Social Development: Crash Course Sociology #13

Nature vs. Nurture: An Overview

Overview: This study guide explores the age-old debate of nature vs. nurture, and how it affects human behavior. It examines the theories of Sigmund Freud and Jean Piaget on the development of personality, cognitive skills, and moral behavior.

Nature

• Nature is the part of human behavior that’s biologically determined and instinctive.

• Instinctive behaviors include a baby latching onto your finger and not letting go.

Nurture

• Nurture is based on the people and environment you’re raised in.

• Sociologists investigate the social environment to determine human behavior, a process known as socialization.

• Social isolation affects our emotional and cognitive development.

Sigmund Freud

• Freud's main theory was about how personalities develop.

• He believed we were born with an id, which is our most basic, unconscious drive.

• We then develop the ego and superego to balance the id.

Jean Piaget

• Piaget studied cognitive development and noticed that kids of similar ages made similar mistakes.

• He identified four stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.

• The preoperational stage is when children learn to use language and ask questions to learn about the world.

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

Overview: This section covers Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, which states that children develop in stages from infancy to adulthood. It also covers Lawrence Kohlberg's expansion of Piaget's model to include stages of moral development.

Pre-Conventional Stage

• At this stage, right is just what feels good to the child personally.

• Children learn that morals have gray areas and that societal norms about what’s right may not always line up with their own principles.

Conventional Stage

• In this stage, what’s right is what society and the people around them tells them is right.

Post-Conventional Stage

• At this stage, children begin to consider more abstract ethical concepts than just right or wrong.

Gender Differences

• American psychologist Carol Gilligan found that boys tended to emphasize formal rules to define right and wrong, while girls tended to emphasize the role of interpersonal reasoning in moral decisions.

• Gilligan argued that these differences stem from cultural conditioning that girls receive to fulfill ideals of femininity.

Mead's Theory of Social Development

Overview: This section covers George Herbert Mead's theory of social development, which focuses on how we develop a “self” through other people. It also covers the stages of development according to Mead's model.

Imitation Stage

• In the first stage of development, according to Mead’s model, we learn through imitation – we watch how others behave and try to behave like them.

Play Stage

• In this stage, children move on to playing at being a mom, taking care of a doll, and imagining the world from their parent’s perspective.

Game Stage

• In this stage, children learn to take on multiple roles in a single situation.

Generalized Other Stage

• The last stage, in Mead’s model, occurs when we learn how to take on multiple roles in multiple situations. We weigh our self and our actions not against one specific role, but against a ‘generalized other’ – basically, a manifestation of all of our culture’s norms and expectations.

Personality Development After 18

Overview: This section covers the idea that personality is not set once you hit 18, and that people continue to grow and develop well past high school. It also covers German-born psychologist Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development.

Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development

• Erikson's theory states that people go through eight stages of psychosocial development throughout their lives, each of which presents a different challenge or crisis that must be resolved.

Social Development Overview

Overview: This section covers the role of nature and nurture in influencing a person's development, social isolation, and five theories of development.

Nature and Nurture

• Nature and nurture both play a role in influencing a person's development.

• As an adult, societal markers of social development include moving out, getting married, and having kids.

• Socialization will determine how one performs the role of an adult.

Social Isolation

• Social isolation can have a negative impact on emotional and mental development.

Theories of Development

• Freud's Id, Ego, and Superego theory.

• Piaget's Four Stages of Cognitive Development.

• Kohlberg and Gilligan's theories of moral development.

• Mead's theory of self.

• Erik Erikson's life stage theory.

Crash Course Sociology Overview

Overview: This section covers the production of Crash Course Sociology and how to support the series.

Production

• Crash Course Sociology is filmed in the Dr. Cheryl C. Kinney Studio in Missoula, MT.

• The animation team is Thought Cafe and the series is made with Adobe Creative Cloud.

Support

• To keep Crash Course free for everyone, forever, you can support the series at Patreon.

• Thank you to all of our patrons for making Crash Course possible with their continued support.