Free Essays on Nature Vs Nurture

, â€Å"Nature makes the boy toward, nurture sees him forward.† Even though nature plays a role in defining sex and gender, nurture plays the greater part in helping society define the two terms. Definitions come from that which is learned, not that which is part of our genetic system. John Locke believed that all people were born with a blank slate (a tabula rasa.) Him and other Empiricists thought that experiences were written into the mind and that every aspect of human behavior is acquired from the environment that surrounds them. Take for example the story which Susan Baxter tells in her article ‘The Last Word on Gender Differences† of the boy who was castrated at birth and raised as a girl. â€Å"Amazingly, this boy had an identical twin brother, which made it possible to compare two genetically identical individuals raised as a boy and a girl... our hero became the perfect little girl, the very picture of adorable femininity.† (Baxter 52) This boy was clearly raised as a girl and he grew up thinking of himself as a girl. He was not born as a female and he did not have a predetermined image of himself as one. This boy grew up as a girl because throughout his life he was told that he ... Free Essays on Nature Vs Nurture Free Essays on Nature Vs Nurture One of the most controversial debates of modern society is the idea that our â€Å"natures† and how we are nurtured are in conflict with each other to determine what defines who we are. When one attempts to define sex and gender, he/she often finds him/herself stumped as to what the definitions are. More so, one is puzzled by where the came from. How do nature and nurture influence the definitions of sex and gender? To understand how nature and nurture affect these definitions, we must first know what they are. Sex is biological while gender is socially constructed. Genes produce sex. It exists in itself, and is sublimely indifferent to what humans think of it. Gender is the meanings that society assigns to sex. Richard Mulcaster wrote the words, â€Å"Nature makes the boy toward, nurture sees him forward.† Even though nature plays a role in defining sex and gender, nurture plays the greater part in helping society define the two terms. Definitions come from that which is learned, not that which is part of our genetic system. John Locke believed that all people were born with a blank slate (a tabula rasa.) Him and other Empiricists thought that experiences were written into the mind and that every aspect of human behavior is acquired from the environment that surrounds them. Take for example the story which Susan Baxter tells in her article ‘The Last Word on Gender Differences† of the boy who was castrated at birth and raised as a girl. â€Å"Amazingly, this boy had an identical twin brother, which made it possible to compare two genetically identical individuals raised as a boy and a girl... our hero became the perfect little girl, the very picture of adorable femininity.† (Baxter 52) This boy was clearly raised as a girl and he grew up thinking of himself as a girl. He was not born as a female and he did not have a predetermined image of himself as one. This boy grew up as a girl because throughout his life he was told that he ... Free Essays on Nature Vs Nurture Abstract Nature vs. nurture has been discussed by philosophers in the past and by scientists most recently. Philosophers such as Plato argued that all knowledge was inherited through your parent and when you were told something you didn’t learn it you were just reminded of it. Aristotle however argued that all humans were born with a blank slate and built on it with influence from there environment. In the 1700’s the empiricists and the internalists took over the argument. They fought through letters explaining there point of views and denouncing the others. This leads to Pavlov coming up with the idea of behaviorism in the early 1900‘s. Behaviorism became the new wave of Psychology and influenced a lean towards the nurture side. It was not effectively argued against until 1928 when Watson published his book. This opened up the floodgates for environmental influences studies. Soon the idea of nurture was the popular excuse for behavior. Studies using animals were the most popular was in which scientists used to prove a theory, or disprove a theory. The newest studies use human twins to prove nature vs. nurture. An age-old question has been asked for generations before us. What is the reasons behind the development of human behavior? There have been many theories formulated to explain why humans behave the way they do. Explanations vary from demonology to magnetic fluids controlling people’s behaviors. Over time, two theories have remained popular in academic fields such as philosophy and psychology. The surviving theories for behavior stem from physiological and sociological explanations. However, the two explanations have not always been compatible with each other. The famous nature vs. nurture debate over human behavior resulted from conflicting views between proponents of the physiological (nature) and sociological (nurture) explanations. Throughout history, research has swayed popularity back and forth between the theo...