Introduction to Psychological Issues - Assignment Example

116104 QUESTION There had always been arguments if personality is natural, or is it attained. Is personality inherited, or is the mind a blank slate (As told by Aristotle) on which nurture writes the character of the person? It is also argued that environment, education and culture make up for all the characteristics and these characteristics change throughout a person’s life and they are never constant. In opposition to this, another theory says that nature and heredity are behind the personality of the individual. Darwin’s Theory of Evolution to some extent, proved this. According to this theory, the individual inherits all his behaviours due to the complex interaction of genes. Most of his characters and behaviours remain constant throughout his life, as outside environments do not affect his individuality in any way. His individuality is predetermined. From this standpoint, types and characteristics measured with personality are constant and even if we sharpen our wits, types and temperaments to some extent successfully, we can never change them. We do as our genes dictate. As Darwin’s theory was applied to this psychological theory, it also implies that our personality connects with the secondary theory of natural selection for survival of the fittest. Distinct personality and individual differences differentiate a person from the commonalities. One of the main personality theories, Nurture theory, connects with the Operant Conditioning of Thorndyke who talks about conditioning of man, dog or any other animal through conditioning or nurture. Every situation that is connected with the nurturing of a child till it grows up and even later as an adult produces a positive or negative reinforcement of the behaviour in the individual. Nurture theory says that every behaviour depends upon the atmosphere, circumstances, education, bringing up of a child, teachers, friends, well-wishers, neighbours, community, society, and the results of a person’s behaviour are all responsible for his personality. It argues that nature or genetics, or heredity have nothing to do with the personality of the individual. Here life becomes a saga of actions and reactions. “Thorndike’s entire theory focused on behaviour at the level of simple stimulus-response events…” (Neel, 1971, p.86). Skinner applied this theory on the experiments like training an animal, through rewarding or punishing and assessing how the animal gets used to a certain behaviour, showing absolutely no signs of his hereditary behaviour, but adapting himself to an entirely new behaviour, a result of the present nurture. There is no doubt that nurture through education, training and culture, shows a remarkable effect on the individual’s make up of mind. Whatever the heredity traits and background could be, we see that army men have some common characteristics owing to their training and persisting atmosphere, where they are required to act in the best identical way possible. It is definitely possible that education, society, community, friends and teachers make a lot of difference in one’s life. Most of the psychologists have approved the Nurture theory of personality. Against the above theory, there is the Nature Theory. These are theories of personality and individual differences, trying to find out the variations between one human and another. The main target is providing psychological insights to individual personality development. In the nature theory, main stress is on the inherited genes and heredity decides all human behaviour and character of the child. His intelligence, personality and achievements are all ruled by the genetics. His DNA makes every decision for him throughout his life. There are many psychologists supporting this theory and to some extent, further studies in biology, and genetics strengthened this theory. Through various researches, it is established by nature theorists that a large amount of our character is inheritable. Cloninger et al (1993) designed tridimensional personality questionnaires to measure four temperamental distinctions like novelty seeking, harm avoidance, persistence and reward dependence and after the research work, they agreed that most of the human traits are hereditary and Nature Theory is possible. This theory looks more in tune with the human existence and connects with Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. “Fast-growing understanding of the human genome has recently made it clear that both sides are partly right. Nature endows us with inborn abilities and traits; nurture takes these genetic tendencies and molds them as we learn and mature,” http://genealogy.about.com/cs/geneticgenealogy/a/nature_nurture.htm Still, Nature Theory looks slightly mystic, because it is difficult to imagine that an individual’s all actions and reactions are dictated by his genes. At the same time, it cannot be totally impossible, and most of the recent scientific and biological researches show that nature theory cannot be completely wrong. There is no doubt that sometimes, this theory loses out to Nurture theory, that school of thought being the stronger of the two, mainly because it looks more possible and reasonable. “If environment didnt play a part in determining an individuals traits and behaviors, then identical twins should, theoretically, be exactly the same in all respects, even if reared apart. But a number of studies show that they are never exactly alike, even though they are remarkably similar in most respects” http://genealogy.about.com/cs/geneticgenealogy/a/nature_nurture_2.htm Perhaps the best approach is the Nature and Nurture theory of psychology. Many psychologists and scientists have agreed that both have an effect on the making of a human being, and it cannot be one against another, but one with the other. This looks more practical and believable. Dr. Sigmund Freud’s psychodynamic approach connects both nature and nurture theories as important for a human’s behaviour and character. Freud, even though fully proclaimed that every individual’s growth of character and behaviour is mainly ruled by the early experiences he has as a child, which connects with the Nurture Theory, never ruled out the importance of Nature Theory in his monumental works. According to him, the child’s mental development is made up with the heredity, and its nurture. It is important to note that a child that did not have a proper home life usually ends up with psychological disorders and insecurities and this shows the importance of the nurture theory that was insisted upon by Dr. Freud. “Freud felt that the appropriate concern for psychologists and psychiatrist was the nature of a person’s life experiences, how each of these experiences occurred, and how they interacted with previous experience and general psychological structure to form personality,” (Neel, p.183). Interplay of both nature and nurture builds up a complete human being. It is neither entirely the nature, nor entirely the nurture. Both are equally important in creating the various actions and reactions to millions of situations throughout the life of a human being. An individual never fails to react to a situation either in a negative or in a positive way and these reactions are guided by his mental traits, influenced by his heredity and culture, education etc. Behavioural genetics always has its ethical, legal and social implications and it is also true that the parental genes could contribute to some of the complex behavioural disorders. “I look at human behavior as the exercise of free will. Individuals have control over their behavior, their behavior is not determined by biology alone” says Rebecca Roth (http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/gen_beh/course02/discuss1.html) QUESTION 2: Following are the three principles of BPS Code of conducting research in Psychology: 1. While conducting research, ethical implications and psychological consequences for the participants must be considered. Foreseeable psychological well-being, health values and dignity should be assessed before the real research or study. 2. Competence of the researchers should be established beyond doubt and the boundaries of their expertise should be established. 3. Objectives of all investigations should be shared with the participants and their consent must be obtained before commencing the research. Ethical implications could be tricky in nature. They place the responsibility and onus squarely on the researchers. Sometimes, the patients are already sick and it might be possible that their sickness would continue even after research. As research has to be conducted preferably during sickness, finding a healthy patient may not be suitable for research. Usually all research participants of psychologists are mentally unstable in one-way or other. It is always not possible to give complete information without withholding some intricate matters from the participants. Every withholding of information need not be a deliberate deception. Certain confidentiality has to be maintained by the researcher depending on the circumstances. Obtaining the consent of the patient becomes difficult if the patient is not in a position to do so. A child, mentally unstable patient, participants with disabilities, injured patients all come under the category where they become nervous patients once the intention and depth of the study is known. Some people might worry about their confidentiality and privacy. Establishing complete qualifications, as psychologist researchers may always be not possible, as researchers require their assistants to help them during research. Junior psychologists too have to learn the procedure with the seniors, so that they could conduct their own researches in future.   BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Marx, Melvin H. (1951), Psychological Theory, Contemporary Readings, The Macmillan Company, New York. 2. Neel, Ann (1971), Theories of Psychology, A Handbook, University of London Press Ltd. ONLINE SOURCES: 1. http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/gen_beh/course02/discuss1.html (accessed on 13.3.2006). 2. http://genealogy.about.com/cs/geneticgenealogy/a/nature_nurture.htm 3. http://genealogy.about.com/cs/geneticgenealogy/a/nature_nurture_2.htm (all accessed on 13.3.2006). Read More