The nature versus nurture debate is concerned within
psychology as to whether the behavioral aspects are hereditary or acquired
through personal experience. Nature is that characters which are inherited from
the nature while nurture is the knowledge or conduct of a person which he
learns from environment.
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The nature defines that the
characters or traits of a person are due to the genetic inheritance which
continues to generation after generation with small changing’s in them that is
called evolution. Genes are transferred from parents to offspring’s and in
those genes the traits of a person are recognized. These traits affect the
person’s behavior in an environment. While nurture says that a person behaves
according to the environmental needs or from the experience a person has from
its environment. According to John Watson all the human behavior is due to the
environment. A person behaves as per he is taught or in which a person grows
up. He had even said that if he is given healthy babies then he will control
their environment and grow them up to doctors, engineers, lawyers or even
criminals or thieves etc. (Jeffrey, 2009)
Some say that at the time of birth of a child his mind is totally empty
and it can be filled with different thoughts and learning’s as per the
environment he is living in this is nurture. The recent studies have shown that
the youth who are brought up in the families with criminal history are more
into the same path as compared to the ones belonging to decent families having
no criminal past. The young people who see their families imprisoned are raised
in such conditions by which they seem to think that it is the thing which they
also have to follow. It is not in nature that the genes of being a criminal is
passed over from generation to generation but it is the nurture i.e. the
environment or the surrounding which motivates a youth or do not prevent a
youth from entering into criminal activities which will ultimately result them
to go to jail because of their illegal activities.
The families of Jukes and Kallikak were studied for the research to know that the environment plays an important role to
make a child a criminal or a decent man. The Jukes family of New York was
studied to determine the behavior. A physician named Elisha Harris observed the
family up to six generations and often found the people with criminal history
i.e. the people were often found to be paupers, vagrants or criminals. In one
generation which produces a number of 14 children it was observed that nine of
them were imprisoned for 50 years while other five were frequently jailed
because of their illegal act. After these observations Richard Dugale deeply
studied the family history and concluded that the anti social behavior of the
people was due to the environmental factors that this family faced rather than
the hereditary factors. The poor conditions of the family did not prevent the
persons to stop the illegal activities and move themselves to a healthy
lifestyle. After Richard’s death his idea was reinterpreted and it was said
that the criminal behavior of the family was due to the genes that passed into
the family from generation to generation. (Jukes Family)
The other family studied under the
nature versus nurture debate was the Kallikak family which was headed by Martin
Kallikak , from which two descendents family arose; one from his sexual
relations with a feeble minded bar main and one with his honest Quaker women
wife. Henry Goddard studied the family and observed that the children from the
bar maid were mostly criminals, beggars, thieves or house keepers of the ill
reputes. He found that in the descendants of bar maid only 46 were normal,
while others were alcoholic, epileptics, feeble minded, sexually immoral and
illegitimate. While the descendants of the Quaker Women were more decent and
only three were found to be mentally degenerate and two alcoholics. Goddard
concluded his studies by saying that all the behavior characters were
hereditary not environmental although the conditions and the environment of the
two families were not the same. (Kallikak Family)
The nature does not enhance a
person ability to become a thief it is the surrounding of a person or the experience
of a person which he has gained by passing through different stages of life and
observing the environment. In nature it is determined that what will be the
color of the body, the hair or the height of a person but are the attributes,
the personality also present in the genes? Nativists describe the activities of
a person that these are all present in the genes which have evolved while the empiricists say that it is all in
the nurture. The nature provides the factors for both the good and the bad now it
is the nurture by which a person undergoes to inhibit illegal activities or to
follow a decent life style. The family environment is the most important factor
in the Juvenile Delinquency. The children who see their siblings or family
involved in the anti social activities believe that this is the path they
should also follow. Children who are in contact with the friends who are involved in
such activities or the children who are not treated well in the families get
themselves involve in such illegal acts by which they can get themselves in
jails. The nature part is not appealing to people as the physical appearance of
a person may be genetic but the behavior of a person is not, it just depends on
the conditions which a person faces in life. It is true what John Locke has
said that a mind is in blank state it is filled as per the knowledge determined
by a person’s experience. (Kendra)
References
Jeffrey S. Nevid, 2009,
Psychology: Concepts and Applications, Cengage Learning
Jukes
Family, Retrieved from, http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/351/Jukes-Family.html
Kallikak
Family, Retrieved from, http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/356/Kallikak-Family.html
Kendra Cherry, What Is Nature Versus Nurture? ,
Psychology, About.com, Retrieved from, http://psychology.about.com/od/nindex/g/nature-nurture.htm
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