Issues in Human

Development
Objectives
1. to acquire a deep understanding on the development of
human being.
2. take an informed stand/position on the three issues on human
development.
Activity # 3: Debate
What are the issues in Human
Development?
3 Issues in Human Development

Nature vs Nurture
Continuity vs Discontinuity
Stability vs Change
 Nature vs Nurture
Nature is what we think of as pre-wiring and is
influenced by genetic inheritance and other biological
factors. Nurture is generally taken as the influence of
external factors after conception, e.g., the product of
exposure, life experiences, and learning on an individual.
 Nature vs Nurture
The debate over the relative contributions of inheritance and
the environment is one of the oldest issues in both philosophy and
psychology. Philosophers such as Plato and Descartes supported
the idea that some ideas are inborn. On the other hand, thinkers
such as John Locke argued for the concept of tabularasa - a belief
that the mind is a blank slate at birth, with experience determining
our knowledge.
 Nature vs Nurture

Today, most psychologists believe that it is an

interaction between these two forces that causes
development. Some aspects of development are distinctly
biological, such as puberty. However, the onset of puberty
can be affected by environmental factors such as diet and
nutrition.
 Nature of Human Development

• refers to the biological characteristics we are born with,

including genetic predispositions toward certain traits. In
contrast, nurture includes external influences that shape us, such
as culture, relationships, and everyday experiences.
• behavior is caused by an innate characteristics: The
physiological/biological characteristics we are born with.
Behavior is therefore determined by biology
 Nature of Human Development
• genes determine the unique physical characteristics of each
individual while also influencing psychological and social
behavior.

• some research implies that roughly 50% of an individual’s

personality and disposition are pre-determined by genetics
(Bouchard & Loehlin, 2001).

• Krueger and colleagues (2008) state that the interplay between

gene-environment interactions has a consequential effect on
 Nature of Human Development
• the nature is the hereditary and genetic characteristics
pre-determined at birth and influence a person’s
behavior.
 Nurture in Human Development
• is used to describe environmental factors that influence an
individual’s development.
• According to Coon and Mitterer (2014), nurture: refers to the
sum of all external conditions that affect a person”.
• this includes a variety of influences such as parenting style,
educational experiences, cultural background, and exposure to
different environmental conditions over time.
 Nurture in Human Development

• “nurture” may naturally invoke ideas of childhood and parental

care, environmental components and life experience can shape
human mental, emotional, and physical health throughout their
lives (Harsha et al., 2020).

• For example, lifestyle choices have been found to impact a

person’s risk for developing certain diseases and their level of
immunity against illness.
 Nurture in Human Development

• addiction susceptibility can be impacted by environmental

factors such as peer group that has been observed throughout an
individual’s life (Ducci & Goldman, 2012).

• nurture is an umbrella term for any environmental influences

that shape the development of a person’s mental, physical, and
emotional health.
 Examples

Nature Nurture
• Eye color • Ethics and Parenting Style
• Height • Anxiety and Exposure to
• Risks of Diseases Trauma
• Immune System Functionality • Positivity and Social
Environment
• Hair color
• Relationship and Sense of
• Balding Security
 Continuity vs Discontinuity
The continuity vs discontinuity debate in psychology
revolves around human development. The difference between
continuous and discontinuous development is that continuous
development views development as a slow and continuous
process. In contrast, discontinuous development focuses on how
our genetic predispositions progress human development through
distinct stages.
Continuity in Human Development
• continuous development to mean consistency. We grow continuously
from pre-school to old age, almost as if life were an elevator that never
stopped. Even though we often talk about life as stages, such as
adolescence, the specific biological changes that occur at this time
happen gradually.
• continuous development usually refers to quantitative and
qualitative changes throughout development.
 Examples
Quantitative change: individuals acquire novel information and
experiences like, the individuals become stronger, bigger, gain more
weight or height. It is concerned with the overall and progressive
changes taking place in an individual.
Qualitative change: when individuals progress in developmental
stages results in them becoming different than how they were earlier or
“continuous gradual accumulation of small changes” e.g. the way
children behave, think and perceive the world in a different manner as
they mature or after acquiring language
Discontinuity in Human Development
The discontinuity view of development believes that people
pass through stages of life that are qualitatively different from
each other. For example, children go from only being able to think
in very literal terms to being able to think abstractly. They have
moved into the 'abstract thinking' phase of their lives.
Theories of Development
Developmental Theory
 Psychoanalytic, Psychosexual Theory – Sigmund
Freud
 Stages of Psychosocial Theory - Erik Erikson
Theories of Development
Learning/Behaviorism Theories
 Classical Conditioning – Ivan Pavlov
 Operant Conditioning – Burrhus Frederic Skinner
Theories of Development

Cognitive Theory

 Theory of Cognitive Development – Jean Piaget

 Developmental Theory

All human beings experience the same cycle of aging,

growing from a young infant into an elderly adult. The
patterns that happen through this and different methods of
thinking about human development.
Psychoanalytic Theory
Psychosexual Theory
Psychosocial Development Theory
 Learning Theory
Learning theory describes how an individual receive, process,
and retain knowledge during learning. Cognitive, emotional,
and environmental influences, as well as prior experience, all
play a part in how understanding, or a worldview, is acquired
or changed and knowledge and skills retained.
Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Components of Operant Conditioning
 Reinforcements (positive and negative)
 Punishments (positive and negative)
 Reinforcements
Positive Negative
• involve the removal of an unfavorable
• are favorable events or outcomes events or outcomes after the display of a
that are presented after the behavior. behavior. In these situations, a response
In positive reinforcement situations, is strengthened by the removal of
a response or behavior is something considered unpleasant. For
strengthened by the addition of example, if your child starts to scream in
praise or a direct reward. If you do a the middle of a restaurant, but stops once
good job at work and your manager you hand them a treat, your action led to
gives you a bonus, that bonus is a the removal of the unpleasant condition,
positive reinforcer. negatively reinforcing your behavior (not
your child's).
 Punishments

positive Negative
• sometimes referred to as punishment • also known as punishment by removal,
by application, presents an occurs when a favorable event or
unfavorable event or outcome in order outcome is removed after a behavior
to weaken the response it follows. occurs. Taking away a child's video
Spanking for misbehavior is an game following misbehavior is an
example of punishment by application. example of negative punishment.
 Stages of Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that
children move through four different stages of learning. His theory
focuses not only on understanding how children acquire knowledge,
but also on understanding the nature of intelligence.
Piaget believed that children take an active role in the learning
process, acting much like little scientists as they perform
experiments, make observations, and learn about the world. As kids
interact with the world around them, they continually add new
knowledge, build upon existing knowledge, and adapt previously
held ideas to accommodate new information.
Example
A child may have a schema about a type of animal, such
as a dog. If the child's sole experience has been with small
dogs, a child might believe that all dogs are small, furry, and
have four legs. Suppose then that the child encounters an
enormous dog. The child will take in this new information,
modifying the previously existing schema to include these new
observations.
Stages of Cognitive Development
 Sensorimotor Stage
Birth to 2 years

• Know the world through movements and sensations

• Learn about the world through basic actions such as sucking,
grasping, looking, and listening
• Learn that things continue to exist even when they cannot be seen
(object permanence)
• Realize that they are separate beings from the people and objects
around them
• Realize that their actions can cause things to happen in the world
around them
 Preoperational Stage
From 2 to 7 years

• Begin to think symbolically and learn to use words and pictures to

represent objects

• Tend to be egocentric and struggle to see things from the perspective

of others

• Getting better with language and thinking, but still tend to think in
very concrete terms.

• Children become much more skilled at pretend play during this stage
 Concrete Operational Stage
From 7 to 11 years

• Begin to think logically about concrete events

• Begin to understand the concept of conservation; that the amount of

liquid in a short, wide cup is equal to that in a tall, skinny glass, for
example

• Thinking becomes more logical and organized, but still very concrete

• Begin using inductive logic, or reasoning from specific information

to a general principle
 Formal Operational Stage
From 12 years and up

• Begins to think abstractly and reason about hypothetical problems

• Begins to think more about moral, philosophical, ethical, social, and

political issues that require theoretical and abstract reasoning

• Begins to use deductive logic, or reasoning from a general principle

to specific information
The ability to thinking about abstract ideas and situations is the
key hallmark of the formal operational stage of cognitive
development. The ability to systematically plan for the future
and reason about hypothetical situations are also critical
abilities that emerge during this stage.
Important Concept:

It is important to note that Piaget did not view

children's intellectual development as a quantitative
process. That is, kids do not just add more information
and knowledge to their existing knowledge as they get
older.
 Instead, Piaget suggested that there is
a qualitative change in how children think as they gradually
process through these four stages. At age 7, children don't
just have more information about the world than they did at
age 2; there is a fundamental change in how they think about
the world.
Factors that influences how children learn
and grow

 Schema
 Assimilation
 Accommodation
 Equilibration
 Schema
A schema describes both the mental and physical
actions involved in understanding and knowing. Schemas are
categories of knowledge that help us to interpret and
understand the world.
In Piaget's view, a schema includes both a category of
knowledge and the process of obtaining that knowledge. As
experiences happen, this new information is used to modify,
add to, or change previously existing schemas.
 Assimilation
The process of taking in new information into our
already existing schemas is known as assimilation. The
process is somewhat subjective because we tend to
modify experiences and information slightly to fit in with
our preexisting beliefs. In the example above, seeing a
dog and labeling it "dog" is a case of assimilating the
animal into the child's dog schema.
 Accommodation

Another part of adaptation is the ability to change

existing schemas in light of new information; this process
is known as accommodation. New schemas may also be
developed during this process.
Example
A child may have a schema for birds (feathers,
flying, etc.) and then they see a plane, which also flies,
but would not fit into their bird schema.
 Equilibration
As children progress through the stages of cognitive
development, it is important to maintain a balance between applying
previous knowledge (assimilation) and changing behavior to account
for new knowledge (accommodation).
Piaget believed that all children try to strike a balance between
assimilation and accommodation using a mechanism he called
equilibration. Equilibration helps explain how children can move
from one stage of thought to the next.
 Stability vs Change

Issues of stability vs change theories of development in

psychology address whether a person's attributes remain the same
or change as we age. Stability vs change theories of development
suggests either closed systems (stabilization occurs early and
persists through life), open systems (major attributes are
potentially changeable throughout life), or a combination of both.
 Psychoanalytic theorists tend to focus upon events that occur
in early childhood. According to Freud, much of a child’s
personality is completely established by the age of five. If this is
indeed the case, those who have experienced deprived or abusive
childhoods might never adjust or develop normally.
In contrast to this view, researchers have found that the
influence of childhood events does not necessarily have a
dominating effect over behavior throughout the life. Many people
with less-that-perfect childhoods go on to develop normally into
well-adjusted adults.
What is it?
 Stability and Change, deals with the issues of whether or not
personality traits present during infancy and endure throughout the
lifespan.
 Studies of children have often revealed impressive stability over time
in aspects of development such as the attachment to their parents or in
personality.
 There is evidence which suggests as a contrary view, that change is
both possible and indeed, is likely under appropriate conditions.
What is it?
• Freud was one of the first psychologist to emphasize the critical
nature of our later development. He believed that how we
resolve our sexual and aggressive urges is strongly tied to the
nature of our personality.
• Psychoanalysts believe that personality traits developed in the
first 5 years predict adult personality.
 Stability vs Change
Stability theorists may argue that quieter people are naturally this way
due to genetics, or personality traits developed in infancy.

Change theorists argue that their personality development continued to

shift over time, based on interactions with family, friends, teachers and
society at large.