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After reading this article you will learn about the relation between growth, maturation and learning.
The growth of the body is an important factor in determining the pattern of behaviour. Normal growth is necessary for normal behaviour to take place. Individuals with arrested growth or retarded growth or accelerated growth exhibit different patterns of behaviour. Thus, in an individual in whom the brain has not grown adequately, the behaviour is also found to be underdeveloped.
Closely related to the process of growth is the process of maturation. An individual’s nerves and muscles must grow up to a certain stage and be ready to undertake a certain activity before the particular behaviour can be displayed. For example, working and speech do not appear before a certain age.
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It has also been seen that people differ in their rates of maturation. It has been found that any amount of stimulation or practice is useless unless an individual reaches a certain optimal level of maturation. In fact, any attempt at premature training and practice may even be harmful. Thus, growth and maturation and processes which produce or fail to produce the necessary basic internal conditions for the appearance of different patterns of behaviour, are innate processes and lay down the limits for behaviour.
While growth and maturation constitute predetermined or predisposing factors, they cannot by themselves, ensure the appearance of different patterns of behaviour. While growth and maturation provide the basic conditions of readiness, the actual level and type of behaviour appears to be determined by environmental factors like experience, stimulations, opportunities etc.
The changes brought about in behaviour by these factors are described as learning. The process of learning, therefore, refers to those changes in behaviour which can be attributed to experience, practice and stimulation.
It appears safe to conclude that the behaviour of a particular individual at a particular point is the product of an interaction between growth, maturation and learning. There are many children and adults who have grown and matured but are poor in certain aspects of behaviour. Similarly, there are people who are less mature and grown but whose behaviour shows a higher level of development in certain aspects.
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Instances like these highlight the complex nature of behavioural development and the difficulties involved in predicting human responses and actions. It is this complex interaction which gives flexibility and also brings about individual differences in behaviour. While different people share common schemes, two people are rarely identical.
Normal, subnormal or super-normal development all these result from the continuous interaction among these factors. Experiments on deprivation, where subjects have been deprived of certain specific types of experience (sensory experience), have demonstrated the effect of deprivation on the appearance or non-appearances of certain types of behaviour.