Issues and debates in developmental psychology (2): nature-nurture, history, social control, use in society, socially sensitive research

Nature and nurture (5.4.7)

• Nature: Bowlby's innate attachment and monotropy; Chomsky's LAD; Piaget's maturational stages; secure attachment as the universal majority.
• Nurture: learning theory of attachment and language; caregiver sensitivity; cultural differences in attachment types (Germany, Japan); Vygotsky's social and cultural tools; O'Connor et al. (2013) showing parenting can be changed.
• Interaction: temperament plus caregiving; Vygotsky's interactionist view of language; most modern views see both as essential.

Development of psychology over time (5.4.8)

• Attachment: from learning theory 'cupboard love' (1950s) to Bowlby's evolutionary theory, Ainsworth's measurement (1969 to 1978), the addition of disorganised attachment (1990), meta-analyses (1988, 2013) and adult measures (AAI).
• Bowlby revised his critical period to a sensitive period; Rutter separated deprivation from privation.
• Ethics developed from Watson and Rayner (1920) to the UNCRC (1989) and the BPS Code (2009).
• Cognitive development: Piaget's lone child scientist was challenged by Vygotsky's social approach and by studies such as the naughty teddy.

Social control (5.4.9) and use in society (5.4.10)

• Social control: psychology can be used to shape behaviour, for example pressure on mothers to stay at home based on Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis, or programmes that change how families parent. This raises questions about who decides what is 'good' development.
• Use of psychological knowledge: hospitals allowing parents to stay with children (Bowlby); day care and key-worker systems; teaching that targets the ZPD and uses scaffolding; SEL and mindfulness programmes in schools (Ashdown and Bernard; Schonert-Reichl et al.); parenting programmes (O'Connor et al.); early identification of insecure attachment (Ding et al.).

Socially sensitive research (5.4.11)

Socially sensitive research has potential consequences for the participants or the groups they represent (Sieber and Stanley). Developmental examples:

• Research suggesting day care or working mothers harm attachment could blame mothers and affect policy.
• Cross-cultural findings could be used to label some cultures' parenting as inferior (for example, calling German infants 'insecure').
• Linking insecure attachment to lower cognitive scores (Ding et al.) could stigmatise children or families.

Researchers should consider how findings will be used, report carefully and avoid over-generalising.

Worked example

Using Bowlby's work, explain how psychology can be used for social control.

1. Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis suggested separation from the mother harms children.
2. After the Second World War this was used to argue that mothers should stay at home rather than work.
3. So a psychological theory was used to influence and control social roles, even though the evidence was correlational.

Answer: Maternal deprivation was used to pressure mothers to stay at home.

Check yourself

1. Which theory most strongly supports the nature side of the debate?
   • Skinner's learning theory of language
   • Chomsky's language acquisition device
   • Learning theory of attachment
   • Caregiver sensitivity hypothesis
   Show answer

   Chomsky's language acquisition device. An innate device.

2. Research claiming day care harms infants' attachment is socially sensitive because
   • it uses the Strange Situation
   • it is carried out in nurseries
   • it uses a large sample
   • it could affect working parents and childcare policy
   Show answer

   it could affect working parents and childcare policy. Consequences for a social group.

3. Which is an example of developmental psychology being used in society?
   • Measuring reaction times in a laboratory
   • Hospitals allowing parents to stay with their children
   • Using brain scans to study memory
   • Testing conformity with line judgements
   Show answer

   Hospitals allowing parents to stay with their children. Based on Bowlby's ideas about separation.

4. How did Bowlby's ideas develop over time?
   • He abandoned attachment theory entirely
   • He added the disorganised type
   • He revised the critical period to a more flexible sensitive period
   • He replaced attachment with conditioning
   Show answer

   He revised the critical period to a more flexible sensitive period. Critical became sensitive.

5. Which view best describes modern thinking on language acquisition?
   • An innate capacity and social interaction are each needed
   • Language is entirely learned through reinforcement
   • Language is entirely innate and needs no input
   • Language develops only after formal operations
   Show answer

   An innate capacity and social interaction are each needed. Interactionist.

6. Explain one way developmental psychology could be used as a form of social control.
   Show answer

   Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis was used to pressure mothers to stay at home with their children rather than go out to work, controlling women's social roles.. Name the research and who it controls.

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Sources

• Pearson Edexcel International Advanced Subsidiary/Advanced Level in Psychology specification, Issue 6 (November 2024, first assessment January 2026)
• Pearson IAL Psychology summary of studies: WPS03
• British Psychological Society, The Psychologist: Looking back, making and breaking attachment theory

Last updated 8 November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.