How does heredity and environment affect development of a child
Influence of Heredity & Environment
Introduction:
The development of a human is base on various factors, two of which are most defining for an individual – Heredity, and Environment.
Heredity and environment are among the most critical aspects of child development.
These two parameters define how we grow and how we turn out to be. A debate on the importance of Heredity & Environment is often conducted and is very prominent.
Over time studies have shown that we are the part and combination of both heredity and environment.
There two aspects further widely elucidate the concept of nature and nurture.
Both heredity and environment have positive and negative effects on the development of children. These two complement each other. They also have vast significance from the educational point of view. It helps teachers to make the teaching-learning process more effective.
Meaning of Heredity
Heredity is the science where we study the impacts of genetic factors on our behavior and development. How they are transmitted from one generation to another and how they impact the human.
In other words, we can say that Heredity can define as the transmission of genetic traits from parents to their children. It depends upon the separation and recombination of genes during the process of fertilization. Through heredity, physical mental, and social qualities are transfer to the children.
Principles of Heredity
There have been many studies on heredity. Based on these studies, some theories have been proposed. The details of which are as follows.
1. Principle of regression:
The principle state that intelligent parents may have less bright offsprings and beautiful parents may have less beautiful offsprings.
2. Principle of resemblance:
This principle advocates the philosophy of ‘like begets like.’ It says that offspring resemble his\her parents and will have similar traits. For example, intelligent parents will have smart children, while beautiful parents will have beautiful children.
3. Principle of variation:
This principle opposes the second principle. Cit says that offspring may not resemble his\her parents, and thus, there will be variation in traits. This difference is very common in every individual. Therefore, every individual is very different in one or in other ways. For example, it is not necessarily correct all the time beautiful parents have beautiful children. Also, sometimes dull parents may have intelligent children.
4. Principle of continuity:
Bijemann has formulated this theory as a result of his studies. According to him, the original bacteria that make up the body are never destroyed; it is transferred from one generation to the next generation by the sperm, which has the characteristic of being transferred. That is why a person has his ancestor’s qualities embedded in him for several generations.
5. Principle of Transformation of Traits:
According to this theory, parents earned qualities do not transfer to their children.
Only those qualities which are present in genes can be transferred.
So the question is, can we add new qualities to genes. Generally, the answer is no
Only after a continuous process of hundreds or thousands of years can we add or reduce the qualities in our genes.
Meaning and definition of Environment:
The definition of the environment is the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded. The living thing or man is surrounded by water, vegetation, mountain, plateau, thing, etc. All these together create the environment. The environment has a significant impact on the development of human life. As much as heredity contributes to human life, so is the environment. Therefore Some psychologists also refer to the environment as social heredity. Behavioral psychologists value the environment more than heredity.
Anastasi:- “Environmental factors affect the genetic and behavior of a human.”
Type of Environment:
The environment can be classified into the following type.
1. Natural environment:
It refers to the combination of all living and non-living things that exist on earth. It comprises a set of natural resources that human beings are magma, plants, animals, etc. All these elements of natural resources affect the development of a child to a large extent.
2. Intellectual or mental environment:
It refers to the sum of all social influences that affect the mental health of a child. The mental environment comprises forces that affect the thought process of a child and can dominate his/her mind. Knowledge is the only aspect that is considered unaffected by the mental environment. Therefore, it can have a high impact on child development.
3. Emotional environment:
It refers to the responsiveness that a child receives from his/her family, friend, and immediate vicinity. Parents play a vital role when it comes to shaping the emotional environment of a child. This is because parents are the closest to their child; thus, their love, care, and support will have a high impact on the development of a child.
4. Social or cultural environment:
It refers to a set of behaviors, principles, ethics, customs, and practices followed by a group of people. A child learns social and cultural value as he/she grows up. Therefore, social or cultural environment plays a vital role in the development of the child.
Heredity vs. Environment:
The impact of heredity and environment on child development cannot be denied. Both are equally essential for child development. Now the equation arises which influences the life of a child first and how long?
The explanation justifies that the heredity begins the movement of the zygote form from a fertilized egg. Thus, it starts much before a child even born. The traits are transmitted into a new child through genes and chromosomes. However, the environment also impacts the child before he/she is born. It is in the form of diseases, medicines, pollution, smoke, and nutrients taken by a mother. For example, the intake of smoke, antibiotics, and drugs by a mother can harm the child and have an adverse effect on him/her even before birth.
However, the major part of the environment begins when a child is born. Fundamentally, heredity and environment work together in the development of a child. The role of the environment ideally starts with the birth of a child. The environment ideally begins with the birth of a child. The purpose of the environment can shape a child that is in contrast with his /her genetic traits. For example, a child of a monk or noble parents. Consequently, both heredity and environment play their roles through the life of a child.
Blog : Factors Affecting The Growth And Development Of Children
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Factors Affecting The Growth And Development Of Children
When raising children,there are many factorsfrom family and environment to genes and biology that influence their growth and development. It is important to understand these factors to help your children achieve a healthy growth and development pattern.
Children’s proper growth and development is the most common topic of discussion in the PTMs of Montessori City of Industry, CA, so, a group of teachers is sharing below the major factors affecting the growth and development of children.
Heredity :
Heredity is the biological process of transmission of physical characteristics from parents to children through genes.It strongly influences many aspects of the physical appearances of children such as their height, weight, body structure,the color of the eye, the texture of the hair, and even the intelligence and aptitude skills.Many diseases like heart problems, diabetes, obesity, blood pressure can also transmit through genes, thereby affecting the growth pattern of childrenadversely.
Environment :
The environment is a major factor that plays a crucial role in the development of children and it represents the overall physical and psychological stimulation they receive.
The physical surroundings and the geographical conditions of the place the child lives in, his social environment and relationships with family and peers come under the environmental factors that influence early childhood development in a major way.The safe and secure environment of the Montessori City of Industry, CA as well as the love and care of family contribute positivelytochildren’s healthy development.
Gender :
The gender of the child is a very common but important factor affecting the physical growth and development of a child. The growth pattern of girls and boys is quite different like boys tend to be taller and physically stronger than girls on the other hand girls tend to mature faster during their adolescencethan the boys.
Hormones :
You must be knowing that hormones belong to the endocrine system and influence the various functions of our bodies.
Hormones secreted from different glands that are situated in specific parts of our body and control many of our body functions.The proper functioning of these hormones plays a major role in the normal physical growth and development of the children. If these hormone-secreting glandscannot function properly, children may suffer from growth defects, obesity, behavioral problems, and some other diseases.
Exercise :
In Montessori City of Industry, CA, children are encouraged to participate in different physical activitiesas thiswill help themto gain their muscular strength and put on bone mass.It has been observed that kids who engage in different physical activities, attain developmental milestones on time or sooner.
Nutrition :
Nutrition, maybe the most important ofthe lot, has the most profound impact on children’s healthy growth and development.
Abalanced diet, rich in vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, provides everything that a child’s body needs to grow properly. Malnutrition can cause deficiency diseases affecting their growth and developmentin a major way.On the other hand,overeating can also lead to obesity and many other health problems in the long run such as diabetes and heart-related problems.
Apart from the above-mentioned factors, family and geographical influence, socioeconomic status of the child and education play a major role in children’s growth and development.
How heredity affects the development of children
Society
January 27, 2014, 15:43
Parental experience affects the structure and function of the nervous system of the offspring. The fears and phobias of their parents can be passed on to children.
Larisa Vetlugina collage.
The development and formation of a person is mainly influenced by three factors: heredity, social environment and upbringing.
Heredity is the ability of living organisms to transmit various characteristics and features of development to their descendants. In other words, it is the transfer of existing genetic information from parent to child. Due to heredity, all living beings retain in their descendants the characteristic features of their species.
The social environment is of paramount importance in the development of the individual: the level of development of production and the nature of social relations determine the nature of the activity and worldview of people.
Education is the third essential factor in the development and formation of personality (from the point of view of pedagogy). Education corrects the influence of heredity and the environment in order to implement the social program for the development of the individual. In principle, the influence of the environment and upbringing are of the same type. Many scientists distinguish only two factors in the basis of personality development - heredity and environment.
The only difference is that, unlike the natural influence of the environment on a person, education (school, family, religious) is a purposeful and consciously controlled process. For the development of natural inclinations, efficiency and diligence are needed. And the latter are those qualities that arise as a result of education. In this regard, films based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas "The Count of Monte Cristo" are recalled. After all, Abbé Faria was able to bring up a real aristocrat from the Marseille sailor Edmond Dantes. And how much patience the hero needed to free himself.
Different scientists have different attitudes to what influences the development of a person to a greater or lesser extent, but now I will focus on heredity (without diminishing the role of upbringing and environment).
Many people are familiar with Freud's theory that almost all psychological disorders are associated with childhood, the behavior of parents. But American scientists in their research went further.
Noticing cycles of drug addiction and neuropsychiatric problems among urban generations, a group of scientists from Emory University (Georgia) linked this process with heredity and conducted a series of experiments. Their animal studies have shown that it is not uncommon for children to experience the fears of their parents, even in cases where they have never encountered the cause of the phobias.
Researchers taught mice to be afraid of the scent of sakura and then examined their sperm. During the study of the ejaculate, they found that the region of DNA responsible for sensitivity to this smell became more active. Then the researchers studied the behavior of the offspring of the participants in the experiment and found that two generations of rodents were not only very sensitive to the aroma of sakura, but also tried in every possible way to avoid it, despite the fact that they had never encountered it in their lives. In addition, changes have also occurred in the structure of the brain of subsequent generations.
Dr. Brian Diaz says: “Parental experience markedly influences the structure and function of the offspring’s nervous system… Our results suggest transgenerational epigenetic inheritance—meaning that the environment can influence an individual’s genetics, which in turn transmits changes next generations. This is one of the mechanisms that shows the imprints of ancestors on descendants.
British professor Markus Pembrey stated that “these findings are important for determining the causes of phobias, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder… I suspect that we will not be able to cope with the rise in neuropsychiatric disorders, obesity and diabetes until Let's take into account the experience of previous generations.
That is, these experiments suggest that the formation of a human personality begins long before his birth. Perhaps that is why it is so important to develop harmonious relations throughout society. Older people remember how many benevolent people there were in the old days.
But the point is not that all without exception were imbued with the ideas of socialism. History has shown that this was far from the case. But the main concern of society was the social development of children, and this was bearing fruit. And, of course, people were benevolent because they were confident in the future. The stability of life is an important factor for the well-being of a social society. But the most diverse attempts of the yellow press to stick out negative phenomena lead to suicides and various kinds of phobias, which, as can be seen from the experiments of the scientists mentioned, can negatively affect even the still nascent cells of the future personality.
Children brought up in a benevolent atmosphere have more opportunities for developing activity, creativity, originality, friendly feelings, they have more emotionality in relationships than their peers living in conditions of excessive severity, lack of warmth and affection.
The structure of the family and the nature of intra-family relations have a great influence on the health of children and the development of their personal characteristics.
Harmonious development is hindered by long-term conflict situations in the family, parental divorces, raising an only child, etc. It turns out that just like a snowball in the mountains can turn into an avalanche, so our behavior can negatively or positively affect the actions of our descendants. You need to be careful about what your child is looking for on the Internet. After all, the Internet, like other media, has a very strong effect on the still fragile consciousness. We, the Soviet generation, were also like children during the transition period. After all, we were brought up on "sterile" materials. They sacredly believed in the veracity of the articles presented by the media, which is why many fell for the hooks of various financial pyramids. It is necessary to educate in children the development of their own thinking. This, by the way, can be facilitated by the new educational literature, which, as they say, should impartially present the facts of the past of our country.
Author: Radik Mukharyamov
Tags: upbringing and heredity
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What is more important: heredity or environment?
This is a brief formulation of the question of what factors - related to heredity or related to the environment - play a decisive role in the development of the child.
This question has long occupied the minds of historians and writers, psychologists and scientists involved in the upbringing and development of the child, not to mention the relatives of geniuses.
Giving priority to nature, we recognize heredity as the main condition for development. Preferring to consider upbringing as the main condition for development, scientists are actively studying environmental factors (the behavior of the mother, the number of children in the family, crowded housing, etc.), their influence on the process of becoming a child's personality. However, it should be noted that scientists who have different views on the basic condition of development, observing the same form of behavior, can describe the processes that led to its development in completely different ways.
For example, a scientist who advocates the priority of heredity and biological factors can explain the fact that a preschooler invents imaginary friends for himself by the level of development of his brain and cognitive immaturity.
A scholar emphasizing the importance of upbringing may name as appropriate behavior such socio-pedagogical things as isolation, lack of sensitivity on the part of parents, or absence of brothers and sisters.
Thus, there is no unity on this issue among scientists. Parents also respond differently to this question, demonstrating diametrically opposed opinions:
• When I think about this question, the Count of Monte Cristo immediately rises before my eyes ... After all, Abbot Faria raised an aristocrat from a simple sailor ... Therefore, I believe that more than 70-80% of a person can be laid down by education.
• It seems to me that education is very important!!! Moreover, everyone is engaged in education: starting with the family, continuing with kindergarten-school-university, ending with corporate culture, i.e. work team and management. Thus, I personally believe in the possibility of self-education of the Personality. In my opinion, it is the self-educating Personality that has every chance to overcome the “accumulations of past lives” in order to become whoever it wants (more precisely, such a Personality will feel its destiny - and everything will become possible!) In a word, I want to say that the task of parents is reduced to in fact, to the upbringing of the personality of the child.
• What should be the goal of education, in the sense of how to look at it. Since I believe in God, I believe that for every soul created by the Lord, He has a beautiful divine plan. It is not the task of parents to unravel the mystery of this plan, but to create an atmosphere of love, "the most favorable" for the flowering of each unique flower, the human soul. In this sense, from my point of view, the best results will be achieved by the parent who does not try to break and build the child, deprive him of joy and lead him by the hand to certain social standards. The first rule of upbringing is to accept with JOY and trepidation your secondary nature — that is, to recognize the amazing beauty and legitimacy of what God has already created before us. The second rule is to try to raise a child in line with this divine plan: listen to your conscience, for example. And on this path, education can bring excellent results ... up to 100%.
• Since I am a supporter of reincarnation (in the sense of a series of human incarnations), education is nothing more than a cut of a precious stone entrusted to us.
But this is still a very important and responsible task - we cannot create vital energy in a child, but we can help choose the vector of its application. In other words, if the accumulations of past lives do not allow the child to be a bright personality, then we will not be able to make a genius out of him. But if a child has a lot, then it largely depends on us whether it will be a genius or a villain.
• And here I am looking at children. They are perfect by nature. How not to spoil the upbringing ... - say the mothers of children from two to fifteen years old.
As can be noted, the range of opinions is wide and varied: from 70-80%, and even 100%, with some reservations, of the importance of education to the point that education can spoil what is laid down by nature.
An interesting opportunity to get an answer to the question of priority may be the study of children with the same heredity - twins.
The history of attitudes towards twins in ancient cultures and in modern folklore clearly shows that the attitude towards them in society has always been special.
The twins were often credited with some special abilities, they were revered, however, on the other hand, in the very fact of the birth of “identical people” they sometimes saw almost a curse of higher powers. So, for example:
• The Indian tribes of British Columbia believed that twins brought good luck. It was believed that after the birth of twins, nature generously endows people with fish and game.
• The North American Indians of the Capelin thought that the twins were subject to the elements of nature. Ordinary people took advantage of these abilities by splashing the twins' graves with water.
• In India, the Hundus believed that the twins protected them from bad weather. To provide better protection, the buttocks of the twins were painted black and white.
• The Balinese performed complex cleansing rituals with the twins in honor of the balance that exists in nature.
Twins usually turn out to be closed on each other, so sometimes they have almost no need to communicate either with adults or with other children.
They, for example, begin to speak later than ordinary children, but not because they are mentally retarded: they develop their own semi-verbal, semi-tactile communication systems, which at a certain stage of development turn out to be sufficient for them. But with the further development of the child's personality as a member of the collective, all this turns out to be superfluous, and even dangerous. Therefore, twins require special attention from adult members of society.
Another fact in favor of the priority of education can be children raised by animals. Let us recall the example of Mowgli, who was a child of normal parents, but fell into an abnormal environment for himself and somehow managed to adapt to it, but he could not become a man on his own. So education is more important than heredity? Maybe yes. Situations when children were left in the forest and they survived there were indeed observed in history, although rarely, and it is important to note when analyzing such cases that normal parents usually do not leave an absolutely normal child in the forest.
Opposed to "Mowgli" can be "Tarzan", due to the heredity of the English lord, for example, not hearing human speech, who learned to read and speak, having seen the text. Both "Mowgli" and "Tarzan" are a fairy tale. Which one is the hint? However, unfortunately, the life stories of real Mowgli children indicate that a child deprived of a human environment up to a certain age cannot fully adapt to life in society in the future.
The ratio of upbringing and natural inclinations is closely adjacent to the theme of children's giftedness. Is it possible to raise a gifted child in a certain field?
According to various researchers of the phenomenon of giftedness, traits characteristic of most gifted children were identified:
1. Early acquired knowledge in the chosen field.
2. Showed high intelligence, good memory.
3. They were passionate about their work, energetic.
4. Demonstrated pronounced independence, the desire to work alone, individualism.
5. Were able to control themselves.
6. Have a desire to connect with other gifted, youth and adults.
7. Were able to gain practical experience and quickly acquire artistic and intellectual experience.
The resulting list of traits of potential creators is difficult to interpret unambiguously as either inherent in nature or nurtured by upbringing. High intelligence and a good memory are innate qualities, and as for the ability to control oneself, is it possible to say unequivocally here?
The ratio of hereditary and educational factors
My eldest son is 10 years old, we have not lived with his dad for 8.5 years. He has never spoken to his father since. BUT the main features of the human personality are all father's (which is why she broke up with his dad), although he was brought up on completely different moral principles. I now have a child from my second marriage. My husband and I have been living for 5 years.
Those. he found the child at an age when it was possible to influence its formation. My family (parents, sister, her family, her children) is also always there, we are all somehow on the same wavelength and are trying to instill in our son other human values. And in the son, the personality traits of his father are still clearly traced.
The influence of the environment and heredity are the two most important factors that determine the development of the child, but it is rather difficult to say which of them is more important in this case. And this problem is both a purely scientific and social problem, since the future of society itself ultimately depends on how it is solved.
From all that has been said, the following conclusion can be drawn - intelligence and individual abilities can be both inherited and developed, but a person as such, as a system of ethical values, is a purely social product. That is probably why so much attention has always been paid to the training and education of the younger generation in society.
