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Environment And Mental Development: It is agreed that "heredity and nature always operate together" as complementary forces. They are "mutually inclusive." Hereditary tendencies find expression and are discovered through the Environment and mental Development; the Environment and mental Development enables the development of the child's hereditary tendencies; it is a circular response. Heredity sets the limits within which an individual can develop; the Environment and mental Development determines the development that actually takes place. Heredity appears to create dispositions to react in certain ways, if certain Environment and mental Developmental conditions are provided. The influence of heredity is most clearly seen in the infant as he learns the basic essentials of living. The influence of Environment and mental Development is more obvious in the diversity of personality patterns found among adolescents.
Mass investigations on the basis of age norms, however, have indicated only a slight relation between the mental and physical status of children. A spurt in mental growth does not appear to parallel the preadolescent spurt in physical growth. The pattern of mental development is similar in boys and girls, despite the difference in their rates of physical maturing.
Each advance in development influences its subsequent course of growth. For example, once sex is determined, certain lines of development will have to be followed.
Inherited dispositions cannot play their role except under favorable conditions (23, pp. 53-110, 1955). The physical, biological, and social environment may facilitate or thwart the course of development. This process is not a mere unfolding of inherited tendencies. It is rather the continuous reordering of patterns of structure and function in a continually changing Environment and mental Development. "Environment and mental Development plays a part in all 'maturation,' and maturation plays a part in all learning." (7, p. 160,1954) |
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