DAVAO DEL NORTE STATE COLLEGE

Institute of Teacher Education 0

MODULE 4: ISSUES ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

The interaction of heredity and environment is so extensive that to ask which

is more important, nature or nurture, is like asking which is more important to
a rectangle, height, or width. -William Greenough

At the end of this module, you should be able to:

• take a research-based position on the three (3) issues on development.

Each of us has his/her own informal 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 conceptual framework for understanding ourselves and others. Scholars have come up with their
own models of human development. Back up with solid research, they take stand on issues on human
development.

ACTIVITY
Ask the class to choose their topic to discuss. Here are the topics and issues:

1. Nature vs Nurture – which has a more significant influence on human development? Nature or
nurture? Nature refers to an individual’s biological inheritance. Nurture refers to environmental
experiences.
2. Continuity vs Discontinuity – does development involve gradual, cumulative change (continuity)
or distinct changes (discontinuity). To make it more concrete, here is a question: Is our
development like that of a seedling gradually growing into an acacia tree. Or it more like that of a
caterpillar becoming a butterfly?
3. Stability vs Change – is development best described as involving stability or as involving change?
Are we what our first experiences have made of us, or do we develop into someone different from
who we were at an earlier point in development?

ANALYSIS

Discuss the following:

1. Who are pro-nature? Pro-nurture? Are there additional reasons you can give in favor of
nature/nurture? Who are neither for nature nor nurture? Why?
2. Who go for continuity? Discontinuity? Can you give additional arguments to defend
continuity/discontinuity? Who are in between continuity and discontinuity? Why?
3. Who claims stability is more correct than change? Change is more correct that stability?

ABSTRACTION

The issues presented can be translated to questions that have sparked animated debate
among developmentalist. Are girls less likely to do well in Math because of their feminine nature or
because of society’s ‘masculine’ bias? How extensively can the elderly be trained to reason more
effectively? How much, if at all, does our memory decline in old age? Can techniques be used to prevent
or reduce the decline? For children who experienced a world of poverty, neglect by parents, and poor

Reference: Corpuz, Brenda, Lucas, Ma. Rita D, et al. (2015). Child & Adolescent Development. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.

Address: Davao del Norte State College Website: www.dnsc.edu.ph

Tadeco Road, New Visayas Email: president@dnsc.edu.ph
Panabo City, Davao del Norte, 8105 Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/davnorstatecollege
 DAVAO DEL NORTE STATE COLLEGE
Institute of Teacher Education 0
schooling in childhood, can enriched experiences in adolescence remove the deficits that they
encountered earlier in their development (Santrock, 2002).

Based on the presentations, each has his/her own explanations for his/her stand on the
developmental issues. What is the right answer? Up to this time, the debate continues. Researches are
on-going. But let me tell you that most lifespan developmentalists recognize that extreme positions on
the issues are unwise. Development is not all nature or all nurture, not all continuity and discontinuity
and not all stability or all change (Lerner, 1998 as quoted by Santrock, 2002). Both nature and nurture,
continuity and discontinuity, stability and change characterize our lifespan development. The key to
development is the interaction of nature and nurture rather than factor alone (Rutter 2001 as quoted by
Santrock, 2002). In other words, it is a matter of both and not ‘either-or.’ Just go back to the quote beneath
the title of this lesson and the message gets crystal clear.

To summarize, both genes and environment are necessary for a person even to exist. Without
genes, there is no person; without environment, there is no person (Scarr and Weinberg, 1980 as quoted
by Santrock, 2002). Heredity and environment operate together-or cooperate and interact- to produce a
person’s intelligence, temperament, height, weight…ability to read and so on.

If heredity and environment interact, which one has a greater influence or contribution,
heredity or environment? The relative contributions of heredity and environment are not additive. So we
can’t say 50% is a contribution of heredity and 50% of environment. Neither it is correct to say that full
genetic expression happens once, around conception or birth, after which we take our genetic legacy into
the world to see how far it gets us. Genes produce proteins throughout the life span, in different
environments. Or they don’t produce these proteins, depending on how harsh or nourishing those
environments are (Santrock, 2002).

APPLICATION

Let’s find out where you can apply what you learned from a discussion of these developmental issues.

1. Convinced of the interactive influence of heredity and environment on the development of

children, prepare for a powerpoint presentation for parents to show them how crucial their role
is in the development of their children. Remember that heredity is already fixed. Their children
have been born and they have passed on these inherited traits at conception and that they cannot
do anything anymore to change them. So concentrate on how they can contribute to their
children’s favorable development. Like heredity, environment is complex. It includes nutrition as
early as conception, parenting, family dynamics, schooling, neighborhood quality and biological
encounters such as viruses, birth complications, and even biological events in cells.

Do not lose sight of the objective of your powerpoint presentation. At the end of your powerpoint
presentation, the parents should go home very much convinced of their role in the development
of their children and get very much inspired to do their part.

REFLECTION

Watch “The battle between nature and nurture”, Irene Gallego Romero, TEDxNTU. What conclusions can
you derive from the battle between nature and nurture?

Reference: Corpuz, Brenda, Lucas, Ma. Rita D, et al. (2015). Child & Adolescent Development. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.

Address: Davao del Norte State College Website: www.dnsc.edu.ph

Tadeco Road, New Visayas Email: president@dnsc.edu.ph
Panabo City, Davao del Norte, 8105 Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/davnorstatecollege