Nature Vs. Nurture Theories of Development
             G. Stanley Hall's Recapitulation Theory emphasizes that the changes which characterize the human life cycle today, are parallel to the changes that our species went through during evolution. Hall saw adolescence as a period of transition from childhood to adulthood. He felt that childhood was a time when the innate characteristics of humans were similar to those of animals. Whereas, he felt that adulthood was a time that distinguished humans from animals and raised them to a higher level. So, basically this theory suggests that adolescence is a period of transition from being animal-like to being human-like (civilized). Such a transition is parallel to the evolutionary change that took place as humans evolved from being prehistoric/ape-like beings, to being civilized human beings. Because of the many changes and the great amount of difficulty involved with such, Hall perceived adolescence as a very stressful and difficult time.
             The main problem with Hall's theory is that he didn't have an accurate understanding of the process of human evolution. His theory does not go along with the theory of survival of the fittest, which has been proven to be true. Even if his theory is looked at as an analogy, it still is not accurate because a 2 or 3 year old child has surpassed the capacities of prehistoric human-like animals(monkeys, apes, Neanderthals, etc.), which Hall correlates the stage of childhood to. Although Hall's theory is important because it was the first scientific theory of development, it was never widely accepted because of it's inaccuracies; ontogeny does not recapitulate phylogeny.
             Freud's theory of psychoanalysis is a weak interaction theory that places its emphasis on nature. He believed that the changes in a person's life were fixed and universal biologically based. People's experiences in life were acts to support those ...