Critical Thinking: Nature-Nurture

Critical Thinking: Nature-Nurture

Introduction

The debate on nature vs. nurture is one of the oldest in the history of psychology. This issue talks about the difference in the person's nature that is the characteristics with which the person was born, and the characteristics that the person acquires as a consequence of his exposure to external environment and various circumstances. It is beyond debate that we change with the changes in the environment. It affects out approach and our way of thinking. The debate in this issue is the confusion that which of the personality characteristics in the person are innate and which one are developed. Nature and Nurture is a controversial debate, which shows the extreme positions due to this it's not that much easy to either be in favor or against it. It has already been discussed a lot that whether the development of child is based to nature or nurture? Now we should restructure this question as “how much?”

The conflict emerged when Descartes and Plato, two of the most well-known philosophers in the history of mankind suggested, that man is born with certain personality characteristics. These are innate or inborn characteristics in the person. The term was coined by Francis Galton. He was an English Victorian. He basically coined the term in the context of environment and heredity (Moore, 2002). Later came the concept of tabula rasa which means that the entire person's learning come from his environment. This is a very important concept in that over a period of time, the concept has been used in many debates. For instance, initially it was used only to understand the concept in the context of social development. Then it was used to discuss the mental state of mind of the homosexuals and LGTB group.

Discussion

The view on the development of a human has evolved over time. Man is a social animal and his interaction with family, friends, and other factors such as his education level, religion, and race determine some of the personality characteristics of the person. It is but an established fact that there are certain things that are in a human by nature and there are others which are learnt. For instance, winning is something that a person may learn from his environment. He may realize over time that there is a need for him to win and prove himself. He may realize that it is the survival of the fittest; hence, he would have to work really hard to make his dreams come true. On the other hand, there can be another person who is a born leader. Leadership for this person is not a leant trait but something that is just the part of who the person really is. The instinctive thoughts and feelings of a person can be tames and reinforced over a period of time. There are certain innate traits which subside over time and there are others which get stronger (McLeod, 2007).

If we look at the nature side of this argument, ...