Week 3

Question 1

Nature-nurture issue:

Answer 1

the tension about whether development is primarily influenced by nature (biological inheritance) or nurture (environmental experiences).

The nature approach argues that evolutionary and genetic processes produce commonalities in growth and development.

Other psychologists emphasize the importance of nurture, or environmental experiences, on development.

**Moshman characterizes this distinction as psychologists who are either Nativists or Empiricists. Constructivists are an alternative to this division.

Question 2

Continuity-discontinuity tension

Answer 2

focuses on the extent to which development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity), or distinct stages (discontinuity).

For the most part, developmentalists who emphasize experience/ nurture tend to describe development as a gradual, continuous process; those who emphasize nature have described development as a series of distinct stages.

**Moshman captures this tension in his consideration of transformative changes

Question 3

Early-later experience tension

Answer 3

focuses on the degree to which early experiences (especially early in childhood) or later experiences are the key determinants of development.

The emphasis on the importance of early experience rests on the belief that each life is an unbroken trail on which a psychological quality can be traced back to its origin.

Later- experience advocates argue that children and adolescents are malleable throughout development and later sensitive caregiving is just as important.