Nature/Nurture Debate

This can be applied to the behaviors of criminals. According to Fishbein (1990, pg.37), “behavior [is] primarily attributed to inherited predispositions and genetic influences.” Nurture is the environmental influence that shape human behavior (Fishbein, 1990, pg.37). Human genetics and environmental factors contribute to the uniqueness to a person’s behavior. However, there are underlying qualities in a criminal’s historical background. Aspects of the nature and nurturing of a criminal behavior includes some problems with earlier biological explanations and some recent biological explanations which have overcome the weaknesses of

For years upon years, people have argued the nature vs. nurture debate. The term “nature vs nurture” has been dated to be used all the way back to the Elizabethan period. To break down exactly what nature vs nurture is, it’s a debate whether prenatal care and home environment determines human behavior, or if that simply relies on a person’s genetics. Personally, I believe both nature and nurture play an important role in a human’s development and behavior. To fully understand my reasoning, I’ll break down exactly what nature and nurture are in this long-standing debate.

Psychologist Donald Hebb once answered the question of nature vs. nurture by responding with a similar question, “Which contributes more to the area of a rectangle, its length or its width?” I find this to be a very interesting and true argument. As we know, a rectangle’s area can be determined by multiplying its length by its width, or vice versa. If either one of these variables is unknown, you cannot determine what the area is. They both have an equal contribution to the equation. Similarly, it is impossible to single out either nature or nurture as the reason that somebody becomes a psychopath. They both contribute equally to the equation.

The Nature and Nurture debate, one of the oldest debates in the history of psychology, questions whether or not criminal behaviour is a result of the nature of a person, meaning something that lies in their genes causing a person to act in a certain way, or nurture, the environment, therefore criminal behaviour as a result of a person’s life experiences (Sincero, 2012). This essay shall look in depth and answer to how the four areas of criminal behaviour, which are biological, sociological, psychological and environmental, as part of the nature and nurture debate, can explain criminality and deviance. This will be done by discussing a number of theories and experiments that have come to the surface over time. Researching the nature and nurture debate, it is shown that the debate continues to interest people today, mainly because of what is thought will be the outcome of these findings, which is preventing people turning to criminal behaviour by understanding people’s genetics, how they were born and avoid situations that lie in the environment to stop them interacting with criminal activities.

The objective of this study is to examine whether it is nature or nurture who plays the most vital role in a human’s behavior, specifically an individual’s criminal behavior. Criminal behavior is defined as an act or failure to act in a way that violates public law. Some believe that criminal behavior can be identified as early as conception, meaning that criminal behavior is because of your genes. While others believe that one’s upbringing and social learning environment directly contributes to the individual’s criminal behavior. This paper will provide the history on the ongoing debate of nature vs. nurture and answer the question of whether it is

Surely these people are not doomed to a lifestyle of crime from birth. In other words, this is not a biological phenomenon but rather a socially constructed phenomenon that starts early on (Winfree et. Al., 1993). For instance, their families might be using hard core drugs such as cocaine and the children see this kind of behavior they are likely to follow it. Parents are an important influence to their children and their drug usage clearly influences their behavior. In this case it is more likely for the children to engage in drug usage. As they grow older and are unable to get these drugs they resort to violence in order to obtain them. (Barnard, 2005).

Nature against nurture – that’s one of the most popular questions ever studied in psychology. Even today no one knows for sure what’s more valuable for our human development – nurture or nature. Many researches, experiments and discussions have been conducted to answer this question, but positive results are still unavailable. In this nature vs nurture essay you’ll find a brief history, significant characteristics of the nature versus nurture problem and fresh original thoughts on the

One of the oldest arguments in psychology is the debate between nature vs nurture. Nature being our genetics determining our behavior, personality traits, and abilities, while nurture being our environment, upbringing, and life determining our behavior. One of the most prompted debates on the subject is genetic and environmental influences on criminal behavior. The question often being whether its the blame of a human being’s inherited genes that makes them a criminal or the surroundings in which they are raised develops that outcome. Research has been done on this debate from numerous studies, and the overall conclusion being that both genes and environment play a part in the criminal behavior involving an individual. The reason being, having inherited genes for corrupted behavior doesn’t decide the operations of a person, on the other hand if they are subjected to the correct surroundings, then their chances increase for engaging in criminal or anti-social behavior.

Nurture- Social, economic and environmental influences. The nature-nurture debate is an argument based on peoples view about the genetics and inherited genes from parents. Others believe that people believe in things and see things in their way because they are surrounded by people from different cultural backgrounds, the way society is, the things we are taught and the way we observe everything around us. Others believe that the way we act and the things we do are inherited from our parents the same way our hair colour may be from the mother and the eyes from the father.

The ongoing debate of Nature vs Nurture is one of the oldest philosophical issues. The nature theory argues that all genes, and hereditary factors, influences an individual in terms of their physical appearance to their personality characteristics (Cherry, 2017). Conversely, the nurture theory argues that all environmental variables impact who individuals are, including early childhood experiences, how individuals were raised, social relationships, and surrounding culture (Cherry, 2017). However, people are born neither “good” nor “bad”, but they are a product of their social and psychological traits, influenced by their upbringing and environment. Today, the validity of biological and psychological explanation of criminality is no longer

The modern biosocial perspective of criminal behavior covers many different areas of studies. The aspects this paper will be focusing on are familial studies, brain injuries, and cytogenetic studies. It should be taken into consideration that every situation and person is different; therefore, the results from the studies will most likely vary significantly. This theory discusses the thinking that instead of a nature versus nurture point of view, criminology should be studied from a viewpoint of nature and nurture working in tandem. This is pointed out in many areas, but it most noticeable in the areas mentioned above. Not only is this theory looking into the genetics side of the argument, but it is also taking into account the

The origin of crime has been a question that has been studied for years. The debate has always been between whether nature or nurture influences criminal behaviour. There has been a considerably large amount of studies on this troubling question. Research from twin, adoption, and family studies are used to investigate the existing genetic and environmental influences on criminal behaviour.It should be taken into consideration that there are some mental and physical disorders that can also influence such behaviour. Research has shown that genetic and environmental factors go hand in hand in the influence on criminal behaviour.

One aspect of culture that affects criminal activity is family life. In fact, children who are abused and deprived of love develop neuro-chemical vulnerabilities (Batmanghelidj, 2008). This results in hyper-agitation, impulsive behaviour, and egocentric minds (Batmanghelidj, 2008). Children who are violated obtain a street-ready repertoire of violence. It is said that they "know how to kick because they have been kicked" (Batmanghelidj, 2008). Furthermore, with abusive parents, many are left with no adult mentors. Due to this, they grow up learning that they are not the top dog, but the underdog. This is significant because they become nihilistic people who can only feel emotion when they are the top dogs while attacking someone (Batmanghelidj, 2008). As a result, the way culture impacts upbringing can increase the likelihood of one exhibiting criminal

Researchers have also looked at criminal behavior from a genetic aspect. In fact, "behavioral genetic research has show that genes influence individual differences in a wide range of human behaviors -cognition, academic achievement, personality and temperament (including such traits as aggression and hostility), psychopathology, and even vocational interests and social attitudes" (Meadows, 2010, P.16). There may in fact be a connection between how an individual is wired and the behavior that results. This does not necessarily mean that some individuals are inevitably going to become a criminal. However, some individuals may simply have a greater tendency "to be more aggressive and thus less likely to control emotions absent some type of positive interventions" (Meadows, 2010, P. 16). Furthermore, genetic research looks at the heritability of certain disorders and specific genes that

For more than a century, researchers and psychologists, such as Sir Francis Galton, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud and many others, have been trying to understand how people are transformed by their environment. Researchers have mainly argued whether it is in fact our environment or rather genetics, our biological pre-wiring, which has influenced human behavior. This concept ultimately facilitated what is now known as the Nature versus Nurture debate. The Nature aspect states that human behavior is predetermined by our inherited genes or is the product of our innate behavior. The Nurture side of the disagreement postulates that human behavior stems from acquired attributes through individual learning and experiences. Correspondingly, the Object Relations Theory in psychoanalytic psychology supports the position that a person’s natural environment (i.e. family, peers, acquaintances, society) forms human development. The Object Relations theory stresses that it is the relationships between people, more specially family, often between mother and child, that crafts the human psyche.