The Influence Of Environment On Human Development

Evo Devo and the Modern Synthesis Evo-devo is a developing field on the study of evolution in the developmental stages in different species. Though it is a new discipline, it has the potential to contribute a great deal to our knowledge of evolution. This paper will discuss what evolutionary development is and that it should be added to the modern synthesis because studying embryonic stages can lead to a better understanding of human evolutionary history and the future biological path of the species. To determine what evo-devo will lead to, it must be defined. Evolutionary development biology is the study of how environmental changes or mechanical alterations in the stages of an embryo can direct evolution (Hall, 2012).

NATURE VERSUS NURTURE Nature: Nature is also known as heredity, it is the genetic code you are born with. It is inherited i-e passed on to you from your parents.

Nature is the genetics in which a child inherits from their ancestors through DNA. Certain traits, such as intelligence, are proven to be passed through nature. Others however, such as anger, are debated both ways. Nurture is the external factors in one’s upbringing, including one’s environment, family, and culture. Both of these factors are proven to be the cause of a child’s disposition later in life, through the novel Frankenstein.

IMPLICATION OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY: Developmental psychology is a scientific approach which aims to explain that how children and adults change with time. A significant proportion of theories within this discipline focus upon development during childhood, as this is the period during an individual 's lifespan when the most change occurs. Developmental psychologists study a wide range of theoretical areas, such as biological, social, emotion, and cognitive processes. Normative development is typically viewed as a continual and cumulative process.

Modern developmental psychology owes an enormous amount to the work of Lev Vygotsky. The research that his theories continue to generate has far reaching implications for education and parenting, providing a valuable insight into children’s development. By challenging the behaviourist paradigm of the time, that children were merely passively responding to stimuli (Skinner, 1957, as cited in Lawton, 1978), Vygotsky opened new avenues of thought into the internal processes that governed children’s behaviour (Gredler & Shields, 2008) and the important influence of culture in raising a child. Vygotsky believed that children are born with certain innate abilities such as sensation and undirected attention, which he called ‘elementary mental functions’ (Vygotsky, 1962). These were considered to be merely reactions to the child’s immediate situation rather than an attempt to communicate or achieve goals.

The Nature- Nurture Debate The Nature-Nurture debate is the thought provoking dispute which explains the development of a child in relation to the biological factors: genetic inheritance (Nature), and the acquirement of knowledge in life, which means that the child learns through watching the behavior of other humans. The nature and nurture side both propose great ideas for explaining development in each of the domains. The cognitive development which is “how the mind processes, stores and retrieves information” (Mhic Mhathúna & Taylor, 2012S p.17), motor-physical development which is how a child develops physically with fine/ gross motor skills and socio-emotional development which is “the child’s experience, expression and management of

Specifically, cognitive development is assessed based on the level of conception, perception, information processing, and language as an indicator of brain development.” (Biologydictionary.com, n.d.). According to Piaget, during the cognitive development, a child acts on his/her own to construct the knowledge. Lev Vygotsky, researcher and theoretician.

The scientific community itself comments that the connection formed between neuroscience and the classroom was “a bridge too far.” According to neuroscientists, very few differences exist between male and female brains. And the differences that do exist between the brains of both the genders have no connection whatsoever with different learning styles. They suggest that the best way to connect neuroscience findings to learning in the classroom is to help teachers understand how the brain acts in response to experience. It is true that boys and girls generally have different interests and due to that they respond differently to various subjects at school.

The dimensions are as follows, activity level, approach/withdrawal, intensity, threshold, adaptability, rhythmicity, mood, attention span persistence, and distractibility. These dimensions are the basis of individual’s behavioural pattern in different environments. Even though the definition of temperament in Bates (1980) states that it emerges in infancy and exhibit some degree of continuity during the child’s development. However, (Rothbart & Derryberry 2007 cited in Bates p.302) argued that there is growing evidence that exhibit a great change in the biobehaviour during a child’s development, they cites Emde et al. , (1976) that stability on a temperament dimension can be expected over a short time but not on a longer time of

Cognitive Theory Cognitive Theory was brought to academia by Psychologist Jean Piaget among others. Piaget’s theory argues that there are stages of cognitive development in humans where there are levels of increased intelligence and capability. These stages are defined by terms, that describe the perception of what children make of their world. These thoughts are known as schemas, which Piaget said are the models by which children perceive their reality.

(2007) framework on Microaggressions as applied to adoption. Currently the research on Adoption Microaggressions has been limited to adolescent adoptees and their adoptive families. As such the intent is to extend the research on adolescent adoptees experience of Microaggressions to the adult adoptee population. Garber (2014) and Garber and Grotavent (2015) culled from interviews with 156 adolescents in the Minnesota/Texas Adoption Research Project (MTARP) and found 15 themes related to adoption microaggressions (see table 1). The found the most common theme impacting adolescents’ perception of themself, as adoptees was “Silence about adoption” with 222 incidences mentioned in their interviews.

Although the correct side to this argument is that the percentages of dating violence and abuse is small, there are still claims of female teenagers in high school that have been physically and verbally abused or violated in a sexual matter. All of these were self reported situations that become less reported because of the humiliation so some of the abuse instances that may take place might actually be underreported in the first place. These incidents are something these females, or males, must face their entire lives. The mental trauma and physical scars left on oneself can affect a person 's daily life. No one wants the memories left on them or anyone they love so any percentage is a big

The age, gender, and ethnicity of participants also affected the outcomes in Asch’s investigation of conformity, which led to a biased view of the white population he used during his time. Asch used “subjects that were all… college students [that] ranged from 17 to 25; the mean age was 20” (5). As previously stated, about one-third of the experimental subjects conformed during the study. This study only looked at young adults, and young people tend to want to feel and be independent from what society considers normal. What about very young children?

SAT scores have been shown to be effective in predicting a student’s future performance in higher education, the military, and in the work force(Kemmerling). But, hundreds of colleges have already stopped requiring the SAT for college admission to inherit racial and economic inequality(Rocks). On another note, it is said that many parents approve of standardized testing. In reality, only 14 percent of parents said that testing is very important in measuring school effectiveness(Walker). Although standardized tests may seem like a safe and trustworthy option, they really

Based on the memory test the post event information appeared to be decreasing by the long term test. Experiment 2 tested recognition memory among 4-9 years old, and then tested at 10 months. The results concluded that children memory was affected 1 year later. This source is reliable because it came from a scholarly source. This source however is not biased but rather objective because it explains two different experiments and all children not specifically one gender.