Final answer:
The fourth characteristic of growth and development in biology is an organized and predictable change observed through time in various levels of biological organization such as cellular processes, populations, and ecosystems.
Step-by-step explanation:
The fourth characteristic of growth and development in the context of living organisms, including humans, is the predictable and organized change through time. This principle is not solely associated with the organism as a whole, but rather is observed across biological constructs, such as within cellular processes like the cell cycle and apoptosis, as well as in populations and communities, which may exhibit patterns like logistic and exponential growth or phenomena such as ecological succession.
One specific example related to this characteristic of growth and development is how a developing country might leapfrog over traditional stages in the implementation of technology, directly adopting advanced systems such as cell phones and satellite communication instead of building extensive wired infrastructure. This can be seen as an economic parallel to biological organisms that grow and develop according to specific instructions coded by their genes, ensuring predictable development and the acquisition of traits seen in their parent species.