The debate of nature vs. nurture within psychology has been concerned about whether humans are a product of either biology or society alone and it is not wrong to say that Darwin’s theory of natural selection has again been of importance to our understanding of the contributions of nature vs. nurture (Francis,2007). Nature is referred to as the genetics of a human being of that which is inherited through generations and nurture refers to all the environmental influences exerted after birth, that is experience (Collins, 2000; Plomin & Bergeman, 1991). In Darwin’s autobiography he had dedicated some of his pages to a discussion about his family and how they contributed towards his education. He goes on to describe their dedication and efforts
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Chares Darwin was the 5th born in his family of six and is said to have been tutored by his sisters as well. Being an average student in school, he has always loved to explore and carefully observe everything that caught his attention. Trying to follow the footsteps of his father, Darwin attended the University of Edinburgh to study medicine along with his brother, Erasmus. It did not take very long for Darwin to realise that a career in medicine was not his interest or passion and then he attended the university of Cambridge to study the ministry because he saw that it allowed him to roam the world, collect and observe materials and that is what he was most passionate about (Darwin, 1999; Darwin, 1887). However, with respect to nature vs. nurture, Darwin believed that his intellectual success should be attributed to nature and not nurture. In his own words, “I do not think that I owe much to him (brother) intellectually-nor to my four sisters…I am inclined to believing that education and environment produce only a small effect on the mind of any one, and that most of our qualities are innate” (Darwin, …show more content…
There is a possibility of some people being less influenced by one or the other but both nature and nurture have an effect on every human life (Collins et al., 2000). This is another example of Charles Darwin’s contributions to psychology and many psychologists including Cyril Burt (1909), Francis Galton (1869, 1892, 1962), Henry Goddard (1912) and Arthur Jenson (1972) believe that, without Darwin there would be no nature vs. nurture debate. William Kessen (1979) called Charles Darwin the “Godfather of Child Psychology” in his paper, the American child and other cultural inventions, where he studied several eminent figures that contributed to child psychology. According to him, when child psychology was born, there were five determining spirits present including John Broadus Watson and William James but Charles Darwin; he thought was the most significant. Darwin’s publication, ‘Biographical Sketch of an Infant’ in 1877 created a milestone in the history of child psychology because it was probably the first publication of its
Chares Darwin was the 5th born in his family of six and is said to have been tutored by his sisters as well. Being an average student in school, he has always loved to explore and carefully observe everything that caught his attention. Trying to follow the footsteps of his father, Darwin attended the University of Edinburgh to study medicine along with his brother, Erasmus. It did not take very long for Darwin to realise that a career in medicine was not his interest or passion and then he attended the university of Cambridge to study the ministry because he saw that it allowed him to roam the world, collect and observe materials and that is what he was most passionate about (Darwin, 1999; Darwin, 1887). However, with respect to nature vs. nurture, Darwin believed that his intellectual success should be attributed to nature and not nurture. In his own words, “I do not think that I owe much to him (brother) intellectually-nor to my four sisters…I am inclined to believing that education and environment produce only a small effect on the mind of any one, and that most of our qualities are innate” (Darwin, …show more content…
There is a possibility of some people being less influenced by one or the other but both nature and nurture have an effect on every human life (Collins et al., 2000). This is another example of Charles Darwin’s contributions to psychology and many psychologists including Cyril Burt (1909), Francis Galton (1869, 1892, 1962), Henry Goddard (1912) and Arthur Jenson (1972) believe that, without Darwin there would be no nature vs. nurture debate. William Kessen (1979) called Charles Darwin the “Godfather of Child Psychology” in his paper, the American child and other cultural inventions, where he studied several eminent figures that contributed to child psychology. According to him, when child psychology was born, there were five determining spirits present including John Broadus Watson and William James but Charles Darwin; he thought was the most significant. Darwin’s publication, ‘Biographical Sketch of an Infant’ in 1877 created a milestone in the history of child psychology because it was probably the first publication of its