about development

The world in which an individual grows has an effect on many facets of their life. Significant life choices, such as whether to marry or not to marry, are among the facets. As a result, each of the ecological components plays a role in an individual's decision-making process. The microsystem is the most prominent because it includes things that actually impact a person's life (Bronfenbrenner, 2009). Family, acquaintances, associates, and spiritual life are examples of those facets. As a result, these considerations have a direct impact on the choices that people make. For instance, the family members may put pressure on a person to marry or not to marry depending on their expectations of the individual. To be precise family members may discourage a marriage decision especially if the individual is young and expected to finish school first. As well, colleagues and friends may encourage an individual to marry if they are married while those who are unmarried may discourage one's decision of getting married.
The mesosystem element includes of aspects that do not directly affect the development of an individual. This element is composed of interactions between various components of the microsystem. For instance, the relationship between a person’s parents and the church may influence the person’s decision to marry or not. In a case where parents hold a certain position in the church, the position can influence the individual’s decisions, especially concerning marriage. The exosystem also comprises of the aspects that do not have a direct impact on an individual (Bronfenbrenner, 2009). As such, the exosysytem includes of changes in the surrounding environment such as the workplace or at home. For instance, if a parent loses a job, an individual may be required to take up the role of providing for the family. Consequently, this change may require the individual to postpone some life decisions such as marriage. The macrosystem includes the culture, and belief system that a person experiences while growing up, these beliefs and experiences will shape the decisions made by an individual. For instance, if a person grows up experiencing the negative impacts of marriage, his or her ideologies concerning marriage will be affected. Consequently, the person’s decision to marry or not to marry will be influenced by the experiences.
Physical traits of an individual include the aspects of their bodies that can be seen including the skin color, hair, color of eyes, height, and weight as well as body shape. Studies have indicated that physical characteristic are inherited and the environment has little or no influence on the physical appearance of an individual. Of all the physical characteristics, weight is the only one that can be influenced by the environment due to the types of food available as well as the environmental conditions (Coll, Bearer & Lerner, 2014). Therefore, physical traits are inherited and therefore independent of the environment. Cognitive traits can be affected by nature or nurture. For instance, infants who are exposed to reading and speaking early in life are better equipped with these skills as they grow as opposed to children who have less exposure to reading and writing. Unlike other cognitive skills, both genetics and the environment affect IQ. For instance, children who perform proficiently in class inherit the trait from their parents. Therefore, when exposed to a good environment (good schools and high social status) they perform exemplarily well compared to some children who study in some of the best schools but they perform poorly since they do have the genetics.
Both genetics and the environment also affect personality and social traits. Some of the personality traits affected by nature include agreeableness, openness as well as extraversion. These traits are adapted from upbringing as well as the kind of environment that a person interacts with (Gottlieb, 2014). For instance, an individual who is raised by both parents is likely to have dominant agreeableness and openness as opposed to an individual who is raised by a single parent. As well, most individuals who are brought up by parents of a high social status tend to be confident and hence extraverts. Some of the traits affected by genetics include anger, irritability as well as self-esteem. Although the environment has a role to play in the manifestation of these traits, there must a genetic contribution for these characters to exist. For instance, people who inherit irritability traits from their parents tend to be overly irritable despite a calm environment.
Some of the personality traits that I believe to have inherited from my parents include self-esteem, decision-making skills, as well as extraversion. However, these traits might have been affected differently in a different environment (Steen, 2013). For instance, if my parents were experiencing marital problems this means that that the environment would have been hostile. As such, the hostile environment would have affected the personality traits such as self-esteem. As such, my confidence would have been overly affected by the lack of self-esteem and would therefore not have achieved much in life. Consequently, I would have been forced to result to destructive behavior such as anger and violence due to the bitterness accumulated because of lack of parental love. As well, I would have developed difficulties in dealing with people of the opposite gender due to the experiences with my parents.
In addition, the hostile environment would have also affected my decision-making skills since I would not have been able to relate well with both of my parents. As such, it would have been difficult to consult them simultaneously thus have a variation of opinions. The marital problems would have also contributed to the kind of friends I associated with and hence affecting my extroversion personality (Steen, 2013). Lack of attention and love from my parents would have contributed to my withdrawal hence less outgoing. Consequently, I would have turned out to be an introvert. Additionally, I would have had a less social life and hence the inability to make and retain friends. As such, I would have different hobbies and therefore a different social life. Marital problems would have caused financial problems and hence a low social status. This might have affected my social life negatively thus leading to antisocial behavior.
An individual is made up of both genetic characteristics inherited from their parents as well as the environmental in which they interact with during their development. During the early stages of development, individual genetic characteristics will be very prominent because such a person has not interacted much with the environment to influence them (Coll, Bearer & Lerner, 2014). As a person develops through various life stages, they tend to gradually be influenced by the environment they are brought up in leading to behavioral change. Many physical traits such as color, height, and appearance indicate strong genetic influences while certain traits such as intelligence contain a strong genetic element, but can be significantly influenced by environmental characteristics. For instance, a person can be born intelligent but the environment, in which such a person is nurtured in, either can influence positively or negatively this trait. Hence, such an individual can become more intelligent or deteriorate to worse depending on the environment.
The effect of environment influence to a person’s traits becomes prominent during the transition to adulthood. During this stage, a person will have discovered many things concerning themselves as well as the environment. A person will develop certain urge to want to belong to a certain group of their age mates in a certain environment. In the process of conforming to such group, such a person will tend to acquire certain environmental factors characteristics that will influence their personal traits leading to particular changes (Coll, Bearer & Lerner, 2014). For instance, if such an individual formerly exhibited introversion traits, they might be influenced to be a bit extrovert. However, if such an individual joins a group with ill behaviors, it is likely that said individual would acquire such behaviors. Hence, a combination of genetic and environmental factors interacts to shape an individual’s traits and behaviors.















References
Bronfenbrenner, U. (2009). The ecology of human development. Harvard university press.
Coll, C. G., Bearer, E. L., & Lerner, R. M. (Eds.). (2014). Nature and nurture: The complex interplay of genetic and environmental influences on human behavior and development. Psychology Press.
Gottlieb, G. (2014). Synthesizing nature-nurture: Prenatal roots of instinctive behavior. Psychology Press.
Steen, R. G. (2013). DNA and destiny: Nature and nurture in human behavior. Springer.