The nature versus nurture debate has raged on for what seems like eternity. The debate, loosely defined, is a dispute between the idea that human beings are born with characteristics that are innate, versus the idea that all behaviors and traits are learned through experience.
If you had to pick a side on the issue, which would it be? None of the usual, "I see both sides” or anything like that. Are you a product of your environment or of your genetics? Pick one and argue for it.
This will be the stuff of a larger class conversation, so your responses should be indicative of reflective thought and intelligence.
(500 words/60 pts)
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You say tuh-may-toe. I say tuh-mah-toe. Al l of us are different. Where do we acquire differences like this? Although there are many characteristics that are predisposed, like alcoholism, I believe that the environment in which one is raised has a greater impact on the end result. The way we are raised ultimately shapes us into the human-beings that we become.
Children whose parents smoke are twice as likely to pick up the habit. Is that something that we inherit? When we’re babies, do we know that we’re going to be smokers? No. Depending on whether or not cigarettes are in your environment determines the decisions you make. If your parents think it’s okay, you will most likely agree.
Kids that grow up in a negative environment are more likely to be pessimistic adults. When we’re babies, we coo and smile. We don’t pout and whine. Of course, we all face the terrible twos. But it’s a phase some of us grow out of. The one thing that determines if we grow out of it is our surroundings. If our parents are, for the most part, up-beat and happy, we become up-beat and happy. If they are despondent and unenthusiastic, we end up like them. We are a product of our environment.
Likewise, abuse isn’t hereditary. Someone who gets smacked around grows up to smack others around. It’s a vicious cycle. The cycle is more likely to come into play when the child is raised in that atmosphere. A child who grew up with an abusive parent is more prone to become an abusive parent as opposed to a child who was raised in a violence-free household. Also, girls who are raised by wife-beating fathers are more likely to seek out men who will end up beating them. Although this sounds crazy, we seek the familiar.
Somebody once told my mother that she looked like a mother duck with baby ducklings following behind her. The way we dress, the way we speak, the way we wear our make up is based on what we’ve learned in our family. In my family, we all have long, straight, blonde hair. I have the choice to cut it, dye it, or curl it. However, I prefer it straight. I get it from my momma. If I had a mother who got perms all the time, chances are I would want my hair permed as well.
I grew up in an extremely clean environment. We’re talkin’ OCD clean. Because my mother insisted on having a clean household, I’m now uncomfortable in filth. I don’t like clutter. I don’t like dust. I don’t like dirt. I don’t like things that don’t match. Whenever I say I have to clean my room, people think I’m kidding because it’s already so clean. It’s not clean because my mom keeps it clean. It’s clean because I choose to keep it clean, thanks to the environment I grew up in.
Is this always a great trait? No. I get mad when my sister doesn’t put the Hanukkah candles in a pattern and my gingerbread house has to look identical on both sides, lacking a creative flare. In the end, I can’t help it. I’ve tried to change my ways, as has my mom, but it is what it is. The way I was raised will have a lasting impact on me and will affect the way I raise my children.
I remember in middle school our science class had to do a project on nature v nurture. I can honestly say I have no idea what my topic was based on, but one of the highly discussed topics was homosexuality. When I was younger I believed for the longest time that children became homosexual due to their parents and how they were raised. However, when I was introduced to the more scientific side of nature v nurture, as in the genetics side, I changed my perspective. I became to believe in nature, and our personality attributes are already found in our genes.
I took a personality test that was given to me through Collegeboard to determine types of careers based on my personality. While I was taking the test, I was with my mom and we were talking about how different my answers were from what she would have put. On top of that, the results were drastically different than her personality, and the results were strangely similar to my personality. I grew up with my mom. My mom nurtured me my entire life, for the most part. I grew up to be an organized, non sentimental, right and wrong based person. My mom on the other hand is very whimsical and is very sentimental and always puts another persons needs before hers. My mom is nowhere close to being organized, but she’s artistic, and so is my father. I, am very logical and “right brained,” so to speak.
In general, “humans are born with characteristics that are innate.” Genes are the blueprints of a person’s entire structure, inside and out. If a person didn’t have the genes to be organized, a child surrounded by organized parents wouldn’t be organized because they don’t have the genetic skill to be organized. Twins are probably the best example of nature v nurture. An experiment was organized to concentrate on the childhood life of twins who were separated at birth and grew up in contrasting environments. In their adulthood, the twins were tested and experimenters found distinct similarities between the twins. Researchers concluded that twins, even though they were nurtured in highly different environments, still had coincidental characteristics.
Characteristics are solely based on the genes of a person. However, I do think that certain environments bring out characteristics already genetically built in the person. For example, I cannot stand music. If I had it my way, I never would have been involved in our elementary and middle school band, as well as our community band. Unfortunately, my Dad is a highly acclaimed musician, at least in his head he his. No, but seriously, he is. He says he has perfect pitch and when he was little, his parents would tell him to go to another room and they would play a note on the piano and my dad knew the exact note. Freaky, but it’s true. Anyway, my mom made me take up music because of my dad. I didn’t like it, and I dreaded every practice. I never practiced at home. However, I ended up learning three different instruments and I was able to teach myself how to play piano and tune my guitar when I had no idea what I was tuning it too. Nevertheless, if my mom never forced me into the musical aspect of life, I never would have known that I have musical ability because I had no urge to do it.
In conclusion, genes make up the characteristics of human beings. Humans do not gain personality traits depending on how their parents raise them, or where they grew up. However, certain personality traits, based on genes, may not be revealed due to environment.
Ok, when I started typing my blog, there weren't any posts to read, but I read Megan's. I grew up around smoker's. Every adult in my family, except for my mom and dad, are smokers. Every holiday, I was surrounded by smokers- the smell of smoke, the coughing, the wheezing, and smoke in your face. I absolutely hated it, and I still do. I hate it because I know that in a few years they all could be dead from poor circulation and/or lung cancer. The right thing to do is to not smoke, which is why I don't smoke. If I didn't base my life on doing the right things, maybe I would smoke because everyone in my family does, which makes is acceptable.
I can honestly say though that after reading the different side of the argument, I'm still not fully sure. It is a tough subject, hands down. Genetics, however, is deffineitly the best explanation.
Science is my all time favorite subject, and even with all of the genetics stuff, I still believe the way you are nurtured affects you more than your nature. I find it hard to believe some people are born with the desire to kill, be mean, and smoke cancer sticks, while others are born the exact opposite. The things we go through every single day makes us who we are. The choices we make build up our character. People are not born evil. They are not born a saint. We learn, through experience, how to act and who to be.
My father is very very strict when it comes to school. C’s, D’s, and F’s are not options for me. Because of the way he raised me and the mindset he gave me, I am determined to excel in school. Whether or you not you are taught it’s okay and right to do a good job in school, determines whether or not you will. Most of my family is not that bright at all. (Sorry guys) That does not stop me from making sure I do all of my work and understand everything I can. English was my worst subject. My dad realized this so made sure I always tried harder in those areas. Now, I’m decent in all areas in school, not because I was born this way, but because I was determined to better myself. This was my decision. A decision that shaped my character in an interminable number of ways. People who are smart are not born smart, they are however born with the parents who will either support or discourage them in doing good.
The desire to do a nice thing for someone for no reason at all is not something you are born with. Throughout life you find things that make you want to do good and make you strive to be kind. Those who do not find the desire to do good things will choose not to, not because they were born with that decision already made up for them, but because it’s what they want. Bottom line is people are the way they are because of what they go through and how they are taught to react. No one is born with all the same characteristics and/or behaviors they will have for the rest of their lives.
Most people argue that people do not learn to be homosexual, that they are born that way. I completely 100% agree. Homosexuality does not fall in the category of behaviors or traits, it is something completely different altogether. Anyone who uses homosexuality as the only thing to back up their points is trying to use a spoon to cut a steak. It’s just the wrong thing.
Meghan B said “While I was taking the test, I was with my mom and we were talking about how different my answers were from what she would have put. On top of that, the results were drastically different than her personality, and the results were strangely similar to my personality.” This does not mean you were born with this stuff. Just because your mom raised you does mean you are going to like the same things. You were not raised by your mom’s mom and/or dad so of course you guys are going to like and want to be different things.
Another issue a lot of people bring up is smoking. People choose whether or not they want to smoke based on their lifestyle. Hence, this supports nurture, not nature.
Genetics can describe why you look the way you do, but it can in no way explain why you act the way you act. Science is always trying to find an explanation for everything, usually they succeed. In the case of nature vs. nurture the only true and correct culprit is nurture. We are moulded into who we are based on what and how we learn throughout the adventures of life.
=)
Nature or Nurture?
The nature versus nurture debate has raged on for what seems like eternity. The debate, loosely defined, is a dispute between the idea that human beings are born with characteristics that are innate, versus the idea that all behaviors and traits are learned through experience.
If you had to pick a side on the issue, which would it be? None of the usual, "I see both sides” or anything like that. Are you a product of your environment or of your genetics? Pick one and argue for it.
This will be the stuff of a larger class conversation, so your responses should be indicative of reflective thought and intelligence.
(500 words/60 pts)
It comes as no surprise to people that living in Philadelphia, Camden, the Bronx, whatever, that it is a “dangerous” or “scary” place to live in ( anyone who argues this conclusion better go take a stroll at night in one of these cities and then, if alive, come back and explain how it was). Now, here’s the point I’m trying to get at. The city’s population may be, let’s say just for number’s sake, 300,000 people. Of those 300,000, 2,000 are drug dealers, 4,000 are robbers and vandalizers, and 120,000 own guns. Is it by coincidence that all of these people living in the same area have very similar qualities or lifestyles that seem a bit out of the ordinary for others living in, let’s say, Louisville, Kentucky? Not at all. The population of people living in Philly was not born into this world destined to be a drug dealer. They were not born into this world with ingrained set goals to go out and kill people for money. If their mother or father was a gang member or something, this did not automatically did not create hateful, dangerous traits into their genetics. People are developed mentally, and sometimes even physically, solely from their environment and surroundings.
It honestly drives me crazy that there are people who whole heartedly believe a child is brought into this society with a certain personality that will stay with them for their entire future and shape how and where their life will lead them. If a child starts out having a rough time in pre-k and they are moving at a much slower pace than the other classmates, should the teacher just say, “Well, it must be another slow one. Put him in the back of the class and let him just color.” I most certainly hope not! Of course that student will eventually turn out to not be smart and will be socially inept or isolated from the increase in development by others if they are treated that way. If any indication is shown that a child is at a slight decline or disadvantage from another, there better be people in this world who step up, accept the challenge, and give that person extra help to put them right at the top with the others.
Obviously, parents have a huge impact on how a child behaves and who they are on the verge of becoming. Ultimately though, it is up to the individual to choose the path they wish to take in life, with numerous influences they have received from others around them and in their surroundings. I’m not trying to go off topic, but before stating this third paragraph I real quick went and made myself Speghetteos. Of course when I’m eating I have to watch, the two go hand-in-hand. So anyway, as I was eating and watching Ellen DeGeneres, a commercial came on which was really ironic. It was about a man who is arrested by the cops for being a drug dealer and when he’s on the ground with the police around him he looks up at the man flying the helicopter tracing him and go figure it was the same man. The message sent out to the community was about how children have two paths to choose in life and that their parents, teachers, friends, whatever can help make them choose the right one. Now if you are someone who believes people are naturally brought into this world with a pre-designed personality or way of thinking, ask yourself this: Do want options in your life? Do you want choices? Do you consider the people in your life to be role models or examples of people you wouldn’t want to become? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you better re-think your stand on this question because I know you don’t want to live through life feeling and believing that you can’t determine your future. I know you don’t want to grow up in the projects, make one bad decision, go to jail, and think well, this is who I was born to be. Everyone has a choice in life. People are given choices to make every single day. These choices are what create the type of individual we are.
No matter how strong a person could try to argue against my position, I can guarantee you nothing will change my mind, and how can I make such a stubborn, 100% positive guarantee on that? Simple. I CHOOSE not to believe it. I do not want to live my life not feeling in control. I do not want to think that before I was able to talk my personality was already in the making, unfolding into a pre-planned outline of the type of person I will grow into. Before I came into Oakcrest I hated going to school. I loved learning but I hated the people there. I would cry all the time to my mom to let me go to a different high school just to make sure the next four years of my life would not be hell. But look: I LOVE Oakcrest High School more than I have loved any other place in the entire world. I feel at home here and yes, you can call me a geek or say I have way to much school spirit but I know I was not born to love this school and get as much of an amazing experience out of it that I am right now. I CHOSE to accept that fact that I am going to be here for the next four years and I am going to make the best out of it and not be miserable anymore. I came out of my shell, which definitely was not easy. I made so many new friends, joined a bunch of clubs I never thought I’d be interested in, tried my best in everything I do, and took risks. How is it even possible to take a risk if that “risk” is already expected of that person to take? People are NOT born with a certain state of mind or personality or any type of trait built into their brain. People choose who they want to be and how they want to adapt to the society they’re in.
In response to Meghan Brennen’s blog, just because you don’t smoke does not mean you were born with that decision in your mind. Take in to consideration that maybe seeing others smoke and the effects it causes on others helped influence you to CHOOSE not to.
A person’s personality has a lot to do with their environment. If someone is around politics, they will either hate it, and stay far away from the political scene, or they will embrace it and follow the political path into an office. If someone grew up in the city, they are bound to know the safety tactics for every possible situation. If someone grew up in Oklahoma, where there are very few crimes committed and the news casters have to do stories on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich successfully, the personalities will be different.
I have grown up with being involved in adult conversations because my parents were consumed into political things and they had to go to dinner parties where I ate and walked around in pretty dresses talking about what my plans for the future were when I was only 8. My family loves to go out to dinner for a good meal, when my brother and I were born; my parents took us out to dinner. We were said to be well behaved and the fact that we didn’t scream or cry when we didn’t get our way was astounding to the people around us. I am fortunate to have grown up in an environment where manors, that kids are just learning, were imbedded in my head from the very start. Also, my family loves to travel and experience many different cultures. As long as I can remember my weekends and summers were consumed by traveling to many different places. I have been to 38 out of the 50 states and I have been to Canada and I plan on going to France this summer. If it wasn’t for the crazy trips, I wouldn’t be able to picture the scenes that authors describe in their books.
Like Leslie has said, she hates the idea of not being in control of her life. I feel the same way. Of course our parents played a part in who we are, but they aren’t the only people that have influenced us. The people we surround ourselves by impact how we think and how we act. Look at me and my best friend for example, Devon and I have known each other since the dawn of time. She is crazy and does what she wants and it’s either you love her or you don’t. I, on the other hand, am a complete opposite of her, but when we are together I gain a little bit of her craziness and she gets a little bit of my calmness, but either way, we do what we want when we are together. I was not born to be friends with Devon, even though sometimes I believe that, and she was not born to be my friend. We ended up giving each other a little part of one another and we became best friends.
In the debate between environment and genetics, environment wins. The people that surround a person will impact that person; there is no question about that. The environment that a person grows up in will mold their mind to what it is now and the present will mold their mind for the future.
The Nature versus Nurture debate is one that has been going on for centuries, and can even be traced as far back as France in the 13th century. This controversy addresses the endlessly sought after question ‘do we inherit our traits purely from genetics, or do we acquire them through the environment that we live in’.
I have been blessed with two loving and caring parents that have looked after me ever since I was born. Consequently, I possess the same values that they have raised me with since I was a child. Likewise, Megan presented the idea that “If our parents are, for the most part, up-beat and happy, we become up-beat and happy. If they are despondent and unenthusiastic, we end up like them.” But what if I was adopted? This proposes a completely different outlook on what my personality might have been like if I was adopted or put into a foster home. My biological parents would remain a constant, but I would have no knowledge of them. A lot of times you hear of children who don’t have parents or a specific parent figure to look up to, and they end up getting into drugs and other life-threatening activities. If a kid lives in some foster home in the city, where he hears gunshots going off and doesn’t always get treated the best, chances are that he’s going to have problems. These types of problems are not always hereditary, and when most of the kids in the same foster home end up having similar problems, the truth is difficult to ignore. Our environment is what determines our behavior.
Personality is also a major factor that can be weighed in to make a case for the Nurture side of this argument. Sure, people may say ‘you have your mother’s eyes’ or ‘you smile just like your father’, but about personalities and certain talents that we possess? I have basically spent all of education in ‘accelerated’ or ‘honors’ programs when they were available. My mom would always encourage me to show my report cards to my MomMom, to let her know how I was doing in school. Upon doing so, she would always say, “I don’t know where she got these brains from, certainly not from me”. Nobody that I know of in my family has been exceptionally smart. They never applied for advanced classes or were determined to get straight A’s. In fact, my parent’s generation was the first to go to college out of my family. So, obviously I didn’t inherit their behavior concerning education. I ascribe this behavior to the small class size that I had in school from kindergarten to eighth grade- never reaching over fifteen kids. This very good learning environment made it possible for my teachers to concentrate on our individual needs and allowed them to recognize talent and intelligence when they saw it. And, when Emily Mehler came to Port school in the sixth grade, she added to the affects of this environment. Without her, I doubt that I would have been pushed as hard education-wide. If I went to some inner-city school that didn’t even have a name and was called PS (public school- I learned that from ‘Hey Arnold’) something, I highly doubt that I would be in the same place with my academics.
Our environment is what shapes us. Nobody else has the same experiences, and that is why we are all so different. Each individual has their own idiosyncrasies that can only be explained through things that have happened to them. Therefore, each and every life experience will have an effect on who we are and who we are yet to become.
As Megan said, "You say tuh-may-toe. I say tuh-mah-toe. All of us are different." The everyday things we do and say, we have all "picked up" from our environment. Whether it is home, school, or even out at the mall. The ways we are nurtured doesn't only come from the little ball our families keep us in. It also depends on the friends you hang out with and where you go. Being a child of a smoker and a sister of a smoker, these negative things are all around, but my friends don't smoke and I have chosen not to. Just because you have certain things in your life while you are being "nurtured" doesn't mean you follow in their footsteps. In the end, we all make our own decisions based on the things around us.
I completely agree with Megan when she says that if you grow up in a negative environment, odds are, you will seek for a similar environment, but I also believe that if we properly learn the better ways of living, then we may CHOOSE not to have that same lifestyle. It all comes down to the word Choice again. We could all grow up in an abusive envirnment, but just as Lily hated her life in "The Secret Life of the Bees," she changed it in search of something better, which we all can do. If we honestly don't want to stay in that "nurturing environment," we can change that.
Genetics. The chromosomes that create our bodies. So, logicially and scientifically, we are products of our genetics, literally. But without our environment to mold us into the human beings that we have become, we would be nothing. We would be an empty body without thoughts or decisions. There would be nothing there to influence us to become anything. We need our environment. It's how we all CHOOSE to use the things we learned from our environment that counts.
So Bunje, I believe that we are a product of our environment, but it is hard to pick between the two. Typically, we are both, but it all comes down to the teeny tiny feature that happens to surround us everywhere. The media, our friends, and our family are all responsible for molding us into the "perfect pot" I guess you can say. Without their influences, we wouldn't face hard decisions to lead us down the path of life. We would be stuck at a fork in the road not knowing what to do. So as Kim said, "We are moulded into who we are based on what and how we learn throughout the adventures of life. "
�Ya�ll gonna eat dat?!� �Mother, I can�t not believe how crud and unmannerly she is.� �Like, oh my god girlfriend, I�m totally stoked to go to the mall!� These are prime examples that you�re environment and atomosphere make you who you are today. The dialects you speak in and where you�re living on this earth influences you�re beliefs and cultural ways of life. Once I was on vacation with my Grammy and Poppy in Yosemite National Park. We stayed in the lodge right in the center of the park to really get the outdoorsy experience. Well anyway, one day during or trip we went to this educational, yet entertaining show on how glaciers formed and how the animals died off and whatnot, but what I will never forget from that trip was what this boy about my age then said to me. I must have said something to my Grammy and when I did he turned around and said are you from Texas? I couldn�t believe he said that to me considering who doesn�t know a south jersey ascent when they hear one? But this makes a point that people can recognize where you�re from by you�re voice inflections and tone. I�ve gone on so many vacations with my Grandparents ever since I was 8 or 9 from Plymouth to California to even Europe, twice! I�d have to say I�m pretty fortunate to have that privilege and I could never take that for granted. Traveling to all of these historical landmarks all over the world is only part of the entire experience. Visiting France, Italy, and Switzerland were probably the countries that stuck out to me the most culture wise. The people are so different than us Americans. Besides their obvious ascents, their clothes, their stature, and their general way of life all was based around the region that they lived. The people in Paris all wore the most fashionable clothing and carried around some kind of hot beverage from a caf� which was so commonly found on almost every street corner. The women in Italy were young and fresh and the men were constantly trying to ease women in. At a restaurant in Switzerland, you couldn�t find one person without some kind of Rolex watch strapped to their wrists, even if it was a knock off. That�s what makes the world so interesting and never changing. It�s the people who make it up and occupy it. You�re way of life and personality are all effected by where you live and where you were raised, a lot more so than you�re genetic make up. People will try to fit into the environment, more so than stick with their technical make up. The location and place you were raised makes you into the person you�re going to be because no one can resist being influenced by the people around them and culture and history that comes along with it.
I completely agree with my Leslie Poo that where you live influences who you are. Living in Philadelphia, violence is constantly surrounding one�s lifestyle. A child only learns from their parents and if guns and drugs were all they knew, they wouldn�t think anything bad of it. This is a perfect example of how the environment and where you live makes you who you are, not your genes.
Meghan B said blueprints are the blueprints for a persons structure, in side and out. I agree, but I believe that genes, the nature portion of growing up, are only the blueprints for the outside and it is truly nurture that makes us who we are.
A person is not born a liar, a killer, or a theif. They learn these concepts growing up. - Like Leslie's example of Phili and Kentucky. Maybe it is a way of protection, or maybe they grew up with a poor childhood, with no values, and no direction. Either way, nurturing makes them the way they are.
For the same reasons that the liar lies and the killer kills, the people who live their lives in better ways learn how to do so by nurturing. My mom is one of the most paranoid people in the world, just like her mom (see, nurturing!). She never makes left turns, in fear of crossing over traffic. She makes me write my name on every expensive object I own in fear of it getting stolen. For the longest time, I didn't even know that lilly pads had flowers on them, simply because the only thing she ever told me about them was that if you are every swimming near them the roots can wrap around your legs and you can drown. Because of this, I find myself getting worried over situations a lot, just like her mom made her do.
My dad loves music. He used to play the guitar for me every night before I went to sleep. I would then wake up every morning to him making pancakes and blasting Bruce Springstein or Alison Krauss, his two favorites. As my brothers and I grew up we all inherited this passion for music. Ryan plays guitar. Sean plays the piano. And I tried for both. Even our dogs love music. Whenever one of us sits on the couch with a guitar or sits in front of the piano, Ayla and Brody will run under our feet and lay down. Ayla even sings when we play certain songs on the piano. I doubt the dogs were born to love music, it doesn't seem very common among dogs.
Nurturing has to make us who we are. We are put in so many different situations that no one could ever predict, not even nature. To overcome these situations, we have to look back on our nurturing, and other situations. The solutions just don't come to us like the way it does for breathing. They are not just in the back of our brain waiting to be brought to the front one day. We have to become who are by experiences. I don't think that when I was born I was who I am today. I wasn't born already loving to be outside at night. I developed that love because of living in Mullica, where there are no street lights and few neighbors to light up the sky and ruin the chance of seeing stars. The things I love, my personality, how I deal with problems, all this was formed over time due to nurturing. Nature only made me. It gave a body and mind that would fill with all my own thoughts. Nature only gave the blueprints. Nurture did the rest.
I’ve always been a firm believer in the triumph of nurture over nature. The very idea that everything that makes me who I am was determined from birth by in essence random chance is very repugnant to me. Sure, I can believe that physical traits can be determined by genetics, but personality and thought processes, ridiculous. The human brain is quite possible the most complex organ in our body, and scientists aren’t that sure about how it makes parts of our body move, much less how it makes complex decisions. Philosophers have constantly been pondering what makes a mind and a soul and even where there is a distinction between the two, and still they haven’t reached an answer. So how can this mind, a concept that has so far completely defied physical explanation be governed by our genes and our heredity?
I certainly have found no evidence that heredity controls personality, but I have seen and am the product of how environment effects personality. Both my parents love books, and I grew up surrounded by them books of all shapes and sizes. My parents took every opportunity to read to both of my brothers and I. Needless to say all three of us grew up with a love of books, and reading. We all could read a little by the time we went to kindergarten. And we all still carry this love of books with us, my little brother and I are still up until all hours with books in hand, library visits have almost been a weekly occurrence. The love of literature held by both of my parents, and their determination that it would be a part of our environment has shaped both my brothers and I. Leslie, Kim, Erin and Megan all mentioned smoking in their blogs. For the first few years of my life my father was a smoker, and until he saw me put a cigarette butt to my mouth and saw I want to be just like daddy, he realized how much influence he had over my young impressionable mind. And decided that he had better quit to make a long story short he went cold turkey and hasn’t smoked since.
I think that believing that your very being is set in genetic code from your birth is almost a regression in belief to the times when people believed that almost every aspect of their lives was controlled by the gods and all of their actions were predetermined. I think the way that Alli m said that “Nature only gave the blueprints. Nurture did the rest.” Is besides being incredibly witty almost exactly how I feel about the issue .
I strongly believe a person gets all their behaviors and traits by learning them through experience. Yes, people might say that someone gets their traits from birth, but I think that is just an excuse. It seems like they want to blame everything on something that can not be changed because it was already there at birth, such as certain behaviors. I see them as being afraid to admit that they either raised their kid that way or just afraid to admit what they did to the child.
Everyday in this world you see little kids and even teenagers and adults that just seem unruly and immoral to you. Thoughts ponder through the mind like �Oh my God, their parents must be horrible!� And I think this is true because I find that one will act the way they are raised and brought up. Or maybe it�s not just the parents, but the surroundings. Surroundings do have a high impact on people and they feel pressure to do stupid things. But once again, if the kid is taught and brought up to resist bad things than hopefully they will say �NO� to the pressure.
Experience, experience, experience this is my major stress. It is a thing that will make a person who they are. I myself was raised to always be polite and was constantly reminded. I was taught the proper way to say things and always try my best and to try my hardest. And this is why I settle for nothing better than the best of the best. Some people may just be told that they did O.K. on their tests, activities, or whatever they are attempting. And that is what they settle for, whereas I think if everyone was taught to go for the highest thing possible everyone would be very smart and self reliant.
Surroundings are major things in people�s lives. They always want to do what they were brought up around. The person always will think it is the right thing to do, even if it is not. Bad traits will be seen as good. For example cursing, this is a thing seen as inappropriate to some and to others an everyday language. If a persons source curses and uses inappropriate language a lot; than most likely that person that hangs around the others will start to find it normal and appropriate. These events causing new expressions in their life brought about by nurture.
Overall, most things in this world are not found in you at birth. Things such as substance abuse, abusive behavior, inappropriate acts, the way you dress, and the way you feel and do things are not found in you at birth. This list could go on forever and show why nurture would beat nature and explain why people act they way they act. Things are brought upon somebody by someone or something. There will most likely always be a chance they will do what they see like the common clich� �Monkey see, monkey do.� The popular clich� refers to a child's learning process. The child observes another's behavior and then imitates it. Children raised with bad parents and surroundings have a possibility to grow up and be bad. Children that see kind things happening will most likely always feel the necessity to be kind. Like Megan said she has to be clean because she was raised in a clean environment and can�t change her ways since it is how she grew up. In conclusion, everyone learns from experience and this has the possibility to change people and form them like clay. And that is how you get a person to be the way they are by their experience and nurturing.
Commenting on Megan�s blog, I agree with her because I am the same way. I was raised a certain way and that is how I am no matter what. I have no way of changing it because it is just me and the way I was raised!
All the while that I have been growing up this has been a very controversial question that is constantly brought up. Whether it is on State test for examines, or a simple question a teacher asks to be discussed in class because of the novel the student are reading. And to me it seems like every time my opinion about nature vs. nurture tends to be different.
For once when answering this question I am sure of what side that I am on. I’m going with nature all the way. The way you are born or the genes that are passed on to you is what you will live by while shaping into a person of you own being. Genes if I’m right posses traits. Every person is somehow always different from the next person no two persons are the same not even the twins which tend to always deceive people because they tend to look alike. There are people that are two quite, there are people that are two loud. People characteristics are possessed naturally not because of the environment that they are in. You can take the quietest person on this earth and place them in the mist of loud and boisterous people and they still remain the quite person they are same if you take the most loudest person ever and throw them in the mist of people that never talk; they will starts a conversation and still be the loud person that they are.
So basically what I am trying to say is a person is who they are no matter where they are. You environment doesn’t influence whether you are loud or quite it is your trait that is the main factor of how you turn out or who you become. Growing up I lived in the hard, tough streets of Brooklyn, New York and you would think most likely that I would be the type to always want to fight or never take school seriously because of my environment, but that’s not the case at all. For most times I am a lover not fight and I like to settle things in an orderly fashion instead of going along with all this he say she say things. My brother on the other hand is opposite of me. My mom relocated from New York because of my brothers case because she thought a more quieter and better environment would do him while but in reality it made him no difference at all. He still acted the way he wanted to act regardless the environment he was in.
So in response to Leslie opinion I have to object because most of the people who do live in Brooklyn, Bronx or any other gang banging city are not rapist, killer, etc.. Its just a stereotype and I can speak on this situation because I lived in an environment like that for ten years of my life. To Meghan B example. I just think you and parents are not smokers because you guys know the effects and how much it can do. Obviously smoking is naturally a trait that most of your family posses and can not overcome. I don’t think there environment causes them to be smokers because I am sure your family member were all not brought up the same.
Environment, Environment, Environment! Your environment in which you are in makes you the person you are. Though genes may contribute to our human instincts they do not affect our personality. We see this in all of our lives. A prime example, my father was raised by his mother for eleven years. While she was alive he had dreams of becoming a doctor, going to a prestigious college, and becoming wealthy. After his mother died all his dreams were crushed. His environment was altered therefore his personality, his mind set, and his view of life were also directly effected. Environment and nature are directly connected to the person you are and will become.
I grew up in a well to do neighborhood. I was never susceptible to gangs or violence. Someone living in section eight of the Bronx or Compton where violence in prevalent may have a harder time combating against the pressures of their environment. Where did genes come into play when it comes to joining a gang? They don’t because your environment is everything. If I’m a girl living at home with my single cocaine addicted mother with know support the odds are I’m going to be the exact opposite of Mary Sue who grew up with two parents one a lawyer the other a doctor, in Beverley Hills. Yet just because your environment is negative doesn’t mean you’re doomed. Some people use that to their advantage to become successful and escape their negative life. They use the mistakes of other’s and learn to better themselves, either way environment comes into play. Also a child raised in a household of abuse will most likely grow up to become abusive or will set their goal to become the best parent they can be. The environment they’re in will impact what they become.
Also Emily C made an argument that genes don’t play a role in personality because no one in her family is exceptionally smart. Why? Because their environment was different. Maybe her parents lived in an environment where the support and drive needed to accelerate to take Honors classes wasn’t there. Maybe they had to focus on other things to get to where they are now to give Emily that support. Emily wasn’t equipped with a “smart” gene she was just put in an environment that pushed her to become the EM CAP that we know and love her for.
Environment is everything. I like to think of humans as sponges. We absorb whatever’s around us whether it impacts us negatively or positively. Your environment can vary from your country you live in to the street you live on. All of it contributes to the person we are and will become.
I was reading Mikey T's blog and it reminded me of my mom. Like Mike's dad, my mom smoked when i was little, too. One day, she saw me standing in my crib pretending to smoke a cigarette. She asked me what I was doing and I said I wanted to be just like her. After that, she quit. So did I.
I just reread my comment, and realised my first sentence made no sense. I meant genes are the blueprints.
I guess thats what happens when I get too sick to function!
Well let me start by saying that I do agree on both, but to an extent. See I believe you are born who your are today, though there is a but. You may be born who you are and what you look like but your environment sculpts you to become the person you are., in a sense of your actions, thoughts, and morals. Parents have a very big role in a young child’s life but it is the environment in which the parents chose to raise their kids in, is what they will become, unless it can be overcame by a new and better environment. Take kids who grew up on the bad side of town with a not so stable family or environment to live in. These kids will live in this environment and act the way they act while living in that environment and will continue to act that way even when they get out. Now in some cases people change. They are put into a new environment and better themselves. They are simply seeing what is out there for them and allowing themselves to walk away from that environment they grew up in and knew so well, and change. Environment is a huge part of who you are. For some reason people like to blame who they are on genetics. To some extent that can be justified but it more so has to do with the environment they live in. If you grew up with an abusive father who had anger problems, you will most likely have those anger problems. It is not because they are given to you genetically but because it is what your surroundings are. Now in the same situation, with growing up with an abusive angered father, if put into a nice stable family environment, I bet that you would not have anger issues. The environment you are in sets your mood and the way you feel. Your mood and the way you feel effect your actions and words in which are said. Those words and actions effect other people, which can create a good or bad environment.
I agree with Megan. One who is treated badly as a young child will treat others badly when they are an adult. That negative vibe in the environment carries through the air effected everyone around. People don’t think that though it is true. I can nor stand watching television and seeing these young adults get out of jail after murdering someone, because “its genetic.” That is a load a horse poop. Yea the kid may have gotten it from his father, though it wasn’t genetic. It was because his father beat him or abused him and you know why he did that? Because his father did the same thing and so on all the way back until someone breaks the chain and changes. These behaviors are not in your genes because they can be easily changed, and now a day are changing more and more. People are some what beginning to realize the truth, though it will always continue on.
I am very similar to my dad in all his views about politics, people, personalities, projects, paraphernalia, and food. Can that be genetics? Of course, considering I have half of my genes from him. But I honestly think that I would be different if I was raised under my dad’s twin. I can only see a few instances where people can actually argue the nature side of this argument. And since my internet went down right after I copied this statement or question or whatnot, I can’t see who argued for it. But, I one hundred percent believe that your environment and the nurture you receive from everyone you encounter and the events of your life define you. I like this topic and I actually think I’ll talk in class if we discuss it.
The only instances where genetics will determine your characteristics are when you have a genetic disease. People with Down’s syndrome cannot control how they behave at times. If someone was bumped or malnourished in the womb, they may be lacking something for the rest of their life that they can’t overcome. But the reason why people curse, drink, feel the way they feel, and practically do anything in life is all attributed to the environment they grew up in. The most significant influence is the family, though. You cannot deny that the more quality time parents spend with their children is directly proportional (haha Bunje I’m pulling out math terms…kind of) to how well behaved a person is.
I don’t really want to use this comparison, but the communities of the Newtonville area compared to the low-budget developments of Mays Landing completely show my view. The people of Newtonville are mainly minorities as are the low-budget developments. But in Newtonville, everyone is nice, calm, friendly, and very neighborly. They are polite and hold themselves well. The people who live in the low budget homes at some communities are scary sometimes. People tell stories about how afraid their parents were just to let them outside at times. The kids who usually grew up there are also most times troublesome, rude, and misbehaved. My sister busted her elbow open and it was bleeding substantially and some old man in Newtonville brought her inside and patched her up then helped fix her bike. I only wonder what would have happened if that happened somewhere else. Now of course there are exceptions, but where do you think they come from? When the whole community is leaning toward the bad side of influence and the kid grows up with good parents, they will be just fine. And the same holds true for the opposite.
Just to add, alcoholism is not a disease nor is it inherited. People claim that there is a tendency for certain people to drink because their parents and grandparents did, but that tendency is not found in their genetic material. The environment they grew up in led them to drink.
Finally, I want to end on a movie my dad talked about the other day. I wish my internet worked right this second or else I would look up the title, but it doesn’t. It starred Eddie Murphy and there was a basic bet for one dollar that some bum (Eddie Murphy) off the street couldn’t live well if he was put in place of a stockbroker. Now this bum was a typical homeless meanderer who was nearly crazy and couldn’t keep his life together if he tried. But somehow he succeeded in the job environment and the family that he lived with. Most people view homeless people as unable to succeed, either because of a mental disorder or just their lives. But this movie shows the opposite. The environment one lives in will mold his characteristics and abilities.
Well I got my internet working and I just Meghan B’s blog and I completely disagree with her last paragraph. “Characteristics are solely based on the genes of a person. However, I do think that certain environments bring out characteristics already genetically built in the person. For example, I cannot stand music.” After that opening quote she goes to talk about how she hates music but her dad is good at it so she did it and still hated it. Now how does that support that genes make her hate music and her dad like it. I bet that if her dad would have spent time since she was very young and played music with her and taught her himself, which all I’m pretty sure he never did, and she practiced at home, she would love it. My dad always said that he was a pretty good drummer and could play a few instruments as a kid and encouraged us to play around. I never took lessons but I still dawdled around. He encouraged me though and helped however he could and that is why I like it. Anyway, that whole last paragraph I didn’t like. “Humans do not gain personality traits depending on how their parents raise them, or where they grew up. However, certain personality traits, based on genes, may not be revealed due to environment.” That was her last lines. And I still disagree all the more.
I strongly believe that the environment in which you are born and raised in shapes the personality you carry with you as you grow older. I really liked how Becca used the examples of the way people speak. It makes perfect sense. If you've been born and raised around people who speak gramatically correct, chances are - you will speak gramatically correct as well. But if your parents use slang like period 9/10 uses ‘Pokemon’ for every last example in class, then you're probably going to be a little slang fiend.
But I think another good example of nature vs. nurture would be twins. Twins always share a certain connection that isn't felt by anyone else except them. If two twins are born, and then displaced into different environments, they will definitely become two completely different people. Chances are, if they grew up together they'd probably be sharing lots of the same qualities, or at least a lot more than they would be if one were to be brought up in a drug-addict household while the other was taught respect and that church-going was a must. Clearly, being brought up in seperate environments would greatly affect the character they have molded after so many years.
Another way to look at it, (Rach, this is for you..) athletics are a way to distinguish nature vs. nurture. Sure we’ve all heard about those kids who are “born with it”, but that’s not always true. I think that if a child is raised in a household where sports are the number one priority, and were forced onto sports teams while they were younger, they will be accustomed to growing up in an athletic environment and possess that competitive trait.
I don’t really think that certain traits people have grown accustom to come from genetics. Sure, there are exceptions, but in general I think that personalities, beliefs, and morals are shaped by the environment from which a given person is raised in.
We were actually talking about this debate not too long ago in my psychology class and after much debate and discussion over this topic I stand behind nature’s side in this argument. Sure genetics ultimately creates you from the time of conception but what creates who you are and your personality is strictly your environment. The old saying “Choose your friends wisely.” Your friends are the people you choose to surround yourself with and no matter how much your parents may have drilled certain qualities they deem acceptable into you, you can not help but start to act like your friends. We are being influenced by our environment all the time without even being conscious of it. Our parents are the first impressionable people in our lives and tend to guide us and shape who we are when we are little. We tend to grow up being just like them. My parents are very hard workers, speak very well, like Becca said, and continually challenge themselves. These are qualities that growing up around them have rubbed off on me and I now consider my own. Genetics had nothing to do with those personality qualities.
Erin mentions the difference in language. We all have picked up on different jargon of our particular area. People in New Jersey obviously don’t speak the same way people from Alabama do. This is not a genetically inherited gene because if you move your accent can change. This is a prime example of the environment you are in changing you. Let’s say you decided to go to college in Alabama, it would only be a matter of time before your Jersey accent changed into a more Southern accent, based solely on being in an environment where that is heard and spoken everyday. We subconsciously change or alter certain aspects of our behavior based on our environment.
Certain experiences in our life can also change who we are. Someone with both parents compared to someone with two deceased parents are going to have different personality traits because their environment and experiences have been different. Even normal things are learned that we take for granted. For example, our first breath is something we must quickly figure out as soon as we are born, it is not genetically put into our body the knowledge how to breath. Also, crawling and walking are products of our learning abilities. We learn by seeing other children crawl and older people walk. These are lasting impressions that we must learn from our environment for a normal life. But even as we age the impressions that our environment has on us do not cease. We are influenced a lot today by the movie stars and Hollywood and feel like what they are doing is okay. Young girls continually look at really thin girls and think that’s the way to a happy life, and all because our society, our environment has molded us to believe that.
All in all the people we are surrounded by, our environment, are the factors that make the people we are today. If you hang around the “bag crowd” you are most likely going to pick up on some of their behaviors whether you originally wanted to or not. Our environment can also help us to better ourselves. You may see a quality in a friend that you wish you could pick up on, and subconsciously it is likely that you will begin to pick up on it if you are around the person enough. For example, married couples they find themselves after years of being together to be so similar, and this is why. Genetics may determine your hair color and eye color and which parent you look like, but your environment is responsible for your personality traits.
People are products of their environment and the apple never falls too far from the tree, but regardless of where that apple came from it falls from to the ground and it gains a different perspective on life. Cereal killers and rapist aren’t born with an intuition to kill and rape. I wasn’t born with the idea that tacos, cuddling, and rainy days were like the three fold path. I acquired that philosophy through 17 ½ years of experience. In the womb nature gave us different characteristics, genes, but as soon as our eyes open into a brightly lit room with strangers holding us with cold fingers we gain our first perspective, that’s our first experience. Hence experience determines our perspective on life. Perspective is not innate. The people around us, positive or negative, attribute to nurturing characteristics. When my sister was younger and we sat her in her high chair we would put lots of vegetables on her plate so she could eat them It just so happened that she ate more of the peas than the carrots and broccoli. We figured, "wow, she must like peas" so we gave them to her all the time. It turns out years later sitting at the Thanksgiving table when my mom offered to giver her peas she politely denied them and said how she never really likes peas that much, until we started to give them to her all the time. She only ate them because they tasted less worse than the carrots and the broccoli and they were always on her plate.
Another prime example of nurture versus nature is my mom. I'm a person who likes to surround herself with lots of different kinds of people. It just happens to be that most of those people are black.The kind of environment my mom was raised in was conducive to racism, but i wouldn't call her a racist because when she was younger that's all she knew about black people, spanish people are superior. As she grew up she doesn't have that same exact mentality, but because a lot of black people have fallen under the bar of a particular stereotype her perspective on how black people are stayed fairly similar. Now, if it was nature that makes you who you are then wouldn't i be the same exact way?
Most people when they first meet me think I'm black, then when i open my mouth i "talk white", then i tell them I'm spanish and they always have this bewildered look on their faces. I've lived in a lot of different area's one of them being Ocean City. The minority population in Ocean City could probably be counted with one hand. But because i lived there for so long that's how i talk, i acquired their way of speaking. I've changed up my vocabulary a little and lost the ascent because a different environment made me that way.
I completely agree with Niah that humans are like sponges. We soak up life experience, make decisions upon those experiences, run with it and hope for the best. There are still some issue left in the dark about nature V. nurture such as homosexuality, but a boy/girl raised in a family where homosexuality was accepted and embraced that boy/girl is more likely to be comfortable with their sexuality and they wont be afraid to come out and be who they truly are.
The topic of this blog is very similar to an essay question I had on the SAT. It was whether or not one is born with their personality or if they acquire it throughout the years that they mature and get older. I believe that human beings develop their behavior and traits through learning from their experiences. Everyone is born with a based personality. From the first couple of days after birth, they begin to develop their personality and add on to it. From the words mommy and daddy use to childhood environment they are brought up in, people will adapt and develop a certain traits.
Children that are exposed to parents that smoke or drink often will most likely take after their parents. Teenagers experience peer pressure everyday. The decisions they make are what define them. Some teens mature faster than others and are more secure with themselves. Others don not mature like others and some are insecure. When growing up teens have to make a lot of decisions. For example, when I was younger I started to hangout with kids that were not doing the right thing. When my parents sat me down and talked to me, I started to change my actions. If I were to keep what I was doing, I most definitely would have a different behavior. No one person is born into their personality or their behavior. It is what influences them that make this up. If a teenager was born into a rough neighborhood, their personality and behavior would probably resemble their neighborhood environment.
Another example is how my behavior and traits about me have changed over the years. When I was younger I was more of the quite and shy kid. To this day I am still the shy kid but I have gained more traits that define me as a person. To prove to you that I am still shy, I always blush when everyone looks at me or I am reading. To prove to that I have developed new traits, I was never the kind to introduce myself to people or shake hands with older people and hold a conversation with them. When I saw my brother doing this really well, it rubbed off on me. About three years ago I started to shake adult’s hands and look them in the eye. I also can hold a conversation with them for a good amount of time. I also have become louder and more outgoing. I don’t care what people think about me and I just express myself.
I have to agree with Megan. We all start out happy and change due to the environment we are exposed to. Things like being poor or wealthy will change your behavior and the traits you acquire. If someone was born into a negative environment, their behavior will most likely be negative. The things the influence someone and the environment they are exposed to at a young age will influence their behavior and traits and will also change them.
Nurture whomps nature, or as Gretchen would put it, “CRUSHED!” I believe that you’re environment, the conditions in which you are born and group in, are what define you as a person. For example, look at the lives of two completely different children; one born to a poor inner-city family and another to a divorced middle class evangelical suburbanite. The child born in the inner-city may be pre-exposed to many things that the suburban child may not be, such as shootings, drugs, and robbery. Take a look at a city like Philly. It’s obvious to see why one would think that. The child born to the suburbanite might not be exposed to the same things the inner-city child might have, but that child is filled with ideas of evangelicalism, which could be good or bad…but that is a topic for another day.
You cannot possibly expect both children to grow up and be the same. Mr. Martino said that you have a one in 64 trillion chance to be an exact gene replica of your brothers/sisters. This is only if you and your siblings come from the same parents, and assumes that crossing-over, parts of your parents chromosomes are exchanged, is not a factor. With crossing-over, the combinations are infinite. While scientists know that genes are units of hereditary information, it only provides a cell with information about its expected activities. One CANNOT assume that genes replace or even equivalent with the behaviors and traits that are learned through experience. When a baby is born until it is able to learn on its own, it will inherit any input its parents have. The baby stores the information in its brain, which depending on the combination of a million factors, could lead to mental disorders among various things.
“While I was taking the test, I was with my mom and we were talking about how different my answers were from what she would have put. On top of that, the results were drastically different than her personality, and the results were strangely similar to my personality. I grew up with my mom. My mom nurtured me my entire life, for the most part.”
I read Megan’s quote above and I have to disagree. Genetics doesn’t not determine in any way. You mother may have put certain morals and values in your life, but a college major test isn’t going to ask you questions based on that. The test will act you things you like to do, which are completely different for EVERYONE. If our interests were based on genetics, you would have a 50/50 chance of enjoying what your mother does for a living; the other 50, your father’s profession.
This is harder to do when you have to pick only one side, but I'd say that nurture has a lot more to do with your personality than nature, or your inherited traits. I think heredity, for many different things, only pre-disposes you to certain qualities and characteristics, but it doesn't make you that way. You learn how to do everything, including the way you talk, dress, interact, think and have fun, from parents, teachers, friends, siblings, schoolmates, neighbors, etc. The set of people that you come in contact with and are influenced by is as unique as your fingerprint. In a lifetime, you might brush shoulders with over a million people, all of which could effect you whether you realize it or not.
An environment may not have the effect on a person as you might expect. One's environment may have caused a trait even if the trait was not a part of the environment. Many children who grow up with alcoholic or abusive parents will turn away from these things and try their hardest to be different because they saw how destructive these behaviors were. However, there are others in similar situations that may develop the same characteristics because of even slight differences in their environment.
Identical twins have different personalities and different interests, despite the fact that they have the same exact DNA. They are influenced by different people and things, and thus develop in different ways. At the same time, children often have interests that are similar to their parents, siblings, teachers, friends, idols and/or other people in their life. Friends and families grow and develop together, experiencing many of the same things and influencing each other. If genes made you who you are, parents and children would have much more in common, and friends would have much less. How many times do adopted children meet their biological parents and realize they are nothing alike? A child may learn to love animals or music, thinking their parents must have also loved the same things, but then it turns out they could care less about such things, but instead they love NASCAR or watching football. My pastor met his biological dad for the first time a year ago. After 38 years of totally separate experiences and a different family, it wasn't that shocking when he found out he and his dad had few common interests.
In my opinion, people are definitely born with their own traits. I can see, however, how some people can "pick up" their traits by observing the actions of their peers, but mostly, I think people's traits are their own.
God created each and every one of us differently, though we were all made in his image. I firmly believe this. I can't sing like Katie. I can't surf like Danny. I can't run like Emily C, or light up a whole room like Niah. I can't play football like James, or the drums like Caitlin. I can't hate the world like Joe, speak Vietnamese like Rosy, or teach English like Bunje. I'm definitely not capable to be class president, like Leslie. But none of the people listed can ride horses like I can. We're all different, and that's what makes us all so cool.
This kind of reminds me of the movie "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer". In the movie, Rudolph and Hermie were considered to be "misfits" merely because they were different. I don't think they're misfits at all. They're just different. I wish I had a blinding red nose!
Reading through the blogs, I see a lot of good points. Megan's cute "You say tuh-may-toe" rhyme pretty much explains it all. We are all different, as I've said before.
It's hard to fully explain my point, but I really do think that people are all born with their own incredible traits. I mean come on, we can't all be as beautiful and amazing as me.
Aww, I would’ve said both nature and nurture, but since I can’t, I would have to agree with Megan. The enviroment, in where a person is raised in, really does have the most impact on a person’s personality in the end. When you were born, did you instantly decide that you love playing soccer or drawing? Megan provided some really good examples about how nurture is what shapes our personality, you don’t automatically want straight or permed hair, someone must’ve influenced you to like it. But I have to say that Megan B. also provided some pretty good scientific examples, but there was one flaw in all those examples. We’ve seen in many cases that a physically unabled person would still continue to do what he wants to do. A person with no legs can still be able to drive in a box car race or run if he put his heart into it. Nature has nothing to do with a person’s capability, it is the influence and the determination that brings a person onto doing something.
Kids grow up in a relatively influencial world, with friends, family, internet, TV, and music. Teens tend to follow trends in magazines and mtv and why? Most kids grow up living the way their parents grew up and become just like them, personality wise. Depending on the friends you have can also change your personality. Boys become their dads, and girls become their moms, that’s how people are usually influenced unless an outside influence turns them around. Megan gave many good examples on the influence of people, I especially agree with the whole up-beat parent and their children being the same. But I’m not so sure about the whole thing on girls growing up and marrying a husband that would eventually beat them. Wouldn’t having a father like that change what they would view in a potential husband?
I grew up in a typically strict enviroment, where I’ve been raised almost in a bubble, as I’ve been told. In my family, we are proud of our Vietnamese culture. We’re definitely not the communist Vietnamese, with the red flag and the yellow star in the middle, we support our “real” flag, the yellow flag with the three red strips. I find it insulting whenever a teacher would talk about the Vietnam War and show the red flag. I find it more insulting if people call me a communist. Everytime, in school, when we talk about the Vietnam war, I would get fired up and start talking about it like I was actually there during that time. I guess I feel really proud of being Vietnamese just like my parents and my grandparents, being with them everyday talking about the “Viet cong” and how horrible they were back in Vietnam. But since I live in America, I’ve been influenced a lot from my friends at school, from the way I dress to the way I talk. Now that I think of it, I barely have a Vietnamese accent!
Ms. Bunje, I just got home and I now must leave for soccer practice. I won't be home until about 10, so I apologize for the late blog. Hopefully, it will be worth the wait.
I agree with Megan when she says that "The way we are raised ultimately shapes us into the human-beings that we become". Although some people claim that human beings are born with all of their characteristics, I firmly disagree with this concept. After thinking about this question long and hard, it seems fair to say that most people that I know, including myself, are products of their environment. This means that human beings will generally become paradigms of their constant surroundings and act similar to the people that they were raised by or with. Although it is obvious that certain traits and qualities are inherited, I think that the most important things in a person, such as knowledge, wisdom, pride, style, etc. are gained from what one is exposed to. The qualities that one nurtures are unalterable, whereas the ones acquired from their environment are able to be chosen which makes them so much more unique and defining. Speaking from personal experience, I know that my parents taught me my manners, morals, and high-standards. Without their assistance in leading me down the right road, I would definitely not be the same person that I am today. I guess to a certain extent I would be able to form values from genetic characteristics, but I think that the way one is brought up and how much the morals are forced on them has everything to do with the person you will become. Aside from just family impact of characteristics, I believe that teachers, peers, and role models play a huge factor in ones life as well. The majority of us have been surrounded by our teachers and classmates just as much, or maybe more, than our own families. We follow trends and style that we see on celebrities and on television. We follow rules and structure from our teachers, and gain knowledge from them as well. We follow our peers most of all, in my opinion, as we strive to fit in and become accepted by them throughout our entire lives, whether we realize it or not. This is, without a doubt, a difficult question to answer. Both sides have their pros and cons. However, I think that I can honestly say my family and the way of life they surrounded me with has ultimately made me who I am. Although physically the characteristics are out of anyone's hands, knowledge and experience gained by environment has the greatest impact on a person's sculpture.
Nature. There is no doubt in my mind that nature is the primary factor in how human beings define themselves. Nature is the surroundings around someone that is the situations, circumstances, and instances that either produce an opportunity or provide an answer. Nature is how humans can learn through experience. The theory of stimuli and response undermines the fact that nature is how humans live. When different situations become encountered, different reactions are necessary in order to succeed. Even though each person will react differently the purpose is the reaction at face value. The environment fashioned a circumstance where if a response was diminished, delayed, or botched the outcome turns negative. After the malfunction we learn, and have the ability if the situation were replicated then the outcome would be positive. Experience is a first person account; people cannot hold your hand all the way through. The more frequent these circumstances occur the stronger the individual will be, molded into a statue of mental strength at the hands of nature.
Those who face nature alone will be better off then those who get by with a friend. The more solitude one can have the better they will learn. I am not saying that nurture doesn’t place you in a specific environment, but immediately after you are placed in that environment it is time to crawl around, and get acclimated. The acclamations will be shaped by the situations and the challenges presented. Emrow told me something about twins and how if you raise them together they will be the same but if you put them in opposite environments then they will be totally different. I agree with that because obviously there is different situations at hand. However I don’t feel that nurture will get them through life more than nature will. The twin who is in a church family will learn and experience through church and what else is thrown in his or her direction. To me, what is thrown at you is nature, and how you react to it is how successful you will be in life. Moreover it will tell you more about your personal character than anything. If you can self –assess yourself after a monumental accomplishment or failure, then the true character surfaces and will either motivate or depress you. Only nature will reflect the character of each person because it entails the true qualities of one.
If the other twin were placed into a crack house like Row says then, yes, there will be clear differences, but the nature is the same. The nature is not the substance, but the material. To me nature it the general surroundings that one has to face, each person has their own environment, but still has to react to every situation. Nurture cannot test the qualities of a person because it cradles you and holds you back from the truth of reality. Nature is a survival of the fittest, a test of wit, character, strength, and valor to ultimately define each and every human being.
DNA is a blueprint for our physical beings. It can determine how we look and can even give us a predisposition to behave in certain ways. These influences of DNA are minute though when compared with the influence of how a person is raised. Many people treat human beings like clockwork; that they are born with this set of genetic instructions which man is fated to follow until death. Ultimately this causes humans to feel that they are helpless to fate, that things have to be the way they are going to be and they are unable to change it. And so they concede all of their hopes and ambitions. Unjustly they rob from themselves the very thing that makes them human beings, the ability to not only change the world around them, but to changed themselves fundamentally as well. No man’s life is completely out of control. No clockwork is so firmly set in place that it cannot be tampered with, with the right ingenuity.
Nature can only tell us so much about a person, but these things do not determine who I truly am. My genes tell me only the things, which can be changed most easily and are most material in nature. It tells me how I look, the color of my skin, eyes, and hair, and any diseases I am susceptible to. With the right amount of plastic surgery, tanning, contact lenses, hair dye, and medicine any one of these can be altered. And even if they were altered they would hold no lasting changes on my behavior.
Behavior is only changed by experiences. They are only determined through growth and development. It has often been said that the more you are around certain people the more you will become them. This dynamic is one of the most honest reasons people tend to behave so similarly to their parents. Since the day they were born all humans end up seeing their own mother and father as their main example for how adults behave. They see their parent’s behavior: mimic it, and see the things that their parents enjoy and overtime grow their own affinity for it. If someone says that this is merely the result of the information naturally encoded on my chromosomes they are merely making a jump in logic. I am not a Christian because my parents both were and they passed on some sort of “Christian gene” to me. I found my faith because I was raised in a home where that faith was always prevalent. As Laina said not even identical twins, with identical genetic traits are identical people. Their life experiences and the circumstances of their lives determine their true personalities. While two men may be from birth indistinguishable from each other on the outside, their personalities will still be unique.
The idea that life is naturally planned out by genes is an excuse created so that men can fail without feeling to blame. This way they can say that it’s not their fault, they were born that way. The simple fact is that the genetic theory can explain away some qualities of human behavior, but it leaves too much to be desired. Natural selection fails to explain the very human ideas of morality and art. These can only been created by linking together life experiences. An opinion is meaningless unless it has some sort of experience to back it up. If you don’t know why you believe a way you do than your opinion is truly meaningless. This is where life comes in. Life is what forms us. It makes us who we are. Determines how we think, how we act, how we hold ourselves, and how we relate to other people. Many people denigrate the most important factors of their lives to merely precipitate from their genes. But we are not slaves to our DNA. As Dr. Naomi Hunter once said, “You mustn't allow yourself to be chained to fate, to be ruled by your genes. Human beings can choose the kind of life that they want to live. What's important is that you choose life... and then live.”
I was hoping to be able to take both sides but since it clearly states to not do that, I won't. I believe that the way someone is brought up determines their behavior, actions, etc. I agree with what MeghanB said about how genes are the blueprints of a person. However I agree with what Alli said about how genes are only the blueprints of what is outside. The way someone is on the inside is determined by the way that particular person is raised.
When i was in 6th grade or so, my parents had gotten a divorce. That changed my life drastically. Before then i thought my life was perfect, but after that happened, I realized that I was vulnerable to anything that could happen in the world. I don't think that, in my genes, I was programmed to be able to change my perspective of life. It happened through experience. There are certain things called instincts but that has to do with being able to eat, or know when you have to go to the restroom. Well, at least that's what I think. When I listen to sports shows, I listen to the announcer say, "He was born to be a football player," or "He was made to be a champion." That makes them sound like they were in a lab and were spliced with genes that made them superior athletes. Sure, someone can be more athletically inclined than the person next to them, but that doesn't qualify them as "born" to do a certain thing. People get better by practicing which eventually can lead to being the greatest-there-ever-was.
"Leaders aren't born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that's the price we'll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal" (Vince Lombardi). That quote explains my point.
I feel that I am a product of my environment. Growing up, my parents wouldn't give in to me pestering them for a toy at a store. That, in turn, taught me that I can't always get what I want. My nephew, Jake, on the other hand, gets whatever he wants. If he doesn't, he cries or throws a fit and eventually will get what he wants. Well that's what he used to do. I don't think he does it that often anymore. Anyway, the actions of my parents influenced me a great amount. If i lived with anyone else, I probably wouldn't have turned out the same way. My friends have also had an influence on me as well. But, since my parents taught me what's wrong and right, I know which people are good for me to hang around and which aren't. I don't want to get mixed up in the wrong crowd of people. In retrospect, I realized that all of my decisions branch off from my parents' teachings. As i mentioned before, if it weren't for my parents, I wouldn't be the person I am now.
Nature v. Nurture is probably one of the most debated subjects in the history of debates besides evolution/creationism. I am a whole-hearted believer nurture. Your environment absolutely is what shapes you to be the person you are. It may be learning from the good in your surroundings and model what others do, or watching the bad things and learning not to do them.
An example of this would be my own household. My family might not like it if I use this example, but too bad. I am using it anyway. I will start with my mom. She is the person I want to grow up to be like. She is organized, probably not as anal as me, but still put-together. She is a kind person and does the right thing most of the time. SHe is also a great adive-giver and helper for her friends. I get this from her. No, not genetically, like she passed it down to me because this is impossible. You can't give your children your personality traits. They are naturally acquired through living with someone, which is what it is like for me. I am very much like my mom because I cant tell even from living with her, that like Megan said, I clean my room because I think it should be clean; not because I am forced to clean it. The environment I grew up with formed this in me and taught it to me. The other hand of this argument is my dad. Where to start? My dad can be described as ridiculous and crazty. He is a smoker. For this reason, I WILL NEVER SMOKE. There are other things in my life that I have sworn never to do and I ended up doing them, but this I will not. Living with a smoker is one of the most disgusting things I have ever known and because it has surrounded me my entire life, I will not do it. This was not a choice given to me at birth, to be a smoker or not. I wasn't born to smoke or not. I acquired that belief and was "nurtured", or actually the opposite of nurtured, to not do that.
I really agree with Becca's and Erin's points about speaking and the way that people talk. People born in England are not genetically formed to speak with a British accent. It is a quality that they gather after listening to people speak it and being surrounded by it. The same goes for Brittany's comment about college. If a kid from Brooklyn with a heavy Brooklyn accent decides to go to college in Canada, he is probably going to end up speaking with an "eh" at the end of his sentences and lose the Brookyln accent. This is obviously a result of the environment he is surrounded by.
All behaviors and traits that people have are determined by their environment and whom they surround themselves. Yes, genetics plays somewhat of a role: hair and eye color, stature, or obvoiusly a genetic disorder. However, the personality that a person has can only be acquired by their life.
I really like the way Niah put it and I completely agree. Humans are like sponges who absorb everything around them. What is soaked up in the sponge all makes up who we are.
When I read this a couple of days ago, I wasn't too sure what I wanted to say or how I wanted to say it. However, now that I thought about this question while swimming around in circles at swim practice for 2 hours (a whole different story in itself), I think I can answer it now. I'm on the nurture side. Your genes give you physical traits, and that can't be changed by your environment. Well, on second thought when you really think about it, I guess the environment you live in really can affect how you look. Like Megan said, she does her hair and her makeup just like her mom, because she grew up around that look. This shows that the environment really does have a huge influence on everything about a person.
People were using a lot of examples about alcoholism and smoking running in the family with this blog. The belief is if your parent grew up binge drinking all of the time, the child will be a lot more likely to be an alcoholic too. I think Kim makes a good point in reference to Meghan's blog, when she says that the reason Meg doesn't want to smoke so much can just be from the fact that she's seen her family do it so much that it just disgusts her even more. I also agree when Kim said that Meg could also feel that way because the parents of her parents did not raise her. It would be interesting to ask people who are raised by their grandparents if they are anything like their parents, since they were raised under the same exact values.
By making the "nurture argument" I'm not saying that every single trait is given to you because of the environment you grow up in. Christine said that since her mom was always keeping the house very clean and organized, she always likes her room to be clean now, too. That is one trait that definitely was not passed down to me. My mom's a pretty organized person, but I'm far from it. Maybe this is because while I was growing up she was always on my case for me to clean my room, and this just annoyed me and made me dread doing it.
It's true that nature determined the way I look, but I don't think the way I look describes who I truly am as a person. The environment also throws certain obstacles and experiences at a person, and this can also have a significant impact on a person's being. For example, imagine a person who is clinically depressed to the point where they don't even want to get out of bed in the morning. Say one day, they're just driving along getting their perkisets from Rite-Aid when all of a sudden another car strikes the driver's side and makes this depressed person fly through the windshield. The police tell this person that they're lucky to have lived through this experience. This is an example of a life changing experience in your envionment. After the accident, this person could do a 360 and love and live every moment of life, because they're happy to still be alive.
And like Christine, I thought that Niah's sponge analogy explained everything !
Since birth, I was bought up around smokers. My mother, my aunts, my cousins, and even my very own grandmother smoked cigarettes. I vividly remember the rectangle shaped carton of "Newport Box" wrapped in green paper looking cute and yummy, like candy. Then, it was a usual thing to make nippy trips to the Wawa or the infamous tobacco shop. I say infamous because my family in its entirety went to the same tobacco shop like it sold the best cigarettes ever. They were all the same death traps in the form of a cylinder. The cigarette. Years ago, when I would assemble myself in a room with congested air and thick clouds of smoke along with my family, hacking away with the 'smokers cough,' I never thought of smoking to be a bad thing. In fact, my cousins and I would play an affable game of "house," we were accustomed to 'smoking'. When I say 'smoking', it wasn't real, however, we would use crayons and portray the visual of smoking, sometimes, like our smoking family, and we’d cough purposefully, to indicate how we took in a "big puff." Smoking was "cute" to us, a normal thing that grown-ups did. To this day, families defile the minds of children when they inhale the disgusting smoke of an addicting mind controlling, little thing, called a cigarette, whether they notice it or not. This is the perfect example of proving that you are a product of your environment.
My cousins and my older sister lived with me for several years. From consistently being around smoke, we all believed that smoking was not necessarily a big deal. My mother and family nurtured them. In addition, my sister is not biologically related to me on my mother's side, the side of the family that smokes, and at a young age, she too believed that smoking was normal. This adds to the fact that you are a product of your environment.
Along with Niah, I believe humans are like sponges. We absorb whatever is around us whether it impacts us negatively or positively. For example, I was born in Atlantic City. Now, Atlantic City is not really recognized for its superior behavior. Before I was three, I moved to Pleasantville, and before the age of five, I moved to Mays Landing. Growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood, I always had white friends, except about two. Still, my black friend and I always played with the white girls in my neighborhood. I was in to platform Sketchers, which were the “white-girl shoes then”, Barbies, and Back Street Boys. The reason for calling platform Sketchers “white-girl shoes” was because all of the white girls in my school wore them. I became a product of my environment. When I was younger, my family members, mainly my older sister and cousins called me a “white girl.”
I strongly believe that if I was raised in Atlantic City, where I lived until I was almost three, I would be a different “Amber.” It’s really weird to imagine myself as a different person; however, being as though people are a product of their environment, several things would most likely be different. Since my boyfriend is right here ridiculing what I am saying, I’ll change it. If I was raised somewhere different like Newark, where some neighborhoods are dirty, lower-class, and poor, I would more likely be a different person.
Nature or Nurture? Nurture wins. It’s as simply as that. Like Mike T. said “Nature only gave the blueprints. Nurture did the rest.” In a nutshell, this is how I feel on nature vs. nurture.
I agree with megan. There are certain inherited habits like alcoholism, but most things in life are learned one way or another.
Life is one big learning experienc. In fact, part of the definition of an organism, which every human is, is that the organism responds to stimuli. If i burn my hand on the stove (which i just did making mac n'cheese), i'll know not to touch the stove when it's hot again, or at least check first. If you scold a child for drawing all over the walls, hopefully they won't do it again because they don't want to be yelled at again, or they draw again in spite of you.
People say animals have insticts to come back to their homes when they run away. Also, instictually geese fly south for the winter. This is not true for humans. Maybe at first the human species had insticts and we were born with pre-programmed systems to do things, but as time went by and technology increased we started relying less on our insticts and more on things we learn.
Again, i'll agree with megan when she said our environment has a great affect on the way we live our lives. One human can live any way he wants depending upon the limitations of his environment and what it provides him. Say, for instance, Johnny was born in compton. Johnny definitely doesnt have a good chance of success simply because of all of the negative influences of his environment. Take Johnny and make him born into a wealthy family in Los Angeles, where he is given all of the tools for success. Which scenario produces a more successful individual? Obviously Johnny from L.A.
Some argue that people can overcome obstacles in life and rise above their environment and be successful regardless. These kinds of people are said to be "born with it", as if they were born to be successful. That is not the case. Without the influence of other people around them, usually a family member or gaurdian, they could never overcome anything. Our family, friends, teachers, and enemies are the influences in which we learn from. Without my teachers, friends, and family, i would have never made it into AP and would be doing absolutely nothing with my life. People aren't just born knowing things, every human has to learn everything he/she does.
Well I guess it’s me against the world on this argument, because no one seems to see my point of view (I like it this way anyway, it’s much more interesting.) I’m going to have to disagree with everyone, because I believe that nature (a.k.a. genetics) control your behavior and traits. I know you are all thinking I’m utterly mad, but let me make my case.
First of all, we all know that you get half your genes from your mother and half from your father, but what everyone seems to be forgetting is that traits in the DNA don’t always show themselves. A perfect example is hair color; a person could be born into a family that has composed of all brunets for generations, but that person could end up with blonde hair just because way down the line in both families somebody else had blonde hair. So why is it such a stretch to think that traits and behaviors are the same way? Isn’t it just as likely that traits and behaviors could be linked directly to genes in the same way that hair color is?
Secondly, genes lay down the coding for your hormone production, and we all know that hormones do a lot of things in our body. One of the jobs hormones have is to regulate a person’s mood. So, if your genetic coding cause you to produce a little more endorphin (I think this is the hormone that makes you happy, I’m not 100% sure though) than normal, you would invariably become a generally happy person, and the reverse is just as true. Through this, it is quite obvious that genes control your mood and since mood is directly linked to personality, genes thus control a person’s personality.
Traits are also controlled directly by genes and not environment as well. I’m a perfect example: All through my life until last year, I was never exposed to any chemistry, yet I loved it almost instantly. What can explain this phenomenon? Well it surely can’t be that my environment made me love it, because I was never exposed to it until just last year and I’m sure of this because my parents don’t know any chemistry at all. I do know that the chemistry loving gene is more likely than not in me however because my great-great-grandfather was a wonderful chemist. Since environment is ruled invalid in forming the chemistry loving trait in me, and there is a valid argument for the chemistry loving gene being in my DNA, than nature or genetic is the only rational explanation for me loving chemistry.
It is entirely reasonable to say that environment has a role in determining behavior and traits, because if a person is deprived of necessary comforts, than it is very unlikely that they will ever develop to the full capacity that their genes had planned for them. If they were given all the necessary comforts to develop, however, then they would develop exactly to the plans of there genes. So although environment has a role in a person’s behavior and traits, genetics have the final say if a person is given all the necessities of proper development, like food, water, shelter and love.
Okay I started typing my blog at 8:00. My computer decided THIS moment to restart. I'm retyping the whole thing now, and trying not to totally freak out.
As the old saying goes, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. This statement is completely true; people inherit their parent’s traits and act like their parents because genetically they have some of their genes. I believe that genetics play the major role in the way people grow up to be. I believe that genetics make people the way there are. The environment can affect them but overall a person is who the way they are because of the traits they are born with.
Meghan Brennan said in her blog about the study that has been done of identical twins. Well, my mom has psychology as a class and she read about that study also and told me the same thing. There have been studies of identical twins that have been made from twins living together and twins that were separated at birth and living in two different environments. The studies have shown that the twin’s intelligences remain relatively the same whether they were together or apart. They have also proven that twins are much the same even raised by a different set of parents. They do not take on their intellect from their environment or adopted parents but they carry the biological traits instead.
I have an uncle (Gary’s dad) and my dad who are identical twins. They graduated in the top percent of their class; they were practically just as smart and athletic as one another and look exactly the same to this day. Whenever one use to be sick the other would have the same type symptoms. They did grow up in the same environment but even after years of not living in the same house as one another they still look exactly the same. This reminds me of Gary and me. Genetically we are smart and athletic; we live in two different households though. His parents don’t yell at him as much and stress the importance of trying to become the best and always doing his best. They are more laid back and say more subtle comments that can motivate him. We grew up under two different households but are a lot alike. Since our dad’s are twins we inherited the same genes, which cause us to be athlete and smart.
Some people believe that environment is more important that genetics. I do agree that it can have an affect of people but I do not believe that is the main cause of a person’s personality or actions. Leslie made the point of the people that live in Camden and the Bronx are more likely to become drug sellers and robbers, but I do not believe that is the environment that makes them that way. They inherited the genes from their parents who already have issues who then pass the issues down to the next generation of kids. What about the people that do grow up in those environments and turn out just fine. They are living under the same environment as everyone else but their genetics allow them to use their living conditions to their advantage and make the best of their situation. The environment might affect you a little but there are the people who have the genetics to overcome the pressure and the genetics to allow you to fold and blend in. Or what about the people who grow up under a family that has a lot of money and pays for everything for their children? Shouldn’t they have a perfect life since their environment is so great? But that isn’t always the case. Genetics are the cause for people’s personalities and for their actions.
Haha I think this is funny that this is the topic because when I stopped pass 12th period today I thought Du was just blurting out nature versus nurture for no reason but obviously she read the blog. But and who down to what is important I whole heartedly believe that you are nurtured into being the person you are. When we are babies we have a clean slate, I guess you can say that is innocence in its purest form for humans. We have yet to be exposed to all the gruesome details of the world around us. Instead we are made to believe for a short period of time that the world is all flowers and cupcakes. But, when you reach the age that all the pretty colors of the world turn mix together and turn black and it is time to show people what your made of for some this can be a crushing experience. Back to the theory of being nurtured into the time of person you become. I want to look pass all the physical aspects of me but into my character. I am an intelligent, silly, short tempered, no tongue biting, affectionate and understanding person. I attained all these traits through the values my parents have instilled in me. Unless you have some type of mental disability I believe that you can make an academic success out of yourself. My parents, just like Kim’s father, let me know the C, D, and F work is not acceptable. They expect the best from me best they know I am capable of the best and that is what they receive. I know that if I wasn’t pushed by my parents to excel that I wouldn’t give a damn about whether or not I could finish the projects assigned to me by my teachers on time and I would not have took the time to apply for AP classes. No one is born lazy or unmotivated but if that’s what you are used to being around than that is what will become of you. They way you are raised also determines between you being the Harvard graduate, or the pregnant high school drop out. The humanitarian or the psychopath killer. I mean look at the child hood of people who go on killing rampages. The usually are the ones that are not shown love by their families and peers and figures that that is the way to get attention. The way you are nurtured also has to do with the way you talk for instance if you are raised in New Jersey 98% of the time you say worter not water. Do people think you are born with the words in your head already but just don’t how to use them. the character of a person all has to do with the environment that they are raised in.
I agree with you Joe, I guess it is you and me against the world.
Nature vs. Nurture. The age-old question, and systemic from the Great Debate between Dawinism and Creationism has twisted our society and divided us all. Is science all powerful and knowing, or is it our environment? Which affects us more, our genes or our friends? I was forced to examine this question for myself over this past summer while completing my AP Biology summer homework. The assignment entitled studying evolutionary characteristics, and while doing so, also asked me whether or not nature or nurture ruled a person’s make up. The writer of my Biology textbook believes that it is a combination of both genes and the person’s environment that make up a person’s character. However, I believe differently. Even though a person’s physical characteristics may be formed strictly because of a person’s genes, learned behaviors and emotional characteristics are defined solely by nurturing.
At a very young age, children learn lessons, behaviors, and ideals that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. During this “critical period” of a child’s life, humans pick up every minute detail in their surroundings. As Niah put it, “Humans are like sponges”, and children are like brand-new, fresh out of the wrapping sponges.
My mother and I are a lot alike. I have been told time and time again, “You are just like your mother!” Beyond the fact that we look so much a like (I will simply attribute that to random genetics), we act and react to situations in similar ways. I believe this is because we used to spend so much time together. My brother on the other hand is the polar opposite of my mother and myself. My mother and I are liberals while my brother is a raging self-proclaimed conservative. He pretends to be politically active and thinks he knows what he is talking about while I love politics (minus all the mudslinging) and do know what I am talking about (meaning about politics. The reason for our differences is because he enjoys spending much of his time away from the world in his room, while I spent it with my mother and normal people.
There are countless examples and real life stories of how a person’s environment can affect them. Megan cites the smoker who picked up the habit from his family, while Leslie discusses the causes of major crime cities being sustained as such because of its reputation. Another one to be added to the mix is relatable to all AP students. We AP students live in some sort of a bubble, which means that AP kids hang out with other AP kids and we are not exposed (usually) to other students habits and influences. This at some times works to our advantage. AP student’s work ethics influence all those around them. When I hear Laina talk about how much homework she got done this weekend, I kick myself for not doing as much and strive to do just as much next time. It isn’t because I am competing with her; on the contrary, I am trying to learn from her example.
I was asked this freshman year for my biology class. Mr. Martino asked, “When you grow up, the way you act, is that because of genetics or your environment.” I think that it is always nurture over nature. You will become a product of your environment because of the things you have encountered as an individual. Life experiences have always been the impact on what you do in the future with your life. For example, if you live in a poverty stricken ghetto, with a violent neighborhood and a poor lifestyle, you will realize that you need to get out of this place. Most will get tied into the bad influences surrounding the neighborhood because they don’t know any better, and this is how they were taught in a negative way. If you see and realize the problems and dangers of living in such a horrible place then you will shoot for the stars and a get of the dump that you live in. I have always been taught to never settle for what you have, but go beyond your boundaries and achieve the best in you life. If you are abused or hit as a child there are two sides of the fence you can be on in the future. You can be the same way by abuse your children because that is how you were brought up but there is the other side when you promise yourself you will never hit your child because of the problems it cause for you as a child. All these problems and conflicts you’ve encountered your whole life definitely can change your personality or traits. If you were traumatized severely as a young person then you will never be the same. Your whole life before that traumatic moment will change who you are. If you were surrounded by foul language and bad attitudes then as you grow up you may catch on to the same actions from your surroundings. Not everyone looks toward the brighter side of things though. If you grow up with a brother that is a gang member and talks to you all the time about being a gang member then you will be influenced to join a gang. Influence can make or break a child at a young age. For example at a young age you may want to play basketball because you are influenced by a NBA star, you will have to strive for this dream and pursue it. With the right influences you will grow up as a better person. Your environment plays such a key role in the way you grow up. If you live in a negative or positive environment, it doesn’t matter; it plays as key element in your adult hood. The things that you learn as a child that you know as rights and wrongs come from your environment. You learn and grow up from mistakes or good happenings. Without a doubt your traits and personality are heavily influenced by your environment.
For once, nothing immediately came to my mind when I read the blog question. But after reading a few entries I decided upon my decision. Neither. I believe that neither you genes nor your environment make you who you are. YOU make you who you are. It is your choice.
When discussing it with my parents, I used to subject of my religion to defend my idea. I explain that my brother and I have been brought up in an environment that has been teaching Catholicism. We both went to church when we were young, took CCD classes and went to Catholic high schools. Even with this surrounding us, neither me nor Mark know if we truly believe in God or his teachings. My mom then brought up the point that we questioned our faith because we were brought up in a house where questioning other beliefs for yourself was okay. My uncle has taught his children strictly from the bible and that is what they believe, no questions asked. What their father taught them is right, no discussion. This made me consider what my mom really said and I guess she is right. Right from birth we see what is around us and this is how we learn. What we hear and see is what we believe because we do not know any better. And how that is taught to us determines if we can accept the other things we learn and if we can not.
Ultimately it comes down to if you were taught that if other people believe different, it is okay. If not, what we believe is strictly what we are told by our parents. If so, we can have our own opinions.
Also, if you are raised in a house where your mother dropped out of high school to have a baby, and your father was expelled for behavior problems, where if your motivation for the future? Who pushes you to go to college? What example do you have to strive for the best? I was brought up in a house of parents who would never settle for less than the best. I would not be in the class if my mother had not influenced me to strive for my top, work hard and to my largest potential. My brother struggled through his high school years because he had no internal motivation. But now, with my parents help, he is going to transfer to the college of his dreams, with a semester of working his ass off.
I do not really understand how we can be born a certain way. Physical traits and maybe a few personality traits may be hereditary, but it is how you use the traits, by how you act, that truly makes you.
To me, it seems to center on what YOU make of yourself. But if I had to choose either way, your environment helps influence you the most to make you the person you become.
Niah give a great example about how your environment makes you, or in her father case, breaks you. She has many of the same views that I have on upbringing. Her sponge analogy is great.
A farmer grows a stalk of corn. Pretty bland right just a seed in the ground with some water and you get a perfectly health for the most part. Sometimes there are some problems that occur and the plant won’t grow right but that’s the chance the farmer’s taking. Now we have another farmer. This farmer put his seed in the ground and then smothered it in fertilizer. The farmer now changed the way he nurtured his plant and now it will produce more corn and will have a better chance of surviving than the first corn plant.
This is an excellent example of how being nurtured can change the outcome of your future. The same concept goes with humans. If a human is nurtured by the outside world then depending on how much nurturing there is then the person could either be spoiled or have the upper hand when they get out of school. There are some people who don’t get nurtured as children. It is not the child’s fault that they were not nurtured as children. Even though it isn’t their fault they still won’t have a chance to have a childhood that was nurtured.
There are instincts that everyone posses. These instincts though can only take a person so far into their life. If these people aren’t learning certain things in life from their parents than they have to learn it from either their friends or watching someone else do these things. Nature is a powerful thing. Instinct is another thing that has to do with nature. Although Nature helps us do things there is nothing like being shown the way to do something which is nurturing.
Kim said that people can’t be born with the urge to kill and smoke these things are not only harmful to other people but also to yourself. I agree with Kim and she has a really good point. Why would it be human nature to harm yourself. This makes no sense to me. It should be human nature to better himself and mankind. It is hard to actually determine which has more of an effect on our lives, nature and being nurtured. All I can say is that I hope to harm other people and yourself is not a part of human nature.
I think nature determines what kind of personality and habits we can develop. Homosexuality, addictive habits, anger problems, depression issues, and personality disorders all depend on genetics, or at least for the most part. I’m not saying that if your mom was a heroine addict than you will be too. I’m saying that if your mother or father was addicted to something: smoking, drugs, sex, gambling, and ext, than there’s a good chance that you have inherited the tendency to become addicted to something. That’s why alcoholism tends to run in families.
I’ve thought about this topic a lot. I’m actually not really a fan because there is not a proven answer yet. I believe, however, that human personality characteristics do rely on genetics though. I think people are born with certain traits and eventually they will show themselves in one way or another. For example, the little boy growing up in the ghetto. He is surrounded by drugs and violence. On the other hand, there’s a little boy growing up in an upper middle class home surrounded by good influences and role models. The boy in the upper middle class neighborhood, if he has the addictive personality gene, will end up being addicted to something, whether it is drugs or one of the other million things in the world. The boy from the ghetto, if he doesn’t have the gene will escape the environment without an addictive habit. It depends on your genes. If you are born with an addictive personality than you will be come addicted to something, unless you have enough self control to stop yourself.
The genetic personality traits we are born with do not mean we will be this way for life. We will always have the trait; however, we do not have to posses the habit eternally. If the habit develops, which it will in one way or another, and it is a trait that is not positive we have the power to control ourselves. We have the power to push the habit back inside ourselves and keep it there. The trait will never go away though. If someone is an alcoholic and they get sober part of the program is NEVER drinking again. If they drink again it pulls that trait out of hiding and they are caught in the same dilemma as before.
I agree with Meghan B. Situations that arise in our lives have the power to bring out personality traits we didn’t know we had. If I did drugs, and I don’t have an addictive trait than I will not become addicted like someone who did have the trait.
This is in response to Leslie. All the people living in dangerous cities were just exposed to bad habit like drug dealing ext... If you had a trait for any of these bad behaviors and if you were thrown into a city like that you would become one of those people too. If you didn’t, like some people in those cities, you would not become a criminal. It depends on your genetics if you will succumb to the horrible behaviors people in this world posses.
P.S I’m sorry for using the addict reference through this whole thing. It just gives the clearest example of what I believe.
Nurture definitely has more of an effect on a person's personality and actions later in life than nature. Heredity and genetics makes up a person's physical characteristics, i.e. what color their eyes are, how tall they are, and even their risk factors of developing certain diseases and cancers. However, genetics does NOT mold your personality.
The people a person is raised by have a great effect on that person's personality. I'm not saying that you're going to be clones of your parents or guardians. I'm saying that the choices that your parents or guardians make dictate the choices that you make. If your parents make good choices, such as staying away from drugs and being good role models for their kids, you're more likely to follow in their footsteps and do the same for your kids. If your parents make bad choices, such as neglecting their kids and putting them down all the time, it's more of a reason to not be like them. You should strive to be better than that and overcome your circumstances.
Also, the people you surround yourself with, including extended family and friends, have a great effect on your personality and character. For example, the smoking thing. My grandmom smoked from when she was sixteen until she was 70. I'm talking 54 years straight. Being around her smoking for so long made me despise the habit. I feel stronger about smoking being a repulsive habit than I would if I wasn't surrounded by it for so long. Plus, the fact that her little sister died from throat cancer caused by smoking doesn't really help either. But that's besides the point.
Another thing is that babies are not born knowing how to walk and talk. These things must be learned. Walking is basically the same for all people, but the talking part is the part that varies. Depending on what country you live in, the native language is most likely going to be the first language you learn. If a person lives in Germany, their first language is most likely going to be German rather than Chinese (unless, of course, their parents are direct immigrants or first-generation or something). The language can even change within the same country. The U.S. is a shining example of this. Most people from New Jersey don't have a thick Southern drawl, or a peppy Upper-Midwestern accent. However, people from those areas think we have an accent. It depends on where you're brought up and how the people around you talk when you are learning.
I have to say that I agree with Laina on the whole identical twins having different personality traits. However, I think it's pretty ironic that identical twins who have been separated at birth end up meeting later in life, only to find out that they have the same job, were raised by the same type of family, and believe in the same religion. I read a story in the paper a few years ago about identical twin brothers. They were separated at birth, adopted by different families and moved to separate states. They met later in life, and found out that they were both firemen, they both got married in the same year to women that were the same age, had the same number of kids around the same ages, and were both Episcopalian. Coincidence?
P.S. Again, sorry for this being a little late. My computer hates me.
As my years of taking science classes have progressed and I have gained new knowledge, there has been one statement that I can always count on: organisms have an internal system called homeostasis that enables them to adapt to different stimuli in the surrounding environment. One could argue that a person’s personality traits can be traced through their genetics, but science is not entirely concrete. Not until a theory is proven to be a law should it be considered indisputable. Therefore, I can strongly state that human beings learn and develop through experience.
Although my 17 years do not add up to much yet, those that I have lived so far account for a considerable amount of experience. So, I’ll start from the beginning. Infants learn how to walk and talk from observation. The mere fact that children possess a limited amount of abilities contributes to the “monkey-see, monkey-do” affect of infancy. Take my little sister, Megan, for example. My parents always tell stories of how when she was a baby, she would always want to talk. They could see it in her mannerisms. At the dinner table, my parents would have normal discussions about work and what TV shows they were going to watch that night, and occasionally I would put my in my few cents. But there was baby Meggy in her highchair, squirming and making her cute grunting sounds, wishing that she could form her own words. To this day, we still make fun of her idiosyncrasies. This just goes to show that infants learn from an early age what words sound like, or what walking looks like.
In their progression further into life, teenagers also have their fair share of development. It goes without saying that hormones and puberty have a great effect on this tumultuous journey, but they only provide the roadmaps. Experiences such as friendship and deceit, anger and passion, and self-discovery and doubt are all stops along the way. Respected authority figures have influence over their impetuous decisions, but ultimately, they determine their own path. Teenagers learn to feel different emotions and gain more responsibility. There is no doubt that those years are hard, but they add more firewood to the flames of experience.
Teenagers then transition into the adult world; after college is done and over with, the workforce can be their friend or their enemy. Should they succeed, congratulations! Should they fail…good luck! All of the tough experiences of adulthood are constructed for every individual to make their own story, if you will. Sure, they are given the proper lessons and tools from childhood through college, but those things may all be for naught if not handled with care. Taxes, rent, car insurance, bills, food…the list of expenses is endless! However, it just goes to show that anything goes in this world, and it is only through careful observations and new experiences that any human being can succeed.
Finally, what are they left with after their days have become numbered? The time clock, though it ticks slowly, eventually comes to and end. Ah, the wonder of old age. To answer the question, the elderly are left with just that: time. Their years on this Earth gave them everything from utter sadness to overwhelming joy. Time, years, experiences, observations…whatever word is applied! These are the fruits of life, and every person has a chance to learn from each one. Yes, genetics has been given a minor role, but principles are given the most stage time. Behavior and personality are both gained from experience.
Well, I had written almost my whole blog, when I accidentally closed out the window. The weird part is, is that I am not mad because I was thinking of redoing the whole thing anyway. I was going to write about how I have no clue about whether it is nature or nurture. Then I read Gary's blog. He didn't change my point of view, but he definitely lead it to lean more towards nurture.
Before, I started writing about how divergent my brothers and sister and I are. My sister craves attention, my older brother is a hermit crab that never comes out of his shell, I'm the book worm that is not going to have any trouble graduating from high school, and my little brother is the spoiled rotten jock. But then I realized that maybe we are all different because of the environment that we grew up in. We were raised in the typical middle class family. We were provided with what we needed, but not spoiled with all the trivial commodities that wealthier kids would have. Though my sister did want a maid, but that was because "everyone at high school had one." Our parents were supportive of anything we wanted to become, and we all became different people. I completely agree with Gary in his example with Newtonville and the low budget developments of Mays Landing. Though, I don't know where Newtonville is, but I understand what he was trying to say. All I have to do is lok at Port Republic. I remember talking to one of the girls in my class about how my mom had helped me study the night before, something that was completely normal to me. She, on the other hand, could not believe that my mother even cared about what I was studying. I could not imagine my parents not being interested in my life.
The type of nurture provided by parents will determine what kind of future the child will have. Though there are exceptions, this usually hods true. My mom, for the past couple of months has been subsitiute nursisng at a high school. One day, this girl came in, and she thought she might be pregnant. But the thing that scared her the most was that her mother had told her that if she got pregnant, she would be kicked out of the house. What kind of mother would kick out their teenaged daughter when they need their mother the most? OBviously, the nurture was very poor in that circumstance.
I personally, think that I am the result of nurture. I have been very close to my mom, and I think that I why I am so much like her. She has brought me up, and I have acquired a lot of her idiosyncrasies.
Traits should be acquired through experience. Your life should be a product of what you put into it. Your life plus your life should equal your life... How can you blame a teenager for being for being "dysfunctional" if they went to the churches the parents picked out, the schools the parents picked, and the books they want you to read?
I am a product of my environment. On the rollercoaster of life I have learned the turns through experience. Yes parents offer "advice" but that isn't what molds decisions. Knowledge and wisdom is gained through hands on experiences. As life progresses you gain your independence by facing challenges yourself. When situations come up, good or bad, you will always learn from it if you figure it out yourself. A parent’s advice can only carry you so far. Yes the science comes into play, and you can break down the DNA, and genes and the rest of that jazz but how does that make you decide what to believe in? There is nothing more pure then hands on learning and no science hoo-ha could ever replace what you learn by yourself.
Joe Camp: the rebel. I have to say Joe raises a good opposition to what everyone else has said. His approach to the inherited traits affecting our experiences is technically right but doesn’t foresee the actual definition of behaviors and learning through experience. The mood that is created by hormones can easily be counterattacked with the opposite mood if some kind of experience occurs. Your feeling sad, down in the dumps, you meet somebody and they invite you to come along for something. Your “hormones” are saying “no” but you go any way. Bam, you’re alive and kicking, you have a great time, happy as can be. Experience will always over power science, sorry Joe, but he did raise a very well put opposition.
Personally I believe that humans are products of the environment to and extent. I believe that traits such as behaviors are learned through genetics only in classes with issues such as ADHD and other diseases that cause problems for young children. As far as you being a product of your environment, I believe that is true because of the people that raised you, the place you grew up, and the people who you are near everyday.
Your environment makes you who you are. The factors that make people smart are the genes that have been passed down to you, but that can be thrown out of the window if your environment is either very poor or very rich. In a poor environment, the language spoke might not be the best so your vocabulary skills might not be the greatest since you missed out on that very early in life. Also, with a poor environment, if someone does not get the proper nutrition then the connective tissue of your brain will dissipate and information is not able to process as fast as it should.
Although, in a rich environment when you are receiving the right nutrition and around people who know more than just every curse word in the book than your vocabulary and your manners will be engrained in you for the rest of your life. People from upper class and middle class families tend to be the AP kids and the kids who are more driven except for the exception of the kids who want to better where they come from and challenge to find their place in the world.
Behaviors although can be learned and also can be genetic because when your parents are angry and yell a lot, you might end up becoming a violent person and not as intelligent as someone from a higher class family. Another factor that is determined by where you come from is your social skills, someone who comes from a friendly loving family will have an easier time getting along with people compared to if your family was not as loving and not as involved with other families because then you might not know how to interact with other people.
Another reason why your traits are more learned than genetic because of the people who hang out with. Say one year in school your one of the shy kids who never talk or interact with other people and maybe the next year you get a friend who is a lil bit outside of the box, and then you might change. The influence of other people and people who you are attracted to, can make you change your personality or act differently so that the will accept you. Everyday people change their personality and styles to be accepted. Someone might dress gangster, but since they changed schools people at that school might only be accepting to people who dress punk and if that person wants to fit in they might go and buy new clothes and try to act like they want to him to act or look.
Nurture vs nature. Personally I feel it is a little of both but for the sake of argument and for the sake of following directions I am going to have to say nurture. The views that humans acquire all or almost all their behavioral traits from "nurture" are known as tabula rasa or “blank slate” for those who need the English translation. As a young child we are surrounded by various things in our environment that are sometimes very foreign to us. You learn things from experience; experience can not be taught or passed on through a gene pool. I could say I got my stubbornness from my father, but after I think about it know I think I am stubborn because of how perseverant my father is. Whatever obstacle is thrown at him he overcomes and by seeing that as a child I learned that in order to get through things you sometimes do need to be stubborn otherwise you will fail. Now-a-days, with the ever so popular gossip driven media born trends, people are becoming more and more influenced by the people around them and not so much by their genetics anymore. People see famous celebrities and think they want to be like them so they start to act and dress a certain way. That has nothing to do with genetics but wanting to mimic another person and to be accepted by society. Society acceptance, which will be my next point. Teens are often put into groups although sometime stereotypical, but some feel the need to act, dress, or even talk a certain way just so their peers will accept them. Fortunately for me I do not have this problem but I know some people who have been influenced by other to do certain things. I was talking with a friend the other night about how one of her old friends changed a lot due to the way her older sister was. When it comes to family they are the people you most want to impress and sometimes it is very hard to say no because you want to impress them so much and prove yourself to them. The things you do and who you become as a person are not only shaped by the people around you but your environment as well. People aren’t born racist but because of their upbringing and surroundings we have many racists in the world today. Where you live can also effect how you are shaped as a person. If you have a rich kid who gets everything handed to you on a silver platter you are never going to learn the true value of hard work. In another instance however, if you are a poor kid who has to work for everything you get in life to survive you are going to learn the value of a dollar and of work. In response to Caitlin Mauk’s blog, I agree with her that your genes make up your physical appearance, but what makes you on the inside is all abut your surroundings.
Emily Mehler! The same thing happened to you that happened to me! Except in my case, I wasn't almost done (I had written approximately a paragraph), and I accidentally clicked on a pop-up ad on another website (I hate when I do that) and the pop-up felt the need to override my blog entry and become a pointless waste of computer chips about EBay. Despite the amount of times (500 or so) I clicked the "back" button in a brave attempt to salvage my work, I was thwarted by eBay, which is, by the way, MERCILESS when it comes to letting you exit its pop-up ads. It froze my computer.
Anyway, now that THAT story is out of the way (sorry to bring my blog drama to the blog, which I was actually looking forward to writing seriously), let's continue with this question, which I love.
My classmates' remarks on this matter have been incredibly astute thus far. I've had the pleasure of reading several of them and many mirror my point of view to a te. I came into this blog knowing I was at a disadvantage, because despite the fact I've turned out to be a pretty nice kid, I don't know if I am a product of what lies inherent in my nature or the way I have been nurtured, because I have been raised in a healthy (more or less) environment. I believe it is a combination of the two, but for purposes of this blog I will say I think that nurture has more of an impact on the development of a child.
There are always character traits that lie in you, but it is the way you are brought up that allows you to realize these traits and abilities. As Alli said, "Nature only gave the blueprints. Nurture did the rest." It is the way we are nurtured that allows us to "come into our own," and develop as people.
There are always exceptions to every rule. Stories abound about kids rising up "out of the ghetto" and out of bad environments and triumphing despite everything else in their "nurture" standing in their way. However, those people that stand in front of you and acclaim their performance in life "with no one holding their hand" also always thank that one special person who told them they could do it, whether it be a teacher, a grandmother, a friend of the family. Nurture means something to children. Like the example someone said, (sorry Ms. Bunje and whoever wrote that, I know it was rude and I apologize for not knowing your name) "without human contact, an otherwise functioning human baby can die." As much as I believe in the power of the individual to triumph, I still believe that nurture has a huge impact on the development of people.
Oh, I wanted to say this also, but I forgot. To bolster my point (and a point others have made) about healthy environments being a stepladder to healthy growth and development, think about defense attorneys' favorite words: "troubled family life" and "rough past." They use this to defend the actions of their clients, as if to say, "It isn't in them. It's because of the environment they grew up in." While this is a stereotype, it has been said, and truthfully, that all stereotypes take their base in fact.
Just wanted to put that out there.
And Jeannie, I can't believe SALEISHA won. I was SO rooting for Chantal to pull it out.
In the nature versus nurture debate It can be very difficult to make a decision on which side to choose. Sometimes It may seem like both factors make larger contributions then we recognize in this world, however if I had to decide on which one to choose I would agree with Mike T. In this discussion. I believe that if a child is raised by his/her parents in a special way, hypothetically they should grow up following the same concepts and thought processes. Someone who is raised by noone, like a lone wolf is bound to follow what their environment teaches sure, but this is because they have nothing else. So sure it can be a contributing factor, however the big thing here is the way in which a child was nurtured. If someone was loved and cared for, such as Danny, who was pushed to his greatest potential then great things are bound to come from them.
Throughout my whole life I dealt with, not quite strict parents, but encouraging, positive parents who were always making sure my grades were decent and wanted me to do things such as read all the time. Even though I never did the reading part, they taught me that I can still have fun and try to excel in school, because in the end if I do well in school I will spend the rest of my life not being miserable. We go to school for only about 16 years at the least if we go to college, and then work for the rest of our lives! This is something that never crossed my mind until they told me, which shows how the things we are taught affect our life. My parents raised me a someone who doesn’t hate anyone, to be giving, give second chances, and be nice to everyone. I practiced this my whole life, and I was in a Catholic school from grades 1 through 8 which I am sure had some kind of positive effect on me whether I like it or not. Even if I did not like what my parents were telling me, I knew that they had to be at least partially correct so I took the time to at think about what they told me, which caused me to act differently in various situations.
Growing up in Laureldale many people would assume that we are not technologically ahead, and are hicks. This is wrongs, and even though it is a very woodsy environment, where people can hunt almost anywhere, I probably know more about computers and other things than a majority of people in the state. My father was on the computer a lot when I was younger, but not because he was addicted, just because he was usually paying bills and was interested in how the computer worked. He would take it apart many times throughout the month and I would gaze in amazement. This was in about 4th grade when it started. I knew that this would be something that our future world would revolve around and made sure to know about it. This just shows, no matter where someone grows up, as long as someone is showing them a path to take, they can and most likely will take it. So guidance is an important factor. Nurture is obviously the stronger factor in the way someone grows up.
Scientists, teachers, and ordinary people have debated for ages on whether one is born with his/her personality or whether it is "trained" by the person's environment. In this debate, I believe that human beings develop their behaviors and personalities through experience as well as exposure to a given environment.
Like Alli wrote in her blog, “Nature only gave the blueprints. Nurture did the rest.” Nature (aka our genes) gave us our outside appearance -- that is, what we look like -- such as our eye color, hair color, and skin color. Nurture (aka our environment), on the other hand, molds our personality. Anyone who has watched the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee can see the difference between those who have been home-schooled and those who have not. Those who attend a public school interact with other children just about every day of their life and, so, they are more personable and tend to have a better concept of the "real world." The home-schoolers, on the other hand, tend to almost lack a personality. They are very bland in regards to personality as a result of their lack of contact with others outside the walls of their house. Because this occurrence in personalities has become a frequent trend, it is apparent that the environment must have something to do with it.
And, in regards to Rachel's blog, while I do believe in the saying "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" to an extent, I do not believe that it is entirely true. For example, my cousins and I have parents that grew up in the same household, raised by the same parents. In other words, my aunts, uncles, and my dad were raised by my grandparents. However, my cousins are very different than me. For example, my 16-year-old cousin, who lives in Colorado, spells at a fifth grade level (Colorado education is definitely not as good as New Jersey education). He didn't inherit the "smart" genes that I supposedly did. My other cousin, who is five, has been playing video games and watching TV his entire life, mostly because his parents do not read to him. While he has amazing talents on the Playstation, he is a very wild child (to say the least) whose ratio of TV to reading time is about 100 to 1. Surely, this is because of the environment and not because of inherited traits.
So, as you can see, it is apparent that nurture definitely affects personality moreso than nature. As the song goes, "We are the world." We truly are the world, in that our environment can affect the decisions we make and shapes who we ultimately are.
Well, the school computers block everything but I guess they do not block cookie access (whatever that is), so I will start my blog! I think that all behaviors and traits are learned through experience; therefore, with the debate of nature vs. nurture, nurture wins. The idea that human beings are born with characteristics that are innate is true, but using those characteristics in the ways that people do, as well with what else is learned shows that nurture is what sets humans apart from one another. I am a strong believer in that you are a product of your environment. People can take this statement two different ways. However, both stand true. You can say that by believing that you are a product of your environment, you can only be as good as what you are physically around. You can also say that by growing up in an environment and seeing what you are around can make you a better or worse person. Environment plays a huge role in molding the way something thinks and acts. There are tons of examples of how this stands true. You hear stories all the time about stereotypes of rich people and poor people. These stereotypes are because of the environment that they live in. Rich people’s environments in gated communities are a lot different than people who may be poor and live under the boardwalk. But because these two different groups of people live in such different environments definitely gives them different outlooks on life and values. This holds true not even going as extreme as homeless people. Like Niah had mentioned in her blog, “Environment, Environment, Environment! Your environment in which you are in makes you the person you are.” You can make it no simpler than that. Someone who lives in Mays Landing definitely does not have the same environment as someone who lives in Camden. The people that live there, the things that happen, and the appearance of the two places are a lot different. Someone who lives in Mays Landing could almost be oblivious to the some of the things that someone who lives in Camden may think of everyday. Standards may be different, and this shapes people’s characters differently. You can not say that someone was born a certain way, that’s they way they are and that will never change. People learn how to act and make decisions of what they want to do. Because these things are shaped through nurturing, it is very possible for people to change, which shows why someone who used to be a drug dealer can change and become a police officer, or lawyer, or brain surgeon. Environment makes people and teaches people. Differences in environment show people different ways of life and different possibilities. In conclusion, it is plain and simple: All behaviors and traits are learned through experience!
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