Nature verse Nurture
Nowadays, it easily accepted that most aspects of a child’s development are mostly a product of the interaction of both nature and nurture. In both side of the debate nature or nurture present forceful evidences of how each factor impacts development. Nature is known, has genetics. It is the genetic code which we are born with. Genetic is passed on to us from our parents. For example, nature could be eyes colour, hair, and IQ. The subject matter of nature having a great effect on a child’s development can be shown in the study of the twins.
In 2002 Flanagan explored the Minnesota study in which a set of twins was raised up separately. Another set of identical twins was raised apart. They did not meet until they were almost forty and had many likenesses even though they were raised in a different environment. There was no reason for their similarities expect that nature must have played a key role in development. “The Minnesota twin concluded that on different measures of personality, leisure time interest and social attitudes, mono-zygotic twins reared apart are about similar as are mono-zygotic twins reared together”. It shows that nature plays an important role in our development. Flanagan also explored the study of adopted babies. Most family with adopted children share the same environment, however not the same genetic code. For example, if two parents have cystic fibrosis, it is more likely that the genes will be passed on to their child.
The environment can have a great impact on a person’s behaviour. Researchers have study that fears, through the experience of children can be learned. Some behaviours, if not learn from the environment will never have been developed. “In one study, a group of children were given vitamin and mineral supplements for eight months. They were given intelligence tests before and after the eight-month treatment. The result was improvements in scores as compared to another group whom were not given vitamin and mineral supplements ("Nature vs. Nurture", 2001). The results suggest that environment plays a role in the intellectual ability of people. It is not an unscientific increase to understand this will probably extend to physical abilities as well.” Environmental influences in the behaviour of people come from another example of a study done to an infant of 11 moths. The infant was subjected to a terrible noise whenever he attempts to touch the white rat in the room with him. The child later displayed fear whenever he came in contact with anything white or furry.
Both side of this debate gives facts which support its influence on development. Studies indicate that genetic is a major factor in development among twins raised separately.
The Ideographic vs. Nomothetic Approach to Psychology
The Ideographic approach investigates individuals in personal situations and studies the individual in greater depth. It allows researcher to achieve a unique understanding of the individual. “Idiographic theories are based on the assumption that human beings are unique and can only be understood through the use of techniques that are designed to reflect that uniqueness”. Is the best example, as they involve more flexible and long term detailed procedures. The advantages of this approach are:
- It provides a more complete and global understanding of the individual
- It could be the well-organized approach in the area of study.
The disadvantages of this approach are that it tends to be more unreliable because they tend to be more unscientific because is subjective and unstandardised method.
Nomothetic approach focuses on gathering information from large groups of people in order to arrive at ethics of behaviour. It principles are then generalised to a large group of people by making comparisons with norms of behaviour. For example surveys, observations and content study. The advantages of this approach are:
- Very reliable
- Very easy to generalise
- Useful for predications and control of behaviour. E.g. selecting personnel, diagnosis and treatment of disorders.
The weakness of this approach is that, generalisations may be too inaccurate the individual. For example in diagnosis of a disorder based on medical model’s classification may not accurately help the individual to be aware of the disorder or ways to overcome the disorder.
Continuity vs. Discontinuity
Continuity focuses on whether the same explanation and discontinuity focuses on whether different explanation must be used over the time to explain the changes in people. The continuity approach highlights the quantitative changes while the discontinuity approach highlights quantities change, which is characterised by different task that an individual must accomplish before progressing to the next stage of development. For example, Freud theory of psychosexual development that children well organised move through oral, anal, phallic and latency stages before reaching the genital stage.
