Noya's draft 3

Nurture strongly influences early human development

Many scientists know both nature and nurture play important roles in the course of human development. Which of them have more strongly influence on infants has been a debated issue in our world. Some psychologists think environment has more powerful affect, but some others experts firmly do not believe that. In this essay I will explore some arguments for this situation and give my opinion.

On the basis of the hereditarian viewpoint, nature determines infants many physiological features. All of our physiological features are controlled by our genes. Our genes which get from our parents contain all the physiological information. They determine our race, sex, the colour of our skin, eyes, and hair and general body size. More over fetus may get some hereditary disease from their genes. (Atkinson, et al, 1999, pp. 12-13)

Nurture also can influence early human’s physiological features. For example, a part of the infants may be born deaf, blind or brain-damaged not because they got hereditary disease. But, they may be influenced when they in their mother’s body. Everyone knows the human fetus developing in the mother’s body for about ten months, at this period fetuses are very weak and they are in a critical stage of development. If the environment of baby living is seriously abnormal by some external influences, maturational processes can be destroyed. For instance, if baby’s mother lack of nutrition, keep smoking, drinking or take drugs all of these will change the uterine environmental that can affect the normal maturation of the fetus. So that baby may be born disability.

At the same time, nurture can change the speed of baby’s development. More recent researches show that giving baby more extra practices can make them master some behaviours more quickly. For example, nowadays, many parents buy a baby walker to their children. The function of baby walker is providing an upright position to help baby learning walking earlier. Many facts show that it is very helpful for baby. “A group of infants who were given stepping practice for a few minutes several times a day during the first two months of life began walking five to seven weeks earlier than babies who had not had this practice” (Zelazo, Zelazo&Kolb, 1972). Just like John B Watson and B.F. Skinner’s argument: “early training can turn a child into any kind of adult, regardless of his or her heredity”. (Watson and Skinner, 1930.p.30 as cited in Atkinson, et al, 1999, p. 12)

In addition, environment will make many far-reaching influences on baby. By six months of age, the baby will have gained enough information about the langue which they hear from their around, and it will also have begun to ‘screen out’ sounds it does not use (Kuhl et al, 1992). “Thus, human infants appear to be born with perceptual mechanisms already tuned to the properties of human speech that will help them in their mastery of language” (Eimas, 1975). So if parents speak more different language around the baby that can have a good benefit for their children future language study.

Base on what has been mention above, compare of nature and nurture’s influences. We can see that nurture not only affect the physiology but also influence their future development And its influence will rise with the passage of time. So I would like to say that nature has more strongly impact on infant’s development.

Bibliographical reference:
Zelazo, Zelazo & Kolb, 1972; Kuhl et al, 1992; Eimas, 1975;
John B Watson & B.F. Skinner, 1930
McGraw, 1935/1957; Dennis & Dennis, 1940;
Gesell & Thompson, 1929;
Atkinson et al, 1999, Hilgard’s introduction to Psychology, 12E. 1996 Wadsworth, a part of Cengage Learning, Inc.