Nature vs Nurture
Curriculum goal: Students will increase their general knowledge of the arts and sciences.
Lesson objective: Students will be able to explain the roles of nature and nurture in determining human behaviour.
Length: 1 class period (50 minutes)
One of the biggest questions in the field of psychology is related to what plays the greater role in determining human behaviour: nature or nurture?
- Nature - refers to the role that genetics play; For example, when it comes to our appearance, we look the way we do mostly because of the genes given to us by our parents. However, this may also be true with regard to certain behaviours or personality traits. If this is true, there may actually be very little we can do to change those things.
- Nurture - refers to the affect that our environment or life situation has on us. If these things actually play the greater role then we have a greater chance to change and develop (so long as we are provided with the correct education and positive circumstances).
Obviously both nature and nurture play a role (just like they do when it comes to physical issues such as heart disease) However, it is still not clear which one plays the greater role. Some psychologists see a greater role for nature and others see a greater role for nurture.
Those who support nature over nurture often point to twin studies. In some cases, identical twins get separated at birth and end up being raised in very different environments. Being that twins have near-identical DNA, such cases are very useful in measuring the role of nature vs nurture. Nature-supporters often point to the fact that separated twins often end up in similar careers and sometimes even develop the same habits (such as the way they cross their legs or comb their hair).
Another nature-based theory is the Myers-Briggs personality test (which we'll be discussing later this unit). Therefore, for the rest of the time today we are going to focus on some famous experiments that have been used to support the nurture side:
[ Note: Many of the following experiments would now be considered highly unethical and permission would not be given to perform them ]
- Pavlov's Dog - The experimenter would ring a bell before feeding the dog. After some time, the dog's mouth would begin to water whenever it heard the bell, regardless of whether or not he received food. This experiment showed that conditioning is an important part of learning and that animals (and perhaps people) can be systematically trained to behave in certain ways.
- Milgrim Study - Participants were asked to press a button which gave electric shocks to a person whenever that person got wrong answers on a simple memory test (the person did not actually receive the shocks though but they acted as if they did). The experimenters then asked the participants to keep increasing the shocks and most of them obeyed even though the person appeared to be in great pain. This experiment showed that humans are conditioned to obey authority and will usually do so even if it goes against their natural morals or common sense.
- Little Albert - A baby was given a white rat. He played with it nicely and was not afraid of it. Later, he was given the rat again and at the same time the experimenters made a loud sound. After that, the baby was afraid, not only of the rat, but of anything white and furry. This experiment seems to show that our fears are connected to early childhood experiences.
- Stanford Prison Study - Some people were randomly selected to be prisoners and others to be prison guards. The prison guards were told to run the prison for 2 weeks. After a few days, the prison guards became very cruel and the many of the prisoners became very submissive. The experiment actually had to be cancelled because it got way out of hand. Although the experiment did not have proper controls, some people claimed that it showed that people's behaviour is often related to the situation they are in and that people will conform to certain roles if put in them.
- Asch Conformity Study - A group of people were shown pictures with lines of various lengths and asked which line was longest. Only one person in the group was a real participant. The others were actors. The actors mostly told wrong answers. The participants usually agreed with the majority, even though they knew they were giving the wrong answer. This shows that people often care more about being the same as others than they do about being right.
Assessment: Include a question on the unit-end test based on the objective of this lesson