Evaluate Bowlby's Theory Of Nature And Nurture In Research
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Some believe that nature is the cause of human behaviour, others believe its nurture. This is what continues the great physiological debate Nature Vs Nurture. When evaluating if its nature or nurture that influences a child’s 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 is programmed to form an instant attachment to its primary care giver – normally its mother or a substitute this he called…show more content… For example Watson and Ryner (1920) conditioned a young boy to respond negatively to the stimuli of a white rat. The child (Little Albert) at the start of the experiment was not frightened or upset by the rat but Watson and Rayner paired the rat with a loud scary noise, a noise that already frightened little Albert. The anxiety response from the noise was transferred to the rat, the noise also generalised the response to other stimuli to things that resembled a rat like a white rabbit. In operant conditioning babies learn to perform new behaviours through consequences (good or bad). If the behaviour they produce is responded with by a reinforcement it is likely the behaviour will be repeated in the future as this behaviour has been strengthened by the reinforcement. A consequence can be reinforced in two ways with positive reinforcement (something good) or negative reinforcement (something bad). A behaviour can also be weakened if it is followed by a punishment – weakening the