Nurture does change based on external factors. For example, a person with genes for being tall could possibly have their growth stunted due to malnutrition. Nature and nurture are often studied by examining the lives of twins who are similar in nature, or genetics who were raised apart differing nurture. Behaviorism , on the other hand, focuses on the impact that the environment has on behavior. In the past, debates over the relative contributions of nature versus nurture often took a very one-sided approach, with one side arguing that nature played the most important role and the other side suggesting that it was nurture that was the most significant.
Today, most experts recognize that both factors play a critical role. Do genetic or environmental factors have a greater influence on your behavior?
Do inherited traits or life experiences play a greater role in shaping your personality? The nature versus nurture debate is one of the oldest issues in psychology. The debate centers on the relative contributions of genetic inheritance and environmental factors to human development.
Some philosophers such as Plato and Descartes suggested that certain things are inborn, or that they occur naturally regardless of environmental influences. Nativists take the position that all or most behaviors and characteristics are the results of inheritance. Advocates of this point of view believe that all of our characteristics and behaviors are the result of evolution.
Genetic traits handed down from parents influence the individual differences that make each person unique. Other well-known thinkers such as John Locke believed in what is known as tabula rasa , which suggests that the mind begins as a blank slate. According to this notion, everything that we are and all of our knowledge is determined by our experience.
Empiricists take the position that all or most behaviors and characteristics result from learning. Behaviorism is a good example of a theory rooted 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 own parent's behavior? A few examples of biologically determined characteristics nature include certain genetic diseases, eye color, hair color, and skin color.
Other things like life expectancy and height have a strong biological component, but they are also influenced by environmental factors and lifestyle. An example of a nativist theory within psychology is Chomsky's concept of a language acquisition device or LAD. Some characteristics are tied to environmental influences. How a person behaves can be linked to influences such as parenting styles and learned experiences.
For example, a child might learn through observation and reinforcement to say 'please' and 'thank you. One example of an empiricist theory within psychology is Albert Bandura's social learning theory.
According to the theory, people learn by observing the behavior of others. The use of the Nature vs. Nurture Theory for the very first time was done by the psychologist Sir Francis Galton in the year The difference between Nature and Nurture is that nature is what is considered to be the pre-wiring, something that comes as in heredity and is a result of genetic and other biological factors.
Nurture is what is considered as the environment or the influence in which an individual stays and is molded by the particular environment. Nature is the natural heredity genes that are present in a person while birth.
If you read this far, you should follow us:. Diffen LLC, n. Somewhere, someone has to be scratching their head and saying What about man's ability to reason? Nature and nurture do not complete the picture. They are influences, but we should not reduce the human mind and spirit to such base concepts. Nature vs. In the "nature vs nurture" debate, nature refers to an individual's innate qualities nativism.
In the "nature vs nurture" debate, nurture refers to personal experiences i. Example Nature is your genes. The physical and personality traits determined by your genes stay the same irrespective of where you were born and raised. Nurture refers to your childhood, or how you were brought up. Someone could be born with genes to give them a normal height, but be malnourished in childhood, resulting in stunted growth and a failure to develop as expected.
Factors Biological and family factors Social and environmental factors. Nurture in the IQ Debate Evidence suggests that family environmental factors may have an effect upon childhood IQ, accounting for up to a quarter of the variance. The TEDx Talk below, featuring renowned entomologist Gene Robinson , discusses how the science of genomics strongly suggests both nature and nurture actively affect genomes, thus playing important roles in development and social behavior: Nature vs.
Nurture in Personality Traits Personality is a frequently-cited example of a heritable trait that has been studied in twins and adoptions. Moral Considerations of the Nature vs. Nurture Debate. Follow Share Cite Authors.
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