先天与后天(nature versus nurture)是心理学上,争论个人的天生品质(先天)与个人经验(后天)在决定个人心理和行为特性中的重要性或因果关系的问题。以前,当讨论到这个问题时主要是考虑自主行为(主观意愿)与非自主行为(大自然、神等)之间的界限。这种说法是:以自身为中心的,而顺从个人意愿的说法;即宗教或神学。随着科学的发展,舊说法逐渐被抛弃,取而代之的是站在人类的角度上观察此问题。[3]
由於達爾文演化論的成就之故,純粹的遺傳對人的影響成為焦點,因使在二十世紀前期,作為此種狀況回應,人們開始關注環境對人的潛在影響。[15]在這段期間,作為一門研究在生物因素以外文化對人的影響的學問,社會開學開始發展,人類學家法蘭茲·鮑亞士在1911年的書《原始人的思維》(The Mind of Primitive Man)引致了一個在接下了十五年主宰美國人類學的計畫。在此研究中,他發現說在任何給定的族群中,生物因子、語言、物質文化(Material culture)和非物質文化(symbolic culture)等各項因素都是彼此獨立的,這裡面的每一項都是人性的重要向度,而這些向度中,沒有任何一項可以化約為其他的向度。
在1970至80年代先天與後天的爭論達到最高峰時,這類的爭論往往變成意識形態間的爭論。在1984年出版的《不在我們的基因中:生物、意識形態及人性》(Not in Our Genes: Biology, Ideology and Human Nature)一書中,理查德·李文丁(Richard Lewontin)、史蒂文·羅斯(Steven Peter Russell Rose)和利昂·卡敏三人從馬克思主義的角度指稱「科學是布爾喬亞意識形態的最終背書者……如果遺傳決定論是階級鬥爭的武器,納大學就是武器工廠,而其教師和研究員就是這些武器的工程師、設計者和產品生產工人。」他們藉此將爭論的焦點,給從「可遺傳特質是否存在」這點,給轉移到「在政治與道德上是否該承認這類特質存在」之上,這些作者拒絕這種承認,並要求說不論這類的特質是否存在,在政治和道德的討論上,演化的傾向應該被丟開。[22]
在2002年,史蒂芬·平克在其所著作的《白板論:當代對人類天性的否認》(The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature)一書中,總結了二十世紀晚期時的狀況,這本書成了一本暢銷書,並讓大眾認知到學界典範在過去數十年中,已從1940到70年代的「人在出生時是一張白紙」的純粹白板論中逐漸改變的事實。
^In English at least since Shakespeare (The Tempest 4.1: a born devil, on whose nature nurture can never stick) and Richard Barnfield (Nature and nurture once together met / The soule and shape in decent order set.); in the 18th century used by Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke (Roach v. Garvan, "I appointed therefore the mother guardian, who is properly so by nature and nurture, where there is no testamentary guardian.")
^Schechter, D.S., & Willheim, E. (2009). Disturbances of attachment and parental psychopathology in early childhood. Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Issue. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinics of North America, 18(3), 665-87.
^Grienenberger, J., Kelly, K. & Slade, A. (2005). Maternal Reflective Functioning, Mother-Infant Affective Communication and Infant Attachment: Exploring The Link Between Mental States and Observed Caregiving. Attachment and Human Development, 7, 299-311.
^Lieberman, A.F.; Padrón, E.; Van Horn, P.; Harris, W.W. Angels in the nursery: The intergenerational transmission of benevolent parental influences. Infant Ment. Health J. 2005, 26 (6): 504–20. PMID 28682485. doi:10.1002/imhj.20071.
^Craven, Hamilton. 1978. The Triumph of Evolution: The Heredity-Environment Controversy, 1900–1941: "While it would be inaccurate to say that most American experimentalists concluded as the result of the general acceptance of Mendelism by 1910 or so that heredity was all powerful and environment of no consequence, it was nevertheless true that heredity occupied a much more prominent place than environment in their writings."
^Hall, Calvin S. 1951. "The Genetics of Behavior." Pp. 304–29 in Handbook of Experimental Psychology, edited by S. S. Stevens. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
^Meaney M. 2004. "The nature of nurture: maternal effects and chromatin remodelling." In Essays in Social Neuroscience, edited by J. T. Cacioppo and G. G. Berntson. MIT Press. ISBN0-262-03323-2.
^A position not actually taken by the author, but apparently it was feared that "lay readers" would still interpret the book in this way, as in "Will it free some to mistreat their kids, since 'it doesn't matter'?", with this fear being attributed to "psychologist Frank Farley of Temple University, president of the APA division that honored Harris" by Begley, Sharon. The Parent Trap. Newsweek. 1998-09-29 [2021-01-07]. (原始内容存档于2020-11-03).
^ 33.033.1Joshua J Jackson; Felix Thoemmes, Kathrin Jonkmann, Oliver Lüdtke, Ulrich Trautwein. Military training and personality trait development: does the military make the man, or does the man make the military?. Psychol Sci . 2012 Mar, 23 (3): 270–7. PMID 22275337. doi:10.1177/0956797611423545.引文使用过时参数coauthors (帮助); 请检查|date=中的日期值 (帮助); 使用|accessdate=需要含有|url= (帮助)
^Martin Humburg. The Effect of the Big Five Personality Traits on College Major Choice : Evidence from a Dutch longitudinal youth cohort study. 2012.
^Xicheng Wen, Yuhui Zhao, Yucheng T. Yang, Shiwei Wang, Xinyu Cao. Do Students With Different Majors Have Different Personality Traits? Evidence From Two Chinese Agricultural Universities. Front. Psychol. 29 April 2021, 12. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.641333.
^Alison Fildes; Cornelia H M van Jaarsveld, Clare H Llewellyn, Abigail Fisher, Lucy Cooke, Jane Wardle. Nature and nurture in children's food preferences. Am J Clin Nutr. 2014-01-29, 99 (4): 911–7. PMID 24477038. doi:10.3945/ajcn.113.077867.引文使用过时参数coauthors (帮助)
^D Benton. Role of parents in the determination of the food preferences of children and the development of obesity. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord: 858–69. PMID 15170463. doi:10.1038/sj.ijo.0802532.
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