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Nature versus Nurture The idea of whether human behavior is determined by genetics or by environment is an ongoing debate. Biologists and social scientists have different views. The biologists believe that genes determine human behavior, and on the other hand social scientists believe that we are our own creation and we are free from the chains of biology. During a debate in the 1970s, someone mentioned the sex differences in chimpanzees. During a PET scan, they found different areas of the brain lighting up between men and women. Thus, the question arises is it a gene factor or not? There were only two schools fifty years ago in America that studied animal behavior, of which they had different opinions about teaching animals to do things. For example, when a monkey is trained to press a lever, some say that is trial and error. B.F. Skinner quoted, “Pigeon, rat, monkey, which is which? It doesn’t matter.” In Europe there was a school that studied the naturalistic behavior. There they would put an animal in it’s own type of environment and see what would happen.
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