... the word 'nurturing') in which a person's characteristics emerge as a result of the joint action of both nature and nurture over time. As Matt Ridley's book 'Nature via Nurture' illustrates so well, "genes are themselves exquisite mechanisms for translating experience into action". It is not a question of either/or, but both. (www.wellcome.ac.uk) This essay focuses on understanding children's development, behaviour and social interaction by looking at different psychological perspectives, ascertaining whether these psychological perspectives really give evidence in the nature/nurture debate. It will particularly consider two theorists, Piaget and Bowlby. Piaget assumed that children are active participants in the development of knowledge, adapting to their environment through actively seeking to understand it (Crawford & Walker 2003, p39). Piaget argued, following the nature approach, that all babies are born with similar biological equipment such as sucking and gripping. Piaget introduced the term 'schema' to label these innate basic building blocks. New ...

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