Nature Vs Nurture Debate

1019 Words3 Pages

The nature versus nurture debate is one of the oldest philosophical issues within psychology. So what exactly is the nature versus nurture debate all about?
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 Chery 2010). The fanatics of this theme believe that all of our characteristics and behaviors are the result of advancement. Heritable behaviors handed down from parents influence the individual differences that make each person distinctive. Other well-known …show more content…

Take the position that all or most behaviors and characteristics result from learning. Behaviorism is a good example of a theory entrenched in empiricism. The behaviorists believe that all actions and behaviors are the results of conditioning. Theorists such as John B. Watson believed that people could be trained to do and become anything, regardless of their genetic background. For example, when a person achieves tremendous academic success, did they do so because they are genetically predisposed to be successful or is it a result of an enriched environment? If a man abuses his wife and kids, is it because he was born with violent tendencies or is it something he learned by observing his parents behavior? A few examples of biologically determined characteristics (nature) include certain genetic diseases, eye color, hair color, and skin …show more content…

You might view nature and nurture different, I said; not really, when you synchronize the two together it gives you the human characteristics. For example, growing up in a culture where family honor, goo values, self-worth, and integrity play a big factors is a proven fact that nurture play a principal role. Within that we also explore the social learning theory by Albert Bandura, where he stated that people mimic others base on they do in front of others. Moreover, you parent can have the most criminal mind ever and committed heinous crimes it does not justified you as a person will be in the same characteristic as them. Individual can inherent psychopathic behavior from their parent, but the environment they live on may change the outcome of his or her situation. “Functionalism emphasizes a societal equilibrium, if something happens to disrupt the order and the flow of the system, society must adjust to achieve a stable state” (Emile Durkheim). Society is a system of interrelated portions where no one part can function without the other. These parts make up the whole of society. If one part changes, it has an impact on society as a whole is it the same system as we see in nature versus nurture. Although, both are essential they will never be in an equal balance because one is always more influential than the other heredity or

Open Document