Nature and Nurture...

[Unknown Entity]

So what do you believe?

I believe in Nurture, because I don't think a person is born with a personality, - a personality develops over time in its surroundings. A child would never learn to swear if no one around him or her swore. A child would never be born knowing how to play the drums, - he or she would learn. If I was born to British parents, but was brought up in Japan, I would learn either both English and Japanese, or if my parents weren't there, I'd only learn Japanese...

Another example to back this up could be... that girl who was raised by a pack of wild dogs. She acted just like a dog, because they raised her. She walked on all fours, barked like a dog and had the playfullness of a dog.

For those who don't know what Nature and Nurture is, its:

Nature - you're born the person you are
Nurture - you're born as a fresh slate, who grows into your person because of your surroundings.

[Meier Link]

So what do you believe?

I believe in Nurture, because I don't think a person is born with a personality

ok this statement i generally have to disagree with, probly would of agreed to it prior to my son being born.

i do belive babies are born with personality, i beleive that a baby starts to develop it early on in the 2nd trimester. all influanced from within the womb. just because they cant see whats going on they can hear out just like we can hear in. the after birth they develope the rest based on all their sences

i would have to say that all indiviuals are nurtured, mainly due to the fact of free will and the fact that we have concience/ common sence. these 3 awsome features are a great part of our exsistance. people are genereally easily influanced by their surroundings as you stated. so i feel that with that being stated its pretty obvious which side i lean to.

now if you eliminate any or all then it would have to revert back to nature, and there are a few people that are like this in reality. hence the high dependancy on perscription drug use.


OOT you make some really good ID conversations - props2u!

[Walter Sobchak]

I believe in Nurture, because I don't think a person is born with a personality, - a personality develops over time in its surroundings. A child would never learn to swear if no one around him or her swore. A child would never be born knowing how to play the drums, - he or she would learn. If I was born to British parents, but was brought up in Japan, I would learn either both English and Japanese, or if my parents weren't there, I'd only learn Japanese...

None of those things are part of the nature vs. nurture debate.

We are born with certain personality traits and we inherit some. If you look at siblings, you can see this. Some are dominant, some follow the leader, some are nice, some are mean. Twins raised apart still have a similar IQ, more so than adopted kids raised together. Twins raised apart are also very similar in personality. These are all nature.

Of course, there is the other side of the coin. Japan does not have a culture of violence, and thus has a low crime rate. However, in America, the opposite is true. Violence is part of the culture and crime rates mirror that. Our religious and moral beliefs are shaped by our parents and our surrounding society. These are all nurture.

It is both.

[Unknown Entity]

I didn't mean to go down that deep, lol! it was just an examle...

[Sinister]

You are speaking of environmental and social determinism or priori self-identity.

When these things happen and we are forced to pick sides between two favorites, I always elect the option that asks "Why pick sides?"

Gestalt philosophy says things are more than the sum of their parts. Thus all the ingredients of a birthday cake, thrown into a pan does not make a birthday cake. So, to answer your question, it is a little of both as El Wray said.

determinism, genetic legacy, free will and maybe even a soul...that's what good little boys and girls are made of.

[L Lawliet]

I believe that we are born with some personality traits that we inherit. But in spite of that we can be "modeled" depending on our surrondings. For example: a person inherits a trait that makes him/her easily react with violence. If he's raised in USA (taking El Wray's example) he'll then not hesitate in reacting violently. However if he's raised in Japan he might get used to think twice before doing something violent.
So it's kind of a mixture of nature and nurture: we are born with a personality that can be changed to a certain extent by society.

[Joe]

Both to an extent shape us all, but Nuture seems to play a larger roll in it.

Nature merely dictates the base qualities we are born with. Instincts, if you will.

Nuture on the other hand, shapes and hones those instincts to create patterns of behaviors that we excute today. For instance, many people like certain kinds of music because they listened to it when they were younger.
Another such example is that, more often than not, children reared in a home of intellectual parents grow up to be intellectual themselves. This is not always the case, since the children might be exposed to other things during their childhood that may alter their view and behaviors.

[loner-kid]

I believe that Nurture decides your personality and that Nature decides your potential, that part of us exists at birth a solid building block from which nurture builds on. I would say that nurture is more important as it dictates our perception of the world and how we interact with it

[Govinda]

Everything's a bit of both.

Two twins are born to an alcoholic father. One turns into an alky, one lives an abstinent life. When asked why they chose their separate paths, they both reply, 'Because my father drank.'

Bit of both.

[Joe]

Loner-kid: While what you said about us being a basic block thaqt nurture builds on, I have to disagree when you say that Nature decides your potential. Humans as a whole have a massive potential, and nearly all of the time, that potential is not discovered unless it is unlocked by someone who nurtures you and gives you the drive to strech to your limits.