The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian neurologist who founded the practice of psychoanalysis. Freud is best known for his theories on personality, which he believed comprise an ego, superego, and id. He also theorized on the relationship between sexuality and psyche, repressed emotions, and dreams as a window into the subconscious. Harris blames him for the false assumption that parents are the most significant influence on their children’s socialization.

John B. Watson (1878-1958) was an American psychologist who promoted Behaviorism, a school of thought in psychology which focuses on learning through conditioning (reinforcement or punishment). Watson’s Behaviorist arguments became the most dominant view in psychology in 1920s and 1930s America. He argued that, through systematic rewards and punishments, it was possible to shape a child into a specific ideal. In general, Behaviorists rejected Freudian theories, but agreed on the significance of parental influence—which explains how the nurture assumption became widespread in psychology.

B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) was an American psychologist who promoted “radical behaviorism.” Like John B. Watson, Skinner believed studying people’s responses to environmental influences was the best way to understand human instincts. He claimed behavior could be influenced through positive or negative reinforcement: When people encounter a positive reinforcement, this increases the chance of repeat behavior, while negative reinforcement does the opposite. Harris claims Skinnerian theories built on Watson’s work, but do not account for agency:

Research done in the 1970s showed that you can get children to paint lots of pictures simply by rewarding them with candy or gold stars […] as soon as [the rewards] were discontinued, the children stopped painting pictures. […] the results are difficult to predict because they depend on subtle variations in the nature and timing of the reward and on the personality of the reward recipient (6).

Margaret Mead (1901-1978) was an American anthropologist who studied various cultures in the South Pacific, such as Samoa and New Guinea. Mead’s most famous work is Coming of Age in Samoa, which contrasts Samoan girls’ adolescence with American adolescence. She believed cultural practices influence how people experience different phases of life. Harris refers to her as another proponent of the nurture assumption, since she believed children acquire learned behavior through their parents. She laments Mead’s normalization of this view without scientific evidence.