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Personality development

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Can you explain the nature versus nurture controversy and theoretical perspectives on personality and moral development?

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Explains the nature versus nurture controversy and theoretical perspectives on personality and moral development. References and a supplementary artilce on moral development are also provided.

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Let's take a closer look. I also provided links for further expansion on each perspective and an informative article applying moral theories to education.

RESPONSE:

1. Can you explain the nature versus nurture controversy and theoretical perspectives on personality and moral development?

1)

The nature versus nurture controversy is simply two ways of explaining human behavior. Nature thinks biology (genes that are inherited) determine human behavior (predispositions and tendencies), whereas the nurture side of the controversy argue that various external or environment determines behavior i.e. Skinner exposed from conception to death. It is a controversy not because of two polarizing views, but rather "to the extent which these factors influence human development and the ways in which various factors influence each other." (see a broader discussion at http://social.jrank.org/pages/300/Heredity-Versus-Environment.html.

2)

There are many theoretical perspectives of personality, including:

? Trait & dispositional perspectives The dispositional approach creates systems for classification and describing psychological characteristics for which people differ consistently between situations and over time. The "trait" approach most clearly emphasizes the dispositional perspective but another way to approach the concept of dispositions is to consider people as "types" or alternatively to view people's dispositions in terms of their enduring motivational characteristics that vary in strength from person to person (i.e. their needs and motives). ( see http://wilderdom.com/personality/L6-0MajorThemesUnderlyingAssumptionsDispositionalPersonality.html)

? Biological & evolutionary perspectives Biological perspectives is not a cohesive theory (e.g., the Biological Theory consists of many different, separate ideas, models and theories). However, there are three general thrusts to the biological perspective:

1. Many personality characteristics are genetically determined
2. Behavioral tendencies derive from our evolutionary history
3. Human behavior produced is by a complex biological system (e.g. hormones, neurotransmitters) (see http://wilderdom.com/personality/L7-0IntroductionBiologicalEvolutionaryPerspectives.html)

Evolutionary ...

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