There are many factors that affect people's physical and mental development, but the most important ones are genetic quality, social environment, school education and individual's own subjective initiative. These four factors are intertwined and work together to promote or restrict the process and quality of human development from different aspects.
(A) Genetic quality: the material premise of human development
Genetic quality makes it possible for people to develop physically and mentally. Genetic quality refers to the anatomical and physiological characteristics that people inherit from their ancestors, mainly the characteristics of the morphology, structure, sensory organs and nervous system of organisms. First of all, human development always needs to obtain physiological tissue and certain vitality through genetic means. Without this premise, any development is impossible. Secondly, the characteristics of genetic quality provide the possibility for human development. On the other hand, it restricts the process and stage of human physical and mental development. The gradual maturity of human genetic quality provides possibilities and limitations for the appearance of children's physical and mental development characteristics at a certain age. Research on children's psychology has proved that children's thinking is related to the development of their brain weight, brain waves and cranial nerve structure. For example, the weight of human brain is 390 grams in neonatal period and 660 grams in 8-9 months. At the age of 2-3, it is 990-10/g, and at the age of 9, it is 1350g, which is consistent with the accelerated period of children's thinking development in these ages. Thirdly, there are individual differences in genetic quality, which provide different physiological basis for people's physical and mental development differences. The difference of genetic quality restricts people's physical and mental development. Will affect people's talent development. Because people's higher nervous activity's excitement and inhibition process have different characteristics in intensity, balance and flexibility, people also have different temperament and personality. Fourth, although genetic quality plays an important role in people's development, it can't play a decisive role, but can only be transformed into reality under the influence of certain environment and education. For example, people's knowledge, talent, thoughts, opinions and hobbies are all formed under the influence of acquired environment and education. Without the acquired environment and education, the development endowed by heredity may not become a reality. In addition, genetic quality itself will change with the changes of environment and human practice. Under normal circumstances, genes are stable, but they also have great mutation potential. In short, genetic factors are the material premise of people's physical and mental development, and there is no such thing.
In view of the important role of genetic quality in human development, we also have some corresponding measures in education, such as eugenics education and potential development.
(B) Social environment: an important external factor of human development
Social environment is the sum total of material culture, spiritual culture and social relations created and accumulated by human beings on the basis of natural environment. In short, it is the material civilization and spiritual civilization that individuals come into contact with, as well as the economic, political, cultural and family life that they come into contact with in social practice, including the communication with neighbors, relatives and friends.
First of all, the nature transformed by human beings has certain social significance. In the long river of historical development, human society has created extremely rich social cultures, which are constantly transplanted into people's minds in the form of ideas and become the content and important source of people's psychological development. Different social cultures people contact also form different psychological contents and levels of psychological development.
Secondly, people are born in certain social relations. In interpersonal communication, other people's thoughts, words and behaviors have an influence on people's development. In the social relations formed between people, different relationships and status will have an impact on people's needs, interests, emotions, moral quality, intellectual and physical development level and direction.
Third, social ideology also has an impact on human development. Social consciousness preserved in the form of science, philosophy, morality, art, religion and customs in human history directly or indirectly affects individual consciousness and becomes an important source of psychological development.
Because the environment is an important external factor of human development, we create a healthy and good learning environment and campus culture for students in education, and strive to realize environmental education. However, we can't exaggerate the decisive role of social environment on people. John Watson, a behavioral psychologist, is a typical representative of environmental determinism. He once said: "Give me a dozen healthy babies, a special environment dominated by myself. Let me raise them in this environment, regardless of their ancestors' talents, hobbies, inclinations, abilities and races. I promise to train any one of them into any kind of person-doctor, lawyer, artist, businessman, even beggar or robber. "We know that people have subjective initiative and can respond to the objective environment according to their existing knowledge, experience, interests and needs. No matter what the objective environmental conditions are, its influence on people's development can only be realized through people's subjective efforts and practice. If individuals have different attitudes towards the environment, the development results will be different. For example, "adversity" can destroy materials, but it can also become talents. All this shows that "environmental determinism" is wrong.
(c) School education: the leading role of human development
School education is an integral part of the environment, and it can also be regarded as a special environment, which has advantages over the general environment and plays a leading role in human development. American psychologist Newman and others found that identical twins raised in isolation have intelligence differences, which are formed by the educational environment.
First of all, education is a purposeful, planned and organized job of cultivating people, and its influence on people is profound and systematic. According to the needs of a certain society and a certain direction, it selects educational content with cultivation value, adopts effective organizational forms and methods, and systematically educates and trains the educated, so that students can acquire knowledge, skills, develop their abilities and physical strength, and form a certain moral quality and world outlook. This is unmatched by the influence of spontaneous environment.
Secondly, the educators in the school are all full-time teachers who have been specially trained. According to the purpose and task of education, they follow the law of the physical and mental development of the educated, are good at mobilizing students' learning enthusiasm and exerting influence on them effectively. Teachers' role models and practices will exert a subtle influence on students. Therefore, under the guidance of teachers, the younger generation can develop well in all aspects, greatly speeding up the process of individual socialization and making them new people needed by society.
Third, education can control some factors in the environment, make use of its positive factors and overcome its negative factors. Education can also provide special training and compensation for students with genetic defects or unable to develop healthily due to acquired influence. In addition, education can also tap the potential of students with strong ability and make them develop rapidly.
Finally, the leading role of education is relative and conditional. It needs the cooperation of family and society, and educators should follow the laws of education. Education can only cultivate teenagers' genetic quality, but not change their genetic quality. It can only use some influences of social environment, but can't decide and change the whole social environment. Therefore, schools must strive for the cooperation between family and society, so that the influence of all aspects is consistent. Only in this way can school education really play a leading role. There has always been a theory that schools play a decisive role in the process of human development in history, and even put forward the view of "saving the country through education", which is obviously incorrect and overestimates the role of education.
(d) The individual himself: the internal driving force of human development
The individual itself refers to people's subjective initiative, which is one of the important characteristics that distinguish people from animals. Subjective initiative is formed under the influence of environment and education. With the improvement of people's self-awareness and rich social experience, people's subjective initiative is gradually enhanced, enabling people to develop themselves purposefully. People's subjective initiative is manifested in their attitude towards things around them, whether they are for or against, whether they are active or evasive; It is manifested in being able to make choices consciously and selectively and control one's behavior; It is also manifested in being able to set predetermined goals for your own development and consciously work hard to achieve them. As far as education is concerned, education is a process for students to master production and life experience, and it is also a process of transformation. This transformation is not as mechanical as reflecting things in a mirror. Students always make choices according to their existing knowledge and experience and personal interests and needs, and make different responses to external influences. Many studies show that some students with similar genetic qualities and basically the same environmental and educational conditions have great differences in individual development. The important reason lies in the different degrees of subjective initiative, which reflects the important role of subjective initiative as an internal motive force in people's physical and mental development. However, while emphasizing subjective initiative, we should also refute the subjective idealism error of the omnipotence of spirit or will.