Out of all of the topics that were taught in Psychology 1001, I think I will remember Francis Galton's topic of Nature vs. Nurture the most. This topic can be applied to many different situations and debates, like the Psychology 1001 textbook has shown us, which is why it will be very useful and memorable five years from now.
The Nature vs. Nurture debate is one that will never be given a definite right and wrong answer. Humans have been debating over this for years, and will continue to do so well into the future. The debate focuses on whether the contributions of genetic inheritance or the environmental factors a person experiences will have a greater impact on human development. Many well-known philosophers, such as Plato and Descartes, suggested that certain things are inborn and will be acquired regardless of environmental influences. Other well-known thinkers, such as John Locke believe that the mind begins as a blank slate, or tabula rasa. According to this belief, everything that we are and all of our knowledge is determined by our experiences and the environmental influences in our lives. A great example of the Nature vs. Nurture debate that was illustrated in our textbook and is extremely fascinating to me is how monozygotic reared together twins, monozygotic reared apart twins, dizygotic twins reared together and dizygotic twins reared apart compared in terms of intelligence. No matter which side of the argument a person is on, they will have an opinion about which one has a greater impact on a human, nature or nurture. For more information on the Nature vs. Nurture twin/adoption intelligence studies, visit this link.
