Nature Verse Nurture in Psychology - Research Paper Example

Nature Verse Nurture in psychology al Affiliation Nature Versus Nurture in psychology Background information The debate on nature versus nurture is the oldest issue in psychology, which have prompted individuals and scholars to take different positions. It centers on the relative contributions of environmental factors and genetic inheritance to human development. The debate within psychology either is concerned with the extent to which the certain aspects of behavior are a product of acquired (learned) or inherited (genetic) characteristic. According to Macmillan dictionary, nature is an aspect or issue, which is inherited or genetic while nurture means all environmental influences after conception including experience. Philosophers such as Descartes and Plato posited that certain things are inborn or traits that occur naturally regardless of influence from the environment (Collins, 2012). People who take the position that relatively all human behaviors and characteristics are the result of inheritance are called nativists. Other great thinkers’ ideology on the debate such as John Locke is based on Tabula rasa concept, which means that the mind begins as a blank slate. The notion means that everything that we are and our knowledge came along as a result of experience. Individuals who take this position are known as empiricists. Human characteristic and behavior is influenced by environmental influences such as acquired skills and experience. Research question 1. How environmental influences alter one’s behavior and traits? 2. What and how life experience shapes human personality? 3. What are the differences of environmental and genetic influence on human personality and characteristic? 4. What is a contemporary view of the nature verse nurture in psychology? Research Objective 1. To examine and evaluate how social life and ones up bring from childhood affects his/her traits 2. To identify life experiences that tend to determine human personality 3. To outline the major differences between inherited and genetic influence of human personality 4. To determine the contemporary view on the concept of nature and nurture Literature Review The subject has resulted to different scholars and theorists to develop distinct arguments on the nature and nurture in psychology. Among them includes Piaget, Urie Bronfenbrenner, Albert Bandura and earlier philosophers such as Plato and Descartes. Albert Bandura developed an empiricist theory known as social learning theory. According to this theory, individuals learn by observing the behavior of others, among other environmental influences (Bandura, 1977). The behavior of a person can be tried to influence such as learning experiences and parenting styles. Albert outlines that a child might learn through observation and reinforcement to say words such as “thank you” and “please.” Other children might learn to behave aggressively by observing older people and children engage in violent behavior on the playground. Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory explains this perspective in his famous Bobo doll experiment. Skinner (1957) suggested that the language is acquired (learnt) from other people especially through shaping techniques. Unlike Bandura’s theory, Burrhus Frederic Skinner believed that we do have things such as mind, but its become more productive to study observable behavior instead of internal mental events (Skinner, et al. 1971). Skinner also posits that the best way to understand the behavior is to evaluate the action and its consequences. The approach is called operant conditioning. Individual’s personality can be described through numerous approaches such as behaviorism, humanism, psychoanalysis and cognitive psychology approaches. According to humanism approach, Maslow emphasized basic physical needs. The society of a person influences a person’s self-concept. The cognitive psychology demonstrates that innate mental structures, including perception, memory and schemas constant changes in the environment. Psychoanalytical approach explains that social upbringing during childhood defines the child’s personality (Collins, 2012). Lastly, behaviorism is based on the perception that all human behavior is learned from the environment through conditioning. In 2012, researchers from King’s College London conducted a study of 45 childhood traits in 6,759 pairs of identical and non-identical twins. The purpose of the research was to establish whether children’s genes or the environment was more important. The finding of the study contrasted with various researches done earlier. According to the study, environmental factors played a greater role, possibly because wealth varies within communities. It means that twins growing up on the same locality are more likely to fall in with different groups of colleagues who could influence their behavior (Collins, 2012). Personality is not mainly inherent, but there are plenty of things that make human genome express the way it is manifested in the human being. Contemporary perspective of Nature verse Nurture Currently, the majority of experts believe that development and traits are prejudiced by both nature and nurture. The question that remains unanswered is how the strong environmental factor is in defining each attribute compared with the influence of DNA, contrast significantly across the country. There is, therefore, believed that certain environmental factors can have some influence on a person’s height (Bandura, 1977). For instance, having a tall husband does not mean that his son must be tall since during the son’s developmental stages the child did not get the right types of food, minerals and vitamins. Conclusion According to the literature review, most human personality among another characteristic is determined by the environment he lives. Personality is mainly affected by the behavior of what a person sees, hear or practice. Children learn their language through listening, observation and imitation. The notion of nurture is, therefore, an imperative element in human life. In other words, characteristic of an environment dictates the personality. The literature review exemplifies that the human relation such as personality and attitude affects how another person relates with others (Collins, 2012). Indeed, the idea of nurturing as a major determinant of childhood’s personality is important because it helps in nurturing proper and acceptable characteristic. It can be obtained by placing the child in a favorable environment that best suit a certain personality. It trims off worse characteristics unlike those characteristics defined by human genome (Skinner, et al. 1971). According to the literature review, nurture can be utilized to improve positive traits and reduces the effect of negative traits in a child. Although genetic coding helps in physical development, nurture plays a very big role in every human development. It tends to speed up an individual’s capacity to learn and study new things. Ideally, practice makes perfect. In this perspective, an individual can advance knowledge by practicing to acclimatize to all creations in the environment. In an experiment where infants are provided with stepping practice shows that such children usually walk in several days earlier than those without stepping practice do (Collins, 2012). In sum, early human development is quickened and focused due to nurture because it builds up on the talents provided by nature. References Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Collins, N. (2012). Nature vs nurture: outcome depends on where you live - Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9326819/Nature-vs-nurture-outcome-depends-on-where-you-live.html Skinner, B. F., Meredith Corporation., Fisher-Slezas Films., & Focus International (Huntington, N.Y.). (1971). B.F. Skinner demonstrates operant conditioning. Huntington Station, NY: Focus International. Read More