D1: Evaluate how nature and nurture may affect the physical, intellectual, emotional and social development for two stages of the development of the individual. Therefore you should select two stages, not necessarily in sequence. In order to evaluate you must consider the extent to which both nature and nurture influence the development of the individual. You could conclude by deciding which, if either, is the most influential. You should refer to research evidence in your evaluation.

50+ years
Subject A is an elder lady who lives at home with her son and three grandchildren. She also has dementia; a syndrome associated with an ongoing decline of the brain and its abilities. This includes problems with: memory loss, thinking speed, mental agility, language, understanding and judgement. In her situation, nature can have a negative effect on her physical development due to her disorder meaning that she can’t do much for herself. Things like cooking, showering or going shopping influences her development negatively as she can’t do anything herself. As dementia is something that is inherited, it may have been developed from her parents or something that runs in her family therefore it is hard to overcome which are the physical effects on her development. Intellectually, due to old age or just getting older, developing something like dementia, is also seen as a nurture. Someone else in the family may have had dementia which therefore increased the chance of someone else developing it. Dementia can affect her intellectual development as it may be difficult for her to remember things or learn new things as she may easily forget. Emotions are considerably more nurture based, as it depends on how sensitive you are, who you are and some of the things you may have experienced. Subject A is a very sensitive and down to earth person, this is nurture based as her sensitivity was due to how she grew up and who she grew up around, for example her family may have been down to earth people therefore she may have learnt to be very down to earth and sensitive from her family. Sensitivity and emotions cannot be inherited.
She is also a very quiet person however doesn’t mind a quick conversation at times. She is very friendly around others she is close to. This is more nurture based as it could be due to the way she socialised with her family and friends. Subject A was an only child living with only her parents, in school she wasn’t the most confident, she found it harder to make a conversation with people she barely knew.

4-9yrs
A young boy has rickets, rickets is a biologically condition which can be inherited from parents and passed on to their offspring’s, however it can also be developed due to a lack of vitamin D and Calcium. Subject B’s physical development is affected as he is unable to do things that other little children can do to the full extent. Intellectually, both nature and nurture can effect his physical development. If the mother had a bad habit of smoking or drinking during her pregnancy this could be the nature based reason for his intellectual development. On the other hand in regards to nurture, subject B’s intellectual development can be affected by his family. If he is not taught the basics (reading, numbers and letters), then he is more likely to have a disadvantage to the other children at his school as he will be behind. Subject B is a very emotionally stable, other emotional problems little children may have or find hard to overcome, he is able to overcome them or would deal with differently. For example, if he was to fall over and cut his knee, he wouldn’t cry, he would get up and carry on as if nothing happened whereas most children would cry. This is due to his nurture as his parents have taught him to be very strong emotionally. Subject B has very little care towards the other children at his school, he tends to only think about himself in most cases. This is also due to his nurture as he grew up in a very deprived environment, there was a lot of arguments between the neighbours and his parents before splitting up. Socially he is very self-centred as he does not socialise with the other children and finds it hard to make friends. This is more of a nurture based problem as subject B’s family are very independent, therefore they have taught him to be independent. This may have a negative effect on his social development because in the future he may have problems socialising and communicating with other people. Also not having that father figure around as a role model is harder for subject B as he grew up with low self-esteem, negative behaviour and had difficulties making friends. In conclusion, nurture has been more influential to an individual’s development as it is more to do with physical development for example. Inherited diseases and conditions which are much harder to overcome but emotions, socialising and intellectual problems are easier to solve and overcome.