Nature Vs Nurture Vs Free Will Essay

Nature vs. Nurture

The nature vs. nurture argument is one that has been around for many years—especially since the behavioral sciences emerged in the 20th century with the experiments of Skinner and Bandura. It was Bandura’s (1977) theory of social learning that viewed all behavior as learned from one’s environment. Skinner (1957) likewise postulated that it was the “nurturing” side of one’s experience that shaped human activity, thought and expression. Galton (1883) on the other hand felt differently. He predated both Skinner and Bandura and was himself a student of Darwin. He thus postulated that “nature” was responsible for the development of human behavior—that some people were simply born with greater gifts, such as intellectual ability, than others. Galton was a 19th century philosopher and scientist and his views aligned with ideas like the Great Man Theory, which articulated the position that great leaders are born, not made. This paper will show how the debate between nature vs. nurture has never really abated and how there is most likely a little bit of evidence to support both sides of the argument—meaning the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

Darwin introduced the idea of the theory of evolution in the 19th century and advanced the notion that nature is responsible for human development. Whatever skills and attributes people acquire over time is done so because of a need to adapt in order to survive. Individual human beings receive genetic coding from their parents that enables them to carry on these adaptive skills throughout their lifetime and pass them on to the next generation. Galton viewed this idea as the most likely explanation for human behavior. This concept was popular in the late 19th and early 20th century, as the eugenics movement got underway. Scientists and researchers were interested in controlling the population development in the West by genetically engineering the human race. Birth control came about as a result of the eugenics movement. It was viewed as a way to limit the nature of unappealing persons who added nothing positive to the gene pool.

However by mid-century the idea that human behavior was largely learned became a dominant view thanks to the experiments of Skinner and Bandura. They showed that children could be taught to respond to things (such as rats) in a positive light if the idea of fear were not associated to the creatures by…