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Nature Vs Nurture Research Paper

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Nature Vs Nurture Research Paper
One of the oldest and still debatable issues in psychology is Nature vs Nurture. This issue talks about genetic inheritance and the environmental factors that might affect the child development. Descartes believed that some things occur naturally or are inborn regarding any environmental influence. Other philosophers argued Descartes and stated that the mind starts as a blank state and through experience and environmental factors it develops and acts and responds in certain ways. psychologist still didn’t not find an end to this debate but have agreed that both nurture and nature affect individual behavior. Arnold Gesell a psychologist that worked on child development came up with a theory called Maturational theory that related …show more content…
Gesell considered that life experiences and knowledge through learning were secondary, whereas biology and genetics are primary and they are the real reason for a child’s behavior because they program his development. Albert Bandura is a psychologist that also studied the behavior of people and believed that the learning process happens through observing other people’s behavior. He created a theory called social learning theory that combines interaction of individuals between each bother with respect to the environment they live in. In order to conduct his theory, Bandura stated that there are specific conditions that are needed to be present such as attention which can be increased or decreased according to surrounding factors. Retention is also needed and it involves capturing and remembering what an individual witnesses in an image form. Also, reproduction is a key factor that consists of performing what is observed and using physical capabilities. Finally motivation is needed to perform the behavior observed perfectly. Bandura believed in combining environmental factors with behavior and psychological processes to create an

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    * Cherry, K. (n.d.) What Is Nature Versus Nurture?. [online] Available at: http://psychology.about.com/od/nindex/g/nature-nurture.htm [Accessed: 20 Feb 2013].…

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