Nature Nurture Debate

SPY1080- INTRODUCTION TO DEVELOPMENTAL PHYSCOLOGY NATURE AND NURTURE DEBATE
This essay will outline the drawing on the physiological theories presented so far in the module, I am going to outline and discuss key issues in the nature/nurture debate on children’s development and how it will effect child development. The nature/nurture debate is very important in phycology concerns the relative importance of the influence of nature or nurture in explaining human behaviour.
The nature/nurture debate is one of the oldest arguments in history of phycology, both nature and nurture play important roles in human development but nobody yet knows whether we are developed because of nature or nurture. The nature/nurture debate centres of the relative
contributions of genetic inheritance and environmental factors to human development. Nature is inherited influences such as our genes and physiological make-up for example is eye colour and colour of hair are genetically inherited from our parents; nurture is how life has influenced us from our experiences for example this is where children are brought up to do things because of the way they are brought up for example by being told what is right and what is wrong by the people around them and the area they live in for example the environment where you grew up in may have an effect on the way you talk, behave and respond to the things around you.
Scientists have known for years that traits such as eye colour and hair colour are determined by specific genes encoded in each human cell.
The Nature Theory shows that things such as intelligence, personality, aggression, and sexual orientation are also encoded in an individual 's DNA. For example some people believe that people who have sex same relationships are born that way and it is in their DNA. People who support the nature debate believe that a child’s personality is determined by genetics and their personality is inherited from their parents and their behaviour is also inherited and is not influenced by how they have been brought up. The issue of nature having a great impact on a child 's development can be shown in the studies of twins for example Cara Flanagan explored the Minnesota study in which a set of twins was raised separately. In one case, a set of identical twins was raised apart, known as the Jim twins. They did not meet until they were almost forty and had many similarities even though they were raised apart. Flanagan (2002) says “"The Minnesota twin study concluded that on multiple measures of personality and temperament, occupational and leisure-time interests and social attitudes, mono-zygotic twins reared apart are about as similar as are mono-zygotic twins reared together" this shows that nature plays a big role in are development and This leads to the conclusion that the similarities between twins are due to genes, not
environment.
The nurture theory shows that the influence of a person 's environment on their behaviour is a very common for example if somebody is brought up in a certain area with certain people it may affect their behaviour for example crime is a high factor due to the environment, children who have been brought up in a violent area or by violent parents may have a chance of becoming violent or involved in crimes themselves. Also the environment can affect early child development because of the surroundings around them for example they may become scared off different things such as, thunder, lightning, snow and rain etc. Another example of environmental influences in the behaviour of people comes from a study done by John B. Watson, he was a child theorist who developed a learning theory of growth and development, this theory states that behaviour is not inborn but is learned. Watson believed that children learn new responses by watching and imitating others, He added to our understanding of operant conditioning, especially the role of rewards and punishments. Watson done an experiment called The Little Albert Experiment this showed classical conditioning in humans, this study was conducted in 1920 were he wanted to find out the reaction of children whether they were prompt by fear or if they heard loud noises, He felt that following the principles of classical conditioning, he could condition a child to fear another distinctive stimulus which normally would not be feared by a child. During this experiment little albert was given a number of different tests he was shown for the first time a white rabbit, a rat, a dog, a monkey, masks with and without hair, cotton wool, burning newspapers, etc. during this albert showed no fear toward any of these items. Albert was then placed on a mattress on a table in the middle of a room. A white laboratory rat was placed near Albert and he was allowed to play with it, at first he showed no fear towards to the rat, Watson and Rayners made a sound behind Albert’s back when the baby touched the rat, little Albert responded to this by crying and showing fear, after this he was then shown only the rat and however he became distressed as the rat appeared, he cried and turned away from the rat and tried to move away, after this experiment Albert showed fear whenever he came into contact with anything white and fury. This shows that a loud noise could result in a child’s fear. Watson wanted to find out a variety of conditional responses such as, fear, rage and love.
Jean Piaget also done studies on child development he had a theory of cognitive child development, detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of simple but ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive abilities.
According to Piaget children are born with very basic mental structure that is genetically inherited on which all learning and knowledge is based also he believed that Children construct an understanding of the world around them, then experience discrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in their environment. Through studying the field of education Piaget focused on accommodation and assimilation. Assimilation is one of the two processes coined by Jean Paget, it describes how humans perceive and adapt to new information. He believed that there were four stages of the cognitive development these were sensorimotor stage, Preoperational stage, Concrete operational stage, Formal operational stage. Piaget wanted to find out the four-stage model that children go through as they develop complex reasoning skills, he done an experiment with kids were he wanted to see children’s concepts of amounts, speeds and height. Children start out in the sensorimotor stage, which lasts until they’re roughly 2; they don’t understand what objects are and don’t know if their hand is their own. From the age of 2-7 children start to recognise different objects and symbols for example they are able to draw various shapes. At the age of
7-12 years children understand weight, amount, and speed, and can understand that the amount of liquid in the two glasses is the same cup. Piaget’s results shown after doing these experiments shown that children from the age of 9 can group objects in different ways, all children found it easy to classify than anticipate, children at the age of 9 can understand can understand the relationship between a group of objects, at the age of 8 children are able to understand when a object disappears and is then replaced. Piagets work was very popular people all over the world looked at his studies on child development, for example Burman(2008) says “Piaget has been held responsible for a number of specific contributions to developmental psychology. He is credited with the recognition that children’s thinking is qualitatively different from that of adults, that different ways of thinking predominate at different ages and that these correspond with progressively more adequate ways of organising knowledge—hence his status as a stage theorist, and the association of his name in education and welfare practices with the apparatus of ages and stages despite the fact that notions of stage sequences were in wide circulation by the beginning of the twentieth century. His work is generally portrayed as humanist, countering the mechanistic accounts of child learning”
Some people disagreed with Piagets work for example Lev Vygotsky Was Russian Physcologist who disagreed with Piaget’s theory of child development, but regarded Piaget’s method as his most important contribution. Vygotsky investigated child development and the important roles of cultural mediation and interpersonal communication. He observed how higher mental functions developed through these interactions also represented the shared knowledge of a culture. He belived that language was the most important tool for gaining social knowledge and the child can be taught this from other people for example their parents or people around them. He described something known as the zone of proximal development (ZPD), which is a key feature of his theory. There are two levels of attainment for the ZPD which are level 1 and level 2. Level 1 is the ‘present level of development’ this describes what the child is capable of doing without any help from others and Level 2 which is the ‘potential level of development’ this means what the child could potentially be capable of with help from other people. He believed that Children learn at their own pace, but they need access to stimulating environments to assist with their learning. ZPD is ‘the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by actual problem solving, and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more able peers’ (Vygotsky cited in Doherty and Hughes 2009, p269). Vgotsky done an experiment on children were he wanted to see if they could create a pyramid, Results showed that when children were given varied support from mothers they were able to construct the pyramid on their own; this shows that children need some type of help from parents or teachers learn and do various things. Vygotsky(1978) “another experiment deals with a child solving a problem. It confirms vygotksys view that egocentric speech is not just a relection of an egocentric position but an important part of a childs cognitive process. A 4-year old girl was asked to get a chocolate from a cupboard. She could use a stool and a stick which were in the room. The girl climbed on the stool and tried to reach the chocolate saying to the experimenter: “on the stool”. She couldn’t reach it “I can get it from another stool” she got another stool and stood on it. “No that does not get it. I can use the stick and get it” she got the stick and knocked at the chocolate “it moves now! I’ve got it, with the stick” In the example the girls talk was really part of solving the problem. She used speech to describe what she was doing, she directed herself and planned what to do next: thinking aloud” from this experiment Vygotsky came to the conclusion that by children using speech it could help to solve probles because there thinking is not very formed yet.
Piaget and Vygotski had differences in cognitive development for example Piaget 's stages imply that children cognitively develop on their own and don’t need help from anyone around them for example uring the sensorimotor stage, a child understands that an object exists even when it is out of sight, and there is no social interaction for a child to understand that. While Vygotski theory concentrates more on the social interactions given to children while they develop for example a child will learn by interacting and communicating with older peers and adults who are more knowledgeable.
Sigmund Freud theories stressed the importance of childhood events and experiences but focused on mental disorders rather than normal functioning. Freud believed that the way parents dealt with children 's basic sexual and aggressive desires would determine how their personalities developed. Freud described children as going through multiple stages of sexual development, which he called Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, and Genital. Freuds best known theory was the Psychosexual theory, this was a theory of how our sexuality starts from a very young ages and develops through various fixations such as oral fixation, anal fixation and phallic fixation. The oral stage is for infants from birth to 18 months this is the stage when infants will get breast or bottle feeding, or sucking on a pacifier. It is believed that if an infant receives too much or too little oral stimulation, they may develop a fixation or a personality trait that is fixated on oral gratification. The anal fixation stage is related to a child’s awareness of bowel control and gaining pleasure through the act of eliminating or retaining feces. Freud’s theory puts the anal stage between 18 months and three years. It is believed that when a child becomes fixated on receiving pleasure through controlling and eliminating feces, a child can become obsessed with control, perfection, and cleanliness. The phallic stage is what Freud believed to occur when a child is three to six years of age. The belief is that male children harbor unconscious, sexual attraction to their mothers, while female children develop a sexual attraction to their father. The latency stage is when this stage is said to last from the age of six until a child enters puberty. Most children throughout this age form same sex friendships and play in a manner that is non-sexual and the genital stage is when a child begins puberty and develops with the physiology changes brought on through hormones. The prior stages of development result in a focus on the genitals as a source for pleasure and teens develop and explore attractions to the opposite sex. Freud decided to do an experiment on Little Hans, Little Hans was a 5 year old boy with a phobia of horses the aim was to eliminate his phobia and to find out what caused his phobia in the first place, Freud did not work directly with Little Hans but worked through correspondence with his farther. The first reports of Hans are when he was 3 years old when he developed an active interest in his ‘widdler’ (penis) For example on one occasion he asked ‘Mummy, have you got a widdler too? Throughout this time, the main theme of his fantasies and dreams was widdlers and widdling. When he was about three years and six months old his mother told him not to touch his widdler or else she would call the doctor to come and cut it off. At the age of 5 Hans farther wrote to freud and said ‘He is afraid a horse will bite him in the street, and this fear seems somehow connected with his having been frightened by a large penis’. Hans noted that he didn’t like horses with black bits around the mouth; Freud believed that the horse was a symbol of his farther and the black bits were a moustache, he become scared with horses falling over, he claimed he had seen this before. When Little Hans was 19 Freud met up with him and Little Hans said nothing was wrong with him in his childhood and he was fit and well, Freud believed that the findings from the case study of Little Hans supported his theories of child development.
In conclusion I think that both nature/nurture play an important role in child development because children develop due to genetics and the environment for example they can get certain things from genetics such as how clever they are and they can develop due to the environment because the things that surround them and the people that they surround them may play a big part in their early development. Overall it think that the child development theories are a good way of finding out the different theories of how child develop.

Bibliography

Flanagan, C. and Cardwell, M(2009) physiology AS second addition Haddenham : Folen

Burman, E(2008) Deconstructing developmental psychology London; New York : Routledge

Doherty, J. and Hughes, M. (2009) Child Development: Theory and Practice. Harlow: Pearson Education