Nature-nurture reconceptualized in developmental perspective: a bioecological model

A Person–Process–Context–Time Approach to Understanding Intellectual Development

We argue that scientific psychology's twin foci on biology (person) and process can benefit from a broadening. Specifically, we show that including two additional foci—context and time—can add explanatory leverage to both the design and interpretation of scientific studies. We focus on research on intellectual development to illustrate our points. First, we briefly describe each of the four factors (person, process, context, and time), and we review studies that focus on each individual factor and its role in intellectual development. Next, we review studies that focus simultaneously on multiple factors. We illustrate how multifactor approaches reveal fine-grained differentiations that are not reducible to single factors. Finally, we describe a study that considers simultaneously all four factors, and we show how omitting any one of these factors from the design and analysis changes the interpretation of the data.

Nature and nurture in the development of postural control in human infants

Nowadays, the controversy on "nature" and "nurture" in motor development focuses on the development of automatic motor patterns. The present paper discusses this issue within the framework of a recent study on the effect of maturation and training on the development of postural adjustments in sitting infants. This study revealed that already before the age of sitting without help, highly variable but direction-specific muscle activation patterns are present. This suggests that postural adjustments develop via an innate repertoire of primary direction-specific response patterns. The following developmental step consists of a decrease in muscle activation patterns, which results in selection of the most complete patterns of synergist activation. In accordance with Edelman's neuronal group selection theory, pattern selection turned out to be experience dependent, as it appeared to be guided by cues on head stabilization and enhanced by daily balance training.

Structures and Processes in Personality Psychology

Personality psychology may play a critical role in redirecting the focus of psychological research on the complex patterning of elements which characterize individual development and functioning. Conceiving of personality as an emergent self-regulatory system provides new hints for understanding the coherent patterns of affect, cognition, and behavior which distinguish each person across time and situation. Thus it is crucial to explain how elementary components gradually cluster into functional units as personality develops. This leads to clarifying how processes (that transform elements) end in structures (that organize processes), and how processes and structures serve reciprocally as causes and effects. Recent findings from research on aggression are reported to substantiate this line of thought.