2 According to a survey that I have conducted among 137 individuals from several different religious, ethnic, financial, and social backgrounds, over 90% believe that human development and behavior is nurtured rather than acquired by nature.
3 Today, I will try to persuade you that human behavior is nurtured and is not acquired by nature. First, we …show more content…
behaviorism. From this point of view, psychological characteristics and behavioral differences that emerge through infancy and childhood are the result of learning. It is how you are brought up that governs the psychologically significant aspects of child development (1961).
8 Moving onto the different experiments and studies conducted by professionals within the psychological and medical fields in order to prove either side. Scientists, psychologists, and physicians began to question whether we, human beings, behave the way we do through nurture or nature during the 18th century. It was the time when famous philosophers, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, presented their ideas of behaviorism (MacDonald, n.d.).
9 The theory of behaviorism according to Locke and Rousseau explains that individuals are born good; it is the different aspects of the environment that contribute to the development of our behavior. Who we “become” is entirely the result of our experiences (MacDonald, …show more content…
Little Albert started to become violent and aggressive whenever noise was made and had become reluctant and fearful of animals whenever present (1920).
14 Most people today including myself believe that human behavior is nurtured rather than natured. Psychologist professor at the University of Virginia, Eric Turkheimer, conducted a study to test whether nature is dominant over nurture. In 2011, Turkheimer studied a sample of 320 pairs of 7 year old twins living under the same environmental conditions (Kaufman, 2011).
15 All 320 pairs of twins were put under poor living conditions and were tested to see their level of IQ. The result however, was almost the same for everyone even though they all came from different backgrounds. They also started reflecting signs of depression, stress, ad anger. Turkheimer then put the same 320 pairs of twins under improved living conditions and witnessed a better IQ test results for everyone and a greatly improved behavior acquired by most of the children (Kaufman, 2011). Does this mean behavior is inherited or acquired by what we are surrounded