PSYC 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Intellectual Disability, Tabula Rasa, Steven Pinker
Document Summary
Pinker, why nature and nurture won"t go away . Blank slate idea popular because it made everyone equal no mater sex, race, culture, or class. Also means no one had bad traits/values at birth. Hope of social progress (changing environment would make everyone beter) Learning- innate circuitry that takes in info from environment/experience. Ex) language- capacity to acquire language is innate, but the one that you learn to speak depends on environment. Easy answer to issue is to say some of each (holisic interacionism view) Appealing because it is moderate, sophisicated, shows that nature and nurture are not mutually exclusive, that genes don"t directly inluence behavior, and that direcion of causaion can go in both direcions. Wrong because certain components are completely nature and others completely nurture. Auism thought to be completely environmental (caused by cold/distant mothers), now know about hereditary inluence/toxins that have nothing to do with family environment.
