Nature Versus Nurture Essay Research Paper Nature

Nature Versus Nurture Essay, Research Paper

Nature versus Nurture: What shapes us and how do we become the people we are today.

Everyday children are born; millions of new lives start each day, throughout the world. The growth and the development of these children, has been a topic of confusion and debate for years. Many psychologists are argued over what factors make up the person we are, whether they are biological or environmental. Different theories and conclusions have been drawn over what exactly shapes us, and what effects us from birth through adulthood. Though by studying the differences between theories I was able to draw from each and come up with my own conclusions about development and the nature versus nurture debate. I believe that only through knowledge of many theories are you able to get a clear understanding of development, and then only are you able to really analyze and come to your own conclusions. Once I was done studying the different theories and comparing this to my own thoughts and personal experiences with children I was able to come to my own conclusions about development I have believe that nurture is much more influential on a child s development than nature is.

Infants are born with about one hundred billion nerve cells. All of these nerve cells have not yet made the important connection, which determine a person s social, emotional, and intellectual make-up. Most of the connections are made in the first three years of a human s life. These connections are the most important and whoever and whatever comes in contact with the child will have an effect on them. Infant brain cells are constantly making connections and sending and receiving information from other cells. The signals which are sent and received travel from cell to cell by chemicals such as serotonin. The electrical impulses move over the synaptic gap and to the dendrites, then move down the axon to the terminal buttons, here the information is sent to another cell. These small movements of information between the brain cells are crucial in development. These connections are strengthened by repetition of everyday activities which activate the network of brain cell. These connections are strengthened by whom the child is with, whether it be a parent or caregiver. This leads me to believe that a child s environment and the people whom this child comes in contact with will sharply effect the development of this child. (Kaiser Permanente)

There have been many stage theories such as Piaget s, his stages are based on intellectual development. There are four stages which he believes everyone goes through, in each of these stages a child learns new skills which they use in the next stage of development. All children go through all the stages but at different times. It may take longer or slower for different children. The first stage is sensimotor, this stage occurs from about zero to two years old. In this stage the child begins to learn about their relationship with their environment, and with different objects in that environment. At a young age children learn how to reach, grasp and hold things such as toys and bottles. These simple tasks that infants master are called schemas. Schemas are patterns of thought and behavior, reflexes are the first schemas infants acquire. Piaget developed two principles to explain how infants develop these schemas. The first one assimilation means taking new information and fitting it in to existing schemas. For example if an infant knows how to grasp a finger it will learn how to grasp a bottle. The second, accommodation refers to the changing a schema in order to fit it in new information. Once a infant realizes that it has the ability to grasp a bottle it will know that it can now grasp for a toy. Learning these simple tasks will help them learning how to do things later in life. In Piaget s terms the child is developing meaning for symbols, and will start to think about objects which are not present at the moment. This is called object permanence, children begin to understand that objects exist whether they can see them or not. During this stage the child also requires representational thought. Representation means allowing on thing such as; an object, word or, idea to stand for something else.

In Piaget s second stage, preoperational, the child begins to use language to try to make sense of their world This stage occurs between the ages of two and seven. In this stage the child is trying to discover their world, though their thinking capacity is much less sophisticated then adults, they lack conservation. Conservation is the ability to realize that object stay the same even though they have changed physically.(Sushkin) For example if you show a child two cups of water which hold the same amount of water, then you pour one of those glasses into a tall slim glass the child will tell you that the taller one has more water, even though they have just seen that the water amounts were identical.(Narine 138) The child s inability to realize that the amounts of water are the same comes from what Piaget call centration, this means that they focus all of their attention on one aspect of an element, not the entire thing. This is why they think that the taller glass has more water in it just because it is taller and that is the only aspect they focus on. Children also have trouble with reversibility, that they can t comprehend what wi