Introduction

This module tackles the different issues about human

development. As you read this material, you will be able to know the
concepts and principles related to the different issues of human
development. There are activities provided to measure how much you
have learned from this module. Answer them honestly and intelligently.
Towards the end of this module, a reflection is provided for you to work
on.

As you journey on this lesson, you are expected to:

 Write a critique paper based from an
article “How the First Nine Months Shape
the Rest of Your Life?”

1. Identify the different issues on

human development
2. Discuss the concepts/ principles of
each issue on human development
3. Cite situation/s where each issue on
human development is/are evident

Are you ready for today’s lesson? This time, you are tasked to read
the texts below and be able to comprehend it well.
ISSUES ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

1. Nature versus Nurture

Nature refers to an individual’s biological inheritance. Nurture refers to the
environmental experiences.
2. Continuity versus Discontinuity
Continuity refers to the cumulative change while discontinuity is the distinct change
that happen to a certain individual person. Is development like that of a seedling
gradually growing into an acacia tree? Is it more like that of a caterpillar becoming
butterfly?
3. Stability versus Change
Stability is described as being constant while change is described as modifications
or alterations. Are you the same since you exist in the world or you were developed into
someone unique from who you were before?

Development is not all nature or all nurture, not all continuity or discontinuity and
not all stability or all change. Both nature and nurture, continuity and discontinuity,
stability and change characterize our life-span development. The key to development
is the interaction of nature and nurture rather than either one factor. In other words, it is
a matter of “both-and” not “either-or”.

Both genes and environment are necessary for a person even to exist. Without
genes, there is no person; without environment, there is no person. Heredity and
environment operate together- or cooperate and interact - to produce a person’s
intelligence, temperament, height, weight…ability to read and so on.

Now that you have read the text above, it is expected that you are ready to
answer the following exercises. Please answer them with sincerity.
Direction: Do the task below and write your answers briefly and concisely. Use separate
sheet of paper for your answer.

1. Define in your own words the terms used in the issues of human development
2. Cite at least 3 situations where each issues of human development became
evident.

Directions: Read the article “How the First Nine Months Shape the Rest of Your Life”. Then
analyze and answer the questions below for you to come up with a critique paper.
Questions:

1. Does the article agree that heredity, environment and individual’s choice are the
factors that contribute to what a person may become? Quote directly the paragraph
that tells so.

2. Are you convinced by the word “PERMANENTLY” in 4th paragraph that you were
what your first experiences have made you? Explain your answer.

How the First Nine Months Shape the Rest of Your Life

What makes us the way we are? Why are some people predisposed to be
anxious, overweight or asthmatic? How is it that some of us are prone to heart attacks,
diabetes or high blood pressure?
There’s a list of conventional answers to these questions. We are the way we
are because it’s in our genes. We turn out the way we do because of our childhood
experiences. Or our health and well-being stem from the lifestyle choices we make as
adults.
But there’s another powerful source of influence you may not have
considered: your life as a fetus. The nutrition you received in the womb; the pollutants,
drugs and infections you were exposed to during gestation; your mother’s health and
state of mind while she was pregnant with you – all these factors shaped you as a
baby and continue to affect you to this day.
This is the provocative contention of a field known as fetal origins, whose
pioneers assert that the nine months of gestation constitute the most consequential
period of our lives. PERMANENTLY (Underscoring mine) influencing the wiring of the
brain and the functioning of organs such as the heart, liver and pancreas. In the
literature on the subject, which has exploded over the past 10 years, you can find
references to the fetal origins of cancer, cardiovascular disease, allergies, asthma,
hypertension, diabetes, obesity, mental illness. At the farthest edge of fetal-origins
research, scientists are exploring the possibility that intrauterine conditions influence
not only our physical health but also our intelligence, temperament, even our sanity.
As a journalist who covers science, I was intrigued when I first heard about fetal
origins. But two years ago, when I began to delve more deeply into the field, I had a
more personal motivation: I was newly pregnant. If it was true that my actions over the
next nine months would affect my offspring for the rest of his life, I needed to know
more.
Of course, no woman who is pregnant today can escape hearing the
message that what she does affects her fetus. She hears it at doctor’s appointments,
sees it in the pregnancy guidebooks: Do eat this, don’t drink that, be vigilant but never
stressed. Expectant mothers could be forgiven for feeling that pregnancy is just a nine-
month slog, full of guilt and devoid of pleasure, and this research threatened to add
the burden.
 But the scientists I met weren’t full of dire warnings but of the excitement of
discovery – and the hope that their discoveries would make a positive difference.
Research on fetal origins is prompting a revolutionary shift in thinking about where
human qualities come from and when they begin to develop. It’s turning pregnancy
into a scientific frontier: the National Institutes of Health embarked last year on a multi-
decade study that will examine its subjects before they’re born. And it makes the
womb a promising target for prevention, raising hopes of conquering public-health
scourges like obesity and heart disease through interventions before birth.

(Source: Time Magazine, October 4, 2010).

Since you are done with all the activities above, it’s time for you to reflect about
the topic. Are you ready?

Directions: Write your reflection about the topic in 150 words. Use separate sheet of
paper for your answer.

From the topic about issues on human development, I realized that…

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1. Corpuz, B.B., Lucas, MR. D., Borabo, HD. L. & Lucido, P. I. (2018). The Child and
Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles, Lorimar Publishing Inc., Quezon
City, Philippines.
2. Corpuz, B.B., Lucas, MR. D., Borabo, HD. L. & Lucido, P. I. (2010). The Child and
Adolescent Development: Looking at Learners at Different Life Stages, Lorimar
Publishing Inc., Quezon City, Philippines.
Prepared by:

Jun P. Dalisay, LPT, RGC, Ph.D.-Psy

Ma. Charmaine R. Gaa, LPT, MA-SPED
Jacquelyn Rose A. Fajilagutan, LPT, MAEd-GC
Charry F. Mayuga, LPT, MA-Psy
Professors/Instructors