Nurture Controversy

Kassem Abusnineh

English III AP

Dawson

3 Feb 2016

“Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper void of all characters, without any ideas. How comes it to be furnished? Whence comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from EXPERIENCE” ("The Nature versus Nurture Debate or Controversy"). Experience is defined as the observing, encountering, or undergoing of things generally as they occur in the course of time, and genetics is the study of heredity and the variation of inherited characteristics, thus both factors are believed to have tremendous effects on the personalities

Furthermore, well-renowned psychologists like John Locke and Albert Bandura set out to find the answer. Their ambitions have taken them far, Albert Bandura proposed the theory of observational learning, which is referred to as shaping or modeling. Even though, observational learning can be learned throughout any stage in life, it tends to occur more in the way that children act. Bandura demonstrated that we are prone to engage in observational learning, and demonstrated this through the fact that children as young as 21 days old, will attempt to mimic facial expressions and movements, which demonstrates how impactful observational learning can be at such a young age. Bandura also conducted an experiment, Bobo doll experiment, in which children observed a film that showed an adult repeatedly beating a bobo doll aggressively. However, after viewing the film, the children were permitted to play with a real bobo doll, with no supervision. Therefore, Bandura concluded that children were most likely to mimic the actions of an adult ("What Is Observational Learning?"). Furthermore, the Bobo doll experiment also relates well to the ideology of the British philosopher, John Locke. Locke refuses to believe the ideology of Descartes, that human beings know certain things naturally without being taught it. Therefore, Locke created the theory of “Tabula Rasa” or clean slate, in which he believed that infants know nothing at birth and that all ideas develop come from experience ("John Locke's Theory of Tabula Rasa"). Thus, demonstrated that since children’s minds are blank at birth, it demonstrates how much the environment has a significant impact on the development of personality. Therefore, John Locke and Albert Bandura both proved that the environment in which children occupy themselves in, are what overall influences their