NATURE/NURTURE DEBATE
ARE WE "BORN THIS WAY"?
Issues and debates
Nature (automatic)
Internal causes innate from birth and unchangeable
Nativists
maturation plays a role: some natural characteristics may only appear after a
person has matured
basis for behaviour must be present internally for it to emerge after
maturation
Nurture
external factors
- Upbringing
- Education
- social pressure
- Culture
- conditioning
Nurturists
, 2
external stimulation =bhv
human beings "tabula rasa", a 'blank slate' onto which experiences drawn
often it is not so much the kind of person a human is as the
kind of situation in which he/she finds themselves that
determines how they will act (Milgram-1974)
both SCIENTIFIC approaches, but connection Nature perspective and
Biological Psychology strengthens its claim to be based on "scientific facts"
A predisposition is a built-in tendency
INTERACTIONIST
Affect each other
from Nature, but don't make difference until in an appropriate environment
(Nurture
But can be 'overwritten' by habit, education or experience
DETERMINISM - the belief no free will
BIOLOGICAL DETERMINISM:
Nature =everything we do mapped out from birth by innate characteristics
( genes)
case studies of identical twins that were separated as babies but grew up to
lead strikingly similar lives
Nu: everything we do is shaped by our environment which we are powerless
to resist
Eg. poverty, broken homes and poor education
Neither accepts that people make free-willed decisions of their own
We may not view it this way: decisions feel like they are our own, freely made,
not determined in advance by biology or society
ARE WE "BORN THIS WAY"?
Issues and debates
Nature (automatic)
Internal causes innate from birth and unchangeable
Nativists
maturation plays a role: some natural characteristics may only appear after a
person has matured
basis for behaviour must be present internally for it to emerge after
maturation
Nurture
external factors
- Upbringing
- Education
- social pressure
- Culture
- conditioning
Nurturists
, 2
external stimulation =bhv
human beings "tabula rasa", a 'blank slate' onto which experiences drawn
often it is not so much the kind of person a human is as the
kind of situation in which he/she finds themselves that
determines how they will act (Milgram-1974)
both SCIENTIFIC approaches, but connection Nature perspective and
Biological Psychology strengthens its claim to be based on "scientific facts"
A predisposition is a built-in tendency
INTERACTIONIST
Affect each other
from Nature, but don't make difference until in an appropriate environment
(Nurture
But can be 'overwritten' by habit, education or experience
DETERMINISM - the belief no free will
BIOLOGICAL DETERMINISM:
Nature =everything we do mapped out from birth by innate characteristics
( genes)
case studies of identical twins that were separated as babies but grew up to
lead strikingly similar lives
Nu: everything we do is shaped by our environment which we are powerless
to resist
Eg. poverty, broken homes and poor education
Neither accepts that people make free-willed decisions of their own
We may not view it this way: decisions feel like they are our own, freely made,
not determined in advance by biology or society
