In the history of psychology one of the oldest arguments is the nature nurture debate with regard to what makes us human beings different from each other: our genes or our environment, and which one of these sides contributes more to a person's psychological and physical development. The nature nurture debate was introduced in the late ix century by one of the first experimental psychologists francis galton in his english men of science: their nature and nurture 1874. In this work he calls nature and nurture, a convenient jingle of words, for it separates under two distinct heads the innumerable elements of which personality is composed. Nature is all that a man brings with himself into the world nurture is every influence that affects him after his birth p.

Philosophers in ancient times, such as plato, believed that a child was born with some innate knowledge. Locke however, was an empiricist and believed that the mind at birth was a blank slate with an empty brain and no abilities. Our writers can help get your essay back on track, take a look at our services to learn more about how we can help.

Essay on Nature And Man In Hindi

Essay writing service essay marking service place an order certain physical characteristic are biologically determined by genetic inheritance such as pigmentation of skin and color of eyes which are gathered by the genes we inherit. Additional physical characteristics such as height, weight, hair loss even some illnesses e.g. Breast cancer in women appear to be influenced by the genetic make up of our parents. These facts have made many to ask the question whether psychological characteristics such as intelligence, gender, personality and behavior are product of our genes or they are influenced by the environment. The following debate looks at whether we acquire many of our traits through nature, or through our environment nurture concerning our intelligence and gender. The case of heredity nature as an argument to the debate can be traced back to charles darwin's theory of evolution and the idea of survival of the fittest influencing the biological approach in psychology which focuses on genetic and hormonal explanation of behavior and tends to favor the nature side of the nature nurture debate. The nature approach view claims that many human skills and actions are result of genetically inherited urges e.g.

Expository Essay Body Paragraph Structure

On the other hand the view that supports the belief that human main skills and characteristics are socially learned and developed through experience is the view of empiricists, according to whom whatever we learn we learn trough perception. The topic of intelligence is one of the major interests within psychology and very difficult to define as it is subject of many psychological factors as: ability to cope with all aspects of daily living, problem solving skills, learning and benefiting from previous experiences, predicting likely outcomes and many more skills that humans use to adapt themselves to their environment. Good reasoning abilities, rationalization and cognitive skills seem to further develop intelligence. An influential theory of the biological bases of intelligence is the idea that the base of intelligence is in the brain donald hebb 1949.

This theory suggests the necessity of distinguishing among different intelligences: intelligence a as innate potential which is biologically determined and represents the capacity for development. Intelligence b is the functioning of the brain and is generated when intelligence a interacts with the environment. Vernon 1979 elaborated this definition to include intelligence c, which is the score one obtains on an intelligence test. Hebb's point of view is that the basic potential for intellectual development is provided by the genes and the stimulation for this potential to be reached is environmentally provided. Early psychologists, such as sir francis galton, defined intelligence in terms of simple sensory, perceptual, and motor responses, as opposed to higher mental processes such as thinking and problem solving.

Galton's main contribution was that he raised questions about individual differences in intelligence and how it should be assessed. In 1905 alfred binet and his student theofile simon introduced one of the first measuring intelligence test called the binet simon scale. They developed the concept of mental age to measure the individual's level of mental development relative to others. For example a child with a mental ability of a normal five year old has a mental level age of five, so an eight year old with a mental age of five is 'deficient'.

Using binet's concepts and calculations, william stern developed the intelligence quotient iq. The iq is a concept measured by dividing a person's mental age by his/her chronological age and multiplying by 100. The current version of the original iq test is called the stanford binet and it can be administered as early as age 2 and through adulthood. It has been revised to assess abilities in four areas: verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, abstract/visual reasoning, and short term memory. Intelligence quotient is the most common measure of intelligence, but is it the most accurate and can it measure all the types of intelligence that people possess. Is it valid and reliable concerning different cultures and environmental factors. Perhaps not, for example intelligent tests designed for middle class white children do not reflect the values and early experiences of children in other cultures, which means that they are culturally biased.

However it is proved that most intelligence tests have high reliability with a correlation coefficient of +90 and iq scores are a good predictors of success in school, e.g. Who wrote this essay request removal example essays twin studies are probably the best way to assess the influence of genes and the environment in determining individual differences in intelligence. Because identical twins mz come from a single fertilized egg that splits in two, they share virtually the same genetic code which means they are of the same sex and they should look very much alike. By comparing fraternal twins dz , who come from separate eggs and share on average half their dna with identical twins, researchers can identify the extent to which our genes affect our intelligence. If identical twins have more similar iq scores than fraternal twins, there would be a reasonable conclusion that heredity influences intelligence. The various studies carried by researchers regarding intelligence use the aforementioned different degrees of genetic relationship as a basis for their hypothesis.