Nature vs. Nurture in Psychology

Nature vs. Nurture

• Nature refers to the traits we are born with, inherited from our parents, including physical characteristics, behavior, and health.
• Studies of twins raised separately show that genetics play a significant role in shaping who we are, including intelligence and personality.

Nurture

• Nurture involves environmental factors that influence us after birth, including how we were raised, relationships, and culture.
• These factors can greatly affect things like academic performance, language, and personality.

Interaction between Nature and Nurture

• Epigenetics examines how environmental factors can change how our genes work without changing the DNA itself.
• Developmental psychology suggests that genetic makeup and environment work together, influencing each other and shaping who we become.
• Both genetics and environment are crucial for understanding human development.

Behavioral Perspective of Personality

• The behavioral perspective suggests that personality is a result of an individual's interaction with their environment.
• Psychologists can pinpoint and connect incidents and behavior to predict how a person's personality was shaped.
• Interactions with the environment, including traumatic life experiences, lessons learned, and relationships, contribute to the way we behave.

Classical Conditioning

• Ivan Pavlov's famous experiment demonstrated classical conditioning, where dogs associated the sound of a metronome with food.
• The dogs learned to salivate at the sound of the metronome, demonstrating associative learning.
• The Little Albert study showed that children can be conditioned to react with fear to a specific stimulus.

Operant Conditioning

• Operant conditioning uses rewards and punishments to shape behavior.
• B.F. Skinner's work led to the development of operant conditioning, which can help predict how someone will behave.
• Skinner's box, also known as an operant conditioning chamber, is a famous laboratory tool used to study behavior.

Four Ways to Encourage or Discourage Behavior

• Positive reinforcement: adding something to increase the behavior (e.g., giving a food pellet for pushing a lever).
• Negative reinforcement: removing something to increase the behavior (e.g., stopping a shock when a rat pushes a lever).
• Positive punishment: adding something to decrease the behavior (e.g., smacking a dog for barking).
• Negative punishment: removing something to decrease the behavior (e.g., stopping attention to a barking dog).

Limitations of the Behavioral Perspective

• The behavioral perspective is limited in explaining the overall psychology of personality, as it doesn't take into account thoughts, feelings, and values behind someone's actions.
• Behavioral perspective is just one piece of the personality puzzle, and other factors, such as genetics and environment, also play a role.