net/ruthhewitt125/nature-nurture-powerpoint-

SUPPORTING APPROACHES &
PERSPECTIVE
Supporting Nature Supporting
Nurture
-Physiological - Social (e.g.
Helping Behavior)
- Individual Differences - Behavioral
- Developmental

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,
https://www.reference.com/education/continuity-versus-discontinuity-developmental-psychology-

 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.
https://www.reference.com/education/continuity-versus-discontinuity-developmental-psychology-

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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developmental_stage_theori

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 behaviour. There are a number of
different views about the way in which
psychological and physical
development proceed throughout the
life span.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developmental_stage_theori

Stability versus Discontinuity
 deals with the issue of whether or not
personality traits present during
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.
http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Stability-

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.
https://prezi.com/nuahqipogaau/stability-vs-

 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.
https://prezi.com/nuahqipogaau/stability-vs-

How the First Nine Months
Shape the Rest of Your Life

 What makes us the way we are? Why are some
people predisposed to be anxious, overweight
or asthmatic? How is it that some of us are
prone to heart attacks, diabetes or high blood
pressure?
 There's a list of conventional answers to these
questions. We are the way we are because it's
in our genes. We turn out the way we do
because of our childhood experiences. Or our
health and well-being stem from the lifestyle
choices we make as adults.
 But there's another powerful source of influence
you may not have considered: your life as a
fetus. The nutrition you received in the womb;
the pollutants, drugs and infections you were
exposed to during gestation; your mother's
health and state of mind while she was pregnant
with you — all these factors shaped you as a

This is the provocative contention of a field known as fetal
origins, whose pioneers assert that the nine months of
gestation constitute the most consequential period of our
lives, permanently influencing the wiring of the brain and
the functioning of organs such as the heart, liver and
pancreas. In the literature on the subject, which has
exploded over the past 10 years, you can find references to
the fetal origins of cancer, cardiovascular disease,
allergies, asthma, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, mental
illness. At the farthest edge of fetal-origins research,
scientists are exploring the possibility that intrauterine
conditions influence not only our physical health but also
our intelligence, temperament, even our sanity.
As a journalist who covers science, I was intrigued when I
first heard about fetal origins. But two years ago, when I
began to delve more deeply into the field, I had a more
personal motivation: I was newly pregnant. If it was true
that my actions over the next nine months would affect my
offspring for the rest of his life, I needed to know more.

Of course, no woman who is pregnant today
can escape hearing the message that what
she does affects her fetus. She hears it at
doctor's appointments, sees it in the
pregnancy guidebooks: Do eat this, don't drink
that, be vigilant but never stressed. Expectant
mothers could be forgiven for feeling that
pregnancy is just a nine-month slog, full of
guilt and devoid of pleasure, and this research
threatened to add to the burden.

But the scientists I met weren't full of dire
warnings but of the excitement of discovery
— and the hope that their discoveries would
make a positive difference. Research on fetal
origins is prompting a revolutionary shift in
thinking about where human qualities come
from and when they begin to develop. It's
turning pregnancy into a scientific frontier: the
National Institutes of Health embarked last
year on a multidecade study that will examine
its subjects before they're born. And it makes
the womb a promising target for prevention,
raising hopes of conquering public-health
scourges like obesity and heart disease
through interventions before birth.

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