The Roles of Environment, Experience, and Learning in Behavioral Development

Abstract

In the science of behavioral development, we want to understand how the complete behavioral repertoire of an individual develops along trajectories (starting from conception and proceeding through differences in forms and processes across the lifespan) that yield both individual differences and species-typical similarities. For some decades, the conceptual frame for examining such questions was that behavior developed from an organism-environment interaction. The task for the developmental scientist was to demonstrate that both organism variables (e.g., genes, hormones, brain processes) and environmental variables (e.g., rearing conditions, social conditions, training) contributed to the developmental expression of some behavioral trait (e.g., memory, anxiety, parental care). Demonstrating that individual differences in the level of some hormone, presence of some genetic factor, or the activation of some brain area were responsible for differences in some behavioral trait (e.g., parental care) was always qualified by the recognition that environmental factors also played a role. Similarly, although rearing conditions, social influences, or teaching conditions were demonstrated to produce differences in the behavioral trait (e.g., parental care), these demonstrations were qualified by recognition that organism factors also played a role.Essentially, there were two methods for examining such interaction: 1) hold some aspects of a group of individuals constant (e.g., their genotype, hormonal condition) while varying some aspect of their environment; 2) hold some aspects of the environment constant (e.g., general rearing conditions) while varying some aspect of the organism (e.g., genotype). More complex designs would permit statistical analysis that would partition the phenotypic variability among individuals in the groups into those parts that were related more strongly to the

A Developmental Psychobiological Approach to Human Development

“…Michel, 2010b). As Sperry (1965) predicted, molecular biology revealed that the DNA (the instantiation of the gene construct) is part of a complex system (network) of causes that operates throughout the life span.…”

“…The notion of genetic predisposition is an Downloaded by [North Dakota State University] at 07:26 12 October 2014 inappropriate attribution of developmental control to genes and an empirically unsubstantiated explanation of which factors affect developmental trajectories. The DNA is only a contributing factor in the functioning of the individual's physiological systems and experience can only influence those systems to the degree that they are transduced by sensory systems into physiological processes (Michel, 2010b).…”

“…DPB research provides evidence that the activation of the genome is intertwined with ecological influences in different ways at different periods throughout an individual's life span (Michel, 2010b). Thus, to understand individual and species-typical developmental trajectories, research has to determine exactly how the environment interpenetrates with the individual's characteristics throughout the life span.…”

“…I argue that this formulation and its assumptions fail to capture the processes responsible for the development of traits and for their potential alteration by preventive and rehabilitative intervention in the case of undesirable traits (cf. Michel, 2010b). Developmental psychobiologists (DPB) have long argued that phenotypes develop from the interaction of the characteristics of the individual (the status of physiological systems and biomechanical properties established by earlier development) with his or her environment (shaped in part by the individual's current and previous participation with his or her social and physical milieu) and the individual and the environment can change throughout the life span (Michel & Moore, 1995).…”

The Role of Developmental Psychobiology in the Unification of Psychology

“…Thus, DPB research is well positioned to provide insights into these extragenetic influences on behavioral development, because we have a long history of doing exactly that. Indeed, DPB found that "genes" are only one mechanism for carrying "information" from parental to offspring populations to produce the transgenerational concordance of phenotypes ( Michel, 2010a;Michel & Moore, 1995). In addition, although genes may be involved differently at various points in any developmental trajectory for a psychological characteristic, they are neither governing nor primarily responsible for that trajectory.…”