The Nature Vs. Nurture Theory And Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory

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The Nature versus Nurture argument has been a complicated altercation for the past two centuries. While the ideas involved in the debate have existed for hundreds of years, the argument itself began in the 19th century. It can be considered one of the oldest arguments in history. Nativists and empiricists are the two names coined for those unequivocally declaring either nature or nurture as their standpoint. Nativists are for the nature side, which is in contrast to empiricists who are for the nurture perspective. In recent years, many people involved and aware of the controversy have noticeably decided that the answer to whether people are born a certain way or develop based on their environment is both. Nurture, however, is what determines …show more content…
Albert Bandura supported both Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning; however, he combined his own thoughts together to create the Social Learning Theory. His study, The Bobo Doll Experiment, reviewed how children learn through observation, specifically aggression. Bandura’s conclusions revealed that both genders of children in the aggressive role model group were much more violent compared to the non-aggressive model and the control group (McLeod). People are not born with a certain type of personality or behavior within them. Observations are made as a child to learn what should be done based on adults. If a behavior or act that a child carried out was praised by an adult that response has been reinforced. It can be deduced then, that if the child has a younger sibling, he or she would also attempt the action to gain recognition. Of course, not all behaviors that children learn are positive as displayed in the Bobo Doll Experiment, which can cause negative personality traits later in life if not corrected. Therefore, a child’s environment and their observations throughout life is what determines their behavior and is not

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