Nature And Nurture Strongly Influences Early Human Development
Topic: Nurture strongly influence early human development The influences of nature and nurture have been discussing throughout centuries among psychologists, scientists, behaviorists, and others. Yet, we are not able to rate how strong nurture influences early childhood development. Before starting this discussion, what does nature and nurture really mean? This essay will demonstrate brain development in young children and several theories related to child progress in order to understand how strong nurture takes part of this development. These terms have been given several definitions by different people. According to psychoanalysis: nature refers to “innate drives of sex and aggression” and nurture refers to “social upbringing during childhood”. Behaviorist: “All behavior is learned from the environment through conditioning”. Nature is what we inherit via gene and nurture refers to
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interaction and experimentation in all environments (Saul McLeod- 2007). To begin with, early brain development plays an important role in growth which strongly influences early human development.
It’s a matter of fact that brain’s cells are made during pregnancy. However, they are connected to one another just after birth and baby’s brain develops day by day via experiencing in real environment and practicing in sequence (Sean Brotherson- 2009). For example, children learn to speak fast if only people keep talking to them. (Zelazo, Zelazo & Kolb, 1972) Babies who keep stepping in sequence begin to walk faster than the one who doesn’t. Next, since baby’s brain is more active than adult’s, babies have several better skills than fully grown people such as hearing, tasting, smelling and vision. Newborn babies are able to tell whether it is human speech (Bridger, 1961), to turn their head to the source of a noise (Hillier, Hewitt & Morrongiello, 1992), to tell their mother’s milk (Russell, 1976), and two months baby could focus on shapes like nose, face (Haith, Bergman, & Moore, 1977). These skills help them build brain connection and
experience. Another point is, children inherit gene from their parents to develop into a person such as sex, color of hair, eyes, skin and some other organs. However, they will develop themselves depending on where and how they live. If a pregnant uses drug or is sick, the baby could be born deaf, blind or abnormal. As stated J.B Watson and B.F. Skinner, infant can be trained into a various type of people. In addition, babies are like a white paper (J. Locke) which have nothing built in before birth. However, even though there are many arguments supporting this idea, in practice, it is not possible to accept one side extreme view point (Saul McLeod, 2007). According to recent realization of false questioning of environmentalists and the fact that heredity takes a big part of children development, reveal that both heredity and environment interact one another in many different ways to produce a fully grown child. To sum up, whether many arguments and debates have been discussing for centuries with their own view points, people still believe that none of them takes strong part to affect babies’ growth. I strongly agree to this perspective due to the fact that babies inherit intelligence from their parents and shape it to be useful after training. References:
- Atkinson, R.L., Atkinson, R.C., Smith, E.E., Ben, D.J, & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1999), Hearing taste and smell, in Garnet Publishing Ltd., Reading and writing source book, Reading: 15
- Brotherson S. (2009). Brain Development – Myth or Fact? [Online]. Fargo, NDSU. Retrieved from http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/famsci/fs609w.htm
- McLeod, S. A. (2007). Nature Nurture in Psychology. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/naturevsnurture.html
- Slaght, J., Harben, P., Pallant, A., 2009, Capacities of the newborn, in Garnet Publishing Ltd., Reading and writing source book, Reading: 14
- Slaght, J., Harben, P., Pallant, A., 2009, Interaction between nature and nurture, in Garnet Publishing Ltd., Reading and writing source book, Reading: 12-13
interaction and experimentation in all environments (Saul McLeod- 2007). To begin with, early brain development plays an important role in growth which strongly influences early human development.
It’s a matter of fact that brain’s cells are made during pregnancy. However, they are connected to one another just after birth and baby’s brain develops day by day via experiencing in real environment and practicing in sequence (Sean Brotherson- 2009). For example, children learn to speak fast if only people keep talking to them. (Zelazo, Zelazo & Kolb, 1972) Babies who keep stepping in sequence begin to walk faster than the one who doesn’t. Next, since baby’s brain is more active than adult’s, babies have several better skills than fully grown people such as hearing, tasting, smelling and vision. Newborn babies are able to tell whether it is human speech (Bridger, 1961), to turn their head to the source of a noise (Hillier, Hewitt & Morrongiello, 1992), to tell their mother’s milk (Russell, 1976), and two months baby could focus on shapes like nose, face (Haith, Bergman, & Moore, 1977). These skills help them build brain connection and
experience. Another point is, children inherit gene from their parents to develop into a person such as sex, color of hair, eyes, skin and some other organs. However, they will develop themselves depending on where and how they live. If a pregnant uses drug or is sick, the baby could be born deaf, blind or abnormal. As stated J.B Watson and B.F. Skinner, infant can be trained into a various type of people. In addition, babies are like a white paper (J. Locke) which have nothing built in before birth. However, even though there are many arguments supporting this idea, in practice, it is not possible to accept one side extreme view point (Saul McLeod, 2007). According to recent realization of false questioning of environmentalists and the fact that heredity takes a big part of children development, reveal that both heredity and environment interact one another in many different ways to produce a fully grown child. To sum up, whether many arguments and debates have been discussing for centuries with their own view points, people still believe that none of them takes strong part to affect babies’ growth. I strongly agree to this perspective due to the fact that babies inherit intelligence from their parents and shape it to be useful after training. References:
- Atkinson, R.L., Atkinson, R.C., Smith, E.E., Ben, D.J, & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1999), Hearing taste and smell, in Garnet Publishing Ltd., Reading and writing source book, Reading: 15
- Brotherson S. (2009). Brain Development – Myth or Fact? [Online]. Fargo, NDSU. Retrieved from http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/famsci/fs609w.htm
- McLeod, S. A. (2007). Nature Nurture in Psychology. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/naturevsnurture.html
- Slaght, J., Harben, P., Pallant, A., 2009, Capacities of the newborn, in Garnet Publishing Ltd., Reading and writing source book, Reading: 14
- Slaght, J., Harben, P., Pallant, A., 2009, Interaction between nature and nurture, in Garnet Publishing Ltd., Reading and writing source book, Reading: 12-13