ISSUES IN

HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
INTRODUCTION
Each of us has his/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. Back up by solid research, they
take stand on issues on human development.
Three issues In human
development

 Nature versus Nurture

 Continuity versus Discontinuity
 Stability versus Change
NATURE VERSUS NURTURE
The degree to which human behavior is determined by
genetics/biology (nature) or learned through
interacting with the environment (nurture).
Nature
 Bahavior is caused by innate characteristics: The
physiological/biological characteristic we born with.
 Behavior is therefore determined by biology
 Also a determinist view- suggest all behavior is
determined by hereditary factors: Inherited
characteristics, or genetic make-up we are born with.
All possible behavior are said to be present from
conception.

Genes provide the blueprint for all behavior; some

present from birth, others pre- programmed to merge
with age.
Nurture
An individuals behavior is determined by the
environment the things people teach them, the things
they observed and because of the different situations
they are in.
Also a determinist view proposes all human behavior is
the interactions with environment.
Behaviorist theories are nurture theories:
Behavior is shape by interactions with the environment.
Born an empty vessels- waiting to be filled up by
experiences gained from environmental interaction.
No limit to what they can achieve.
Depends on quality of external influences and
NOT genes.
The quality of the environment is KEY
You can become anything provide to
environment
Is right.
Nature nurture interaction
Behavior is often a result of the interaction between nature
AND nurture.
An individuals characteristic may elicit particular responses
n other people.
Temperament; how active, responsive or emotional an infant
is influences in part determines their caregivers responses.
Gender; people tend to react differently to boys and girls due
to expectations of masculine and feminine characteristics.
Aggregation; Displaying aggressive behavior create particular
responses from other people.
CONTINUITY VERSUS DISCONTINUITY
Continuity and discontinuity are two competing
theories in developmental psychology that attempt to
explain how people change through the course of their
lives, where the continuity theory says that someone
changes throughout their life along a smooth course
while the discontinuity theory contends that people
change abruptly. These changes can be described as a
wide variety of someone's social behavioral makeup,
like their emotions, traditions, and beliefs.
Furthermore, discontinuity disagree with one another in
how they assess the changes that someone undergoes
throughout the course of their life. The continuity theory
examines the way someone changes in a quantitative and
continuous respect. Discontinuity theory, on the other
hand, looks at these changes through the lens of a
qualitative analysis with an emphasis on the
discontinuous nature of how someone changes.
Development psychology encompasses a very wide array
of observations related to how people think, behave and
interact with their environment as well as other people.
This field, at first, was focused on how young children
develop but, in recent years, it has expanded past the
paediatric setting to encompass studies of how people
change throughout the course of their entire lives until
the point of their death.
IS CHILD DEVELOPMENT CONTINUOUS OR
DISCONTINOUS?
Not all psychologists, however, agree that
development is a continuous process. Some view
development as a discontinuous process. They believe
development involves distinct and separate stages with
different kinds of behaviour occurring in each stage.
WHAT IS THE THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT?
Development stage theories are theories that divide
child development into distinct stages which are
characterized by qualitative differences in behaviour.
There are a number of different views about the way in
which psychological and physical development
proceed throughout the life span.
STABILITY VERSUS Change
Deals with the issue of whether or not personality
traits present during infancy endure throughout the
lifespan.
 Stability
 stability change debate describes the
developmental psychology discussion about
whether personality traits that are present in an
individual at birth remain constant or change
throughout life span.
For example, does a naturally extroverted and
talkative baby remain that way for their entire
life? The stability vs. change debate is one of the
fundamental questions in developmental
psychology along with nature vs. Nurture.
Typically cross- sectional and longitudinal
studies are used in research concerning stably vs.
change
CHANGE
Change Theorists- argue that personalities are
modified by interactions with the family, experiences
at school, and acculturation .
Studies of children have often revealed impressive
stability over time in aspects of development such as
the attachment to their parents or in personality.
However, there is evidence which suggest a contrary
view, that change is both possible and indeed, is likely
under appropriate conditions.
Freud was one of the first psychologist to
emphasize the critical nature of our early
experiences for our later development. He
believed that how we resolve our sexual and
aggressive urges is strongly tied to the nature of
our personality as adults. Psychoanalysts believe
that personality traits developed in the first 5
years predict adult personality.
HOW THE FIRST NINE MONTHS SHAPE THE
REST OF YOUR LIFE
What makes us the way we are? Why are some people predisposed to be
anxious, overweight or asthmatic? How is it that some of us are prone to
heart attacks, diabetes or high blood pressure?
There's a list of conventional answers to these questions. We are the way
we are because its in our genes. We turn out the way we do because of our
childhood experiences. Or our health and well- being stem from the
lifestyle choices we make as adults.
But there's another powerful source of influence you may not have
considered: your life as a fetus . The nutrition you received in the womb:
the pollutants, drugs and infections you were exposed to during gestation:
your mothers health and state of mind while she was pregnant with you –
all these factors shaped you as a baby and continue to affect you to this
day.
This is the provocative contention of a field known as fetal origin,
whose pioneers assert that the nine months of gestation constitute the
most consequential period of our lives, permanently influencing the
writing of the brain and the functioning of organs such as the heart,
liver and pancreas. In the literature on the subject, which has
exploded over the past 10 years, you can find references to the fetal
origins of cancer, cardiovascular disease, allergies, asthma,
hypertension ,diabetes obesity, mental illness. At the farthest edge of
fatal- origins research , scientists are exploring the possibility that
intrauterine conditions influence not only our physical health but also
our intelligence, temperament, even our sanity.

No woman who is pregnant today can escape hearing the message
that what she does affects her fetus. She hears it at doctors
appointments, sees it in the pregnancy guidebooks: Do eat this, don't
drink that, be vigilant but never stressed . Expectant mothers could be
forgiven for feeling that pregnancy is just a nine- month slog, full of
guilt and devoid of pleasure, and this research threatened to add to
the burden.
 THANK YOU
FOR
LISTENING
Prepared by:
Frances Anne A. Jaranilla
Chermaigne B. Williams