Nurture Debate

Nature Vs Nurture is often the huge debate in psychology when it comes to determining and understanding individual’s characteristics traits. Nature is hereditary to our behavior while nurture is based on our environmental influences. Although most argue whether or not nature or nurture defines our characteristics, I believe both have an impact on we are.

from a different angle, i.e. the biological perspective tries to analyse the human behaviour by

Nature or Nurture. Nature may be all of the genes and hereditary factors with which influence them to become who they are such as physical appearances and personality characteristics. Nurturing impacts people’s lives as well as how they are raised and all the environmental factors. In combination, these qualities can be the true identity of oneself. Many people may argue that nurture appears to a play huge factor in the two, but others may think otherwise. Not having both as a characteristic can have a negative effect on a person physically and mentally. The debate of nature versus nurture appears to be the oldest argument known to man, and it still remains to be unanswered. In the old-age argument nature versus nurture, nature may play a huge role in determining a person’s true identity.

Behaviourists focus on the influence of the environment, they chose not to be concerned with the internal mechanisms that occur inside the organism, they believe that your behaviour depends on what factors are present in the environment at any given time. Another big contributor to this approach is Ivan Pavlov who was made famous for conditioning in which he used dogs in an experiment.

Behaviorism, cognitive and humanistic are all perspectives (or theories) of psychology. Behaviorism is a perspective that suggests that all behaviors are learned. What I mean by that is according to John B. Watson who founded the school of psychology, suggests the behaviors can be measured, trained, and changed. [ (Cherry, 2012) ] Based on article written by Kendra Cherry, behaviorism is a theory of learning based upon the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning and there are two major types of conditioning which are Classical conditioning and Operant

Nature versus Nurture is the issue of the degree to which environment and heredity influence behavior and development. In this issue nature can be defined as, behaviors due to heredity. Which means behaviors are based on the genetic makeup of an individual and is an influence of the individuals' growth and development throughout life. On the other hand nurture are causes of behaviors that are environmental. Which means the influence is from, parents, siblings, family, friends and all other experiences to which the individual is exposed to.

The historical debate regarding nature and nurture has been going on for years and is still unresolved. Many theorists believe what we have inherited and our genes, makes us the way we are and how we develop. Other theorists believe it is the way we are brought up and our experiences, that make us the way we are and how we develop.

The Nature v. Nurture is one of the biggest issue debated by philosophers, sociologists, and scientists. It is the primary influence on personality development. The scientists argue whether nature develops the character of a person or nurture. Nature has a profound impact on the development of a child; however, it is the element of nurture which determines their level of growth and most important development. Mary Shelley emphasizes in her Frankenstein that the creature is good by his nature and only wants some friends, but the abandonment of his creator and the hatred of the people makes him evil.

Behaviorism is the scientific approach to psychology that is distinguished by logical-theoretical emphasis as is seeks to develop reasons for behavior (Moore, 2013). The theory of Behaviorism was developed by John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner. Uniquely, this theory states that personality is plastic and can be shaped by the environment or situational influences. Another difference from previous thoughts is

Psychology can be defined as the systematic study of mental processes, couple with behaviors, and experiences (Kalat, 2011). There are many ways in examining, mental processes and behaviors among people, and therefore psychologist uses different perspectives to understand how human beings, think, act, and behave. Some psychologist uses one perspective to analyze behaviors, and other uses a multidimensional approach. Carter & Seifert (2013) identified 7 major perspectives that are used to study people’s behavior, and mental processes. These perspectives are the biological, evolutionary, psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, cognitive, and the sociocultural perspective.

The human body and mind, when it deals with the nature and nurture aspects, hearing the word nature and then hearing the word nurture, someone might have to think about which one is which. Plus, which one contributes the most to what kind of person someone will end up being? The overall, nature cannot be changed and nurture can have such a universal variance of inputs that it would be difficult to distinguish which one had the greater influence.

One of the major psychological perspectives that I find the most interesting is the humanistic approach because I agree that the environment that a person is currently in can either negatively or positively affect growth. As it states in the textbook, Exploring Psychology, humanistic psychology focuses less on the early years of a person’s life and more on the requirements a person needs to grow. The environment that a person is in can largely affect their mood and their thoughts. Another major psychological perspective that I am interested in is the biological approach because I previously never thought about genetics as a factor of human behavior. Despite my lack of previous knowledge about this perspective, I agree that it plays a role in

Nature vs. nurture has been discussed by philosophers in the past and by scientists more recently. Philosophers such as Plato argued that all knowledge was inherited from your parents and when you were told something you didn’t learn it you were just reminded of it. Aristotle however argued that all humans were born with a blank slate and built on it with influence from there environment. In the 1700’s the empiricists and the internalists took over the argument. They fought through letters explaining there point of views and denouncing the others. This leads to Pavlov coming up with the idea of behaviorism in the early 1900‘s. Behaviorism became the new wave of Psychology and influenced a lean towards the nurture side. It was not

Nature versus Nurture is a popular debate about whether our genetics, or environmental influences "mold" more of who we are. An example is whether you get your out-going personality because of your DNA, or because you grew up in an environment that made you out-going. Nature is your genes, Nurture is environmental influences.Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_argument_of_nature_vs_nurture#ixzz29QTunXP3

Nature and nurture go hand in hand when it comes to explaining the behaviors and characteristics that a person has and the ones that will be developed later in life. The nature perspective reasons that certain behaviors and characteristics are due to genetic inheritance. The nurture perspective sees the environment as the main cause of behaviors that are developed. The behaviors are brought on by environmental triggers and are learned. Since the nature and nurture perspectives are both needed to explain behavior they are more commonly used together by psychologists.