Intelligence And The Nature-Nurture Dance Essay, Research Paper

A ?dance? between nature and nurture. What could this possibly mean? For years, many psychologists, researchers, etc., have debated this question and asked what exactly does it mean? How does it influence children in their development into adults? Nature is involved with genetics, what a child is born with, for example, their IQ. Nurture is the environment that surrounds them, the environment they live in, play in, grow up in, etc. The question here is just how much of each influences them and why?

Urie Bronfenbrenner is a psychologist who argues a system in which children need to grow. This system is the Ecological Model of Human Development; it shows us that no matter what, nature/nurture does have an influence on children, in many different ways.

Starting with the microsystem, we see that this is where the child interacts with their family, peers, school life, etc. They interact with someone individually; someone has a direct influence on them. Family, for example, has a huge impact on a child?s development. In fact, I believe a child?s family is one of the most important parts of their life. Without family you have no support and no caring love. Yes, some families are torn apart or believe different things, which is why I believe some children become aggressive and violent. For example, if a child is brought up in a caring, loving home with parents who have the money to send them to a good school, give them clothes and luxuries, the proper education, I feel that this child will turn out to be a successful human being. Not only does he/she have the chance to do this, but also his family is there to support him/her. So if the child is born with a high IQ, that is great and hopefully they will do well in succeeding in life. However, the other case is someone born with the same IQ, just as intelligent but without the family support. They don?t have the money to get a proper education, or have enough food, or have somewhere to live and study, etc. This is where a perfectly normal child cannot fully develop because they are deprived of certain things needed while growth occurs. If the parents are not responsive to their children this as well affects them. How can a child feel pride in themselves when noone rewards them or tells them they did well on a project? Children need to hear this from parents and need their support to experience life and grow.

Peers are another factor that influence children. In fact, at such a young age I feel they influence children more than at a high school age. Children at a younger age are so susceptible to believing anything said by anybody. They are not afraid to speak the truth and therefore believe anything said by an adult form. Even children their age are ones to believe. Either it can be on the playground or in school, whatever the case may be children talk and the others listen. For example, a younger child may hear something about divorce. Their family may not be experiencing that but someone else?s might. They may hear something the other child says, go home and repeat it to their family, asking many questions. Why is that, and for what reason? Children can hear curse words and repeat them, not realizing it is a bad thing to do. Some families don?t teach their children that cursing is bad. Others do, so when a child hears someone cursing, they are confused and say,? Well if that person is doing it, so can I!? Peer pressure as one gets older is something hard to deal with. Kids feel they need to fit in and will do and say whatever they have to do achieve this feeling.

School life fits into this all because peers are attending school as well. Children who attend a good school are more likely to succeed in life. If one has the money and time to send a student to a good school, they will achieve the goals they want. If a family cannot afford to send a child to a good school, that child suffers the result. The kids who drop out of school are the ones who have no families, and the ones who have no moral support. Noone cares for them enough to encourage them, their peers are all the same. People with no families to support. This way they don?t feel left out from the other kids. Family, peers and school have a lot of influence on children as they are growing up. As I have explained, the genetics is not the problem, if you have it, that is great, but if you are in a bad environment, you have a big problem.

Bronfenbrenner?s mesosystem consists of institutions such as the home, neighborhood, religious institutions, etc. In contrast to the microsystem, the mesosystem involves a collection of people. A group of people are what influence the child not an individual, as in the microsystem. This collection of people can have an impact on children; for example, a religious place of worship. This is something that people believe in and use to fall upon. If children are brought up believing it and attending these services, then they will grow into it and believe in it. The neighborhood as well is a place of influence; there are other children to play with on a playground who may be the same or different.

The exosystem that Bronfenbrenner talks about is influences that don?t have a day to day influence; such as extended family, television, business, etc. Television does have an influence on children but not as much as a parent. Children can watch television and see the violence or the sexual actions that take place. Some shows are on early and are not appropriate for young kids. They believe what they see and many shows are damaging.

The last part of this ecological model is the macrosystem, consisting of morals of society, cultural values, basic things that would have influence on society. I feel that the way that this affects children is not directly because young children are too young to connect with this directly. I feel that perhaps because the people of society are influenced by this, that by the time children are grown up they will have learned what everyone else believes. For example, racism, children may not know anything about it when they are young, but because society today makes it known, these children will eventually grow up and hear about it.

Basically, this model, to me, is just a base to show how much the environment affects a child. Yes, genetics are important, but the truth is that any child born, with or without a disability, is worse off without the proper family, love, care, money, etc. Any child who has the support of a good home and family is better off and has more of a chance to survive in the real world.

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