Question

The debate between nature and nurture has been a prevalent one for decades between psychologists, sociologists and other experts. Based on what you have learned in chapter 7 of the text, 1. which element-nature or nurture- do you believe has the most influence over a persons life? and 2. Which aspect do you believe has impacted your life the most? In a brief paper (350-500 words)

Answer 1

• The influence of nature and nuture on us is a heavily debated topic. Nature involves the characteristics we inherit through our genes.Whereas, nurture includes the influence of the environment or our surroundings within childhood, on our later personalities and behaviour. Some may say the way we are brought up largely influences the people we become, although it can be argued that niether nature or nurture, but a mix of the two determine this.
• One point of view is that nature has the largest influence because of the amount we inherit from our parents. These are the genes that provide a suceptability for certain characteristics or traits that our parents have. There is biological evidence for this, for example we mainly inherit our looks, hair and body shape or type from our parents.But twins and adoption studies are often used, including both twins raised together and twins raised apart. Some researchers claim that we may inherit a genetic predisposition to some traits or characteristics.
• On the other hand, nuture involves learning from the environment we are in and adapting to our situation and surroundings. Some say when we are born we are said to have a blank slate also known as ‘Tabula Rasa’.  This means we learn all our behaviour and language from the surroundings we are brought up in.
• Locke (1689) claimed that all knowledge is gained on our experiences, but the nuture of our characterstics in our childhood are also influenced by the people we spend our time with, for example friends, but most importantly our care givers e.g. parents.
• One of the most common traits that nuturing develops would be accents. As we learn to speak we are influenced by the way others around us speak, hence why we develop accents linked to where we are brought up. Some say humans are more influenced by their enviroment and nuturing than other animals, in terms of immitation and modelling.
• Personally, I believe both nature and nurture have an large influence over the people we become in later life and it could be said that they are on a balance, although I believe it would depend between people, as every situation and individual are different. We have the ability to control and change our own behaviour at any point in our lives, therefore it is difficult to argue that either nuture or nature has the largest influence.
• For me as well,I guess both have played role in developing my characteristics,be it inheriting my hair from my mother or facial features i.e.my nose and eye from my father,even my personality characterstics and temperament is similar to my parents.But I would say maybe nurture worked for me more than nature.
• My social skills,extroverted personality,my views about the world,all have been influenced by not just my parents but my school and university as well.Being confident,developing public speaking skills,becoming an overall open minded individual,my competitve spirit all have been acquired through my observations and learnings from the people in my surroundings. It definitely works differently for different people and the situations they live in.