MPhil-I
TERM PAPER
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY-7106 PSYCHOLOGY-7106 KEY ISSUES IN LIFE SPAN DEVELOPMENT
By Name: Mariyam Akram Roll No.: 0513-7-08 Session: 2008-2010
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY GC UNIVERSITY, LAHORE
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CONTENT PAGE Sr. No.
Headings
Page No.
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Introduction
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Key issues/Controversies in Human Development
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Nature-Nurture Issue
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Heredity-Environment Issue
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Learning-Maturation Issue
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Continuity-Discontinuity Issue
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Normative-Idiographic Issue
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Active-Passive Learning Issue
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Specificity-Generality Specificity-Generality Issue
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Conclusion
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References
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Introduction
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Psychology has been defined as a science of behavior. It has been divided into subc subcat ateg egor orie iess envi enviro ronm nment ental al,,
name namely ly::
abnor abnorma mal, l,
expe experi rime ment ntal al,,
evolu evoluti tiona onary ry,,
huma humani nist stic ic,,
clin clinic ical al,,
mora moral, l,
cogni cogniti tive ve,,
fore forens nsic ic,,
educ educat atio ional nal,,
neuro neurops psyc ycho holo logy gy,,
biopsychology, religion, social, child, positive, industrial, counseling, and developmental psychology. Developmental psychology is a science of human lifespan development. It studies how individuals change over time and that processes that create those changes. Basic importance of development psychology is study of life. Development refers to the changes over time in the body and in the thinking or other behavior of a person that are due both to biology and to experience. It studies intra and inter individual changes. Developmental psychologist study behavior at all phases of the life cycle. It is the largest branch of psychology, and contains a lot of books, writers, researchers and practicing psychologists. Human development is commonly described in terms of periods or stages. The most widely used classification of eight developmental perio periods ds involv involvee the follow following ing sequen sequence: ce: prenat prenatal al period period (conce (concepti ption-b on-bir irth) th),, infanc infancy y (birth (birth-2y -2year ears), s), early early childh childhood ood (2-6ye (2-6years ars), ), middle middle and late late childh childhood ood (6-11y (6-11year ears), s), adolescence (12-18years), early adulthood (19-35years), middle adulthood (36-60years) and late adulthood/old age (60-death). Five early scholars John Locke (focuses on child’s environment), Jean-Jacques Roussea Rousseau u (focus (focuses es on child’ child’ss cognit cognitive ive develo developme pment) nt),, Johann Johann Gottf Gottfrie ried d von Herder Herder (focuses (focuses on child’s child’s socio-cult socio-cultural ural context), context), Charles Charles Darwin (focuses on evolutionar evolutionary y origins of behavior) and Stanley Hall (father of child psychology) offered theories of human behavior that are the direct ancestors of the major theoretical traditions found in the child psychology today. The belief that the development of the child is related to the
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evolution of the species gave birth to the science of developmental psychology. People considered as the pioneers of child psychology who gave later theories of developmental psychology are: Sigmund Freud (psychosexual theory of development), Erik Erikson (psychosocial theory of development), J. B. Watson, B. F. Skinner & Bandura (social learning), Jean Piaget (Cognitive development), Arnold Gesell (Evolutionary theory), Lev Vygotsky Vygotsky (socio-cul (socio-cultural tural cognitive theory), theory), and Urie Bronfenbren Bronfenbrenner ner (ecological (ecological theory). In addition to the theories, the scientific study of development also involves research. To obtain information about development psychologists use different methods. Some Some of the most most import important ant and widely widely used used resear research ch methods methods in develop developmen mental tal psychology are: observation (laboratory & naturalistic), survey method (interviews & questionnaires), case studies, standardized tests, life-history records, correlation research, experi experiment mental al resear research, ch, crosscross-sec secti tional onal method method,, longit longitudi udinal nal method method and sequent sequential ial approach. Good science requires good scientists. Scientist’s professional competence and integrity are essential for ensuring high quality science. Each scientist has an ethical resp respon onsi sibi bili lity ty to seek seek know knowle ledg dgee and and to stri strive ve to impr improv ovee the the qual qualit ity y of life life.. Psychological research raises many ethical considerations. In developmental research, informed informed consent, consent, risk/benef risk/benefit it ratio, ratio, minimal minimal risk, privacy, deception, debriefing and plagiarism are very important. While describing the views of different pioneers of developmental psychology, a number of issues arouse repeatedly. These issues in particular have run through scientific
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thinking about development almost from the very beginning, and they remain a source of debate debate today. today. These These issues issues revolv revolvee around around the questio questions ns of nature nature versus versus nurtur nurture, e, continuity versus discontinuity, maturation versus learning, heredity versus environment, active versus passive development, and universal versus context specific.
Key issues/Controversies in Human Development Controversy is a lengthy discussion of an important question in which opposing opinions clash, debate and dispute. Controversy or dispute is a commencement of a conflict between statements of accepted fact and a new or unaccepted proposal that disa disagr gree eess with with,, argue arguess agai agains nst, t, or debat debates es the the acce accept pted ed knowl knowledg edgee or opini opinion on.. Controversies can range in scope from private disputes between two individuals to largescale disagreements between societies. There are a number of important issues that have been debated throughout the history of developmental psychology. In psychology, the controversies arouse from the different theoretical concepts of different theories that they believed were the major parts of child development. The major and most widely debated controversies are:
Nature-Nurture issue
Heredity-Environment issue
Continuity-Discontinuity issue
Learning-Maturation issue
Normative-Individual development
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Active-Passive learning
Specificity-Generality
Nature-Nurture Issue
Nature-Nurture is the fundamental question in psychology and involves the debate that whether development is influenced by nature or nurture. Nature is an organism’s biological inheritance on development whereas nurture is an organism’s learning through experience and interaction. Typically developmental psychologists are interested in how these factors interact, rather than trying to decide which is more important. They are interested to see to what extent the qualities we possess are inborn and contain biological factors and to what extent are they acquired as a result of individual socialization? According According to the nature nature advocates, advocates, unless treated by the unfriendly unfriendly environment environment the human grow in an orderly manner. By contrast, nurture advocates emphasize the importance of nurture or environmental experiences. According to them, experiences run the gamut from the individual’s biological environment (nutrition, medical care, and physic physical al accide accidents nts)) to the social social environ environmen mentt (famil (family, y, peer group, group, school school,, social social gatherings, media, and culture). Nature Nature versus versus nurtur nurturee controv controvers ersy y import importance ance can be well well descri described bed in the exam exampl plee that that if a wild wild boy boy like like chil child d woul would d be foun found d toda today, y, prob probab ably ly mode modern rn psych psycholo ologis gists ts cannot cannot cure cure him. him. In recent recent times times there there have been childr children en who were rescued after having confined for years in closets and other environments that cut off from other people (Rymers, 1992). These children find it difficult to interact with others.
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These cases highlight the importance of early contacts with other people for normal human development. They underscore the need to know as much as possible about early development and what can help or hinder it. And they bear on nature-nurture debate which is arguably the most salient issue in development (Berstein et al., 1994). Argument about the nature-nurture issue can be traced back in philosopher’s statements centuries centuries ago. This debate has existed at least since Locke and Rousseau first proposed their rather pure environmental and nativistic models of child development. The nurture view was later taken up by Watson and other learning theorists, whereas the nature position formed the basis of the theories of Hall and Gessel. John Locke (1690) argued the dominance dominance of nurture. nurture. He proposed proposed that new born child is like a tabula rasa or blank sheet and what happens during childhood has a profound and permanent effect on the individual. According to him, adults teach the child about world and tell him how to behave in this world. Watson (1930) also suggested the environment as the key to development. From his experience, he inferred it that children learn everything, from skills to fears. He also claimed that he can train dozen of children to become any specialist like doctor, lawyer, artist, thief, beggar-man and chef, regardless of his talents, tendencies, vocations, race of ancestors and penchants. His view stimulated much debate and much research. Shortly after the death of John Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau gave a different idea which established a different point of view. He believed that human development unfolds naturally in positive ways as long as society allows it to do so. He argued that parents should not shape their children forcibly. He said that children are capable of
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discovering how the world operates and how they should behave without instructions of adults. He argued that children should be allowed to grow as nature dictates, with little guidance or pressure from parents. The work of Rousseau was followed by Gesell and made made many many observ observati ations ons of childr children en of all ages. ages. He demons demonstra trated ted that that motor motor skills skills develop develop in a fixed sequence of stages in all children. children. The order of stages and the ages at which which they they develo develop p are determ determine ined d by nature nature and relati relativel vely y unaffec unaffected ted by nurtur nurturee (Berstein et al., 1994; DeHart, Sroufe, & Cooper, 2004) Later psychologists did not take strong positions about nature or nurture. Freud claimed that development was neither the result of nature, as Gesell claimed, nor the product product of environmental environmental experiences experiences alone, alone, as Watson suggested. suggested. He said that it is a merge of both internal as well as external conditions, particularly children’s sexual and aggressive urges and how parents handle them. This combine contribution of naturenurture was more thoroughly explored by Jean Piaget. He suggested that nature and nurture are inseparable and interactive. He said that children manipulate and explore the objects around them which are guided by mental images of objects and of their own actions and these experiences with objects modify these images. Nature and nurture contribute together in the development of child like if we consider genes as a roughly defining broad potential range of ability and the environment as pushing the child up or down within this range. How much nature and nurture contributes varies from one characteristic to another. another. Nature shapes our physical physical size and appearance appearance which can only be affected affected by extreme extreme affects affects of environment environmental al conditions. conditions. Nature shapes the motor skills of child during early childhood according to maturational timetable, but nurture plays a larger role in children’s motor abilities only after children
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have acquired all the basic motor skills. For all individual characteristics, the influence of nature and nurture are always inextricably intertwined. This debate shows that the interplay between nature and nurture is a busy twoway street. street. The nature vs. nurture debate has produced many research advances in the area of human development. I believe that it is not fruitful to keep try in determining which aspect is more important than other. Both are essential in their affects and the development of child. The natural processes of children cannot be changed and the effects of person’s experi experience encess on his develo developme pment nt are essent essential ial as well. well. Other Other issues issues like like heredi heredity ty-environ environmen ment, t,
matura maturati tion-l on-lear earnin ning, g,
specif specifici icityty-gen genera eralit lity, y,
and
normat normative ive-in -indiv dividu idual al
development, all these questions or debates emerged from the debate of nature-nurture. Biological development of species is carried out further by the person’s experiences and interactions in social world and this world teaches a person a lot which is not inborn. So, I believe that nurture nourishes nature.
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Heredity-Environment Issue
Nowadays the issue of biology versus experience is more often cast in the context of heredity and environment. The focus shifts: we look more specifically at genetic factors that might underlie and predispose and therefore set the stage for development, in
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interaction with specific effects of the individual’s physical and social environment. Heredity-oriented theorists assume that there are underlying biological structures, citing evidence from experiments with animals and statistical procedures with humans to support their case. They also point out the specific genes underlying development and behavior have been identified, emphasizing those that are known to cause defects such as mental retardation, fragile X syndrome and many more. O n the other hand, environmental explanations focus on an individual’s experiences pertaining to thinking and reasoning, plus environmental factors such as nutrition and health, each of which can also contribute to mental retardation. Heredity and environment interact, but theorists still disagree over the relative contributions of each. Heredity is an organism’s biological inheritance, specifically genetic influences on development whereas nurture is an organism’s learning through environment. They were interested to answer the query that to what extent do specific genetic factors set the stage for development, and to what extent do specific factors in the individual’s environment such as conditioning and learning affect development? Heredity is the inborn genetic endowment that people receive from their parents (Papalia & Olds, 1995). The range of environment can be vast, but the heredity approach argues that the genetic blueprint produces produ ces commonalities in the growth and development. The heredity proponents acknowledge that extreme environments can depress development. However, they believe that basic growth tendencies are genetically wired into humans.
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A fundamental challenge facing developmental psychologist is to explain how and why developmental changes come about. From the broadest perspective, development depends on three factors; developmental potentials provided by the organisms genes, the organism developmental history, and cu rrent environmental conditions. The first two factors may be thought of as existing in the organism. Every human child carries a set of genes ge nes that contains the basic guidelines for the unfolding of development. But which genes are turned on at any given time depend on the particular points in development a child has reached that is, on the changes that have gone before. Moreover, the unfolding also depends on current environmental support. Environmental support includes all the nutrients, sensory inputs, circumstances, and challenges the developing organism encounters. Understanding just how genes, past development, and current environmental conditions interact to produce developmental changes is a major task for the field of developmental psychology. Today the developmental psychologists have gone beyond this simple dichotomy to analyz analyzee precis precisely ely how inheri inheritan tance ce and enviro environme nment nt influe influence nce specif specific ic aspect aspectss of development. One way of separating these influences is to do correlation study on twins with with same same gene geneti ticc stru struct ctur uree but but brou brought ght up in diff differ eren entt envi enviro ronm nment entss as well well as genetically different twins. These studies have demonstrated that heredity-environment issue contribute jointly to development in two ways: 1.
Operate together to make all people alike as human beings.
2.
Operate to make each person different .
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They make all people alike in this sense that we all experience milestone in motor development in the same order and at roughly the same rate as nutrition. Heredity and environment operates to make each person different as the nature of inherited genes and the environment of widely different family produces differences among individuals in motor abilities, intelligence, motivation, altruism, personality and many more. For all individual characteristics, the influence of nature and nurture are always inextricably intertwined. Heredity and environment interact; the environment encourages or discourages the expression of an individual’s inherited characteristics while at the same time, those inherited characteristics to some extent determine that individual’s environment. Even though evidence proves that there is an interaction between genes and the environment, people will continue to study the effects of each in development. dev elopment. We cannot change the genes of a developing child as well as cannot keep child in solitary to keep him away from environmental effects. Genetic guidelines are important for development and the environmental support is essential to proceed development. Emergence of child’s personality and countless other developmental changes are all joint products of heredity, past development and current environment. So these two poles cannot be separated but can be explained as interplay of these factors are important for human development rather than specifying one out of two. Continuity-Discontinuity Issue
A third long-standing issue in child psychology is whether the development is connected and constant (continuous) or uneven and disconnected (discontinuous). At the heart of this debate lies the question of whether the development is solely and evenly
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continuous, or whether it is marked by age specific periods. This debate actually has two components: pattern of development (gradual or abrupt changes) & connectedness of development. This issue basically addresses to what degree we become older renditions of our early existence or whether we can develop into someone different than we were at an earlier point in development. Some developmental changes are clearly gradual and cumulative, resulting in steadily increasing organization and function. Like, at first child starts grasping things, waving hands, responding to voices, and afterward the ability of child child to use symbol symbolss develop developss gradua gradually lly and progre progresse ssess steadi steadily ly toward toward readin reading, g, manipulation of number concepts, and eventually higher-level thinking. Continuity in development throughout the lifespan is the prevailing view nowadays. This This issue issue is linked linked with Paul Paul Baltes Baltes’’ belief belief that plasti plasticit city y or change change is an important life-span issue. According to life-span perspective, plasticity or change are possible throughout the life-span, although experts such as Baltes argue that older adults often show less capacity for change than younger adults. An important dimension of this issue is the extent to which early or later experiences are the key determinants of a result of heredity-environment interaction, not heredity or environment alone. For the most part, developmentalists who emphasize nurture usually describe development as a gradual, continuous process. Those who emphasize nature often describe development as a series of the distinct distinct stages. stages. In terms of continuit continuity, y, when a child speaks first first word, though though seemingly abrupt, discontinuous event is actually the result of weeks and months of growth and practice. In contrast, at some point a child moves from not being able to think abstractly about the world to being able to, is a qualitative change, not quantitative.
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Developmentalist’s who advocates the continuous model describe development as a relatively smooth process, without sharp or distinct stages, through which an individual must pass. They contend that many of the behaviors and abilities we see in adolescents and adults can be traced directly back to development early in life. Meanwhile, supporters of the discontinuous model describe development as a series of disc discre rete te stag stages es,, each each of whic which h is char charac acte teri rized zed by at leas leastt one one task task that that an individual individual must accomplish accomplish before before progressi progressing ng to the next stage. They also suggest that some aspects of development emerge relatively independently of what has come before and cannot be predicted from child’s previous behavior. As Freud, in his stage model of psychosexu psychosexual al development development,, theorized theorized that children systemati systematically cally move through oral, anal, phallic, and latency stages before reaching mature adult sexuality in the genital stage. Proponents of stage theories of development also suggest that individual individualss go through through critical critical periods, which are times times of increased and favored favored sensitivi sensitivity ty to particula particularr aspects aspects of development development.. For example, example, early early childhood childhood (the first 5 years) is a critical period for language acquisition. Thus, most adults find it difficult or impossible to master a second language during their adult years while young children raised in bilingual homes normally learn second languages easily during childhood. Most of the debate has centered on the pattern of cognitive change. As the information-processing theorists came up with the idea of quantitative change. They based their research on the view that younger children can also perform certain tasks almost as well as older children if they are helped to break down the tasks into simpler steps, or if they are taught the required skills before testing. In contrast,
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Piaget stage theory consist both quantitative (changes in cognitive skills) as well as qualitative (changes in thinking and und erstanding world) views. Rela Relate ted d to the the conti continui nuity ty-di -disc scon onti tinu nuit ity y issu issuee is the the dist distin inct ctio ion n betw between een quantitative and qualitative change. Quantitative changes are changes by degree whereas qualitative changes are changes in kind. The continuity model is often associated with the belief that human behavior consists of many individual skills that are added one at a time, usually through learning and experience. As children acquire more and more skills, they combine and recombine them to produce increasingly complex abilities. Continuity Continuity theorists theorists tend to argue that development development is quantitative-sim quantitative-simpler pler elements are essentially added together to produce more advanced capabilities- and tend to charac character terize ize environ environmen mental talist istss models models of develop developmen ment. t. In contra contrast, st, discon discontin tinuit uity y theorists usually hold that development is guided primarily by internal biological factors and tend to argue that development is qualitative. They suggest that people regularly undergo dramatic, dramatic, qualitativ qualitativee changes in their abilities/pe abilities/person. rson. They argue that children children go through uneven development which are relatively stable periods followed by abrupt changes and reflects reflects discontinuous discontinuous nature of the changes taking taking place in the underlying underlying structures of the body and brain. In general, the truth seems to lie somewhere in between the extremes of gradual continuity and abrupt discontinuity. There is little evidence that people make rapid, abrupt transitions from one stage to the next, even in theories that emphasize stages. Continuity-discontinuity issue emphasized on the patterns and their connectedness to develop development ment.. I advocat advocatee both both poles poles of develop developmen mentt as our develop developmen mentt includ includes es physical, physical, emotional, emotional, psychologi psychological, cal, intellectua intellectual, l, and cognitive; cognitive; these changes take place
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in every child’s life and we develop in steady manner, but in some circumstances of life like like trauma traumatic tic experi experience encess and milest milestone oness of life, life, abrupt abrupt changes changes takes place place in us especially in our emotional, psychological and intellectual which have great impact on our lives. Learning-Maturation Issue
Development is not only produced by interplay of biological, cognitive, and social processes. To grasp the meaning of development more fully, we must understand two import important ant proces processes ses that that underli underliee develo developme pmenta ntall change. change. One of these these proces processes ses is maturation, which refers to the developmental changes in the body or behavior that result from the aging process rather than from learning, injury, illness, or other life experiences. It is programmed - it will happen regardless of the environment. Things that occur through maturation include reflexes. This issue emphasizes on the impact of timings. Maturation is the orderly sequence of changes dictated by the genetic blueprint we each have, and also include behavior that may improve due to ongoing developmental changes in neuromuscular systems. Maturation is any permanent change in thought or behavior that occurs through the biological process of aging without regard to environmental influences. This shows that human grows in an orderly manner according to maturation view. Maturation approach argues the genetic blueprints that produce commonalities in our growth and development. Maturation is partly responsible for psychological changes such as our increasing ability to concentrate, solve problems, and understand another person’s thoughts or feelings.
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A second second criti critical cal develop developmen mental tal proces processs is learni learning, ng, which which is any relati relativel vely y permanent change in thinking or behavior that is a result of one’s practice or experiences. Learning will only take place when an individual have a particular experience. It is the way we learn how to live in this world n how to interact with our world by doing some effort and using our experience. Most of our abilities and habits do not simply unfold as part of nature’s grand plan, we often learn to feel, think, and behave in new ways from our observation of an interaction with parents, teachers, and other important people in our lives, as well as from events that we experience. Matu Matura rati tionon-le lear arni ning ng issu issuee basi basica call lly y deal dealss with with the the quest questio ion: n: “How “How does does maturation, maturation, which is biologicall biologically y based, interact interact with learning, which is experiential experiential,, to shape development?” The maturationists believe that extreme environments can depress development, but basic growth tendencies are genetically wired into the human. For example, how does skeletal/muscular development, which is biological based, interact with with prac practi tice, ce, which which is exper experie ient ntia ial? l? Simi Simila larr quest questio ion n aris arises es with with cogn cognit itiv ivee and and personality development, in which neurological and hormonal maturation interacts with experience. The question of maturation versus learning is an age old debate - but today most psychologists believe that maturation and learning influence cognitive ability. We change in response to our environment particularly in response to the actions and reactions of the people around us. Of course, most developmental changes are the product of both maturation and learning. As when we get older we become more mature, our height and weight increases, skeleton develops, many puberty changes occurs in us as it is a natural process and it is involuntary in nature. But we learn many things as time passes like obedience to authority, altruistic behavior, moral reasoning, social norms and
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valu values es,, cultu cultura rall custo customs ms,, manne manners rs and and they they are are not not biol biologi ogica call but but are are lear learnt nt by experience. Normative-Individual development
In pursuing the goal of description, human developmentalists carefully observe the behavior of people of different ages, seeking to specify how human beings change over time. Though there are typical pathways of development that virtually all people follow, researchers have discovered that no two persons are exactly alike. Even when raised in same home, children often display very different interests, values, abilities, and behaviors. Thus to adequately describe development, it is necessary to focus both on typica typicall patter patterns ns of change change (norma (normativ tivee develop developmen ment) t) and on indivi individua duall variat variation ionss (ideogr (ideographi aphicc develo developme pment) nt),, seekin seeking g to identi identify fy the import important ant ways ways that that develop developing ing humans resemble each other and how they are likely to differ as they proceed through life. Normative development includes developmental changes that characterize most of all members of species; typical patterns of development that are same for all individuals of same species. It refers to the similarities that are followed by almost all the members of species which become norm of that species. It means what children have in common or how development is similar for all children. It is the general change and reorganization in behavior that virtually all children share as they grow older. It is a typical or average behavior of all children during development. Other focuses on ideographic ideographic development, development, which includes individual variations variations in the rate, extent, or direction of development. It means that differences occur in one
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child to the next. Individual development has two meanings. First, it refers to individual variation around the normative course of development. Second, individual development refers to continuity within each child’s individual developmental pathway over time. Even when dramatic changes in individual personality do take place, logical reasons can generally be found. Just as normative developments is coherent and predictable, so too is individual development. Normat Normative ive resear research ch focuse focusess on the averag averagee child, child, with with the primar primary y goal goal of identifying and describing how normal development proceeds from step to step. A related issue issue involv involves es the search search for univer universal salss of develop developmen ment, t, behavio behaviors rs or patter patterns ns of development that characterize all children everywhere. Idiographic research, in contrast, centers n the individual child and the factors that produce human diversity. Research on language development illustrates these two approaches. Researchers inte intere rest sted ed in norm normat ativ ivee deve develo lopm pment ent sear search ch for for comm common on patte pattern rnss of lingu linguis isti ticc development both in children who speak the same language and in children who speak different languages. Theorists who an idiographic perspective are more concerned with identifying ad explaining the individual differences that are evident as children master language. Such differences might result from differences in experiences, such as type of speech, adults use when talking with children, or from biological factors, such as brain trauma trauma or inheri inheritan tance ce of a parti particul cular ar geneti geneticc disord disorder. er. Histor Historica ically lly,, the normat normative ive approac approach h was associ associate ated d with with biolog biologica icall theori theories es of develo developme pment, nt, such such as Gesell Gesell’s, ’s, whereas whereas the idiogr idiograph aphic ic approach approach was associ associate ated d with with resear researcher cherss who emphas emphasize ized d environmental and experiential processes.
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This issue adequately tries to give descriptions that provide us with the facts about development, development, but it is only the starting starting point. Ultimatel Ultimately, y, developmental developmentalists ists seek to explain the changes they have observed. In pursuing this goal of explanation, researchers hope to determine why humans developed as they typically do and why some individuals turn out differently from others. It is a natural thing that no person is similar to other. Every person contains specific traits but they differ in every person in intensity, and duration. We are similar to people around us like the stages we go through during development, altruistic behavior, stereotypes, identity formation, and many more, and different in the way that the cultures of countries differ not only their religion but there are many differences within the religion of different countries. Like in Pakistan the culture and art and craft of its four provinces are different from each other. Dress, language, marriage ceremonies, education systems and many other things differ and they are part of their society or province. Active-Passive Learning Issue
Active-Passive learning issue is a debate among developmental theorists about whether children are active contributors to their own development or, rather, passive recipients of environmental influences. It basically tries to answer the question that “Do individuals actively seek knowledge and self-understanding, or do they passively react to what they experience and are taught?” Active learners are those who play active role in determining determining their own development developmental al outcomes, outcomes, while passive learners are those whose developmental outcomes largely reflect the influences of other people and circumstances beyond their control.
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Theori Theorists sts who emphas emphasize ize active active develop developmen mentt often often refer refer to as organi organismi smicc theo theori rist stss and and they they argu arguee that that we are are acti active ve part partic icip ipant antss in our our own devel developm opment ent.. Organi Organismi smicc model model views views childr children en as active active entiti entities es whose whose develop developmen mental tal paths paths are primarily determined by forces within themselves. This model compares humans to their living organisms by viewing them as whole beings that cannot be understood as a simple collection of parts and active in the developmental process, changing under the guidance of internal forces and evolving through distinct stages as they mature. Individuals seek to interact with other individuals as well as with events, and they are changed in the process. In turn, they act on those objects and events, and change them too, all while thinking about what they experience and trying to figure it out and understand it for themselves. Curi Curios osit ity y and and the the desi desire re to acqu acquir iree knowl knowled edge ge and and unde unders rsta tand ndin ing g our cent centra rall to development. Theorists who advocates passive process are often referred to as mechanistic theori theorists sts,, they they see human human as passiv passively ely reacti reacting ng to events events in their their enviro environme nment. nt. The mechanistic model views children as passive entities whose developmental paths are primarily determined by external influence. This model likens human beings to machines by viewing them as a collection of behaviors that can be decomposed; passive, changing mostly in response to outside influences; and changing gradually or continuously as their parts are added or subtracted. From this perspective, we are driven primarily by our internal drives and motivations in conjunction with the external incentives provided by others and the environment in general. Development is determined largely by rewards and punishments, which shape and mold us. The word determine here also implies that everything we know or do is a function of past or present conditions.
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Clearly, learning theories such as Watson and Skinner favored the mechanistic world view, for they see human beings as passively shaped by environmental events and they analyze human behavior response by response. Bandura’s social learning theory primarily mechanistic, yet it reflects the important organismic assumption that human beings beings are active creatures who both influence influence and are influenced by their environment environment.. By cont contra rast st,, psyc psychoa hoana naly lyti ticc theo theori rist sts, s, such such as Freu Freud d and and Erik Erikso son n and and cogni cogniti tive ve developmentalists from the Piagetian traditions all base their theories primarily on the organismic model. Finally ethologists also portray humans as active, holistic beings with biological predispositions that channel or guide development. However, they are less incl inclin ined ed then then othe otherr orga organi nism smic ic theo theori rist stss to view view the the code codess of deve develo lopm pmen entt as discontinuous. According to psychoanalytic perspective, children are active learner as they are driven by inborn instincts that are channeled into socially desirable outlets. Cognitive theory theory of Piaget Piaget also also emphas emphasize ize that that childr children en active actively ly constru construct ct more more sophis sophistic ticate ated d understanding of the self, others, and the environment to which they adapt. According to information-processing perspective children actively process environmental information to answer questions, solve problems, or otherwise master challenges. Socio-cultural view of Vygotsky studied children as active learner and they processes information that others provide to guide their learning and thinking. However, the perspective of ecological system advocates both, organismic and mechanistic models, which suggests that humans actively influence the environmental contexts that influence their development. But the fact is that much of the time we actively approach the world in all its complexity, and we construct our own view of it to guide us, yet we often has little
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choice except should react towards the physical and social world serves up for us. In other words, our active human minds interact with the forces of society and nature, and that interaction determines what we do and what we become. Many developmentalists who worked on to the learning process of children and tried to investigate that are children active or passive learner. But as the human actively influence the environmental contexts that influence their development, so the passive or experienced ways of learning do. They both are important in many contexts as if we want to learn the arts or how to play any instrument we should be a passive as well as active learner. Passive in a sense that we are driven primarily by our internal drives and motiva motivatio tions ns in conjunc conjunctio tion n with with the extern external al incent incentive ivess provid provided ed by others others and the environment in general, it is related to reward and punishment (appreciation or good grades) and it mold our personality. Active in a sense that curiosity and the desire to acquire knowledge and understanding our central to development. Specificity-Generality Issue
domain This issue consists of two separate questions. The first question is one of of domain specificit specificityy - are develop developmen mental tal proces processes ses specif specific ic to partic particula ularr knowle knowledge dge or skill skill domains or do they apply more generally to a broad range of abilities? This question has implications for how broad the scope of developmental theories can be. The second question is one of the cultural cultural specificit specificityy - are develop development mental al proces processes ses specif specific ic to particular social or cultural contexts or is they socially and culturally universal? This issue has implications for developmental theories applicability across social settings and cultures. Extreme Domain Specificity argues that people are effective thinkers only in
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contexts which they have directly experienced, or in which evolution has equipped them with effective solutions. The role of general cognitive abilities is ignored, or denied altogether. Basically this issue operates with specificity and generality of developmental pro proce cess ss by answ answer erin ing g thes thesee ques questi tion ons: s: “Doe “Doess ever everyo yone ne go thro throug ugh h the the same same developmenta developmentall processes/ processes/stages stages/aspec /aspects ts or does development development vary across across people, people, and cultur culture?, e?, and To what what extent extent can develop developmen mental tal psychol psychology ogy identi identify fy develop developmen mental tal changes that occur to everyone throughout the world and to what extent should it take specific human and cultural contexts into account?” To Piagetians, domain specific knowledge grows out of numerous interactions between the organism’s biologically based domain general abilities (such as assimilation and accommodation), and the environmental context. Underscoring these tenets is the postulation that organisms develop in a discontinuous rather than continuous fashion. Discontinuous development refers to the theory that development occurs in relatively abrupt abrupt changes changes of domain domain general general functi function on over a brief brief time time span, span, which which leads leads to different, different, more long-term long-term functional functional patterns. Continuous Continuous development development refers to the notion that domain general processes evolve slowly over time and are more domains specific. The issue of domain specificity has been raised most often in connection with cognit cognitive ive develop development ment,, where where the questi question on is whethe whetherr a theory theory attemp attempts ts to explai explain n cognitive development in general or focuses instead on processes specific to particular domains. Piaget theory was intended as an explanation of cognitive development in general, proposing fundamental cognitive structures and abilities that cut across domains, such as mental representation and logical operations. On the other hand, information
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pro proce cess ssin ing g theo theory ry focu focuse sess on more more spec specif ific ic skil skills ls and and stra strate tegi gies es and and take takess into into consideration children’s knowledge in particular domains, such as chess and dinosaurs. The general recent trend in developmental psychology, especially among researchers who study cognitive development, has been away from theories that attempt to account for development in general and toward theories that focus more narrowly on development in specific domains. The cultural specificity issue is relevant to theories in all areas of development. Many theories were formulated in Europe and North America, and all of them reflect the assumptions and concerns of the cultures from which they come. Only socio-cultural approach approach by Vygotsky Vygotsky explicitly explicitly addresses addresses social and cultural cultural context in explaining explaining development. development. Piaget, Erikson and Freud Freud assumed assumed that their theories theories were describing describing culturally universal structures and processes, but a large body of cross-cultural research suggests that only some aspects of their theories apply across Western and non-Western cultures. Piaget stimulated a generation of research by postulating qualitative shifts in the developmental abilities of human organisms. Courage and Howe (2002) refer to this view as epigenetic epigenetic constructivism constructivism,, or the belief belief that infants are born without domain specific knowledge, but acquire such knowledge as a function of domain general processes. They define domain specific knowledge as “specific to a single cognitive domain under the control control of more more specif specific ic brainbrain-min mind d functi functions” ons” like like proces processin sing g speed speed and memory memory capacit capacity. y.
They They furthe furtherr define define domain general abilit abilities ies as “cogni “cogniti tive ve abilit abilities ies that that
infl influen uence ce perfo perform rman ance ce acro across ss a wide wide range range of situ situat atio ions ns or domai domains ns”” like like faci facial al recognition.
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Piaget description of infant’s sensorimotor period holds up well across a wide range of cultures, but his assumption that abstract, scientific reasoning is the ultimate outco outcome me of cogni cogniti tive ve devel develop opme ment nt does does not not tran transf sfer er to cult cultur ures es in whic which h form formal al schooling schooling is rare (Dasen & Heron, Heron, 1981). Frued’s Frued’s and Erikson’s Erikson’s emphasis emphasis on autonomy in toddlerhood makes sense in most European and North American cultural settings, but not in cultures in which dependency is encouraged. Bowlby’s adaption theory, with its evolutionary roots, was also intended to be culturally universal. The tendency of infants to form attachments to caregivers and the biological adaptiveness of infant-caregiver attachments do seem to be universal, but the ways attachment is manifested appear to be culture-specific. According to Plucker (2007), content general or content specific is one of the most controversial issues in contemporary creativity research. Recent studies provide support for both positions, but the results of these investigations may be influenced by seve severa rall fact factor ors, s, incl includ udin ing g the the pres presen ence ce of a meth method od effe effect ct (i.e (i.e., ., psyc psycho home metr tric ic vs. vs. alternative assessment). This study investigates the method effect by analyzing quantity (psy (psych chom omet etri ric) c)
and and
qual qualit ity y
(alt (alter erna nati tive ve
asse assess ssme ment nt))
of
crea creati tive ve
achi achiev evem emen entt
simultaneously using structural equation modeling. Although people seem to develop abilities at approximately the same age this view has been called too simplistic. Cultural differences, as well as family differences, may influence development. Develop Developmen mentt may be much much more more multi multifac facete eted. d. As the theori theorists sts of differ different ent countries countries defined the same processes processes of development development,, the worldwide developmental developmental processes. Although the differences in cultures and norms also make the development of children different from other religion. As in western countries, when a child is 18 years
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old he lives separate from his family, he is free from the authority of parents and is in the process to form their identity and make their own decisions, but in eastern countries child is not given permission to live separately, they have to take care of their parents their whole life and their family setups also create changes in their development. As a child who is given permission to make his own decision would differ from the person who depends on his parent’s support. I believe that we cannot generalize all western theories of development on to eastern children; we should be more specific in what we want to explain and in what context. Most developmentalists recognize that it is unwise to take an extreme position on the issues of nature and nurture, continuity and discontinuity, heredity and environment, maturation and learning, idiographic and normative development, active-passive learning, and specificit specificity-gener y-generalit ality. y. They all characteri characterize ze development development through the human life span. Although the developmentalists do not take extreme positions on these important issues, this consensus has not meant the absence of spirited debate about how strongly development development is influenced influenced by each of these factors. factors. The answers answers to these questions questions also have have a beari bearing ng on soci social al polic policy y deci decisi sions ons abou aboutt chil childr dren en and adol adoles esce cent nts, s, and consequently on each of our lives.
Conclusion As psychology is a science of a behavior and developmental psychology is the larg larges estt and and widel widely y spre spread ad bran branch ch of psyc psycho holo logy gy whic which h deal dealss with with the the life life span span developmental changes that take place throughout the life of an organism / human beings. The human human develop developmen mentt has been been divide divided d into into eight eight period periodss through through which which every every
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individual go. Different theorists gave their definitions of human development and are known as the pioneers of developmental psychology. Many researchers uses different research method to conduct studies on the development of different factors of children. Some developmental processes, such as growth during the prenatal period or the onset onset of puber puberty ty,, are are prim primar aril ily y biol biolog ogic ical al.. Othe Others rs depen depend d main mainly ly on expe experi rien ence. ce. Acquiri Acquiring ng the speech speech patter patterns ns and accents accents of the neighborh neighborhood ood you grow grow up in or learning a new language while in another country are the developmental procedures which are primarily influenced by personal experience. However, most development throughout the life span is a result of interaction between biology and experience. Most development cannot be neatly categorized as either either by logica logicall or experie experienti ntial; al; instea instead, d, it involv involves es an ongoing ongoing,, dynami dynamicc interp interplay lay between the two basic sets of causes. Your present personality is also a function of your interaction with other people, the self concept you began to develop in infancy, the social and the cultural contacts you grew up in, and much more. The days have gone when theorists focused on single aspects of development to the exclusion of everything else. The argume arguments nts rose rose over whether whether aspect aspectss of cognit cognition ion and person personali ality ty are either either a function of biology or a function of experience has ended. We also saw interaction in the relationshi relationship p between between inherited inherited physical physical characteri characteristics stics such as body type, skin color, or heig height ht,, and and a perso person’ n’ss self self conc concept ept and and soci social al acce accept ptan ance ce.. Behav Behavio iorr may may also also be influe influence nced d by expecta expectatio tions ns based based on stereo stereotyp types, es, such such as the fat people are jolly, jolly, adol adoles esce cenc ncee are are awkwa awkward rd etc. etc. Theor Theoris ists ts stil stilll disa disagr gree ee about about how how much much a given given characteristic or behavior is a result of biology versus experience. So the controversies of the past aren’t entirely dead.
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There are a number of important issues that have been debated throughout the history of developmental psychology. In psychology, the controversies arouse from the different theoretical concepts of different theories that they believed were the major parts of child development.
•
Nature-Nurture is the fundamental question in psychology and involves the debate that whether development is influenced by nature or nurture. How much nature and nurture contributes varies from from one characteristic to another. This debate shows that the interplay between nature and nurture is a busy two-way street. The nature vs. nurture debate has produced many research advances in the area of human development.
•
Heredity and environment interact; environment interact; the environment encourages or discourages the expression of an individual’s inherited characteristics while at the same time, those inherited characteristics to some extent determine that individual’s environment. Even though evidence proves that there is an interaction between genes and the environment, people will continue to study the effects of each in development.
•
Long-standing issue in child psychology is whether the development is connected and constant (continuous) or uneven and disconnected (discontinuous). At the heart of this debate lies the question qu estion of whether the development is solely and evenly continuous, or whether it is marked by age specific periods. Related to the continuity-discontinuity issue is the distinction between quantitative and
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qualitative change. Quantitative changes are changes by degree whereas qualitative changes are changes in kind.
•
Maturation-learning issue Maturation-learning issue basically deals with the question: “How does maturation, which is biologically based, interact with learning, which is experiential, to shape development?” The maturationists believe that extreme environments can depress development, but basic growth tendencies are genetically wired into the human. The question of maturation versus learning is an age old debate - but today most psychologists believe that maturation and learning influence cognitive ability.
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Normative-Idiographic issue adequately tries to give descriptions that provide us with the facts about development, but it is only the starting point. Ultimately, developmentalists seek to explain the changes they have observed. In pursuing this goal of explanation, researchers hope to determine why humans developed as they typically do and why some individuals turn out differently from others.
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Active-Passive learning learning issue issue is a debate among developmental dev elopmental theorists about whether children are active contributors to their o wn development or, rather, passive recipients of environmental influences. But the fact is that much of the time we actively approach the world in all its complexity, and we construct our own view of it to guide us, yet we often has little choice except should react towards the physical and social world serves up for us.
•
The issue of domain specificity-generality domain specificity-generality has been raised most often in connection with cognitive development, where the question is whether a theory
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attempts to explain cognitive development in general or focuses instead on processes specific to particular domains.
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Dasen, P. R., & Heron, A. (1981). Cross-cultural tests of Piaget’s theory. In Triandis, H., & Heron, A. (Eds.), Cross-cultural contributions to psychology (pp. 94-104). Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger. DeHart, G. B., Sroufe, L. A., & Cooper, R. G. (2004). Child development: Its nature & course (5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill companies, Inc. Kail, R.V., &Cavanaugh, J. C. (2000). Human development: A lifespan view (2nd ed.). USA: Thomson Learning. Papalia, D. E., & Olds, S. W. (1995). Human (1995). Human development (6 development (6th ed.). USA: McGraw-Hill, Inc. Pinel, P. J. (2000). Biopsychology (2000). Biopsychology (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Plucker, J. A. (2007). Generalization of creativity across domains: Examination of the modern effect hypothesis. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 38(1), 38(1), 1-12. Rymers, R. (1992). A silent childhood. The New Yorker, 41-81. Santrock, J. W. (2002). Life-span development (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Companies. Santrock, J. W. (2005). Children (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Companies. Shaffer, D. R. (2002). Developmental psychology: Childhood and adolescence (6th ed.). USA: Thomson Learning. Varta, R., & Miller, S. A. (2005). Child p sychology (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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