The responsiveness of a child to violence and the reproducing mechanism that follows is deeply connected to their innate ability to absorb the information that surrounds this young human being. This innately human ability to learn fits well both to the worldview of Nativism and the Behaviorist approach. Due to the child’s psyche not being formed yet, their experiences with the outside world are incredibly valuable to them – it is their only informational source. Bandura, a famous sociologist, once proved it in his doll experiment by demonstrating that children were able to learn aggressive behavior simply by observing it (Cherry, 2020). Observational learning is evident in any area of life, but it is especially potent when concerning traumatic or violent events, as they produce a strong emotional impact on an individual, doubling the effect on a young, developing psyche. In previous post, this effect was being observed with the instance of children letting their anger out on dolls, beating and maiming them. While the mechanism may be similar, observational learning does not equal conditioning; in the latter, an individual is restricted in incoming information in order to produce specific results in thought and behavior.
Both environmental and hereditary factors contribute to the development of an individual. The question of what influence is greater – the so-called “Nature vs Nurture” is one of the longest debates in psychology (Cherry, 2020). Genetic predisposition does not mean that the person will exceed in a certain area by default. For instance, the perfect pitch phenomenon: “the ability to detect the pitch of a musical tone without any reference” – allegedly, there is a certain gene that enables it (Cherry, 2020, 3). One is able to execute this ability only in the case of musical training received in early childhood. Thus, there is still no definite answer as to what is primary in human development: environmental influences or genetic predisposition, but certainly, one compliments another and cannot act without it.
Reference
Cherry, K. (2020). The age old debate of nature vs. nurture. VeryWellMind. Web.