Karen P.

Felipe
BEEd-IV

PROFED- 1
Mrs. Noli P. Matias

Module 3: Aug. 30-Sept. 03, 2021

ISSUES ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

ACTIVITY
1. Nature versus Nurture- which has a more significant influences on human development?
Nature or nurture? Nature refers to an individual’s biological inheritance. Nurture refers to
environmental experiences.
→We are all born with specific genetic traits inherited from our parents, such as eye color,
height, and certain personality traits. Beyond our basic genotype, however, there is a deep
interaction between our genes and our environment: our unique experiences in our environment
influence whether and how particular traits are expressed, and at the same time, our genes
influence how we interact with our environment. There is a reciprocal interaction between nature
and nurture as they both shape who we become.

ANALYSIS
1. Who are pro-nature? Pro-nurture? Are there additional reasons you can give in favor of
nature/nurture? Why?
→Nature vs. nurture affects our mental and physical health. In the context of the nature
vs. nurture debate, “nature” refers to biological/genetic predispositions' impact on human traits,
and nurture describes the influence of learning and other influences from one's environment.
Nature and nurture are both equally important. Both are in unbalance on this moment by the
choices humans made over many generations.
Nature is the awareness that sustains growth, balance and order in our apparently material
dimension. By life, Nature creates the human vessels on base of cause and consequence for the
Souls to use and to experience. When we destroy Nature by pollution and unbalance, we destroy
our own environment and life. Nature will correct the unbalance always, when humans don’t
restore balance on earth themselves, in the era of CHANGE.
Nurture is teaching our young generation morals, empathy, formulate positive thoughts
instead of negative thoughts and explain the consequences what results in respectively good or bad
feelings. To explain who we are as Soul and what the main reason of everyone’s life is.

2. Who go for continuity? Discontinuity? Can you give additional arguments do defend
continuity/discontinuity? Who are in between continuity and discontinuity? why?
→Normative development is typically viewed as a continual and cumulative process. The
continuity view says that change is gradual. Children become more skillful in thinking, talking or
acting much the same way as they get taller. The discontinuity view sees development as more
abrupt-a succession of changes that produce different behaviors in different age-specific life
periods called stages. Biological changes provide the potential for these changes.
But how do people develop? How can you get from the bottom of the mountain to the top?
Let's look closer to the theories about development - continuity and discontinuity
You're standing on the very bottom of the mountain that you want to climb, and you want
to get to the top. But when you look closer, you notice that there are two ways up. On one side of
the mountain is a path that involves walking uphill until you get to the peak. On the other side,
someone has carved stairs into the side of the mountain so that you can climb up to the peak that
way.
The path is a lot like the continuity view of development. Proponents of the continuity view
say that development is a continuous process that is gradual and cumulative. For example, a child
learns to crawl, and then to stand and then to walk. They are gradually learning how to walk. It's
just like hiking up the mountain path: a slow, steady ascent that leads to the top.
On the other hand, some people see development as consisting of different stages. The
discontinuity view of development believes that people pass through stages of life that are
qualitatively different from each other. For example, children go from only being able to think in
very literal terms to being able to think abstractly. They have moved into the 'abstract thinking'
phase of their lives. As you can imagine, discontinuous development is like walking up the stairs: a
series of stages, or steps, that get you to the top of the mountain.

3. Who claims stability is more correct than change? Change is more correct than stability?
→Stability implies personality traits present during infancy endure throughout the
lifespan. In contrast, change theorists argue that personalities are modified by interactions with
family, experiences at school, and acculturation.
This capacity for change is called plasticity. For example, Rutter (1981) discovered than
somber babies living in understaffed orphanages often become cheerful and affectionate when
placed in socially stimulating adoptive homes.

APPLICATION
1. Discuss the implications of this statement: ‘’The frightening part about heredity and
environment is that we parents, provide both.’’
→ The implications of this statement: ‘’The frightening part about heredity and
environment is that we parents, provide both’’ that parents are responsible for the outcome of
offspring. That is only true to a degree. While we give our children our genes, it is a mixing of both
parents, and the combinations can be many. The environment is in almost all cases not controlled
by the parent, and although we have impact, at some point children can easily be more influenced
by their peer group, then by their parents.

2. Here is the interesting article titled ‘’ How is the first nine months shape the rest of your life’’
from the October 4, 2010 issue of Time Magazine. Read, analyze then answer the following
questions.
 Does the article agree that heredity, environment and individual’s choice are the factors that
contribute to what a person may become? Read that paragraph that tells so.
→Yes, the article agrees that heredity, environment and individual’s choice are the factors
that contribute to what a person may become. Because it says here that we are the way we are
because it’s in our genes: the DNA we inherited at conception. We turn out the way we do because
of our childhood experiences: how we were treated and what we took in, especially during those
crucial first three years. Or our health and well-being stem from the lifestyle choices we make as
adults.

 Read the 4th paragraph again. Focus your attention on the highlighted word, PERMANENTLY.
Relate this to the issue on p. 31. does the word PERMANENTLY convince you that we are
what our first experiences have made of us (stability)? explain your answer.
→The word permanently highlighted on the paragraph convinces me that we are what our
first experiences have made of us. When we talk about our life as a fetus. The kind and quantity of
nutrition you received in the womb; the pollutants, drugs and infections you were exposed to
during gestation; your mother’s health, stress level and state of mind while she was pregnant with
you — all these factors shaped you as a baby and a child and continue to affect you to this day.

1. Relate what you learned here to your personal development. Reflect on your own personal
development. What has helped you become the person that you are now? Is what you have
become a product of a mere interaction of heredity and environment? Or is what you have
become a product of both heredity and environment interacting and what you have decided or
determined yourself to become? (Self-determination or freedom is a third factor). Write your
reflections.
→On my own personal development I have become a product of both heredity and
environment interacting. Because some of my personality traits inherited from my parents such as
self-consciousness, gregariousness and openness to ideas. Even my physical appearances are also
strongly inherited from my parents. My family, school, neighbors, social media everything that
surrounds me which is my environment influenced to shape up my skills, values, attitudes and
identities.
Heredity and environment helped me to become a better person that I am now. The two
forces of heredity and environment are not opposed to each other but are like complementary like
seed and soil. The heredity is the raw material out of which the object is to be prepared, and
environment in the technique and other material manufactured. They both molded my life and my
personality as an individual.
I was born with heredity and genes that developed with proper environment so that I
determined myself to become self- determined which is concerned with the motivation behind
choices people make without external influence and interference.