Development through the Life Stages Assignment Task 1 M1/D1 Nature-Nurture Debate
by
mysterygirl29 (student)
Development through the Life Stages
Assignment Task 1
M1/D1 – Nature-Nurture Debate
The nature and nurture debate is about whether a child’s development is mostly influenced by environment (nurture) or genetics (nature).
The nature part of the argument is that biological factors have the biggest influence on a person’s development. Any capabilities or limitations are genetics and that “genetic blueprint” for exist. An example of this would be when children first start to speak their first language is thought to be because an inbuilt genetic process. And the theory is that children start to naturally become interested in the signs and sounds and the things they see around them. Even though the development is guided by genes it can be argued that the genes cannot function without an environment around them to observe from. The nature can affect so much in a child’s development because it has been shown that if a child was born to alcoholic parents and was taken away a within the few months since it was born and was raised in a stable home with no alcoholics they are still more likely to become an alcoholic when they are older.
The nurture part of the argument is that environmental factors have the strongest influence on a person’s development. The environmental influences include family, school, peers, culture etc... An example of this would be if a person was raised in a supporting family that helps provide computers, books etc... for the person to learn new things then the person is more likely to develop coping in the future with their learning rather than a person with no learning support. Another example of nurture is if a child was raised in an abusive house then they are more likely to be in an abusive relationship when they are older because they would think that it’s only natural when they were still a child they grew up observing their parents fighting each other. In this example there was no genetic bond with abuse but because they grew up in a place with experiencing abuse then they are more likely to be in an abusive relationship.
