共用题干
How Human's Personalities and Behaviors are Formed
1 People have wondered for a long time how their personalities and behaviors are formed.It is not easy
to explain why one person is intelligent and another is not,or why one is cooperative and another is competitive.
2 Social scientists are,of course,extremely interested in these types of questions.They want to explain
why we possess certain characteristics and exhibit certain behaviors.There are no clear answers yet,but two
distinct schools of thought on the matter have developed.As one might expect,the two approaches are very
different from each other. The controversy is often conveniently referred to as"nature vs.nurture".
3 Those who support the"nature"side of the conflict believe that our personalities and behavior pat-
terns are largely determined by biological factors.That our environment has little,if anything,to do with our
abilities,characteristics and behavior is central to this theory.Taken to an extreme,this theory maintains tha
our behavior is pre-determined to such a great degree that we are almost completely governed by our instincts.
4 Those who support the"nurture"theory,that is,they advocate education, are often called behaviorists.
They claim that our environment is more important than our biologically based instincts in determining how
we will act.A behaviorist,B.F.Skinner,sees humans as beings whose behavior is almost completely shaped
by their surroundings.The behaviorists maintain that,like machines,humans respond to environmental stimuli
as the basis of their behavior.
5 Let us examine the different explanations about one human characteristic,intelligence,offered by the
two theories.Supporters of the"nature"theory insist that we are born with a certain capacity for learning that
is biologically determined.Needless to say:They don't believe that factors in the environment have much in-
fluence on what is basically a predetermined characteristic.On the other hand,behaviorists argue that our in-
telligence levels are the product of our experiences.Behaviorists suggest that the child who is raised in an
environment where there are many stimuli which develop his or her capacity for appropriate responses will ex-
perience greater intellectual development.
"Nature"theory claims_________.
A:human is born with a certain personality
B:how the personality and behavior are formed
C:will experience intellectual development
D:two different schools on the matter have developed
E:will influence on characters
F:human is born with no personality
