children will encounter? Sandra Scarr ( ) believes that the environment parents provide for their children depends to some extent on their own genetic predisposition. For example, if parents are intelligent and are good readers they would provide their children with books to read, with the likely outcome that their children would become good readers who enjoy reading. A child’s own genotype (what s/he has inherited) such as being cooperative, and attentive is likely to result in teachers and parents giving more pleasant response as compared to children who are not cooperative or not attentive.
Besides these, children themselves choose certain environments based on their genotype. For example, because of their genotype, children may perform well in music or sports and they will seek and spend more time in environments, which will enable them to perform their musical skills; similarly an athlete would seek sports-related environment. These interactions with environment keep changing from infancy through adolescence. Environmental influences are as complex as the genes we inherit.
If your class monitor is selected on the basis of being academically bright and a popular student, do you think it is because of her/his genes or the influence of the environment? If a child from a rural area who is very intelligent, is not able to get a job because of her/his inability to express herself/ himself fluently or handle computers, do you think - it is because of genes or environment? C ONTEXT OF D EVELOPMENT Development does not take place in a vacuum. It is always embedded in a particular socio- cultural context.
As you shall read in this chapter, transition during one’s lifetime such as entering school, becoming an adolescent, finding jobs, marrying, having children, retirement, etc. all are joint functions of the biological changes and changes in one’s environment. The environment can change or alter during any time of the individual’s life- span. Urie Bronfenbrenner’s contextual view of development emphasises the role of environmental factors in the development of an individual.
This has been depicted in Figure . . The microsystem is the immediate environment/setting in which the individual lives.