Nature Vs Environment

Discuss how the Issue of Nature vs. Environment helps us in Understanding Human and Animal Behaviour

Oluwatusin Korede David

130904023

University of Lagos

Dr Alex Igundunasse

NATURE vs. ENVIRONMENT on HUMAN and ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR

Are human and animal behaviour determined more by genetics or environmental influences? Or is our disposition the result of genes you inherited or has it been moulded by life experience (environment). This topic is one of the oldest topic in psychology, psychologist have been concerned with what determine our behaviour more either nature (genes) and nurture (environment), which helps us in understanding and predicting human and animal behaviour. What is nature? Nature could be defined as that which is inherited,

All these experiment was done to understand behaviour and know what influences our behaviour

Chomsky believing, human our capacity for grammar is inherent, he also did work with some other animal species to come about and support is idea and thesis.

EXAMPLES of RESEARCHERS in EXTREME NURTURE POSITION

Examples of researchers in extreme nurture position include Ivan Pavlov which he stated that “the mind can be conditioned by the environment” (History Psychology, 2012). He had come to learn this concept of “conditioned reflex” when examining the rates of salivations among dogs.

Another example is (Franz Boas 1887) which he stated in “Environment, history and chance are the key influences upon cultural variation Boas also worked to understand differences in human behaviour, He also believed that behaviour are not primarily determined by innate biological personalities, but are mainly the result of cultural differences gotten through social learning. In this way, Boas introduced culture as the concept for understanding differences in behaviour between human groups, and as the central analytical concept of anthropology. He was one of the most important and eminent adversary of the then popular ideologies of scientific