Over this last semester in I have learned about psychology and the different things involved with it. In our class we covered nine different chapters ranging from research about psychology to who we are as a person. Are you may be wondering what psychology exactly is? Psychology is the study of behavior and mental processes. Psychology is a science. Like other scientists, psychologists seek to explain and control behavior and mental processes and test their ideas through research methods. In this paper I will cover the three topics I found the most interesting to me. The three most interesting topics I am going to reflect on are: how the environment shaped who I am today, what motivates me to do things, and the things that cause stress in my life. In chapter 10 of our psychology it talks about developmental psychology and how people grow and change throughout their life span- from conception, through infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, and until death. Along with this comes two main issues development psychologists are concerned with and those two general ideas are the ways heredity and environmental influences contribute to human development. They have always debated whether human behavior is determined by heredity (nature) or environmental (nurture). For my purpose I am going to talk about how the environment has shaped who I am as a person today. A psychologist by the name of John Watson believes that the influences of the environment are much stronger than
Throughout this semester of Psychology 150 I have learned a great deal about several different concepts that I consciously, and sometimes unconsciously, find myself applying to my life. There are five different psychology topics I found that held the most relevance to my life. Some of these topics do not deal with myself exclusively, but they do affect the people I hold dear to me. The topics range from disorders to personality differences, and they all affect me in some way, both indirectly and directly.
One of the oldest debates in the history of Psychology is about Nature versus Nurture. Today, we know that both play a significant role in human’s life. Some people believe that it is genes which affects our way of life and some people believes that it is none other but our environment that greatly influences our lifestyle and some believe that both has tremendous impact on one’s way of life. Indeed in certain cases both our nature (our genes) and our environment roughly play an equal role in human life.
The biggest controversy in psychology today is whether genetics or one’s environment plays a role in the behavior of the individual. Psychologists have researched and developed different theories to explain the reason for the way humans think and behave. The behavior of individuals is either inherited or learned. In my opinion, I believe that nurture plays a big role in the individual’s behavior. Kendra Cherry states, “Nurture refers to all the environmental variables that impact who we are, including our early childhood experiences, how we were raised, our social relationships, and our surrounding culture” (1). People have become who there are because of the environment they were exposed to in their childhood years. The behavior of people is influenced be the environment that surrounds them and can changed many times through one’s lifetime. People have different personalities a person’s
Early theories by Watson originally started the debate of nature versus nurture. Watson was a famous psychologist, popular in the early 1900s, and often discussed that environment was an important factor in a persons developing of skill. He once said, “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-informed, and my own special world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train them
At the center of the issues of what influences child development, would be the controversy between nature versus nurture . Nature and nurture are two major influences on development. Over the years there had been a lot of researches , for nature and nurture and the influence on children’s development that has been known for the lead census of the developmental and psychology that shoes the importance of both genetics and the environment. (Monographs of the society for Research in Child development, 2007). Even though nature versus nurture does play a big role in child development , nurture seems to be just a little bit
Theoretical Propositions: The question of why people are who they are and why they behave the in the way that they do was asked. The researchers wanted to understand if people develop into who they are primarily from factors in the environment or because of there genetic makeup. In the second half of the 20th century most psychologists agreed in the theory of behaviorism, human behavior is caused only by factors in the environment. This study would answer the common “nurture vs nature” question that many people still ask today.
There are many different aspects of environment that can affect the development of children. One major environmental impact that influences the development of a child is the neighborhood they are raised in. Within the neighborhood there are several other aspect of influence. Where a child is raised can affect their behavior, attitudes, emotions, personality, values, health, and so much more. This can be seen in their personal lives at home to their social lives around others in classrooms. The affects of a child’s development due to their environment can be seen in both a positive and negative aspect. The neighborhood that a child is raised in can be very critical in their
When we look at the science of human development, the main consideration is how people change over time. In the age old question of nature versus nurture, there are some that believe the characteristics and traits within us are innate, meaning we are born with them. Still others feel that nurturing, our environmental influences like friends, community, schools, media and even parents affect who we are. This is a false dichotomy, it is not which-but how much of each because both play crucial roles in our development (Berger 2015).
Childhood development encompasses the cognitive, physical, social, moral and emotional changes from birth until the end of adolescence (White, Hayes & Livesey, 2013). Throughout childhood, environment and genetics promote or discourage growth and development. This essay will analyse the cognitive, physical, social, moral and emotional domains in relativity to my own development from the prenatal stage until adolescence. Psychological and environmental theories are used to develop the understanding and connection between each domain and stage of development. Lastly, this essay will address the controversial nature verses nurture debate and its relevance to my childhood development.
Personality development expands far past the environment. Environment contribute to most of the personality development when it comes to nature versus nurture. Nature versus nurture is a trait that is typically inherited in the human society. Humans see things good or bad within the environment and mimic it. There are questions that still remain about nature versus nurture and the environment. Research is still ongoing and theories are still being made or developed. Scientists argue that while the nature part of the equation deals with the environment, it is the nurture part that determines how relationships are handled. Whether the relationship is healthy or unhealthy and how the relationship will be in the future. Some scientists agree the relative influences of genotypic and environmental effects vary among people and is controlled largely by environment.
Individuals wanted to find out if the formation of who they are was due to them being a product of nature or nurture. Many people think we are who we are because of either nature or nurture although what researchers have concluded is that it is in fact due to both. Nature is known to be all the characteristics one would be born with, meaning factors inherited from family members at birth, as it is in their genes. Nurture, on the other hand is identified as the environment and the experience. This is suggesting it’s similar to the outside world; the surroundings they encounter throughout their life, as well as the way in which they were brought up as a child. It is said that “The reality is far more complex, involving not only interactions between
The development of human being during the entire course of life, focus on biological and psychological growth (Berk, 2010). Human development hold several outcomes that are altered by both positive and negative influences. Genetic (nature) and environmental (nurture) influences place significant impact on human development. In fact, Pinker (2004) submits that behavior is the result of a complex collaboration among inheritance and environmental factors in human development, ultimately supporting that nature-nurture work collectively (Pinker, 2004).
The major that I have declared here at Washburn University is Psychology. Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and behavior. For years’ psychologist have researched and studied what factors influence development and behavior. One of the oldest and most talked about debates in the history of Psychology is the Nature versus Nurture argument. This debate goes back as far as the early Greeks but the phrase was first coined in 1871 by Sir Francis Galton. (Lewis) The controversial debate focuses on whether behavior, culture, and personality are mainly influenced by nature or nurture. According to Kendra Cherry, “Nature refers to all of the genes and hereditary factors that influence who we are—from our physical appearance to our personality characteristics. Nurture refers to all the environmental variables that impact who we are, including our early childhood experiences, how we were raised, our social relationships, and our surrounding culture” (Cherry).
One of these oldest arguments in the history of psychology is the debate of whether or not ones environment or genetic background plays more of a role in the development of a person. Both nature and nurture have been proven to play an important role in one’s development. Nature is what we think of as pre-wiring and is influenced by genetic inheritance and other biological factors. Nurture is generally taken as the influence of external factors after conception e.g. the product of exposure, experience and learning on an individual. Throughout this paper the effects of environmental and genetics factors on a person will be discussed, and one will learn how they aid in the development of a person.
There is an ongoing psychological debate on whether heredity or environment most impacts human psychological developments, such as behavior, habits, intelligence, personality, aggressive tendencies, and so on. your stance on nature Vs. nurture effects your understanding and experience with the book.