Nature vs Nurture Pyschology
One of the most debated topics in Psychology is the agreement of the influence of character, by how a person is raised or by their genetics. “Nature vs. Nurture”, this issues addresses what impact, if any, parenting has on youth, as well as if DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) or genes, influences our actions or behaviors. The nature vs. nurture debate is one of the biggest debated issues in the child development theory. Which is more bearing on a child’s development, environment or genetics? This debate is of the degree to which environment and heredity influences behavior and whether a child’s development is governed by a pattern built in at birth, which is Nature or whether it is shaped by experiences after birth, defined as Nurture. The Nature vs. Nurture argument isn’t a new discussion point. Rather, it has very early introduction. Considered the “biggest and most persistent issue” (Myers, 2013, p5) in psychology. Plato, a Greek philosopher alive between (428 and 348B.C.E), believed that our morality and capability of intelligence was inherited. Shortly thereafter, Aristotle argued that all that a human has is not innate, but arrives through external experience (Myers, 2013, p5). According to John Watson (American psychologist) a nurture theorist once said “give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take anyone at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select... regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocation and race of his ancestors” (Myers, 2013,). He believed nurture played a major role in the upbringing of a child. No theorist has yet determined which of the two define a person’s actual behavior style; there have been many disputes whether one theory has the most influence, but no actual determination of the best theory. Nurture theorist feel that children learn as they grow and develop their personalities based on what they have