Nature-Nurture Debate

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History of the Nature-Nurture Debate

The influences of nature versus nurture have long been debated in science.

The debate

The influences of nature versus nurture have long been debated in science.
Human behaviour, characteristics and personality are most likely to have contributions from both innate ability and environmental influence.
Nativism and empiricism were the historical beginnings of this debate.

Nature and nurture

Nature: this is the genetic perspective.
- Nature is due to the genetics, biology and innate characteristics with which a person was born.
Nurture: this is the environmental perspective.
- It examines how the environment and learning influences a person.

History of debate

Historically, philosophers were trying to determine how people developed personalities and why humans behaved the way they did.
They were interested in the extent to which people were born with innate characteristics and to what extent the environment influenced behaviour.
In the 18th century, the philosophers John Locke and Jean Rousseau had different ideas for the origins of human behaviour.

Philosophers' views

John Locke believed that people were born a ‘blank slate’. In other words, people were more influenced by the environment.
- This was the empiricist view, which is a nurture perspective.
On the other hand, Jean Rousseau stated that all people were born with all of their innate characteristics.
- This is the nativist view, which is the nature perspective.

Contemporary Views on the Nature-Nurture Debate

The influences of nature versus nurture have long been debated in science. Human behaviour, characteristics and personality most likely have contributions from both innate ability and environmental influence.

Contemporary views

Current thinking, generally, does not take an extreme view of human behaviour.
Most psychologists agree that human behaviour is a combination of innate ability and environmental influence.
So a mixture of nature and nurture is the widely accepted view. This is called the interactionist approach.

Interactionist approach study

A study was completed on rats that supported the interactionist approach.
The researchers compared rats raised in bare/dark/un-stimulating cages to those raised in light/stimulating cages.
The rats, generally, were initially of similar genetic backgrounds (i.e. their genetics were very similar).
The rats were then tested on problem-solving tasks.

Results and conclusions

The rats raised in stimulating environments did significantly better than those raised in the un-stimulating cages.
The stimulated rats were also able to learn more quickly.
So the study showed that the environment has an influence on innate genetic potential.

Nature AND nurture

Overall, the nature-nurture nowadays does not focus on the divisiveness of the issue.
Psychologists are not trying to categorise behaviour as being all due to nature or all due to nurture.
Rather, psychologists research the relative extent to which genetics and the environment impact on behaviour.

Nature AND nurture cont.

For example, people can have a genetic predisposition for depression. But triggering environmental effects may cause a person to develop it (like a death of a loved one).