Nature Vs. Nurture Theories
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 t
Although various theories do conflict each other as to whether nature or nurture plays a greater role in human development, the reality is that they are both very important. She believed that there are three parts to a person's personality: the id (internal source of libido), the ego (developed to deal with reality), and the superego (the conscience). Personally, I do not feel that either has any greater of an influence than the other ; I believe that nature influences nurture and nurture influences nature simultaneously. heory 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. Each of these eight stages presents a crisis of development: trust vs. The superego is not affected because it deals with moral and what is socially acceptable and behavior that is not socially acceptable is punished by the law. The only real criticism I have about this theory is that, like many other theories, it implies that adolescence is this horrible time of storm and stress. The defense mechanisms take the pressures imposed by the id and place them in the unconscious area of the mind. Anna believed that during adolescence, the balance among the three is destroyed because of the new pressures on the ego to adapt. Therefore, it is quite possible that the information obtained was biased. Freud's theory of psychoanalysis is a weak interaction theory that places its emphasis on nature. McCandless viewed adolescence as a period of "storm and stress" because until new habits are formed and new self definitions attained, it could be a period of undiminished drives. However, she also believed that despite these defenses, there is still a danger of inappropriately acting at the genital drive.
Common topics in this essay:
Recapitulation Theory,
Basically Id,
Boyd McCandless,
Erik Erikson's,
Anna Freud,
freud's theory,
adolescence period,
storm stress,
Reduction Theory,
weak interaction theory,
adolescence period transition,
nature/nurture theory,
hall's theory,
weak interaction,
defense mechanisms,
nurture theory,
interaction theory,
socially acceptable,
|