What Role Does Nature-Nurture Play In Developmental Research

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Module 1 Essential Questions
The reading titled Developmental Psychology Overview (link to the left) provides us with an introduction to some key issues in the field of developmental psychology. Scroll through the reading and you will find information on the following key issues: Nature-Nurture; Continuity-Discontinuity; Quantitative-Qualitative; Universality-Particularity; and Critical Periods. You might want to browse through some of the other readings for additional information Select and briefly summarize three (3) of these key issues.

Nature-Nurture
The nature-nurture is an issue in developmental psychologist to whether how much each play a role in human development. Nature is influenced by our biological factors such as our genetic …show more content…

Read the piece titled The Longitudinal Developmental Research Design.
Describe the longitudinal method and its advantages and limitations.
Towards the end of the piece, the author discusses the sequential method. What is this method (you may need to research it on your own). See also the Ted Talk to the right. So what is the lesson from the longest study on happiness?!

The longitudinal method is a type of developmental research design in which it can be used to study changes in age related behavior. In this type of method, the same individual are repeatedly studied over a period of time.
The advantages of a longitudinal method compared to a cross-sectional method that it eliminates whether the results are based off experiences or age differences in each group. To explain further more different generations and ages can have different experiences. The main advantage is that the method maintains this consistency and stability by having the same participants. Also this design allows the usage of quantitative and qualitative …show more content…

Another key implication is if it the ability to learn the new skill window has been open for a very long time, then it is more difficult for the person to learn it as well as they could have compared to when the window first opened. An additional key implication is that it has also been proven in biological research with animals that critical periods are important to learning. Although there is strong evidence on the presence of critical periods it is impossible to conduct definitive research on critical periods in human development. Bailey mentions that the importance of critical periods lies not within age but with experience, developmental status and the child’s willing to participate and learn the particular set of

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