Describe the controversies in child development.

The main controversies are (1) nature vs. nurture, (2) continuity vs. discontinuity, and
(3) active vs. passive. The nature vs. nurture controversy is not as much a controversy as it is a debate. The issue is to delineate how much and what aspects of development are due to genetic influences and which are due to environmental influences. The issue of continuity or discontinuity concerns the orderliness and linearity of child development. Continuity theories assume that development is steady, gradual, stage- like, and sequential. Discontinuity theories stress individual differences in development and that development involves both gains and losses. The active vs. passive controversy focuses on how big a role the child plays in her own development. Theorists, such as Freud, seemed to think that development was something that happened to children (passive) while Piaget stressed the active role children take in their own cognitive development.