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Is Human Intelligence Inborn Or Can It Be Taught?

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Is intelligence inborn or can it be taught?
Is human intelligence linked to very important innate fascinating genetic aspects or to external socio-cultural factors?
Source: Boundless. “Genetic and Environmental Impacts on Intelligence.” Boundless, 08 Oct. 2014. Retrieved 22 Nov. 2014 from https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/intelligence

Nature and Nurture both influence Intelligence, which in turn impacts on human behaviour. There are various aspects of behaviour, which are a result of either biological (inherited) or learned (acquired) characteristics.
Nativism in psychological theory refers to knowledge of the world and is mostly hereditary. (Descartes Gross 5th Edition p901).This particular …show more content…

As considered by John Locke, an extreme Empiricist, the human brain is a "blank slate" that could be trained and coached to acquire anything, if educated in a suitable fashion. However, on the contrary to this opinion, an increasing number of researchers and psychologists now consider that the reverse is true; that is, persons are born with and retain diverse levels of capability. The growth and use of intelligence tests have been one approach that scholars and psychologists have attempted to support their difference of opinions. Gardner (1993) conveys this vision rather sophisticatedly, stating that "there exists a multitude of intelligences, quite independent of each other; that each intelligence has its own strengths and constraints; that the brain is far from imaginative at birth; and that it is unbelievably challenging to teach things at that early stage of …show more content…

The concept of behaviourism is a combination of social experience, regular interaction, and operant (constant) conditioning (Skinner, 1957). It can be concluded that, in Skinner’s philosophy, learning is the product of discoveries of external sources, developed by demonstration and practice. The implications of Skinner’s theory were that the inner processes that take place during learning by social exposure are old-fashioned. Skinner reinforced his behaviourist ideas with the hypothetical interpretations that were common at the time, yet, the conclusions were not practically supported by an adequate amount of research. For example, Skinner established that the experiments performed on the way animals acquire behaviours is sufficient evidence to support his operant conditioning theory; as long as there is plentiful input and training the learning will be developed. (Skinner, 1957). This model applied to language learning in the same manner. Skinner’s Verbal Behaviour proposed the linguistic community hypotheses that involved distinguishing variables that influence behaviours, the analysis on how they interact with the individual character, and the concept that reinforcement, stimulus, and adequate experience are the channels for achieving command of

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Skinner devised the theory of operant conditioning. Operant Conditioning is defined as an important form of learning “in which a learner’s behavior becomes either more or less predictable depending on the consequences it produces” (Singleman & Rider, 2018, p. 42). To better explain, this theory plays out when a learner behaves in a certain way and associates that behavior with either the positive or negative consequences that follow. The idea is that humans tend to continue behaviors that have positive consequences and extinguish those that have negative consequences. Regina George shows exactly how this theory plays out by using positive and negative reinforcement within her friend group to condition them in behaving how she wants them

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Through The Psychologist Eye In Lauren Slater’s book, “Opening Skinner’s Box,” we discover in the first three chapters the mysteries behind a few psychological experiments and the discoveries that three profound psychologists have made. Each chapter is about a different psychologist, the first is B.F. Skinner; a behaviorist who designed a process of learning in which behavior is controlled, he called this operant conditioning. Lauren Slater wanted people to know about his experiment, she read his books, talked to friends and family members to unearth the features behind this man. She found that he was a loving father, who could train animals to do unordinary things, like play the piano for an example, through the processes of operant conditioning,

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Students with fixed mind-sets tend to feel stuck or unable to improve in school. Although many people believe that intelligence is innate, current studies show that intelligence can be developed throughout life by maintaining a growth mind-set. Dr. Dweck uses many examples of empirical, anecdotal, and statistical evidence throughout “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids” by Dr. Carol Dweck to prove how one student's intelligence can evolve with a growth mind-set better than with a fixed mind-set. First and foremost, Dr. Dweck uses empirical information to represent her studies comparing students with growth mind-sets and fixed mind-sets by making observations. In “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids”, Dr. Dweck states that she “...found that students

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Carl Zimmer’s New York Times article titled, “In ‘Enormous Success,’ Scientists Tie 52 Genes to Human Intelligence,” details how a study identified genetic markers for intelligence in nearly 80,000 people. Overall, I found this article informative and enjoyable. Instead of misconstruing the reader’s point of view, the author makes sure to establish how genes only have a minimal influence on intelligence and by no means define it. In particular, I liked how Zimmer pointed out how different studies look for varying things to explain discrepancies in intelligence scores.

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Introduction Learning enables you as an individual, to gain more knowledge about something which you have never learned about. Learning also has to do with past experiences which are influenced by behavioural changes (Weiten, 2016). There are different types of ways to learn; through, classical conditioning, operant conditioning and observational learning which will be discussed and analysed in the essay.   Behaviourism Behaviourism is considered one of the main subjects in psychology and the two main people who founded behaviourism were, Burrhus Frederic Skinner, also known as B.F Skinner and Ivan Pavlov who were famous for the work they did on classical and operant conditioning (Moderato & Presti, 2006). According to Moderato and Presti

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Ivan Pavlov and Burrhus Frederic Skinner are the behaviourist theorists I studied. Pavlov’s theory of classical conditioning became well known, his work encouraged others like Skinner to study and develop his own theory of operant conditioning. The “A,B,C” behaviour model of positive reinforcement is used in many early childhood settings. Skinner believed the best way to understand the behaviour is to look at the cause of the action and its consequence. I observed the ECCE setting for practical examples of numeracy and literacy.

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As far as the nature versus nurture argument goes, this evidence appears to be weighted toward the nature side. Stress plays a big role in how much intelligence a single human being has. Stress can put so much pressure on a human body that it can go as far as causing damage to it. Also if a person were to come into contact with a toxin it can affect their intelligence and could cause development issues.

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