The theory of the blank slate is the idea that humans are born with no predisposed characteristics and abilities, and that we are shaped by our upbringing and culture. Everything a person becomes can be traced back to their environment. This theory has been explored and supported by many psychologists, philosophers and other researchers in the past century. Steven Pinker’s book The Blank Slate gives his readers an argument against this theory, as he believes that human behaviour is the result of
Review of Pinker, S. (2003). The Blank Slate: A Modern Denial of Human Nature, Penguin, London. (Word Count: 1,500) There is no debate as ancient, well known or as controversial in the fields of philosophy, psychology, and science, as that of nature versus nurture. It can be assumed through pure common sense that anyone in this day and age would have already come to the conclusion that human development requires, and is influenced by, the ineraction of both. However, Steven Pinker welcomes the opportunity
Is the mind a blank slate? Are we molded by our environment: a blank tablet simply inscribed by our culture and upbringing? Not according to Steven Pinker. In his book entitled ‘The Blank Slate’ he provides a gripping argument against the tabula rasa models in social science. Pinker embarks upon the difficult task of demolishing the myths surrounding human behavior through the exploration of its history, and examining the moral, emotional and political factors of human nature in modern life. Throughout
Viennese neurologist and his temporary close assisted friend, Carl Jung. On the hand, in regards to behaviour, I have chosen Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner both of which are earlier theoretical behavioural models. Psychodynamic Approach Freud’s theory involved listening intently to the client’s dreams and past childhood experiences, encouraging his clients to speak what ever came into their minds known as free association; this later became the foundation of psychoanalysis, the talking cure. This
It is strange that the nature of humanity is picked apart through the medium of fiction. Authors seek the truth through the most absurd flights of fantasy. Within fiction, where strange beasts and imaginary people lie, authors ask the question “What is human?” There is no better example of an author asking just this question than Mary Shelley in her Frankenstein. It through Victor’s creature that she asks and answers the question “Is man inherently good or evil?” Rousseau believes that all knowledge
attachment to its primary care giver, you can compare theories from the Nature and Nurture camp to critically evaluate the findings. The nature camp has highly been influenced by Bowlby’s (1951) theory of attachment, generations of psychologists throughout the world have argued for and against his theory and the debate continues. Bowlby believed that mental health and behaviour problems in adults could be linked to a child’s early life, Bowlby’s theory suggests that mothers give birth to a child that
Locke has a theory stating that “A child is a blank state that is formed only through experience”. Some of these experiences can affect the child in a positive way, or it could have a negative influence on them. The events that occur early on in a child's life is what molds them and makes them who they are, people learn from past experience. Studies have proven that children growing up with positive influences and happy homes are more likely to have more success in their future, as opposed to
which a child is as amorphous as a blank slate (Schultz, & Schultz, 2012). Nevertheless, the application of the tabula rasa model has gone into a decline within scientific dissertations over the last ten years (Duschinsky, 2012). While the tabula rasa theory has undoubtedly continued to be explored in classrooms of future psychologists, counselors, and theorists, its pervasiveness in major peer-reviewed journals has evidently declined with more attention to theories of epigenetics and the nature/nurture
Since his theory is that people become evil and are born with the trait, one can suppose that he believes in babies being born as blank slates. If people are born as blank slates, how can you explain children in their young years portraying evil traits? John Venables and Robert Thompson, two 10 year olds from Liverpool killed James Bulger, a two
century, who came up with the concept of the mind as a blank slate or Tabula rasa. Which explains, people are not born with thoughts or ideas but they develop them through sensory experience. John Locke said, “there were two kinds of experiences: sensations of objects in the external world, and the reflections of the mind’s own operations.”(Francher & Rutherford, 64) Through this idea of