Is it the End of the Nature Versus Nurture Debate - Essay Example

As observed by France De Waal (1999), the contribution of nature has been enormous and may be justified by advancements in neural sciences. He concludes that the nature V nurture debate must be given new direction. Similarly, Eric Parens (1996) supported the view of remarkable role of behavioral genetics in human behavior and hence he favors the nature theory and seeks to continue the nature V nurture debate. However, Steven Pinker (2004) was of opinion that nature and nurture wont go away and he feels that there will be interaction among several factors of both environment and nature.

In this context, all researchers have however agreed that the nature V nurture debate will have political and ideological implications and hence the discussion should be properly regulated. Though it is not proper to state that the nature V nurture debate should be completely abandoned, reorientation of the subject mater is highly needed. Initially support has come to Social Darwinism that is a doctrine based on genetic determinism and natural selection, advocating a laissez-faire capitalist economy and promoting eugenics, racism and the inherent inequality of such a society.

Mendel’s laws of genetics and inheritance also supported the theory of nature for human behavior. After 1945, the debate swung in favor of "nurture", with American psychologists taking up a rhetoric of environmental influences on behavior, emphasizing the learning process. In turn, the European school of ethology arose in opposition to the environmentalists, focusing on innate behavior which is of genetic origin. In 1960s in the USA, views were highly favoring nurture theory as all people are capable of producing better performance if given conducive environmental conditions in which to reach their potential.

Since beginning, psychology was focused as major subject for explaining the nurture theory for human