“It’s Nurture, Not Nature” A question that many psychologists ponder is “What determines your personality and behavior: nature or nurture?” There have been countless studies and experiments that attempt to prove one side or the other. From twin studies to evidence of breaking the cycle of abuse, it can be seen that personality and behavior are due to nurture, not nature. A prime example that personality and behavioral patterns are based on nature is alcoholism and drug abuse. Popular belief is that if your parent is an alcoholic or drug addict, you will become an addict too. Yes, people who are the children of alcoholics “are at [an] increased risk” of using drugs or abusing alcohol along with “behavioral and emotional …show more content…
The study showed that “a personal abuse history was not significantly associated with either child abuse potential or dysfunctional disciplinary style” (Rodriguez and Tucker 252). If dysfunctional parenting styles and abuse were genetic; the cycle of abuse would never end. This study proves the cycle of abuse can be broken and you have the power to control your behavior. It is also evident through tin studies that nurture determines personality and behavioral patterns. In most twin studies testing personality and behavioral differences, the twins are not raised in the same environment. In this study, monozygotic twins who are “identical in gender, age, and genetic makeup” who also live in the same home are used (Guo, Chen, Li, Yang, and Zhang 300). They will be testing the effortful control of each twin. This means they will be testing a “regulative dimension of temperament, which is associated with later internalizing and externalizing problems” (Guo, Chen, Li, Yang, and Zhang 300). 585 pairs of monozygotic twins, “from 11 to 18 years [old]” were used in this study (Guo, Chen, Li, Yang and Zhang 301). The parents involved in the study were asked to assess their children’s “capacity to voluntarily regulate behavior and attention” using “a scale ranging from 1 (almost always untrue) through 5 (almost always true)” (Guo, Chen, Li, Yang, and Zhang 302). The children would then rate their mothers as “nurturance-involved parenting, harsh-inconsistent parenting, maternal warmth, and hostility” (Guo, Chen, Li, Yang, and Zhang 302). The study revealed that nurture “was associated with adolescents’ effortful control” (Guo, Chen, Li, Yang, and Zhang 305). Researchers determined “that negative maternal parenting (harsh-inconsistent) and maternal negative expressivity (hostility) were linked to lower levels of effortful control, whereas positive maternal parenting (nurturance-involvement) and maternal expression of positive emotion (warmth) were
The biggest controversy in psychology today is whether genetics or one’s environment plays a role in the behavior of the individual. Psychologists have researched and developed different theories to explain the reason for the way humans think and behave. The behavior of individuals is either inherited or learned. In my opinion, I believe that nurture plays a big role in the individual’s behavior. Kendra Cherry states, “Nurture refers to all the environmental variables that impact who we are, including our early childhood experiences, how we were raised, our social relationships, and our surrounding culture” (1). People have become who there are because of the environment they were exposed to in their childhood years. The behavior of people is influenced be the environment that surrounds them and can changed many times through one’s lifetime. People have different personalities a person’s
A controversial topic still to this day is whether or not environmental and outside factors play a bigger role in a person’s development or genetics. Many psychologists have founded theories around childhood development, such as, Erikson, Bandura, who believe it’s the social interactions that really help to shape one’s growth. However, there are some who see both sides, such as, Freud, who provides evidence that it can be both, genes and nurture. Based on the information of many psychologist’s research, the most prominent make up of a person’s development, personality and behavior is based on nurture rather than nature.
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).
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
Have you ever noticed that you might act like your parents? Or maybe that your personality has changed over your lifetime? People have been debating about the nature versus nurture debate for a long time, and some think nature or genetics plays the bigger role in shaping personality, but some say nurture or society does. Nature and nurture both play a big part in determining what our personality will be. Identical twins have many differences. Your personality can change through your life because of the way you were raised. Studies show that nurture is much more dominant than nature is. Nurture is much more dominant in shaping personality than nature.
There is a debate occurring in the world of psychology revolving around the way people’s behavior is based on either nature or nurture. Both of these, again, deal with psychology and are both aspects of behavior that are products by one of two realms. One being inherited through genetics and the other
On the other hand, there are people arguing that our personalities our moulded purely by external factors such as family, friends, teachers, and society as a whole (Spaulding, 2009). What is certain is that our heredity and DNA can carry traits which make us susceptible to mental disorders and psychopathology, which can have serious affects on personality (Spaulding, 2009). For instance, Down syndrome children have difficulty in communicating and understanding thus, causing them to be slow learners and anti-socialites. A person with a hypothalamus lesion may experience obesity or underweight that is beyond his or her control. However, the aspect of environmental influence (nurture) should not be entirely excluded. For instance, a person who has two obese parents can grow to be healthy and slender as healthy food is available for him or her.
“A born devil on whose nature nurture can never stick,” says Prospero in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest(Smallman). Even Shakespeare questioned what traits came from nature and nurture. This argument goes back hundreds of years ago where famous philosophers such as John Locke, Francis Galton, and Thomas Hobbes have researched nature vs. nurture, and no one can seem to agree on one answer. Behavior Genetics is one of the most talked about subjects in Psychology. Most of the world knows it as the debate of Nature vs. Nurture. Now psychologists are not arguing about which side is right, they are arguing about which side influences characteristic traits more. The question is, does
Evidence shows that abuse on a child, whether physical, sexual, or psychological, can have negative side effects. Not only can abuse cause immediate harm to a child, it could also cause long-term damage to mental health and overall function as an adult. Many adults that have suffered abuse, maltreatment, or neglect in their childhood are at greater risk for perpetuating that same behavior towards their children/step children. Though not all victims will become abusers themselves, many abusers have experienced some sort of mistreatment as a child. Survivors of childhood abuse have a greater chance of developing substance abuse problems, especially drinking, and mental health conditions (depression, anxiety, PTSD, ect). Broadly, there are a number of negative outcomes associated with childhood abuse, with considerable overlap in the types of negative outcomes associated with different types of abuse (Anne N. Banduccia, 2014).
The argument of whether an individual’s personality is defined by nature or nurture is one of the oldest debates in psychology. On one hand, are biological theorists who use research to support the importance of genetics on behavior (Zaky, 2015). On the other hand, are theorists who support the theory of tabula rasa, which is the stance that we are born with blank slates and acquire our personality from experiences (Zaky, 2015). An example of a biological theorist is, Bowlby who viewed infant attachment as being an innate process for survival (Zaky, 2015). By contrast, behavioral theorist Bandura states that personality is developed based upon social experiences Zaky, 2015).
Despite this, nature and nurture could play different crucial roles in our lives. Genetic factors are responsible for our appearances; environmental factors are responsible for our social values and attitudes (Tan, 2015). Our physical traits are clearly inherited from our parents and are unchangeable. But our behaviour is mainly up to us to decide. If we observe around us, majority of the children behaves differently from the parents; parents could be compliant but a child could be stubborn and vice versa. Therefore, nature and nurture works differently in our
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
During the 20th century, there was a popular debate between nature and nurture among scholars. On the one side, some psychologists, such as, Arthur Jensen believed that genetics plays a significant role in shaping a person’s traits and behaviors. While on the other side, psychologists such as B.F. Skinner and John B. Watson argues that behaviors are primarily learned from an individual’s surrounding and derived by the environmental influence. But today, the majority of the scholars propose that nature and nurture are interrelated and they affect people’s development of traits and behaviors simultaneously. Therefore, in our research, instead of making an argument on which factor generate more influence on human development, we focused on the
From John Locke’s blank slate to modern scientists arguments, nature versus nurture is one of the most debated topic in psychology. Nature refers to genes and hereditary features that plays a role in a person’s growth, whereas nurture refers to any environmental stimuli that contribute to the development of behaviors. A lot of people though believe that nature and nurture are separate, only one can influence a person. In this modern era, majority of experts and people will now agree that both equally contribute in influencing people’s behavior and personality. Nature and nurture interact with each other in order to make each individual person unique. This paper is mainly going to focus on how nature and nurture influence substance abuse, memory defect in mice, the progression of prosocial behavior, aggression, empathy, and consciousness.
People are constantly growing and changing from the moment they’re born until the moment they die. Yet, some researchers believe that the personality is the one thing about a person that does not change over time. Genetics and environment equally contribute to the development of the personality. This is shown through the nature/nurture principle. The way a person behaves towards others, and reacts towards the world around them is determined by that person’s individual personality. No two personalities are alike. This is because a person’s individual personality is made up of a unique variety of characteristics called traits.