Developmental Psychology: Theories, Effects, and Nature vs. Nurture Debate

This report provides a comprehensive overview of developmental psychology, including theories such as attachment theory, psychosocial development, cognitive development, and social learning theory. It explores the effects of early relationships on human behavior and discusses the nature vs. nurture debate. The report emphasizes the importance of understanding human behavior to live harmoniously and accommodate each other.

UNIT 11 - DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY i
DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
By [Name]
Course
Professor’s Name
Institution
Location of Institution
Date

UNIT 11 - DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY ii
Abstract
The aim of this report is to demonstrate clear understanding of developmental psychology.
The report objectives include a study on theories associated with the developmental psychology,
effects of early relationship upon human behavior, individual differences and supportive
evidence on the nature or nurture debate. Research findings on developmental psychology
illuminates that the theories include psychosexual development, psychosocial development,
behavioral development, cognitive development, attachment theory, social cultural, and social
learning theories. Moreover, findings stipulate that human behavior is influenced mainly by the
attachments created during early childhood and that the influence will always impact the social
life of the person’s adult life. Additionally, findings show that individual differences have much
influence on the language acquisition and speech development. On the nature and nurture debate,
findings prove that human beings carry hereditary aspects in their way of living. However,
people can decide what kind of personality they want to acquire through the choices of
interactions they make in their environment. The recommendation based on developmental
psychology is that if we are to live harmoniously, there is need to study the behavior of human so
that we can know how to live and accommodate each other.
Keywords: Theories of developmental psychology, nature or nurture debate, child
development, attachment theory and individual differences, language acquisition

UNIT 11 - DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY iii
Abstract.......................................................................................................................................................ii
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................1
Developmental Psychology.........................................................................................................................1
Discussion....................................................................................................................................................1
Bowlby’s Attachment Developmental Theory.........................................................................................1
Erikson’s Psychosocial Developmental Theory........................................................................................3
Trust verses mistrust...........................................................................................................................3
Autonomy verses shame and doubt....................................................................................................3
Initiative verses guilt............................................................................................................................3
Industry verses inferior........................................................................................................................3
Identity verses confusion.....................................................................................................................4
Intimacy verses isolation.....................................................................................................................4
Generativity verses stagnation............................................................................................................4
Integrity and despair............................................................................................................................4
Piaget’s Cognitive Theory........................................................................................................................5
Sensorimotor stage..........................................................................................................................5
Preoperational stage.......................................................................................................................5
Concrete operational stage.............................................................................................................5
Formal operational stage.................................................................................................................5
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory..............................................................................................................5
Bandura’s Social Learning Theory............................................................................................................6
Freud’s Psychosexual Development Theory............................................................................................6
Behavioral Child Theory...........................................................................................................................6
Individual Differences and Language Acquisition (IDs)............................................................................7
The Nature and Nurture Debate..............................................................................................................7
The nature theory........................................................................................................................7
The nurture theory......................................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................8
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................................8
References...................................................................................................................................................9

UNIT 11 - DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 1
Introduction
Developmental Psychology
Developmental psychology is the study of mental, emotional, behavioral and physical changes
as they occur in the lifespan of a human being. The study is covered in different theories by
scholars and researchers and focusses on a descriptive illumination of human understanding as
they develop. A study on the developmental psychology is important since it will distinctly
brighten the understanding of human life and behavior through the different stages of life and
how they impact harmonious understanding of human behavior. Moreover, it will illuminate the
importance of genetics and the environment on human behavior.
This report focusses on the study of developmental psychology, mainly on children and
further explains how the effects of children developmental psychology can affect their adult life.
Limitations of this report include the target of study which is the young population. However,
adult life reflections are made based on the children developmental psychology.
Discussion
Bowlby’s Attachment Developmental Theory
Attachment refers to a special emotional closeness between two human beings that brings
about comfort, pleasure and care (Cherry, 2019). John Bowlby attachment theory focusses on the
social development of children with respect to who their caregivers are. He argues that the
interaction and relationship between children and their caregivers has major impact on their
development and will always influence their way of living even in their adult life. In this theory,
he claims that every child is born with the urge to form a bond that normally aids him or her to
survive through getting care and protection. Bowlby explains his theory that every experience

UNIT 11 - DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2
that a child goes through is vital for his or her development and would definitely influence his or
her adult life (Holmes 2014, p25).
Further research on the attachment theory came up with the different styles of children
attachment including secure attachment which is characterized by happiness in the presence of
the caregiver and upsets in the absence of the caregiver (Slee and Shute 2014, p 66). Moreover,
secure attachment is displayed when a child runs to their caregiver when frightened. Secure
attachment exists between caregivers who often play with the children. Studies show that
children who had secure attachment become more empathetic in their adulthood.
Another style of attachment is the ambivalent attachment. The children in this attachment tend
to be suspicious especially to strangers. The children are attached only to those they know and
become distressed in their absence. However, the children do not show reassurance or comfort
when the caregivers return. Study shows that in adult life, these children become reluctant to
forming attachments and often worry that their partners do nor truly have enough emotional
attachment with them. It leads to breakups.
The third style of attachment is the avoidant attachment. Children in this attachment style
avoid their caregivers, especially after a period of absence. The children in this style are good
with or without the presence of their caregivers. As adults, these children will develop intimacy
issues since they will not develop much emotions for their lovers.
The last style of attachment is the disorganized-insecure attachment in which children display
a mixture of avoidance and resistance. The children may or may not care about the presence of
their caregivers. This style is always due to parents who act as figures of both fear and
reassurance.

UNIT 11 - DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 3
Erikson’s Psychosocial Developmental Theory
This theory focusses on child social interaction development and challenges that arise during
the development (Sceck 2014, p 5). The theory is divided into eight stages that cover the whole
life of a human being from childhood to adulthood.
1. Trust verses mistrust
A stage that occurs between birth and one year.in this stage, a child will either develop trust or
mistrust upon the caregiver depending on dependability or quality of care from the caregiver.
Success at this stage molds the child to trust others and failure will build mistrust upon other
even in adult life.
2. Autonomy verses shame and doubt
A stage where children try gaining independency by practicing doing things on their own.
Leaving children attempt independence can lead to success that will mold them into responsible
adult and shunning them will lead to self-doubt.
3. Initiative verses guilt
where children take place in plays and practice leadership in those plays. Success in this stage
leads to a skillful and confident leader while failure leads to a sense of guilt and lack of initiative
even as adults.
4. Industry verses inferior

UNIT 11 - DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 4
A stage in during children develop quest for recommendation from their elders. If they are
commended, they will develop confidence in their skills thus develop competency while if they
are not commended, they will live to be doubting their skills even as adults.
5. Identity verses confusion
A stage where children explore life and identify themselves. This stage leads to development
of self-reliance and control while failure leads to feeling insecure and confusion on themselves
and may not even know what they want in future.
6. Intimacy verses isolation
A stage starting at adolescence. It involves exploring relationships. Success at this stage leads
to secure relationships while failure leads to emotional isolation or loneliness (Shaffer and Kipp
2010, p. 69).
7. Generativity verses stagnation
A stage in which adults start feeling the urge to mold others to be better people in life.
Success leads to participation in the community affair while failure leads to a sense of self
unproductivity; making one uninvolved in worldly activity.
8. Integrity and despair
A stage that involves reflecting back on one’s life. People look at the life they led and either
be happy or regret. Those who feel proud of their lives feel a sense of integrity while those
unsuccessful feels bitter and develop a sense of despair.
Piaget’s Cognitive Theory

UNIT 11 - DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 5
This theory is concerned with human thought process as well as the influence of human
thoughts on his interactions and understanding of the world. It focuses on the children
intellectual development sequence (Akhtar 2014, p10).
 Sensorimotor stage
Exists between birth and two years; when a child’s knowledge of the world is dependent on
their sense to stimuli and perception since they have no idea on what’s going on.
 Preoperational stage
Exists between two to six years in which the child learns how to use language. At this stage,
children cannot mentally manipulate information and are unable to know what’s wrong from
what’s right in their language use.
 Concrete operational stage
Exists between seven to eleven years where children have ability to think logically. However,
they have difficulties comprehending hypothetical concepts
 Formal operational stage
Starts from 12 years to adulthood. A person has the capability to figure out abstract concepts.
Skills such as systematic planning, logic and deductive reasoning start emerging.
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
This theory argues that caregivers and peers or generally the community and its culture are
responsible of molding the children. Vygotsky claims that learning is an inherent activity that
automatically becomes integrated into one’s understanding through interaction (Ludlow and
Gutierrez 2014, p14). Moreover, the theory touches on the proximal development, a concept that

UNIT 11 - DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 6
stipulates what a person can do with or without help. The theory encourages learning from
interactions.
Bandura’s Social Learning Theory
The theory argues that behavior is learnt through observations and modelling (Miller 2016, p
12). The people around influence one’s way of life and that children learn much from their
parents’ and caregivers’ behavior while adults can develop new skills and behavior from their
interactions. Bandura believes that observation plays a paramount role in leaning.
Freud’s Psychosexual Development Theory
According to Freud, child development is in stages and each stage is focused on different
pleasure area of the body. He says that in each stage, children go through conflicts that mold
their development (Renkins, 2017, p. 21).
Freud thinks that energy of libido is attached to different erogenous zones in every stage and
that failure to pass a stage will stagnate the energy at that zone and have a different influence on
adult behavior that is unexpected. He further urges that success in completion of the stages leads
to a healthy adulty personality while failure has negative influence on adult personality.
Behavioral Child Theory
Based on this theory, a person’s behavior is determined by the environment in which they live
(Piaget and Inhelder 2019, p36). What and how someone do things depends on the environment
around and the interaction. The theory insists that learning is fully dependent on association and
reinforcement. However, the theory ignores internal thoughts and feeling s and claims that we
are who we are depending on the experience that we go through in the environment. In the
theory, people learn in two ways; through classical conditioning which involves comparing
naturally occurring stimuli, and through operant conditioning that utilizes punishments and

UNIT 11 - DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 7
reinforcement as a way of leaning. Operant conditioning also determines whether a child will
continue with a certain behavior or not; depending on the benefits of the particular behavior on
the child.
Individual Differences and Language Acquisition (IDs)
IDs exist due to complex interaction of the endogenous cognitive systems and environment.it
is admittedly evident that there exist differences at every developmental stage when it comes to
language acquisition; more so, the fact that differences exist in accordance with age, experience
and environment as they are the determinants of the language variations (Fillmore, Kempler, &
Wang, 2014, p. 90).
The Nature and Nurture Debate
A person physical appearance, talents and personality can be related to the genetic
relationships they have with their parents. However, behavior, manners and response to one’s
environment can be influenced by the environment. The genetic relationship entails the nature
while the environment relationship entails the nurture aspect (Keating 2010, p. 13). The debate
aim is to determine whether human development is majorly influenced by nature or nurture.
The nature theory
The theory argues that every trait a human being has is related to a cell in the body; example
being the height, among other traits. One strong hold of this theory is that there is a behavioral
gene that is allegedly thought to exist. The argument is that the gene will always cause
similarities in behavior of fraternal twins even if they are raised far apart from each other.
However, the theory fails to sufficiently prove if more abstract features like personality, likes and

UNIT 11 - DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 8
dislikes; are related to genes. Moreover, the theory fails to prove whether there exists a ‘gay
gene’ possessed and born only with gays, making them behave that way.
The nurture theory
The theory holds that even though genetic influence on human traits exist, human behavior
originates majorly based on the environment. A good example is the use of rules or restriction to
inculcate a certain behavior or alter a bad behavior in a child. Furthermore, it is admittedly true
that even though fraternal twins raised apart show similarities, still the influence of environment
shows upon their behavior.
Conclusion
Adults mental, emotional, behavioral and physical traits are dependent on their respective
childhood development. Moreover, the genetic relationship together with the environment
defines what kind of an adult a child will develop to be.
Recommendations
People should research and read on human developmental psychology for better interaction,
understanding of each other and coexistence since they will know how to handle each other
based on behavior.
People should study developmental psychology so that they can effectively make decisions on
the life style of their children and themselves; knowing that their decision counts on the future of
the community.
People should study developmental psychology so that they can know how to effectively raise
their children for a better adulthood.

UNIT 11 - DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 9
References
Akhtar, M. (2014). A critical analysis of Vygotsky and Piagets theory of language learning.
Munich, Germany: GRIN Verlag.
Cherry, K. (2019). Influential Theories About How Children Grow and Develop. Retrieved
from https://www.verywellmind.com/child-development-theories-2795068
Fillmore, J., Kempler, D., and Wang, W. S. (2014). Individual Differences in Language
Ability and Language Behavior. Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.
Holmes, J. (2014). John Bowlby and Attachment Theory. London, England: Routledge.
Keating, P. (2010). Nature and Nurture in Early Child Development. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press.
Ludlow, A., and Gutierrez, R. (2014). Developmental Theories. Developmental Psychology,
11-32.
Miller, H. (2016). Theories of Developmental Psychology. Macmillan Higher Education.
Piaget, J., and Inhelder, B. (2019). The Psychology Of The Child. London, England: Hachette
UK.
Scheck, S. (2014). The Stages of Psychosocial Development According to Erik H. Erikson.
Munich, Germany: GRIN Verlag.
Shaffer, D., and Kipp, K. (2010). Developmental Psychology: Childhood & Adolescence:
Childhood and Adolescence. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Slee, T., and Shute, R. (2014). Child Development: Thinking About Theories Texts in
Developmental Psychology. London, England: Routledge.