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The Blank Slate Analysis

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The Blank Slate Analysis
Psychology
19 September 2013 Tabula Rasa or blank slate was a theory that became popular because of John Locke (HelpingPsychology). The Blank Slate theory is a theory that says everyone is born with a blank mind. There are no ideas or thoughts. Everything must be must learned and interrupted from the world around. This debate has been going on for a decades. Whether the mind is born blank or that there are ideas and thoughts when we are born. In the article The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker he speaks about the Blank Slate theory. He speaks about the debate and different views. Pinker uses John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner as examples for the debate. Watson believed that the when a child is born with nothing and has to gain the knowledge through experience. Watson’s most famous boost about this subject “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in, and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select-doctor, lawyer, artists merchants-chief, and yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. (Watson, 21)” The debate about Blank Slate theory has been discussed but it …show more content…
It has also led to social problems. “And the conviction that humanity could be reshaped by massive social engineering projects has led to some of the greatest atrocities in history. (Watson, 21)” When the ignorance of a subject clouds the eyes of people it becomes easy to see where the distortion of truth is. When the people believe that they are able to shape their children exactly to how they want them they create the perfect situation to become disappointed. Not necessarily in the child but that they did not turn out as hoped or
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