Institutional Affiliation
Thesis
Nature versus nurture development, continuous versus discontinuous development and critical/ sensitive periods of development theories explain the nature of child growth and the sources of cognitive, language, as well as social skills.
Evidence
Nature versus nurture
Both nature and nurture play a major role in a child’s development. This is evident in the Jim twins research (Sameroff, 2010). Here twins were brought up separately, but when they met forty years later, they had a lot of similarity. Regarding nature, the environment plays a major role (Ronald et al. 2005). In one such study, an eleven-month-old infant was subjected to noise whenever he attempted to touch a white rat in a room. This made the infant develop fear for white rats later on (Salkind, 2004).
Continuous versus discontinuous development
Some theories hold that human development follows a series of steps, in that; to proceed from one stage, an individual needs qualitative change in the processes that control human ability (Salkind, 2004). Examples of these theories include; Piaget, and Erikson theories. Other theories argue that development comes gradually and that the changes that take place are quantitative. The theories that explain this are environmental theories and behavioral theories. Among them, include Bandura and Skinner (Cope, 2003).
Critical and sensitive periods of development
In human development, there exist limited time when individuals undergo transformation. This is the period referred to as the critical period or the sensitive period (Andersen & Teicher, 2008).
Thus, if a person does not receive stimulation at sensitive period, it becomes difficult or impossible to achieve it later on in life. Evidence of critical period is seen in first and second language acquisition. This is when children and adults are exposed to language at the same time, children achieve native-like accent, while most adults do not. Regarding language acquisition, the critical period is at puberty (Sullivan & Holman, 2010).
Conclusion
Human development is explained by several theories, which have been proved by several scholars. Among these theories, include Nature versus nurture development, continuous versus discontinuous development and critical/ sensitive periods of development theories.
Annotated Bibliography
Sameroff, A. (2010). A Unified Theory of Development: A Dialectic Integration of Nature and Nurture. Child Development, 81(1), 6-22. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01378.x
This article explains the relationship between individual and the context. This has been done to explain how developmental science has evolved by the same manner in which children develop. The unified theory combines personal change, regulation, as well as context and representational theories of development.
Ronald, A., Happé, F., Hughes, C., & Plomin, R. (2005). Nice and Nasty Theory of Mind in Preschool Children: Nature and Nurture. Social Development, 14(4), 664-684. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2005.00323.x
In this article, parents who had twins observed their twins’ behavior, on their first, second, third, and 4th birthdays, based on either being nice or nasty. The results showed that their behavior was hereditary and it was influenced by environmental factors.
Andersen, S. L., & Teicher, M. H. (2008). Stress, sensitive periods and maturational events in adolescent depression. Trends In Neurosciences, 31(4), 183-191. doi:10.1016/j.tins.2008.01.004
Anderson & Teicher (2008) in their research “Stress, sensitive periods and maturational …