Environmental determinism, also called "environmental determinism", is a school of western children's psychology and children's educational psychology. Its main point of view is that children's psychological development is determined by environment and education, which denies the role of heredity and unilaterally emphasizes the power of environment and education.
Watson is the founder of behavioral psychology, and his view of environmental determinism is very clear. He believes that children are passive recipients, and their behavior is caused by environmental stimuli, not internal factors. So he advocates controlling children's behavior by controlling the environment.
Skinner is also a famous environmental determinist. He believes that human behavior is caused by external environmental stimuli, and human learning and behavior are responses to environmental stimuli. He advocates controlling human behavior through reinforcement and punishment, and believes that as long as environmental stimuli are controlled, human behavior can be controlled.
The significance of environmental determinism:
1. Emphasize the importance of environment and education: Environmental determinism holds that individual's psychological development is determined by environment and education, not by heredity. This view emphasizes the importance of environment and education in individual psychological development, and reminds people of the influence of environmental factors and educational methods on individual psychological development.
2. Advocating education reform: The viewpoint of environmental determinism promotes education reform and makes people realize the importance of education to individual psychological development. This view urges educators to think about how to improve educational methods and means in order to better promote individual psychological development.
3. Remind people to pay attention to environmental factors: Environmental determinism reminds people to pay attention to the influence of environmental factors on individual psychological development. This view makes people realize that improving environmental factors can promote individual psychological development, while bad environmental factors may hinder individual psychological development.
4. Promote social equity: The viewpoint of environmental determinism can promote social equity. If individual's psychological development is determined by environment and education, improving the educational environment and conditions of vulnerable groups can help them obtain better psychological development, thus promoting social equity.