IMPORTANCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS ON DEVELOPMENT
The argument of empiricism, founded early in the nature nurture debate, followed by Locke (1632-1704), is the notion that individual experiences lead to distinctive knowledge (Schacter., 2015). These distinctive experiences are how individuals are shaped; followed more recently by Gross (2009, p.89) as “…passive individuals who are shaped by the environment and don’t contribute to it…”; referring to factors such as living conditions and social interaction - nurture. These components exert higher influence than any biological element, on the development – if any – on attributes like mental illness, gender, intelligence and so forth. Nurture is valuable at looking at individual growth, as individuals …show more content…
However, the environment plays a large factor as to whether it develops – the argument for nurture. The diathesis stress model (Schacter., 2015) supports this; it relates to the idea that disorders often have external causes (stressors) that pair with the genetic susceptibility (diathesis). Thus, stressors are clearly present in the development of schizophrenia, since a biological relative being schizophrenic does not mean the offspring will indefinitely inherit it. A stressor linked to development of schizophrenia are elevated levels of expressed emotion; this refers to family dysfunction, especially, over-parenting - parents setting their children unachievable goals and giving abundant criticism (Passer et al., 2009). Supporting this, Butzlaff, Hooley and Phil (1998) found that the relapse rate of those with schizophrenia returning to a family with high expressed emotion was 89%; if the environment didn’t have an effect, the rate would be expected to be around 50%. This shows the clear correlation of the effect of …show more content…
Thus, as gender is a social construct, behaviour must be learned. Children are taught how to act in a way that correlates with their ‘gender role’, the expectations of a culture of appropriate behaviour for that gender (Spence & Helmreich., 1978). This is indicated in a variety of ways, for example, girls typically have long hair, and boys have short; this behaviour is taught and learned from other people/role models. It is not innate knowledge. This is supported by Kohlberg (1966) and his model of sexual identity development, the most relevant stage being gender labelling. According to Kohlberg, children use the labels that have already been applied to them, and give them to other children – this clearly exhibits the social learning concept in development of gender; children pass their learned labels onto one another. Moreover, research supports the notion of the effect of socialisation on the development of gender, and continually exhibits the nature nurture interaction (Jaffee et al., 2003), as illustrated in Smith and Lloyd’s Baby X Study (1976). Individuals play differently with babies of a supposed gender. The difference in the way that people act towards a baby of an assumed gender already signifies a profound impact of the environment on development. For example, playing softly with a baby girl, and being playful with a baby boy gives the child an indication of how they are supposed to act from an early
The argument of empiricism, founded early in the nature nurture debate, followed by Locke (1632-1704), is the notion that individual experiences lead to distinctive knowledge (Schacter., 2015). These distinctive experiences are how individuals are shaped; followed more recently by Gross (2009, p.89) as “…passive individuals who are shaped by the environment and don’t contribute to it…”; referring to factors such as living conditions and social interaction - nurture. These components exert higher influence than any biological element, on the development – if any – on attributes like mental illness, gender, intelligence and so forth. Nurture is valuable at looking at individual growth, as individuals …show more content…
However, the environment plays a large factor as to whether it develops – the argument for nurture. The diathesis stress model (Schacter., 2015) supports this; it relates to the idea that disorders often have external causes (stressors) that pair with the genetic susceptibility (diathesis). Thus, stressors are clearly present in the development of schizophrenia, since a biological relative being schizophrenic does not mean the offspring will indefinitely inherit it. A stressor linked to development of schizophrenia are elevated levels of expressed emotion; this refers to family dysfunction, especially, over-parenting - parents setting their children unachievable goals and giving abundant criticism (Passer et al., 2009). Supporting this, Butzlaff, Hooley and Phil (1998) found that the relapse rate of those with schizophrenia returning to a family with high expressed emotion was 89%; if the environment didn’t have an effect, the rate would be expected to be around 50%. This shows the clear correlation of the effect of …show more content…
Thus, as gender is a social construct, behaviour must be learned. Children are taught how to act in a way that correlates with their ‘gender role’, the expectations of a culture of appropriate behaviour for that gender (Spence & Helmreich., 1978). This is indicated in a variety of ways, for example, girls typically have long hair, and boys have short; this behaviour is taught and learned from other people/role models. It is not innate knowledge. This is supported by Kohlberg (1966) and his model of sexual identity development, the most relevant stage being gender labelling. According to Kohlberg, children use the labels that have already been applied to them, and give them to other children – this clearly exhibits the social learning concept in development of gender; children pass their learned labels onto one another. Moreover, research supports the notion of the effect of socialisation on the development of gender, and continually exhibits the nature nurture interaction (Jaffee et al., 2003), as illustrated in Smith and Lloyd’s Baby X Study (1976). Individuals play differently with babies of a supposed gender. The difference in the way that people act towards a baby of an assumed gender already signifies a profound impact of the environment on development. For example, playing softly with a baby girl, and being playful with a baby boy gives the child an indication of how they are supposed to act from an early