- Explain the process of nature vs nurture based on the reading below , elaborate about what you read . You may also include outside reliable resources but have to cite them
- Find an image (your own picture or image from the Internet) that you feel explains the developmental process or theme that you selected. cite the source of the picture
- Explain how your picture/image fits within the developmental process or theme that you selected. Consider how other aspects of development (i.e., other processes or themes) and the broader environment can influence the developmental process or theme that you selected. Your own opinion and support should come from the paragraph present in your explanation
“Issues In Development
Was Ted Kaczynski born a killer, or did his life turn him into one? Kaczynski himself thought that his childhood was the root of his troubles. He grew up as a genius in a boy’s body and never fit in with other children. Did his early experiences determine his later life? Is your own journey through life marked out ahead of time, or can your experiences change your path? Are experiences that occur early in your journey more important than later ones? Is your journey like taking an elevator up a skyscraper with distinct stops along the way, or more like a boat ride down a river with smoother ebbs and flows? These questions point to three issues about the nature of development: the roles played by nature and nurture, continuity and discontinuity, and early and later experiences.
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Nature and Nurture
The nature-nurture issue involves an old debate about whether development is primarily influenced by nature or by nurture. Nature refers to an organism’s biological inheritance, nurture to its environmental experiences. Almost no one today argues that development can be explained by nature alone or by nurture alone, because we know they interact and work together in development. However, it is important to understand the history of the old nature-nurture positions. Some (“nature” proponents) claim that the most important influence on development is biological inheritance, and others (“nurture” proponents) claim that environmental experiences are the most important influence.
According to the nature proponents, just as a sunflower grows in an orderly way—unless it is defeated by an unfriendly environment—so does a person. The range of environments can be vast, but evolutionary and genetic foundations produce commonalities in growth and development (Buss, 2018). We walk before we talk, speak one word before two words, grow rapidly in infancy and less so in early childhood, and experience a rush of sexual hormones in puberty. Extreme environments—those that are psychologically barren or hostile—can stunt development, but nature proponents emphasize the influence of tendencies that are genetically wired into humans (Maxson, 2013).
By contrast, others have emphasized the importance of nurture, or environmental experiences, to development (Dweck, 2013). Experiences run the gamut from the individual’s biological environment (nutrition, medical care, drugs, and physical accidents) to the social environment (family, peers, schools, community, media, and culture). For example, a child’s diet can affect how tall the child grows and even how effectively the child can think and solve problems. Despite their genetic wiring, a child born and raised in a poor village in Bangladesh and a child in the suburbs of Denver are likely to have different skills, different ways of thinking about the world, and different ways of relating to people. Today, we now understand that nature and nurture work together in explaining development.”