nature vs nurture Birthmarked the movie

3. The first use of the
Nature vs. Nurture
Theory - Francis Galton
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John
Locke independently thought that
people are born as blank slates (
"tabula rasa"), and that their
eventual individual differences
developsolely due to the result of
environmental influences
Hippocrates called human
behaviors as being
biological, the cause of
four different body fluid
types known as humors.
• Yellow bile
• Blood
• Black bile
• Phlegm
The Beginning of the Nature vs
Nurture Debate

4. Nature refers to all of the genes
and hereditary factors that
influence who we are from our
physical appearance to our
personality characteristics.
Nurture refers to all the
environmental variables that
impact who we are, including our
early childhood experiences, how
we were raised, our social
relationships, and our surrounding
culture.
Definition:

5. Nature vs is nurture is about what really defines who we really are. What really
comes into play in the making of each of our personal identities.Is it possible to
be completely opposite what our genes are? Our we really a blank canvas
waiting for life and situations to moldus into who really will become? These
questions have been around for centuries. Everyonehas a different theory . There
have been so many different experiments in finding the right answer. I don't think
anyone has found an exact answer. We are who we are because of both. What
defines is not only where we come, it's also how we go there. Nature vs Nurture
goes hand in hand making everyone the person they are today.
"Which contributes more to the area of a
rectangle, its length or its width?" Donald
Hebb, Canadian neuropsychologist

7. Birthmarkedis a comedy about a couple ( Ben and
Catherine) who are married scientists who want to take on
the nature vs nurture debate. They propse an experiement
that will prove nature is a minut detail in who we are.
A wealthy scientist (Gertz) agrees on backing the
experiment. They have three children, one biological son
and two adopted children (a boy & girl). Their bio son born
of a long line of scientist (Luke) is brought up as an artist.
Adopted daughter Maya who comes from a family of
“idiots,” is conditionedto be an intellectual. Their adopted
son Maurice that is born from a violent family is raised to be
a pacifist.They raise their children promoting each of the
children's different traits. Carefullydocumenting their
progress in a secludedcabin in the woods with the aid of a
Russian assistant named Sammy. Everything soon falls
apart while they realize familyis what matters the most.

9. • Catherine comes back from a run to
screams from her children. She find out
they are all hitting each other the paddles
on their bottoms.
• She is mortifiedwhat they are doing. This is
not how an artist, pacifist, and child
prodigy shouldbe acting.
• The Kids lash out and get really upset
because they were just having silly fun and
their mom is over acting in their minds.

10. • She sends all the children away to practice their own
rooms
• She sends the pacifist to "anger discharge training" with
their assistant Sammy which consists of jumping jacks.
• Catherine is feeling like all this work is for nothing and
maybe nature has more power over a person than
nurture does.
The Little Albert Experiment showed
similar classical conditioning. "the
association of a stimulus or behavior with
an unrelated stimulus or behavior works in
human beings. " This experiment came to
mindfor this scene in the movie.

11. • The father gets very frustrated and decides to
take matters into his own hands
• He decides to teach his daughter about critical
impact decisions.
• He makes a maze for the mouseand his
daughter has to lead the mousethrough the
maze.
• He warns his daughter that there will be a
negative consequence for a wrong decision.
• He then electrocutes the mouse after his
daughter leads the mouse through the wrong
door.
"An operant conditioning
chamber is a laboratory apparatus
used to study animal behavior."The
operant conditioning chamber was
created by B. F. Skinner and the
used kind of a similar box in the
movie to show critical impact
decision making.

12. This movie did have a few pieces of psychology that were relatable to previous
experiments done by John B. Watson and B.F Skinner. Even though each clipwas
very fictional. I though this movie was just a funny take on the nature vs nurture
debate. In the movie everything fell apart in their experiment. I think that part is
realistic because when it comes to children, I don’t think anyone will ever fit in a
certain category.
MY TAKE

13. • HTTPS://WWW.MEDICINENET.COM/NATURE_VS_NURTURE_THEORY_GENES_OR_ENVIRONMENT/
ARTICLE.HTM#HOW_DOES_NATURE_VS_NURTURE_AFFECT_OUR_MENTAL_AND_PHYSICAL_HEAL
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• HTTPS://WWW.EDGE.ORG/RESPONSE-DETAIL/25365
• HTTPS://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/NATURE_VERSUS_NURTURE
• HTTPS://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/OPERANT_CONDITIONING_CHAMBER
• HTTPS://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/LITTLE_ALBERT_EXPERIMENT