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- [Narrator] What is the nature
and nurture in psychology?
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Nature describes
behaviors that are innate,
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that are born to us or
genetically determined
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by our genes and DNA.
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Nurture describes
behaviors that are acquired
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as a result of experience
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or because of environmental influences.
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This debate centers on
whether particular behaviors
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are mainly or entirely innate, born
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or genetically determined,
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or whether they're acquired for experience
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or the influence of the environment.
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Traditionally, both of the nature
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and nurture viewpoints of
human behavior were considered
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to be determinist and didn't
give any scope for free will.
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However, increasingly,
people acknowledge that a lot
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of behavior comes about through a mixture
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of inborn predispositions and
environmental experiences,
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i.e., a mixture of nature and nurture,
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and interaction between the two.
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The debate is also closely
linked with reductionism
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because extreme nature
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or extreme nurture arguments
are by definition reductionist.
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By saying that some aspect
of behavior is solely caused
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by genes or solely caused by experience.
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It could be seen as a
reductionist argument.
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There are many nature-nurture debates
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in psychological theory,
however, these often tend
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to be historical rather than current.
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Nowadays, most psychologists
see the development
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of behavior differently.
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They see biological predisposition
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as guiding development
in certain directions,
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but experience as influencing
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how that development manifests itself.
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The two sources are
seen as interconnected,
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not as opposing alternatives,
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and it is the way that they interact,
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which is the focus of interest.
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One strength of the nature
versus nurture debate
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is that the distinction can
help us identify behaviors
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that are inherited or learned,
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or allow us to consider
the relative contributions
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of inheritance and learning.
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It can also be valuable to discover
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that some behavior is due to nature
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and not to "inappropriate
upbringings by parents."
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One of the weaknesses of the
nature versus nurture debate
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is that it is simplistic to
divide explanation into nature
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and nurture when the two may
truly combine in complex ways
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to influence behavior.
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Another possible weakness
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is that discovering a
particular behavior or capacity,
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for example, intelligence, is inherited,
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may lead to some assuming many
more behaviors are inherited
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and fail to consider the
effects of the environment.
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As mentioned earlier, the
debate is also deterministic
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because it offers no scope for free will.
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It assumes that behavior is
learned from the environment
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and that the environment
will change our behavior.
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(lively music)