Development and You

Environmental factors affect the way we behave during our growth.

If you would not have been raised where you were and how you were, what sort of behavior would you demonstrate?

In the evolutionary sciences, a known fact is that our behavior is the product of two things: our genetic make up and the environmental factors we were exposed to during our developmental stages.

Human developmental stages range from the minute we are born to our adulthood which is considered the stage where we are conscious enough to separate from our caretakers.

Beginning with the stage of the infant which ranges from birth to around 2 years old, we begin to see how the child’s main care givers, usually being the birth mother, affect the child either positively or negatively. In this stage, the primary caregiver and the child should be building a bond whether it is through breast feeding or providing the child with the utmost attention. This stage proves to have detrimental affects on a child’s character. If parents demonstrate loving and kind attitudes and tend to the babies needs this proves to be positive stimulation for a bond to grow between them. However, if the parent is negligent, annoyed by the presence of the child, or too busy to worry about it, a bond-less relationship will most likely arise.

As a toddler (3 years to 5 years old), kids absorb the most amount of information. So, this stage is crucial in determining what tendencies they will develop in behavior. Here, children are observers. They watch with deliberation all the actions of the home. Because of their advance cognitive development, they mimic in the attempt to recreate favorable actions. So, if kids are constantly seeing their parents are willing to treat others with respect, willing to share, willing to lend helpful hands when others are in need, and willing be selfless and compassionate children will mimic such tendencies because they see the beneficial output of doing so. On the other side of the spectrum, if a child constantly experiences acts of violence from his care takers, against others, such as throwing objects, yelling, adult-like tantrums, and in the worst case physical violence, the child will believe that these are beneficial actions to copy.

When children are finally at the age in which they must attend school, it is evident they have a certain foundation of personality and behavior. Here school children do not need such close supervision as should have been given to them during their years as toddlers so with what they have learned they begin to put it into use in social environments. Depending on their individual experience and what values their parents instilled in them they excel or fall behind in school.

Finally, during adolescence, which begins at the onset of puberty, around 13 years old, there is a universal experience of rebellion and crisis in identity. Those who had a strong foundation of love and care have the ability to find themselves after this period but those who were not fortunate enough may lose themselves during this point in time.

The main point of this description is to understand that we are a product of things that surround us and the inevitable inside of us.

If our surroundings are favorable, we have the highest chances to thrive.

When the surrounding is violent, negligent, and unfortunate, our chances become slim to none.

Children growing up in poverty experience this constantly.

Daily, they must put up with both the traits they were born with that they particularly dislike, as we all do, but they must as well carry the burden of that which surrounds them.

Through all of life’s stages, they are given the worst scenario, they deal with the most chaotic events, and they face the wrath of environmental factors rather then their assets.

Who could you have grown up to be if you had to endure all these things? Would you have thrived under its pressure or caved under it?