Discuss the nativist and empiricist explanations of the origin of human attributes.
The origin of various attributes of humans can be explained by emphasizing on the role of either experience or inheritance. Those who emphasize on the role of inheritance are nativists, while those who emphasize on the role of experience are empiricists.
Nativists are those who take a stand on the nature of humans as being gregarious, aggressive, good, and bad, or who consider some aspects of behavior of humans as instinctive.
On the other hand, empiricists are those who claim the experiences to be the reason for humans for being what they are.
However, it is conceded by most psychologists that both inheritance and experience influence human behavior. The emphasis placed by empiricists and nativists either on one or other nature differentiates them from each other. Behavior is the product of both nurture (experience) and nature (innate) in most of the cases.