Major Issues on Human

Development
{LESSON 3}
 Learning Outcomes
1. Gain a better understanding about the basic issues of human
development;
2. Discuss the implications of these basic issues to early
learning/education; and,
3. Write a research-based position paper on the issues of human
development.
Assumptions about Human
Nature
1. ORIGINAL SIN
Thomas Hobbes portrayed children as inherently selfish
and bad, believing that it was the society’s task to control
their aggressive impulses and to teach them to behave in
positive ways.

Rigid supervision of children is necessary and at school, they

are taught correct behavior by their teachers.
2. INHERENTLY GOOD
Jean Jacques Rousseau believed that newborns have an
innate sense and morality that naturally unfolds as they
grow. Children will develop in positive directions as long
as society does not interfere.

Parents should be receptive of their children's needs.

3. TABULA RASA
John Locke asserted that the mind of a human infant is a blank
slate. Experiences in later life will mold the person into a
unique individual.

Children are neither good nor bad. They could develop in a

number of directions depending on their own experiences.

Parents should instruct and discipline children, but gradually

relax their authority as the children grow.
 REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS:
1. Did a murderer become a murderer because he was a
victim of the society’s wickedness or he really has the
innate capability to commit murder?
2. Kasalanan ba ni Eba na ang mga babae ay mahina sa
tukso? At ni Adan kung bakit ang mga lalake ay madaling
matukso ng mga babae?
Major Issues
 1. Nature vs. Nurture
Nature is where human behavior is determined by genes.

Nurture is where human behavior is influenced by the

environment.
Philosophers Plato and Descartes
supported the idea that some
ideas are inborn.
Differences among children or adults
are largely because of differences in
genetic makeup and physiology.
John Locke argued that experience shapes
development.
Nurture includes influences of the physical
environment (crowding, pollution, and the
like) as well as the social environment (for
example, learning experiences, child-rearing
methods, peers, societal trends, and the cultural
context in which the person develops).
Today, most psychologists believe
that it is an interaction between
two forces that cause
development.
 REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS:
1. Bagsak ka ba kasi bobo mga parents mo o bobo mga barkada
mo? Who should you blame for your failing grades?
2. Hindi ka ba nagglow – up kasi talagang wala kang namanang
good genes o dahil hindi ka nasanay sa good hygiene?
3. In terms of attitude, sino ang pagmamanaan ng isang adopted
child: adoptive parents or biological parents?
 Continuity vs. Discontinuity
Are the changes people undergo over their lifespan gradual or
abrupt?

Are the changes people undergo quantitative or qualitative in nature?

 CONTINUITY
Change is a gradual and quantitative process. Development is
a cumulative process, gradually improving on existing
skills, and occurring in small steps without sudden
changes.
 DISCONTINUITY
Abrupt and qualitative shift in behavior.
Development takes place in unique stages and that it occurs at
specific times or ages.
Discontinuity theorists often propose that people progress
through developmental stages. A stage is distinct phase of
development characterized by a particular set of abilities,
motives, emotions, or behaviors that form a coherent
pattern.

Development is said to involve fairly rapid transitions from

one stage to another, each stage being qualitatively
different from the stage before or the stage after. Thus
 REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS:
1. Is it possible for a bagsaker in high school to excel
academically in college?
2. Can a nice person abruptly become someone despicable?
3. Naniniwala ka ba na people change o once na babaero,
always a babaero?
ACTIVITY vs. PASSIVITY
Are human beings active in creating and influencing their own
development, or are passively shaped by forces beyond
their control?
Humans are curious, active creatures
who orchestrate their own
development by exploring the
world around them and shaping
their environments.
Humans are passive beings shaped
largely by forces beyond their
control – usually environmental
influences but possibly strong
biological forces
 REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS:
1. Can you become successful in the future despite having
poor parents and low academic capabilities?
2. Kasalanan ba ni teacher na single pa rin siya o dahil
demanding lang ang trabaho ng isang teacher?
3. Do you find for true love or do you just wait for it to
come?
4. Do you believe in fate or you make your own future?
 UNIVERSALITY vs
CONTEXT-SPECIFITY
Are the developmental changes common to all humans or
different across cultures, subcultures, task contexts, and
individuals?
The stages that people
undergo as they develop
are universal.
• All children enter a new stage in their intellectual
development as they reach adolescence.
• Most adults experience a midlife crisis around the age of
40, in which they raise major questions about their lives.
Human development is far more
varied. Paths of development
followed in one culture may
be different in another.
There are two statements about human
beings that are true: that all human
beings are alike, and that all are
different.
MARK VAN DOREN
 REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS:
1. Lahat ba ng mga teenagers malandi?
2. Lahat ba ng mga nasa 20’s na edad ay nagkakaroon ng
dilemma kung may patutunguhan pa ba ang kanilang
buhay?
3. Do you agree that humans are all alike and yet unique?
 STABILITY vs. CHANGE

Do our personality traits persist through our life or do we

become different persons as we age?
Stability implies that
personality traits present
during infancy endure
throughout the lifespan.
Change theorists argue that
personalities are modified by
interactions with family,
experiences as school, and
acculturation.
 REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS:
1. Tumigas ba ang puso mo dahil hindi maganda ang
childhood experiences mo o dahil ilang beses ka nang
nasaktan?
2. Lahat ba ng mga ugali mo noong bata ka ay nadadala mo
pagtanda?
3. Bakit may mga batang pinalaki ng maayos ngunit
napapariwara ang buhay?
 ISSUE DESCRIPTION
Nature-Nurture Is development primarily the products of genes, biology and
maturation – or of experience, learning, and social influences?

Activity-Passivity Do humans actively shape their own environments and

contribute to their own development – or are they passively
shaped by forces beyond their control?
Continuity- Do humans change gradually and in quantitative ways – or do
Discontinuity they progress through qualitatively different stages and
change dramatically into different beings?
Universality- Is development similar from person to person and from culture
Context Specificity to culture – or do pathways of development vary considerably
depending on the social context?
Change – Stability Do humans retain their personality – or do they eventually
change into someone else?
ACTIVITY 4
ACTIVITY 5
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