Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in a psychology class

旁白：听一段心理学的讲座

Professor: Okay, today we're starting our unit on developmental psychology.

教授：好，今天我们开始讲发展心理学这一单元。

And to give you an overview, I'm going to go over some of the principles of development that you'll be reading about in the next few weeks.

为了给大家一个概览，我会先讲一些接下来几周你们会读到的发展原则。

Now first, when I say development, remember I'm talking about human development, the physical, intellectual, and personality changes that occur from birth to around age 16 or so.

首先，当我提到“发展”，记住我指的是人类发展，即从出生到大约16岁左右发生的生理、智力和人格变化。

The first general principle is that development is influenced by both heredity and environment.

第一个一般原则是发展受到遗传和环境的影响。

Now who can give me an example of how heredity what we inherit genetically from our parents influences development?

谁能给我举个例子说明遗传因素——我们从父母那里继承的基因——如何影响发展？

Male Student: Appearance? I mean like children probably look like their parents because of their genes. Right?

男学生：外貌？我的意思是，孩子可能长得像他们的父母，因为基因的原因。对吧？

Professor: Yes, for example, your physical size, height and so on is partly determined by heredity.

教授：是的，例如你的体型、身高等部分是由遗传决定的。

If both your parents are tall, it's likely you'll be tall too, right? But physical size is also determined by your environment.

如果你的父母都很高，很可能你也会很高，对吧？但体型也受环境的影响。

For example, suppose both your parents were quite tall, assuming you get all the right nutrients in your diet while you're an infant, you're likely to grow tall too.

比如说，假设你的父母都很高，如果你在婴儿时期得到了足够的营养，你也有可能长高。

But if you don't, you may not grow so tall, since good nutrition is important for growing bones.

但如果得不到足够的营养，你就不会长得那么高，因为良好的营养对于骨骼生长非常重要。

Now, while it's clear that both factors contribute to development, what's not so clear is the extent to which each factor contributes.

现在，虽然很明显这两个因素都对发展有贡献，但不清楚的是每个因素贡献的程度。

Ah yes, Jeanne?

珍妮？

Female Student: I wonder if there have been studies to find out what's more important. I mean, like you know, does heredity have a bigger influence than environment, or vice versa?

女学生：我想知道是否有一些研究来确定哪个更重要。我的意思是，遗传比环境更重要，还是相反？

Professor: In fact, there have been several studies on the relative influence of heredity and environment, but they've been largely inconclusive. S

教授：事实上，关于遗传和环境相对影响的研究已经有很多，但大多数结果都不明确。

Since these two factors are extremely difficult to separate, especially with regard to their influence on intellectual development.

因为这两种因素极难分开，尤其是在它们对智力发展的影响方面。

We cannot isolate the influence of each factor.

我们无法孤立地分析每种因素的影响。

So for now, let's just say that development is influenced by both heredity and environment.

所以目前，我们只能说发展既受到遗传也受到环境的影响。

And in our upcoming readings and discussions, we’ll be dealing more with the complex interplay of those two factors.

在即将进行的阅读和讨论中，我们将更多地探讨这两种因素之间复杂的相互作用。

Ok, now the second principle is that development takes place at different rates for different parts.

第二个原则是，发展的不同部分以不同的速率进行。

Now do I mean that your left foot will grow very quickly for a while, and then your right foot will grow slowly, and then your arms will grow one after the other?

我的意思是，你的左脚会先长得很快，然后右脚会慢慢生长，然后你的手臂会一个接一个地生长吗？

Male Student: Like me at about 12 years old? No, seriously that's how I felt when I was 12 or 13.

男学生：就像我大概12岁时那样？不，说真的，在我十二三岁的时候就是这样感觉的。

Professor: Yes, well sometimes during adolescence, when children are growing so quickly, it may seem like that when children feel awkward and clumsy.

教授：是的，有时候在青春期，当孩子们成长得非常快时，他们可能会觉得自己很笨拙和不协调。

But what I meant to say is that physical growth as a whole may proceed at a different rate from, say, mental development.

但是我的意思其实是说身体上的成长作为一个整体，可能与智力发展以不同的速度进展。

So for example, you might see an 11 or 13 year old adolescent who looks quite mature, almost like an adult, but who's clearly still behaving like a child.

所以你可能会看到一个十一二岁的青少年看起来已经相当成熟，几乎像个成年人，但行为上仍然像个孩子。

That's because abilities like cognition and perception may develop at different rates and reach their maximum development at different times.

这是因为认知能力和感知能力可能以不同的速度发展，并在不同的时间达到最大发展水平。

Ok, for principal number three, now you may already know that there are specific stages in an infant’s development.

好，第三个原则是，你可能已经知道婴儿的发展是有特定阶段的。

For example, infants can lift their chin before they can sit up.

例如，婴儿可以先抬起下巴，然后才能坐起来。

And if you watch toddlers, older babies, you know they can sit before they can stand, stand before they could crawl...

如果你观察学步儿童或更大的婴儿，你会发现他们会先学会坐，然后才能站立，先站立然后才能爬行……

Female Student: Crawl before they can walk?

女学生：先爬后走？

Professor: Yes, exactly, that's because development follows in orderly sequence.

教授：没错，正是如此，这是因为发展遵循一定的顺序。

Now, while sequential development, the order in which children reach developmental stages is pretty clear for physical development, specifically motor development as we just saw, it's not so clear for intellectual development.

虽然这种顺序性对于身体发育尤其是运动技能的发展来说非常明显，但对于智力发展则不那么明显。

It's pretty easy to tell whether a child is at the crawling stage or the walking stage.

很容易判断一个孩子是否处于爬行阶段或走路阶段。

But it's not so easy to identify what stage of intellectual development a child may be at, since you can't get inside the child's brain and see what they're thinking.

但很难确定一个孩子的智力发展阶段，因为你不能直接看到孩子的大脑内部在想什么。

There's still an orderly sequence, it's just that the sequence to intellectual development is less obvious and the stages are less distinct.

发展确实有一个顺序，只是这个顺序对于智力发展来说不太明显，各个阶段也不那么清晰。

And that takes us to the next principle, that development is continuous.

这将我们引向下一个原则，即发展是连续的。

Stages of development are not completely separate from each other, there's no clear-cut break between the starting point of one stage and the completion of the next

发展阶段并不是完全独立的，从一个阶段开始到下一个阶段完成之间没有明显的分界线。

So you can see how these changes could easily go unnoticed by a child's parents.

所以你可以看到这些变化很容易被孩子的父母忽略。

Female Student: But what about all these charts you see in child development books, you know the ones that show separate stages and when they happen?

女学生：但是那些你在儿童发展书籍中看到的图表呢？你知道，那些显示不同阶段及其发生时间的图表？

Professor: Well, if you look again at those charts, you'll probably notice that the age is never exact.

教授：如果你再仔细看看那些图表，你会发现年龄从来都不是确切的。

It's always stated as a range of months or years, that's because it's impossible to be exact about when a specific stage of development occurs.

它总是表示为几个月或几年的范围，这是因为不可能精确地说出某个具体的发展阶段何时会发生。

The last principle I want to talk about, and this one you've probably noticed yourself, concerns the variability in individuals’ development, which simply means that we don't all develop in the same way.

最后一个我要讲的原则，也是你们可能自己注意到的，涉及到个体发展的变异性，简单来说就是我们不是所有人都以同样的方式发展。