Where English meets Psychology

When reading page 58 of Good Omens I had flashbacks to previous PSYC 1100 lectures and a reading assignment here at UConn. No, Crowley was not attempting brain surgery (although that could be entertaining) and Aziraphale was not preaching of the great thinkers and their opinions. No, instead the two bring up what I learned in pysc to be the nature/nurture debate.

This discussion starts when Aziraphale asks Crowley what would become of the young anti christ if he is not raised in a Satanic home. Crowley responds with "probably nothing." Aziraphale then mentions genetics. Crowley responds back saying that they mean nothing, that it's all about how this child is raised.

Aziraphale believes that the child must have some genes for him to be evil, that the child is naturally evil and won't have to learn the ways of evil from those who raise him. This puts Aziraphale on the nature side of the argument. He is in good company though, as Immanuel Kant also sided with the nature belief. This side in general thinks that a person is "destined" to be or do something.

Crowley tells Aziraphale that the child's upbringing is everything. "Look at Satan. Created as an angel, grows up to be the Great Adversary." he says. It's about potential to Crowley, "Potentially evil. Potentially good, too, I suppose. Just this huge, powerful potentiality, waiting to be shaped." (p. 58). The child can be either or, it's all about how he is raised. Crowley, too, has some famous names who think the same way, John Locke and Sigmund Freud. This side is known as the nurture side, where they believe that things can be learned, such as the liking of something or the ability to do a task well.

So in the world of psychology, who is right? In the book, Crowley appeared to have won the dispute, but Aziraphale certainly isn't as forceful as he is when it comes to debating this idea.

Both are right.
According to the article that PSYC 1100 for Dr. Miller read (What Makes You Who You Are, aka, Article #6 in the book) both genes and upbringing are key. Author Matt Ridley tells readers that a nature can lead to a nurture. Using the fear of snakes as an example, he says that the fear is not inherited, but rather "a predisposition to learn a fear of snakes- a nature for a certain kind of nurture." Language is another strong example given in the article. Language must be learned from others who speak it, however "this capacity to learn is written into the human brain by genes...". This article tells how both nature and nurture cross over and that both can be critical when a child is being raised.

It will take both nature and nurture to raise the young anti christ to be what he is meant to be. Of course, it does help if he goes to the right family to be raised first...

Credits:

All Good Omens quotes come from page 58 of the text.

The article What Makes You Who You Are comes from Dr. Miller's Fall 2008 PSYC 1100 Student Manual. This article is by Matt Ridley and was originally printed in Time on June 2, 2003.