Blogs!

Nature versus Nurture: One, the Other, or Both?

https://simplypsychology.org/naturevsnurture.html

In AP Lang class, we were all given the same prompt, a very general one and with vast possibilities: pick a news article-yes, any article-and write your perspective on it based on logical evidence and personal experiences. After bouncing between many topics, from the death penalty to abortion and even to Harry Potter, I was overwhelmed with all the possibilities; it is noteworthy that I am undoubtedly one of the most indecisive people on the planet. However, I love thinking about people, how they relate, and how the mind works. Specifically, I am fascinated with the topic of human nature.

The article I examined discussed the topic of “nature versus nurture.” Essentially, this concept deals with whether human conduct and behavior is the product of their genetic composition or the experiences they have throughout their life. The former is called “nature,” while the latter is commonly known as “nurture.” Generally, most people do not think it is simply one or the other; as the article addressed, most people see it as a combination of both, but the controversy comes from how much of either part. Though it is such a simple question, the answers can be extremely complex; so, what contributes most to who an individual is? Though both nature (genetic predisposition) and nurture (experiences) contribute to a person’s perspective and personality, nurture contributes far more so due to the impact of cultural impressions, familial influences, and more specific experiences, such as tragedies.

How often is it that we hear about the effects of the media on the population? How is it that a whole people group in one part of the world can hold similar values, but across the world another group has completely opposite views? These and more are consequences of the nurture side of the spectrum. As much as people would like to deny it, we are highly impressionable creatures, and can sometimes be easily convinced to believe a certain thing or behave a certain way. For example, if a culture commonly believes that eating pork is wrong, then it is very likely that an individual of that culture will agree. This is because their mind has been conditioned by the world around them; their perception of reality is a product of what their culture has told them, even though it can be altered by outside factors. Similarly, familial influences display the effects of “nurture.” If a child is told that Santa is real by their parents, then he certainly has to be, and no one can tell them otherwise. They may not have believed that before by nature, but since their parents told them, this position has been impressed upon them until it can be affected by another outside source-yet this source is still considered part of nurture, anyway. Our family impresses our beliefs, behaviors, and even aspects of our character on us. Is not it aweing to consider how different you could have been if you had been brought up in a different family? A shy person could have been the most extroverted if that quality had not been repressed by their parents, and vice-versa. An optimist could have been a pessimist had their parents not encouraged them to think positively when they were younger. All of these are influenced by (though not limited to) their family, furthering the case for “nurture” holding more power. This even shows in the animal kingdom-while most male gorillas are very aggressive, there was a group of them which somehow had no adult males (possibly lost, killed, etc.) and the male baby grew up to be a nonaggressive gorilla, all due to how he was raised. In addition, there are countless real life people and fictional characters influenced by tragic events in their lives. Often, authors give their characters dramatic “sob stories” because they recognize that these can be the source of their character’s personality; without that unfortunate event, they would not have been the same person (see Harry Potter, Frozen, every character of the Percy Jackson series, or any typical YA genre book these days). Thus, people’s personality and perspective is the product of their environment and experiences.

Some may argue that all of our personality is preset in our nature; this argument has some truth to it, but also crucial limits. For Christians, the belief is that our nature is sinful and has been since the infamous Garden of Eden. This does give us a natural tendency to be focused on ourselves and to mess up. However, just because our nature is this way, does not mean we always will choose to do wrong. We have been informed through life of right and wrong and have been rewired by outside influences to strive for good and try to improve. This is still nurture-we have been taught by other people to disregard the evilness of the world and to try to be better. In addition, some may argue that our instincts show who we are by nature. However, though some of our instincts are natural (eat, sleep, breathe, etc.), much of our reaction plans have been impressed upon us by our upbringing (fight or slight, help or avoid, etc.), and our further reflection after our first instinct displays the conditioning of the world. Based on past experiences, our instincts have adapted to better prepare us for the next situation. We may have naturally been a fighter, but after that did not work time after time, our experience (nurture) changed us into a flight oriented person. Though the argument of nature has strong points and is valid, it is not as strong as nurture.

In short, we as humans may have been preset to be a certain way, but our experiences and people around us can alter who we were originally. Culture, family, and specific experiences greatly display this. The incredible thing is that no matter why we are who we are, God created us to be that person and allowed us to experience these things that have shaped who we are. To argue that humans are only influenced by nature and not nurture would be to claim that people are static creatures, but this simply is not so. We live and we learn, we grow and we change-for better or for worse; we are sharpened by our experiences, like swords sharpened by iron, growing continuously throughout our lives.

**I would love to hear other people’s input on this or to clarify anything unclear, so feel free to comment!!