Evaluate the Relative Contribution of Nature and Nurture to Human Psychological Functioning

Nature or Nurture. Nature may be all of the genes and hereditary factors with which influence them to become who they are such as physical appearances and personality characteristics. Nurturing impacts people’s lives as well as how they are raised and all the environmental factors. In combination, these qualities can be the true identity of oneself. Many people may argue that nurture appears to a play huge factor in the two, but others may think otherwise. Not having both as a characteristic can have a negative effect on a person physically and mentally. The debate of nature versus nurture appears to be the oldest argument known to man, and it still remains to be unanswered. In the old-age argument nature versus nurture, nature may play a huge role in determining a person’s true identity.

The nature vs nurture issue has been a controversial argument among psychologist for decades. This argument exposes two different views. One of them emphasizes that our personality depends solely on genetics (nature). On the other hand, the second view suggests that humans “develop through experience” (Myers 2013, SG 6) (nurture).

The nurture argument can explain why some people adopt the gender role not expected of their sex. In theory, a feminine boy would have had a set of experiences which have led him to acquire a different gender role from most boys. If gender roles are nurtured, it also explains why an individual’s gender may change over time as anything that is learnt can be unlearnt and replaced by a new set of behaviours.

Furthermore, the nature-nurture continuum will demonstrate how every child will fall on this continuum that certain behaviors are a result of the child’s genetic makeup and the type of environment the child is raised in. For instance, a child’s intelligence can be considered under either end of the continuum, and for some cases, fall in the middle. If during a child’s development, a part of their brain is not developing properly due to genetic disorders this would be considered a matter of nature. Whereas, if it solely had to deal with the environment or upbringing the child dealt with such as opportunity to good schooling and services, would pertain to nurture. Except for some children, both would apply in that, the child may have inherited a genetic disorder which has affected their brain development and in turn are nurtured through an environment of plenty opportunities and services

As many people have begun to pay attention to formation of personality, the debate over nature vs. nurture has raged for a long time and this issue is still controversial. However, as shown the

The nature vs nurture debate is one of the most enduring in the field of psychology.How far are human behaviors, ideas, and feelings, INNATE and how far are they all LEARNED?These issues are at the

When I attended Lander University I was once asked before “nature or nurture”. At the time I had no clue, from a psychology prospective what nature or nurture meant. I also had the habit of being indecisive, so I answered back with a simple “I don’t Know.” Now that I am actually taking psychology I get an understanding why the topic is so important, and why it is so hard to be on one side of the matter. In my paper I will give definition nature verse nurture, examples of nature verse nurture, and also which one impacted my life the most.

Nature and nurture are not the same they affect in different ways. Nature is in your genes, with what abilities or skills you were born. Nurture is how the environment affect you.

Nature refers to genes and hereditary factors that we are born with that shape our personality and physical appearance. Nurture refers to the environmental factors that impact who we are such as personal experiences, ethics and social relationships. However influences from both nature and nurture seem to both play a major role on

The influence of one’s environment versus the influence of one’s parents and home life may not seem to be much of importance to the average individual. Prior to learning more about human psychological development, I too was guilty of not seeing the importance behind the influences effecting an individual. Both nature and nurture seem to have some relevance of importance; however, when taking a step back and looking at the entire picture, one seems to outweigh the other.

Nature and nurture issue has its root far back in the seventeenth century when psychologist wanted to know more about psychology. Before we even start discussing this big issue that has brought a lot of argument amongst scholars, it is important first of all to understand psychology itself and how it is related to nature and nurture. According to (G.Myers, 2001), he

Facts: Masculine and feminine behavior is not just defined by the fact that we are born male or female - biology. Various cultural and societal influences also have an effect on the manner in which someone behaves. Men and women learn how to conduct themselves based on gender expectations created by society; the expected masculine and feminine characteristics are known as gender roles. According to the text, “General Psychology”, “Gender roles are demonstrated through the actions, general beliefs, and characteristics associated with masculinity and femininity” (426). Learning, cognition and gender schemas, and biology are key aspects in the gender conforming process. Learning styles include observational learning and operant conditioning, whereby gender behavior is learned by watching others of the same sex and by consequences, respectively. Moreover, gender behavior is developed by cognition (applying thought to the observed behaviors) and gender schema (mental guidelines).

All aspects of human behaviour are affected by nature and nurture. Nature is the encoded genes or DNA in human body that plays a role in shaping the aspect of a person whereas nurture is the environment factor that shapes a person such as surroundings, social relationship, culture and how they are brought up since young.

The nature versus nurture debate is one of the most important and fundamental topics in the study of Psychology. To what extent are aspects of human behaviour attributable to genetic, inherited characteristics? Is human development shaped by external factors, things that are learnt or acquired during development? Are we ‘pre-wired’ or are we the product of exposure and experience? There are a number of schools of thought that have developed since the birth of Psychology as an academic discipline, when the first laboratory dedicated to the study of the subject was opened in Leipzig by Wilhelm Wundt in 1879, but this topic has been discussed by thinkers since the time of the ancient Greeks (Konnikova, 2012). Each school of thought, or perspective has differing, and sometimes overlapping, views on the extent to which nature or nurture is responsible for the development of human behaviour.

As evident from the generalized patterns found in differences in behaviour and outlook observed between the sexes, it may be tempting, as has been done in the past, to conclude that gender is an unavoidable aspect of human existence as determined purely from one 's genes. Indeed, human physiology is subject to sexual dimorphism; statistically significant differences in brain size and rate of maturation of specific substructures in the brain exist between males and females (Giedd, Castellanos, Rajapakese, Vaituzis, & Rapoport, 1997), yet these physical differences fail to explain how individuals form their concept of their own gender, and why they tend to conform to their perceived gender roles as defined by the society in which they live, when these roles are ever-changing. Thus, it is important to differentiate between the physical and nonphysical traits, and how the labels of femininity and masculinity should not confuse the two aspects. As defined by Unger (1979), “sex” would be used to refer to the biological differences in males and females, while “gender” describes socioculturally determined, nonphysiological traits which are arbitrarily designated as being appropriate for either females or males. With more recent awareness and interest in matters of gender nonconformity and individual gender identity, new research now explains how these concepts of gender are shaped by social influences (Perry