Why Nature And Nurture Won T Go Away By Steven Pinker

665 Words3 Pages

Historically, the field of psychology has generally discredited the importance of genetic factors in behavioral influences. Early psychological theories and research were heavily influenced by environmentalism, the notion that experience accounted for all traits in respect to the development of a person’s attitude. Early researches focused on the idea of evolution in respect to survival but never really took into account the psychological development of an individual. Charles Darwin, for example, explained the importance of evolutionary influences for the selection of traits for survival (Darwism), however never considered anything in respect to psychological research. Studies that explored the ideas of genetic and environmental influences on the human psychological state were not credited. Based on a number of studies of behavior recently, the field of psychology gradually accepted that genetic and environmental factors incorporate how an individual develops psychologically. Most psychologists are …show more content…

Nurture. The first belief is that the mind is in a blank state. He elaborates on the idea that it is difficult to distinguish if individuals are evil or generally good since one is not morn with a human nature. The second is that the human personality is determined or influenced partially by nature and partially by nurture. This means that the psychological development comes both the environment in which one is raised in and the nourishment received from an individual’s caretaker. Lastly is that Nature and Nurture should not be disentangled. Although both nature and nurture play some part in development of an individual, they are not dependent aspects of psychology that is required for one to be influenced. For each individual, it is different and the factors of each concept influence individuals differently around the