Is Behavior Inherited or Is it

Learned?

Nature vs. Nurture

Nature versus Nurture Debate The common description of the controversy over the relative importance of heredity (nature) and environment (nurture) in the causation of human behavior.

What is nature?

represents the idea that behavior is inherited

What is nurture?

the sum of the environmental factors influencing the behavior and traits expressed by an organism

Principles of Inheritance

Genetics

the science that deals with the study of inherited traits

Gregor Mendel

an Austrian monk and scientist who studied modern genetics began in 1860’s

Chromosomesis an organized structure of DNA and protein that is found in cells.

DNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms

Gene a unit of heredity in a living organism

Two Forms of Trait

Dominant Gene expressed trait

Recessive Gene

not expressed trait

Genotype

Individual’s genetic composition

PhenotypeObservable expression of gene action

Refers to the external appearance

“Nurture" has historically been referred to as the care given to children by the parents

Factors Affecting Behavior experiencespeople that surrounds you

the environment the kind of family

The view that humans acquire all or almost all their behavioral traits from "nurture" is known as empiricism

*Tabula rasa – blank slate- term coined by John Locke (empiricist) - a person is born without knowledge and thus gain knowledge from the environment he is living

Behaviorism A theoretical outlook that focus

only on the relation between observable behavior, on one hand, and the environmental events, on the other.

Focuses entirely on the association between the environment and an observable behavior

Classical ConditioningIvan PavlovA Nobel-prize winner in physiology, who

studied involuntary learning behavior.Experiment: dogs salivated in response

to the sight of the lab technician who fed them

Operant ConditioningB.F. Skinner, a radical behavioristBelieved that virtually all forms

of human behavior, not just learning, could be explained by behavior emitted in reaction to the environment