Research in Developmental Psychology

It is undoubtedly evident that the field of psychology is becoming increasingly reliant on genetic explanations of human behaviour. It’s undisputable power and potential that it holds for the study offers exciting new developments on levels and quantity that many other sciences can simply not match; yet this over reliance on genetic explanations has caused many issues within the field of developmental psychology, where environmental issues are being ignored completely.

Perhaps up until only a few years ago, developmental psychology has been untouched by the era of genetics. While other fields around it grew and adapted to the scientific principle, developmental psychology was still heavily reliant on environmental influences. The rejection of genetic explanations was primarily due to its lack of insight it could provide for the field. Now however, it is becoming worryingly only reliant on this field of thought as genetic advancements increase at an alarming rate. There is no doubt that genetics can provide answers, it would be foolish to dispute in the face of such hard-hitting evidence.

If any area of research is going to hold a genetic basis, facial recognition in children is going to. It is the beginnings of attachment, the basis of social interaction and is vital for infant and caregiver interaction. Therefore it would be obvious that such a skill would have the possibilities to be innate, however new research suggest that this it is also genetic. After Thomas’ researched the theory, he suggested that even with all other variables taken into consideration, there is unlikely to be any variation let to attribute to no familial environment rendering face recognition ability essentially all genetic. It’s not just the ‘normal’ ...

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... that holds great potential for developmental psychology. The future of genetics is pointing towards an era that can realistically be entirely reliant on genetics. As McKuskis points out, ‘Scientists’ growing ability to read and write in the language of the genes has already explained some of the once-mysterious basic concepts of genetics’.

It is self-evident that even in an era of genetics, psychological studies of environmental influences are not irrelevant, and in some cases vital for the field of developmental psychology. Genetics does have the potential to be viewed as sole influence on development, but for now there are too many issues surrounding genetics to be considered so. It is an ideological and vain hope that whiles such issues as gene-environment interactions, colorations and epigenetics goes un-answered, that we can ignore environmental influences.