Читать книгу Infants and Children in Context - Tara L. Kuther - Страница 37

Developmental scientists agree that the biological, cognitive, and socioemotional changes that occur from infancy through adolescence are indisputable. Yet they sometimes disagree on several fundamental questions about how development proceeds and its influences. Developmental scientists’ explanations of how infants, children, and adolescents grow and change are influenced by their perspectives on several basic issues, or fundamental questions, about human development:

1 To what extent is development influenced by inborn genetic characteristics, and to what extent is it affected by the environment in which children live?

2 What role do children play in their own development—how much are they influenced by their surroundings, and how much do they influence their surroundings?

3 In what ways do children change gradually, often imperceptibly, over time, and to what extent is developmental change sudden and dramatic?

The following sections examine each of these questions.