The following are the first three articles from the United Nations General Assembly Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December, 1948):

Article 1.

• All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.

• Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.

• Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Americans will recognize these sentiments as being consistent with Thomas Jefferson’s most famous words from the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” The United Nations would apply these same ideals to the rest of the world. In order to achieve these noble objectives it is essential and strategic to focus our attention on children.

Figures 8.1 and 8.2   Amazonian rainforest children.

Brazil and Peru border on the Amazon. The photographs above, are of Ashaninka children in the Brazilan rainforest and Peruvian mainland children in school. I think you would agree, they might as well be on opposite sides of the world. The Ashaninka children are living similar to the ways their ancestors lived for thousands of years. Their environment is almost entirely natural. The Peruvian children’s environment was created by humans and includes laptop computers. These stark environmental differences enable us to appreciate Wechsler’s emphasis upon the adaptive and multi-faceted nature of human intelligence. The Ashaninka children must acquire the knowledge and skills accrued over thousands of years by previous generations of their tribe in order to survive. Peruvian children’s survival needs are met. They have the opportunity to explore the digitized accumulated knowledge of all the humans who have ever lived! A test to determine “intelligence” for one of these children would have to take their environmental conditions into consideration. Neither child could survive in the other’s world. The opportunities for the Ashaninka and Peruvian children to achieve their potential were determined by factors beyond their control at birth; where they were born and who their parents were. In this chapter, we will consider how nature and nurture interact to influence the course of human development from conception to adulthood.

Fetal Development

We are playing pretend. Congratulations! You have graduated, are romantically involved with a significant other, and expecting a child. The video below portrays the timeline for growth of a human fetus, be it in the rainforest or a city. During the first two months, the embryo consists of the layers of cells from which all organs and body parts will eventually develop. At three months, the fetus is about three inches long and weighs about an ounce. At four months, it is about five inches long and five ounces; the hardened skeleton is starting to form. At five months, the fetus reaches about ten inches in length and by six months, it weighs approximately one and a half pounds. At seven months, the fetus is about 15 inches in length and weighs about three pounds. The average birth statistics, after 39 weeks of pregnancy for children born in developed countries, are a length of 19 inches and weight of seven and a half pounds. Newborns vary considerably, even when taken to full term.

Problems are least likely to develop during pregnancy for mothers between 16 and 35 years of age. Under modern conditions, the mother’s health and lifestyle can have a significant effect on the fetus; diseases can be transmitted through the placenta. Substance abuse (drugs or alcohol) or smoking can result in premature birth, lower birth weight, and greater risk of birth defects, miscarriages, or stillbirths. The mother’s diet can also affect the fetus: a lack of iron can produce anemia; a lack of calcium can affect the formation of teeth and bones; a lack of protein can reduce size and increase the likelihood of cognitive deficits.

Parenting Styles

Can you remember how your parents treated and influenced you at different stages of your life? Do you wish to become a parent? If so, what type of parent do you wish to become? Contemporary parenting styles have been categorized on the dimensions of demandingness and responsiveness (Baumrind, 1968, 1971; Maccoby & Martin, 1983). Demanding parents specify clear rules of conduct and require their children to comply. Responsive parents are affectionate and sensitive to their children’s needs and feelings. he following video describes the four parenting styles resulting from different combinations of high and low demandingness and responsiveness.

We may consider the implications of the learning principles described in Chapters 5 and 6 for these different parenting styles. Negligent parents (low demandingness, low responsiveness) do not specify codes of conduct or respond to their children’s needs. If parents do not provide rules and/or consequences, the children will most likely be influenced by others (e.g., siblings, other adults, and eventually other children). From the perspective of the parents, This may result in the acquisition of undesirable behaviors.

Indulgent parents (low demandingness, high responsiveness) do not specify codes of conduct but are affectionate and responsive. They provide “unconditional positive regard” (Rogers, 1957), eliminating the contingency between desired behavior and consequence. We saw in Chapter 5, that the absence of a contingency between responding and consequences can result in learned helplessness. Non-contingent appetitive consequences (e.g., praise, gifts, etc.) can result in “spoiling” and a sense of entitlement. This could create problems for the children in other contexts (e.g., school, playgrounds) when others place demands and react differently to their behavior.

Authoritarian parents (high demandingness, low responsiveness) specify strict codes of conduct in a non-responsive manner. If the children ask for reasons, they may reply “because I say so!” In their parents’ absence, the children would seek other sources of authority.

Authoritative parents (high demandingness, high responsiveness) specify strict codes of conduct within a context of warmth and sensitivity to the children’s needs. They are likely to provide reasons for their codes of conduct, listen to their children’s perspective, and sometimes negotiate alternative codes. Authoritative parenting is most likely to result in secure attachment between parent and child.

Infant Skill Development

Now that you have thought about what type of parent you would like to become, you are most likely to concentrate on survival-related behaviors during the first years of your pretend child’s life. As we have seen, your child is equipped with nursing and grasping reflexes that facilitate an attached, dependent relationship with a caregiver. As a parent, you will begin walking the difficult tightrope balancing the need to nourish and protect your child with the need to foster independence. Early on, your child is immobile and her/his behavior seems sporadic and perhaps random. You might wonder if voluntary control learning (i.e., instrumental conditioning) is possible.

In a classic program of research, Carolyn Rovee-Collier (Rovee and Rovee, 1969) studied learning and memory in very young infants using a mobile suspended over their crib. A ribbon from the mobile could be attached to the infant’s leg. An active kicking motion would cause the colorful attachments to move. A reversal design (see Chapter 1) was employed in which the baseline frequency of kicking was assessed without the leg attached to the mobile, followed by a phase in which it was attached, and then a return to the detached baseline condition. The frequency of kicking in infants as young as eight weeks old, increased dramatically during the middle phase relative to the initial and subsequent baseline conditions. This is an early indication of the intrinsic motivation provided by controlling one’s environment.

Attributions

Figure 8.1 “Ashaninka children” by Ministério da Cultura – Acre, AC is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Figure 8.2 “One Laptop per Child” by Ferreñafe is licensed under CC BY 2.0