Personal Narrative: Nature Vs. Nurture Definition

The historical debate regarding nature and nurture has been going on for years and is still unresolved. Many theorists believe what we have inherited and our genes, makes us the way we are and how we develop. Other theorists believe it is the way we are brought up and our experiences, that make us the way we are and how we develop.

Stephanie Bueno Ms.Parascandolo Humanities II 9/1/14 Nature V.S Nurture It’s a question that many people have asked throughout history to get the psychological process of how people obtain certain qualities that make them who they are. The question everyone knows, Nature or Nurture? People grow up to be who they are because of one of these two factors.

The nature-nurture debate has been around for decades. It is one of the oldest and most popular topics in the history of psychology asking what makes people who they become and how they behave and develop the way they do. What makes the debate more interesting is that now scientists are asking if personality traits and even sexual orientation can be determined by what is in already there from conception. Bodies are built up of chromosomes which contain genetic information. Many of these are inherited from parents and relatives. The nature side of the debate states the way people are is predominantly from inherited genetics and other biological factors not so much the environmental factors. The genes humans have in their bodies play a huge role to many aspects of who they are and who they become. For example, hair colour, eye colour and height are all predetermined by genes. Unchangeable. This is natures way. The argument stands to decide whether most attributes do stem from nature, genes, or if they can be affected by the environment and the way people are nurtured as they have grown. The nurture side of the argument believes although humans do have the genes and traits with which they are born, most personality traits are being made up of environmental factors. For example, being loved and cared for as children, if parents or carers were positive role models and if those people were taught in ways which provided them with discipline and respect for others. Where nature

For many years psychologist, sociologists, novelist, students, people in general have debated over which side, nature or nurture makes us who we are. Each side of the debate has compelling arguments and facts to support their claims, however it is foolish to say one has a greater impact than the other. I believe that humans are the product of society and biology, and that they come hand in hand. That both nature and nurture make us human because there are too many facts from each side of the argument to say that one is more influential than the other. Our biology is what differentiates males and females, and our sense of self develops from the interaction with other humans and society.

What makes someone an unique individual? Centuries of ancestors, genetics, evolution and heredity, or is what makes someone who they are based simply on how they were raised and what sort of environment they were raised in? The idea of Nature vs Nurture was created in 1869 in a book called Hereditary Genius by Francis Galton. In his book, he explains his findings on his exploration of the inheritance and evolution of human traits. The issue and debate of and over Nature vs Nurture has been prevalent to this day. It has also been a extremely prevalent in the social debate of Adoption. The basis for nature vs nurture is the idea that people are affected either more by nature, which would be an individual 's genetic makeup and heredity, or by nurture, how an individual is raised and the environment in which they grew up. Both sides of the argument are strongly backed and supported with facts and research. There is no “One or the other”, both nature and nurture are what makes human beings who they are, but the question is not which. It is which of the two effects who an individual is the most?.... Nature is what we are born with. Every person is born preset with different/unique natural abilities and capabilities because of their DNA, adopted or not. Nature plays a bigger role than Nurture when it comes to what makes an individual unique .

One of the most enduring debates in the field of psychology is the controversial idea of nature vs. nurture. Throughout the endless history of the debate, no clear conclusion has been met, only hypotheses have been formed. At the center of the debate, human behaviors, ideas, and feelings are being determined, whether they are learned or inherited. Determining physical traits, such as eye color or hair color, are simple because they are hereditary traits. The idea of having a certain personality, intelligence, or ability is under discussion because scientists cannot determine if these traits are learned, or predetermined by genes.

There has been extensive debate between scholars in the field of psychology surrounding the Nature vs. Nurture issue. Both nature and nurture determine who we are and neither is solely independent of the other. “As the area of a rectangle is determined by its length and its width, so do biology and experience together create us.”(Myers, 2008, p. 8) Carl Gustav Jung, and leading thinker and creator of analytical psychology, believes: “Human behavior is influenced both by individual experience and also by an innate “collective unconscious” that vests all of us with certain proclivities and tendencies.”(Hayes, 2000, p. 7) From my personal life experience

Nature versus nurture is one of the most controversial topics of discussion among human beings. For many years, phycologist’s have been studying various people’s behavioral patterns in order to settle the debate. The argument of nature suggests that a person is born with a pre-conceived set of personality traits that determine the way they will act for the rest of their life. That is to say that all characteristics of a person, not just physical appearance, are passed down through genetics. The case with nurture states the idea that every person, no matter where they are from, is born with a blank slate. In other words, asserting that the behavior of someone is solely a result of their surroundings. This subject often comes up when a person

“Any news from this generation’s experimental subject?” came a deep voice. He walked into the dark room lit by bright fluorescent screens with the doctor sitting there consumed by them and what seemed to be numbers and data.

Historically different philosophers and theorists have disagreed that we are born to be the way we are. Other theorists have argued that it is the way we have been raised and the environment we have lived in that influences and makes us who we are. This argument is known as the nature-nurture debate.

In society, not one person is alike. By saying this, many people believe that they strongly take after their parents. Meaning they think Nature is a big part in their life and why they are who they are. The genes in each cell in us humans determine the different traits that we have, more dominantly on the physical connections like eye color, hair color, ear size, height, and other traits. However, it is still not known whether the more abstract attributes like personality, intelligence, sexual orientation, likes and dislikes are gene-coded in our DNA. The nurture theory has experiments showing a child’s behavior with the environment as to adult behavior. In the Nature Vs Nurture debate, everyone has their own thoughts and ideas on each

Writing about my experience with my son and his current conduct, it brings in the whole nature vs. nurture. Parts of me, blame myself for how he handles life today because of what I was going through as he was growing up. I cannot help but believe that my state of mind and the way I was living played a role in who he is today. Looking at his behavior I see him doing exactly what I did, being selfless and damaging. He was exposed to my drinking, which is clearly environmental. I was an emotional drinker and suffered from severe depression which also caused other health issues in my life, as well as his. But then I think of my parents and how my dad had a drinking problem and not only that, but my son's father had a drinking problem as with mental

Nature vs. nurture has been discussed by philosophers in the past and by scientists more recently. Philosophers such as Plato argued that all knowledge was inherited from your parents and when you were told something you didn’t learn it you were just reminded of it. Aristotle however argued that all humans were born with a blank slate and built on it with influence from there environment. In the 1700’s the empiricists and the internalists took over the argument. They fought through letters explaining there point of views and denouncing the others. This leads to Pavlov coming up with the idea of behaviorism in the early 1900‘s. Behaviorism became the new wave of Psychology and influenced a lean towards the nurture side. It was not

With our personalities. They will learn by experience and time. We are all born with our personalities but our behaviors are developed and learned through experience over time. The nature vs. nurture is a debate of the cultural, scientific, and

“Cut from the same cloth”, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”, “A chip off the old block”; most of us have heard these types of idioms at one point or another, ways of likening us to our parents. Sometimes they are right, while other times it couldn’t be farther from the truth; leaving us to wonder, “what is it that makes us who we are?” Are we simply the product of our environments, a collective sum of our interactions and experiences? Or, do our genetics pre-determine who we are, complex variations in our DNA that dictate our individual personalities? Some scientists argue on behalf of the nurture theory, that our personalities are continually changing and growing, influenced by the world and people around us. Others believe that we are pre-wired by genetics alone, that while external factors may magnify or diminish some aspects of that wiring, everything we are is already programmed into us from the moment of conception. So, who is right?