Kenneth Christian Namocatcat

BSEd – Social Studies 1-2

EDUC 1

Activity: Research about the Issues on Human Development.

Each of us has\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.
There are three issues in human development: Nature vs Nurture, Continuity vs
Discontinuity, and Stability vs Change.

NATURE vs NURTURE
Early philosophers believed that at birth, our minds are a ‘blank state’ and that one’s
environment determines the messages that will be written on the slate. Naturists
believe that human behavior and development are governed by automatic,
genetically predetermined signals in maturation. There is a favorable period after
birth called a critical period when the organism’s exposure to stimuli or experiences
produce proper development. Nurturists argue that development occurs by learning
through observation and experience. For example, a child would learn behaviors by
watching his\her parents or other close family members.

CONTINUITY vs DISCONTINUITY
Continuity proposes that development is continuous, with new abilities, skills and
knowledge gradually added at a relatively uniform rate. It also suggests that adult
thinking and intelligence differ from a child’s thinking. For example, adults have more
verbal skills than children. Discontinuity theorists suggest that development occurs at
different stages that vary from little change to rapid, abrupt change.

STABILITY vs CHANGE
Stability proposes that individuals maintain their personal characteristics from
childhood to adulthood. They emphasize that one can tell what kind of character an
individual will have by the characteristics they display during childhood.
Psychologists who emphasize change disagree entirely. They believe that a child’s
personality and characteristics bear little resemblance to the characteristics present
in adulthood.