Biological Factors in Development

12 Key excerpts on "Biological Factors in Development"

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  An Outline of Psychology as Applied to Medicine

  • John Weinman(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Butterworth-Heinemann

    (Publisher)

  In reality there are many diverse factors which can influence the process of development at any stage from conception through to adolescence. Thus there follows an account of some of the factors which can affect development, some of which can have lasting effects on the child and some of which are of direct clinical significance. Following this there is an outline of some of the main changes which take place during development. Finally, there is an introduction to some of the psychological problems associated with the developmental process. • 8.1. Factors influencing child development The factors influencing development considered here are: a. Genetic influences. 117 118 An outline of psychology b. Prenatal influences. c. Neonatal influences: birth complications. d. Nutrition. e. Environmental chemicals. /. Physical handicaps and brain injury. g. The early environment. a. Genetic influences The whole process of normal brain formation and development is under the control of genetic mechanisms. However, the expression of an organism's genetic endowment will depend on many environmental constraints, as we have seen in earlier chapters and also discuss below. Once a child is born, the effects of inheritance and experience become increasingly difficult to untangle and so an account of genetic or environmental influences must be attempted with considerable caution. Physical characteristics have a clear genetic basis and some of these may directly or indirectly affect behaviour. As we see later, parental reactions appear to differ in response to male and female babies and so this is one broad way in which an inherited factor can indirectly affect later behaviour. Such factors as height and rate of maturation can also indirectly affect aspects of behaviour on account of the differing patterns of social reactions to people of different heights or to early or late developers in adolescence.

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  Understanding Psychology for Medicine and Nursing

  Insights and Applications

  • Mohamed Ahmed Abd El-Hay(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Developmental milestones offer guidelines for the ages at which certain skills and abilities typically emerge, but concerns usually arise when a child falls slightly behind the norm. While developmental theories have historically focused upon deficits in behavior, focus on individual differences in development is becoming an important component of different psychological theories. Psychoanalytic theories are traditionally focused upon abnormal behavior, so developmental differences in these theories are described as a deficit in behavior. Learning theories rely more on the environment’s unique impact on an individual. Today, psychologists look at both norms and individual differences when describing child development.

  Factors Affecting Development and Growth

  Development and growth are influenced by several factors including genetic and environmental factors. The following is a summary of possible factors that can affect development.

  Genetic Factors

  A child is born with a unique set of genetic endowments that influence his or her physical growth. Genetics have a strong effect on rate of growth, the size of body parts, and the onset of growth events. Genes are a biological risk factor that cannot be changed. However, early interventions can improve the outcome of these risk factors on a child’s physical and cognitive growth and development. This is especially crucial when dealing with genetic conditions that are preventable, e.g., phenylketonuria (PKU), which is a recessive genetic disorder that leads to the inability to metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine, which accumulates to toxic levels, impairing brain development and leaving children mentally retarded, restless, and irritable. Although PKU is a hereditary condition, an early strict low-phenylalanine diet can prevent brain damage (Waisbren, Brown, de Sonneville, & Levy, 1994). A more detailed account of genetics was presented on pp. 106–109.

  Environmental Influences

  The effect of environmental factors on development starts at conception. Malnutrition and intake of medications, tobacco, alcohol, recreational drugs or other chemical agents during pregnancy can affect the growth of a fetus either directly or indirectly. These substances can cause birth defects, and can also affect a child’s cognitive growth in the later developmental stages. The effect of these risk factors on a child’s learning and behavior may not become obvious for years. After birth, malnutrition, poor housing, pollution and lack of appropriate toys and activities may have detrimental effects on human growth.

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  CLEP® Human Growth & Development Book + Online

  • Patricia Heindel(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Research & Education Association

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 4 Biological Development Throughout the Life Span Chapter 4 Biological Development Throughout the Life Span

  Psychologists studying development make a distinction between developmental changes that are the result of learning versus changes due to maturation . Maturation is a term used to describe a genetically programmed biological plan of development that is relatively independent of experience. Changes in the three areas of development—biological development, cognitive development, and psychosocial development—differ in the degree to which they are controlled by experience versus maturation. Biological development is an area controlled substantially by maturation but still affected to some degree by environmental influences.

  GENES AND HEREDITY

  Evolutionary psychologists study species’ heredity, that is, the traits and behaviors that are common in all humans. For example, all healthy neonates (newborns) are born equipped with the same set of motor reflexes. Psychologists also study individual inheritance to understand individual differences in traits and abilities. Both types of inheritance are controlled by information carried in the thousands of genes on the 46 chromosomes found in the nucleus of each cell in the human body.

  Chromosomes are arranged in pairs. Twenty-two of these pairs are called autosomes and carry genetic material that controls all of our characteristics with the exception of biological sex. These 22 pairs of chromosomes are the same in males and females. The two chromosomes of the 23rd pair are called the sex chromosomes . In normal females, the sex chromosome pair is XX and normal males inherit an XY pair. Biological parents pass on one set of 23 chromosomes in each sperm cell or ovum

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  Developmental Psychology

  • Amanda Ludlow, Roberto Gutierrez(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  51 What role does genetic inheritance play in a child’s development and how much is contributed by the environment? This question has puzzled scientists and psychologists for centuries, most frequently referred to as the nature (genetic background) versus nurture (our environment) debate. Whilst it is impossible to account for every influence that determines a child’s personality, there are key influences that have been identified in a child development including parenting styles, relationships with friend and family and experience in the home and at school. Most psychologists now consider that it is an interaction of both genetic and environmental factors that shape a child, with the genetic make-up laying the founda-tions to how the child develops with the environment. Their different environmental experiences will impact on how these foundations will ultimately be expressed, shaped or even suppressed. Biological Psychology Chapter 4 In this chapter, we will examine: ■ What biological influences shape a child’s development? ■ What are the key environmental influences? ■ How do environment factors interact with genetics? ■ The role of genetic disorders on a child’s development Biological influences The development of a child starts when the male reproductive cell, or sperm, penetrates the protective outer membrane of the ovum, the 52 Developmental Psychology female reproductive cell. Both the sperm and ovum contain chromo-somes that act as the blueprint for human life. These chromosomes hold a chemical structure known as DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) containing the genetic code that makes up all life. Both the sperm and ova each contain only 23 chromosomes. This ensures that when the two cells meet, the resulting new organism has the correct 46 chromosomes. The genotype refers to all genes that are inherited whereas the pheno-type determines the actual expression of these genes.

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  Psychobiology and Early Development

  • H. Rauh, H.-C. Steinhausen(Authors)
  • 1987(Publication Date)
  • North Holland

    (Publisher)

  Psychobiology and Early Development H. Rauh and H . 0 . Steinhausen (Editors) 0 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland), 1987 239 THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF PSYCHOBIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT H. Rudolph Schaffer Department o f Ps.ycho1 0g.y U n i v e r s i t y o f Strathclyde Glasgow, Scotland Development, conceptualised i n terms o f sequential reorganisations o f mental l i f e , i s i l l u s t r a t e d w i t h respect t o one o f t h e most profound reorganisations t o occur i n t h e e a r l y years, i. e. t h a t t a k i n g place around t h e age o f e i g h t months, indicated amongst other behavioural changes by t h e onset o f r e l a t i o n a l a b i l i t i e s . It i s proposed t h a t besides c l o s e l i n k s t o t h e maturation o f p r e c o r t i c mechanism, two kinds o f s o c i a l antecedents can be d i s t i n g u i s h e d which h e l p t o b r i n g about t h e reorganisation i n t h e f i r s t place: a general arousal e f f e c t which stimulates b r a i n growth and a much more s p e c i f i c t y p e found i n parental a n t i c i p a t o r y behaviour, i. e. t h e tendency o f parents t o i n v o l v e i n f a n t s i n a c t i o n formats before they are developmentally ready f u l l y t o p a r t i c i p a t e i n them. Both draw a t t e n t i o n t o t h e f a c t t h a t development i s i n v a r i a b l y a j o i n t f u n c t i o n o f endogenous and exogenous forces. INTRODUCTION It i s widely agreed t h a t psychological development i s a f u n c t i o n o f both endogenous and exogenous forces, and t h a t it i s t h e i n t e r a c t i o n o f these two sets o f determinants t h a t accounts f o r t h e p a r t i c u l a r course which development takes i n any child.

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  Foundations of Developmental Psychology

  • Richard C. LaBarba(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Academic Press

    (Publisher)

  PRENATAL FACTORS IN DEVELOPMENT INTRODUCTION PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT Embryonic Growth Prenatal Periods of Development The Determination of Embryonic Age HUMAN BEHAVIORAL EMBRYOLOGY Historical Perspective Conceptions of Prenatal Development Methodological Considerations in The Study of Human Prenatal Behavior The Ontogeny of Human Fetal Behavior Theoretical Issues in Behavioral Embryology The Coghill-Windle Controversy INTRAUTERINE INFLUENCES ON PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT Principles of Teratology and the Concept of Critical Periods Ionizing Radiation Effects Drug Effects Smoking and Alcohol Maternal Diseases and Conditions Perinatal Factors in Development Low Birth Weight and Prematurity Maternal Emotional States OBSTETRIC MEDICATION Effects of Obstetric Medication on Infants The Brackbill and Broman Study REFERENCES INTRODUCTION I this chapter, we will discuss h u m a n prenatal develop- I ment, both normal and abnormal, in order to describe how prenatal factors and experiences can affect the develop- m e n t of postnatal behavior and ontogenesis. As we describe various patterns o f prenatal d e v e l o p m e n t , we will draw u p o n data from the science of embryology, which deals with the origin and d e v e l o p m e n t of the individual organism, and its subdisciplines such as developmental anatomy, developmental physiology, chemical embryology, and experimental embryol- ogy. Especially important to d e v e l o p m e n t a l psychology is the field o f behavioral embryology. Behavioral embryology is the study o f the origin and d e v e l o p m e n t of the nervous system and behavior; it explores the relationships between the embry- ogenesis o f neurobehavioral d e v e l o p m e n t a n d later psycholog- ical d e v e l o p m e n t . Behavioral embryology is steeped in the developmental m e t h o d a n d focuses o n etiology of structure and function. It is n o w well k n o w n that behavior does not begin at birth.

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  The Fundamentals of Brain Development

  Integrating Nature and Nurture

  • Joan Stiles(Author)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Harvard University Press

    (Publisher)

  Each chapter focuses on a different aspect or period of development and discusses the major in-trinsic and extrinsic factors that influence and direct the observed changes. The remainder of this section will provide a brief overview of the content and major themes of each chapter. An important part of interdisciplinary exchange is the consideration of possible parallels across disciplines in the major theoretical debates that have shaped each field. This chapter has focused on the central role of the nature-versus-nurture debate in developmental psychology. The Central Questions about Development 17 Interestingly, within the biological sciences there has been a centuries-long debate over the origins and nature of inherited factors that paral-lels the debate over nature versus nurture within the psychological sci-ences. These arguments are most clearly articulated in the long history of thought about what Johannsen (1911) first termed the “gene.” Chapter 2 presents a brief summary of this debate, highlighting the central arguments about constancy and variability of inheritance and the material nature of the gene. 2 Included in Chapter 2 are short sec-tions intended to introduce the nonexpert reader to some basic con-cepts about genes and gene expression that will be important for un-derstanding the discussion of gene effects in later chapters. Chapters 3 through 5 focus on the embryological period of devel-opment, which in humans encompasses the first eight weeks postcon-ception. During this important period of development, the basic structures and fundamental organization of the brain and the central nervous system are established. Chapter 3 examines the very earliest steps in neural development, focusing on the initial differentiation of the cell lines that will give rise to the central nervous system. Specifi-cally, it examines the process of gastrulation, which occurs during the third week postconception in humans.

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  Psychiatry: An evidence-based text

  • Bassant Puri, Ian Treasaden(Authors)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  PART 2 Developmental, behavioural and sociocultural psychiatry This page intentionally left blank This page intentionally left blank CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS Nature and nurture Are individual differences in behavioural and physical traits determined by genetic variation or by differences in envi-ronmental circumstances? Historically, theorists have tended to advocate extreme positions in this debate, but it is now widely accepted that genetic and environmental influ-ences do not operate independently but are interactive. In most cases, genetic factors provide a set of parameters in which an infant can develop, with the exact nature of this development being determined by the environment. Thus, it seems that the important question is not which influence is most important, but rather how genetic and environmental factors interact to determine human development. The heritability statistic used to express the relative con-tribution of genotype and environment to the observed behaviour or trait (i.e. phenotype) is widely misunderstood. This is a population statistic that provides information on the proportion of variability in the observed phenotype that may be accounted for by variability in the genotype (and, therefore, information on variability accounted for by the environment). The number of fingers on one hand, for example, although determined genetically, is not highly heritable, as any variation in this number is generally the result of environmental factors. Height, however, is highly heritable, since most diets – even relatively poor ones – are sufficient to promote growth, so that environmental varia-tion plays a smaller role, with any residual variation being the result of genetic factors.

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  Developmental Psychopathology and Family Process

  Theory, Research, and Clinical Implications

  • E. Mark Cummings, Patrick T. Davies, Susan B. Campbell(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • The Guilford Press

    (Publisher)

  Notably, in other studies, postnatal, as well as prenatal, environmental events have been implicated in changes in these bio- logical systems (Cicchetti & Tucker, 1994). Accordingly, Post and Weiss (1997) have argued that while the “basic wiring” of the central nervous sys- tem is due to genetics, relatively fine-grained changes, but nonetheless changes potentially significant to emotional experience and psychopathology (e.g., de- pression), in these functions may occur due to experience throughout the life span. Thus, Post and Weiss hypothesized that experience-based neuroplas- ticity may occur even at higher levels of neurobiological functioning, and, therefore, experiential influences on neurobiological influences should be con- sidered in both theoretical models of psychopathology and directions for thera- peutic interventions for major affective illnesses. Of course, we are not advocating that biological measures are the “silver bullet” to understanding childhood disorders. In fact, this line of research per- suasively makes the case that nonbiological (i.e., environmental) factors weigh importantly even in directions that might be assumed to be the purview of be- havioral genetics or biological psychiatry. The point is that multiple methods and directions in assessment are necessary. THE UTILITY OF MULTIPLE METHODS: DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND FAMILY RESEARCH Relatedly, there are various levels of analysis to consider when evaluating which research methodologies are most pertinent to an issue regarding the de- velopment of psychopathology. Obviously, no one study, or program of re- 62 I. THEORY search, can include all possible methodologies and all possible responses. It is an overwhelming prospect to have to consider all possibilities and clearly not feasible. Thus, informed decisions must be made; but, at the same time, every effort must be made to extend study beyond a single methodology and a single context.

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  The Development of Children's Thinking

  Its Social and Communicative Foundations

  • Jeremy Carpendale, Charlie Lewis, Ulrich Muller(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  The second issue concerns the role of the brain in thinking. Obviously, the brain is essential in explaining human thinking. But given this, it is still possible to interpret the role of the brain in cognition in contrasting ways from the perspectives of different worldviews. The cognitivist perspective assimilates neuroscience to the information-processing and computational view of the mind, according to which the brain is assumed to process input. The result is an output that we refer to as conscious experience or action. From the developmental or relational-process perspective, the brain as part of the nervous system is the organ that expands and makes more complex the child’s relation to the world and allows for learning about the interactive potential of the world.

  2.1 Nature, nurture, and forms of interaction

  How thinking develops is the problem we grapple with in this book. In explaining the human ability to think, answers tend to fall into two types, focusing either on biological or social factors – nature or nurture. The study of human development is often cast in terms of a contrast between nature and nurture, a debate that was already ongoing among the ancient Greeks in the fourth and fifth centuries bce (Karmiloff-Smith, 2015). Use of the terms and the separation between nature and nurture can be traced to 1582 when a British teacher, Richard Mulcaster, discussed the ways in which they work collaboratively in child development (West & King, 1987). That collaborative notion, however, was transformed when Sir Francis Galton (1822–1911), Darwin’s cousin, set the terms in opposition to one another (i.e. nature vs nurture). This is the way they are more commonly conceptualised (Spencer et al., 2009). It is also part of how we often talk about children’s characteristics concerning what they are born with compared to what they have learned.

  Unfortunately, innateness is a rather ill-defined term that can have very different meanings. For example, Matteo Mameli and Patrick Bateson (2006) discuss 26 different definitions of innateness. Broadly, the most important conceptualisations in this context are that a trait can be considered innate (a) if it is not learned; (b) if it is present at birth; (c) if it is genetically determined; and (d) if it is highly heritable. However, as Mameli and Bateson show, none of these definitions identifies a coherent concept of innateness. The fact that a trait is present at birth does not rule out that it has been acquired in the course of prenatal development (Gottlieb, 1997; Spencer et al., 2009). The idea that innateness means that a trait is genetically determined is also too simplistic ‘because no phenotype is such that only genes are needed for its development. Genes by themselves don’t do anything’ (Mameli & Bateson, 2006, p. 158). The idea that innateness implies a lack of learning suffers from the fact that learning is a diffuse and ill-defined notion. The problem with the idea of heritability is that it refers to the variability of a trait in a given population at a particular point in time. As a consequence, traits that are invariant in a population (e.g. walking on two legs) cannot be innate, and changes to the composition of the population can change the heritability of the trait in an organism – both notions that run counter to what we usually imagine when we think that some trait is innate.

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  Behavioral Neuroscience

  • Sara Palermo, Rosalba Morese, Sara Palermo, Rosalba Morese(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • IntechOpen

    (Publisher)

  45 Section 2 Behavioral Neuroscience in Developmental Age - Examples of Hot Topics in Healthy and Pathological Subjects 47 Chapter 4 Challenges for Behavioral Neuroscience: Prenatal, Postnatal, and Social Factors Götz Egloff and Dragana Djordjevic Abstract Behavioral medicine has neglected social aspects for a long time. In the pre- and postnatal context, these are especially important, as parental competencies in the relational objects of the infant may be compromised by both inner and outer factors, thus potentially compromising the infant’s psychic development. The findings on pre- and postnatal stages of human development have shown that early psychosocial interventions can help out to some extent. Approaches for parents, which have mainly evolved from the findings of psychoanalysis and mother-infant research, must be augmented by a social perspective, just like postnatal concepts have been augmented by prenatal intervention approaches. The latter reach from how parents-to-be can be prepared for parenthood to how to support attachment and relation in infants, toddlers, and older children. Scientific behavioral reasoning, augmented by subjectivity- and objectivity-related concepts, provides a framework to work with, so that potential deprivation can be faced seriously. Intervention approaches focusing on bonding, on relational issues, and on educational practices are introduced, covering the most important time spans of psychic development from the mother-unborn period to the mother-infant period. Keywords: prenatal, postnatal, social, interventions, mother-infant research 1. Introduction Psychoanalysis and infant mental health research offer a large amount of knowl-edge about human development, pathology and interventions, which can partially be grounded in the findings of neuropsychoanalysis [1, 2].

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  Psychology Around Us

  • Nancy Ogden, Michael Boyes, Evelyn Field, Ronald Comer, Elizabeth Gould(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Despite the biological factors implied above, it is important to recognize that our environments also play important roles in how we behave. Kagan’s earlier studies (Kagan & Snidman, 2004) revealed, for example, that not all of the babies who were inhibited at birth later developed into shy teenagers, suggesting that environmental factors are also important in shaping personality. There is also ample evidence to suggest that both genetics and environment interact to influence behaviour. For example, difficult children with sensitive parents regulate emotion better over time than difficult children with insensitive or inconsistent parents (Chen, Deater-Deckard, & Bell, 2014). temperament a biologically- based tendency to respond to certain situations in similar ways throughout a person’s lifetime. Lokibaho/iStock/Getty Images Toddler temperaments Infant and toddler temperaments can be observed in the typical behaviours they display. Infancy and Childhood 145 So, both infants and parents bring their temperaments and personalities to their early inter- actions, and the characteristics of each influences the relationship. We now turn our attention to how those early interactions contribute to relationships as the infant and caregivers begin to form the important attachment relationship. Attachment Attachment theorists argue that the relationship between a caregiver and an infant is crucial to the child’s long-term social and emotional development (Allen, 2011; Nelson & Bennett, 2008). Researchers have therefore long been interested in determining what fosters attachment. Attachment is defined as a significant and enduring emotional connection that serves as an essential foundation for future relationships (see Indigenous Experiences 4.1).

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