Relational Developmental Systems Approach

Instead of viewing development as a consequence of only one significant factor, other theorists viewed development as a product of various properties contributing towards it. One new approach to development is the Relational Developmental Systems (RDS) approach that states that psychology is not a biological science, rather, genes and the brain are just other participants in developmental processes (Greenberg 2014). According to this approach “biological adaptations, socialization, and unique cultural experiences lead to a phase transition from protolanguage in chimpanzees and bonobos … to true language” (Greenberg 2014). In other words, development and language are the product of changes within the human genome. These changes make it possible

According to this approach, “even if one is studying a single source of influence, one would acknowledge at some critical point that that source is not acting in isolation” (Coll 2004). To elaborate, the environment cannot be the sole factor in development because there are other things influencing an individual’s development — like their biology. For the sociocultural theory of development to definitively state that interactions with an individual’s surroundings result in their development, it would have to erase any biological involvement in development. Meaning, the theory would have to completely neglect biology’s role in development which is impossible because without a genetic makeup, a person is not a person. Furthermore, Coll illustrates this approach by giving an example of a child learning language (2004). For instance, “a child cannot learn a language well without a neural substrate that processes the input—or, equally important, without an environment that provides that input” (Coll 2004). This promotes the belief that development is the product of the environment and biology reacting with one