The Psychology Book

IN CONTEXT

APPROACH

Behavioral epigenetics

BEFORE

1874 Francis Galton addresses the nature–nurture controversy in English Men of Science: Their Nature and Nurture.

1924 John B. Watson makes his famous “dozen infants” boast that anyone, regardless of their basic nature, can be trained to be anything.

AFTER

1938 B.F. Skinner in The Behavior of Organisms explains his radical behaviorist ideas, claiming that circumstances, not instinct, govern behavior.

1942 Edward Tolman publishes Drives Toward War, which examines whether aggression is conditioned or instinctive.

1966 Konrad Lorenz publishes On Aggression, explaining aggressive behavior as an innate response. ...