Lecture Notes

Different Environmental Influences on Children

• Common Question: Why do children in the same family, with the same environment, show different traits?
  • Example: One child may have ADHD, the other may not.

Key Points

• Identical Twins: Even twins with the same genetic makeup can exhibit different traits.

  • Indicates that genes alone don't determine outcomes.

• Unique Environments: Each child experiences a different environment.

  • Not due to physical differences in parents.
  • Due to varying emotional states and external conditions.
  • Examples:
    • Stress during one pregnancy/infancy vs. none during another.
    • Changes in economic situation.
    • Alterations in parental relationships.

Inborn Temperament

• D.W. Winnicott: British child psychologist.
  • Theory: Even if a mother is the same to all her children, they would still experience her differently.
  • Reason: Different temperaments lead to different experiences of the same parent.

Parent-Child Interaction

• Children's Influence on Parents:

  • Children trigger different reactions in parents based on traits (e.g., gender, sensitivity).
  • Recursive nature of human development: both parent and child shape each other.

• Parent's Response:

  • Influenced by the child's behavior and attributes.
  • More conscious and mature parents are less likely to be differentially triggered but some differences are inevitable.

Conclusion

• No two children have the same environment or parents.
• Both genetic predispositions and unique environmental factors contribute to different developmental outcomes.