Nature Vs Nurture

The topic of nature vs nurture is as basic as it gets when it comes to studying human development. I specifically remember studying this topic in 8th grade science, it seems almost elementary. My thinking was always that a person is the way they are because of their own personal genetics, right? Why would the fact that I live in a different area than someone else change who I was. I never really gave the topic much thought after that. I was in an environment that i fit in very well with. My community was full of kids that all shared the same interests, passions, and humor as I did. My friends were all very similar to me, we all shared similar taste in music, TV, and sports.
This topic never crossed my mind again until college started. I have two roommates, both of which I have known for a while through mutual friends. My roommates live no more than ten minutes away from my house, and all three of us went to different high schools. We are all very similar, we all played lacrosse, we all love watching sports, we all like rap music, and we all like to socialize. However, the more we got to know each other the more i realized there were differences between us. They prefer more mainstream music while i prefer a “harder” genre of rap. Both of my roommates grew up playing action packed video games while I mainly stuck to football, basketball and baseball games. Even the food that they eat and the clothes they wear differ sightly than what I’m used to. There is a long line of slight differences in our interests, although they aren’t major, they still exist. I began to get curious as to why my group of friends had different preferences than two other very similar groups of kids that lived a township over. The reasoning lies in the argument of nature vs nurture.

nature-nuture

A chart from Simply Psychology showing the spectrum of nature vs nurture

According to Explorable.com, Nature vs nurture is a very old debate. Those who side with nature believe that a person’s identity is predetermined in their DNA. They argue that a persons genetic identity doesn’t only determine their height and color, but their interests and personality as well. The nurture siders believe that a persons personality is determined by the environment they grow up in. They argue that life experiences and interactions are what ultimately determine who a person is.

dna
The thought that I am who I am because of where I am from was kind of odd to think about. I knew that this mainly applied to groups of people from different states or countries, but could it apply to groups of kids living only five minutes away? The answer is almost certainly yes. While we were all male athletes living in suburban neighborhoods, our upbringings were different. I had a brother who exposed me to the harder genres of rap, football video games and different styles of clothing. At the same time my family showed me specific types of food, certain etiquettes, etc. In turn, since I was very young I had preferences slightly different than other kids my age. As I began to grow up, these interests passed on to my group of friends and were developed more completely as we became older. They weren’t just interests, they made us who we were. They gave us an identity unique to our environment. In contrast, both of my roommates had friend groups that shared a common interest in a different genre of music, or a different type of video game, or a different style of clothing. These examples are not very significant, but they perfectly illustrate the impact that an environment can have on a person. Now i realize that when my roommates don’t like a song that my friends and I enjoy, it’s not that my music taste is bad. Instead, it’s a matter of our preferences preprogrammed as a result of our upbringings.

 

Picture source

http://www.icone-png.com/sciences/dna/

http://www.simplypsychology.org/naturevsnurture.html

 

 

 

 

 

8 thoughts on “Nature Vs Nurture

  1. mjg6031

    The topic of this post is something that I have though about when I got here to Penn State. I have met a lot of kids and most of them are pretty similar to me. I’m not too shocked because we all chose Penn State which gives us similarities. However, there are many kids who are interested is so many different things. There are kids here who don’t care about the football team. Reading your article made me think that it really isn’t a “Nature vs Nurture” debate anymore. After seeing all of my new classmates, I believe that it is a combination of both. People are born with certain characteristics that make up who they are. However, where they are from influences their personality and character. After seeing this, it makes me realize how unique some people truly are. Here is an article about the debate that I found interesting. Click Here to find the link.

  2. mjg6031

    The topic of this post is something that I have though about when I got here to Penn State. I have met a lot of kids and most of them are pretty similar to me. I’m not too shocked because we all chose Penn State which gives us similarities. However, there are many kids who are interested is so many different things. There are kids here who don’t care about the football team. Reading your article made me think that it really isn’t a “Nature vs Nurture” debate anymore. After seeing all of my new classmates, I believe that it is a combination of both. People are born with certain characteristics that make up who they are. However, where they are from influences their personality and character. After seeing this, it makes me realize how unique some people truly are. Here is an article about the debate that I found interesting. Click <a href="https://www.verywell.com/what-is-nature-versus-nurture-2795392"Here is the article.

  3. mjg6031

    The topic of this post is something that I have though about when I got here to Penn State. I have met a lot of kids and most of them are pretty similar to me. I’m not too shocked because we all chose Penn State which gives us similarities. However, there are many kids who are interested is so many different things. There are kids here who don’t care about the football team. Reading your article made me think that it really isn’t a “Nature vs Nurture” debate anymore. After seeing all of my new classmates, I believe that it is a combination of both. People are born with certain characteristics that make up who they are. However, where they are from influences their personality and character. After seeing this, it makes me realize how unique some people truly are. Here is an article about the debate that I found interesting. Click here

  4. mjg6031

    The topic of this post is something that I have though about when I got here to Penn State. I have met a lot of kids and most of them are pretty similar to me. I’m not too shocked because we all chose Penn State which gives us similarities. However, there are many kids who are interested is so many different things. There are kids here who don’t care about the football team. Reading your article made me think that it really isn’t a “Nature vs Nurture” debate anymore. After seeing all of my new classmates, I believe that it is a combination of both. People are born with certain characteristics that make up who they are. However, where they are from influences their personality and character. After seeing this, it makes me realize how unique some people truly are. Here is an article about the debate that I found interesting. Click here

  5. mjg6031

    The topic of this post is something that I have though about when I got here to Penn State. I have met a lot of kids and most of them are pretty similar to me. I’m not too shocked because we all chose Penn State which gives us similarities. However, there are many kids who are interested is so many different things. There are kids here who don’t care about the football team. Reading your article made me think that it really isn’t a “Nature vs Nurture” debate anymore. After seeing all of my new classmates, I believe that it is a combination of both. People are born with certain characteristics that make up who they are. However, where they are from influences their personality and character. After seeing this, it makes me realize how unique some people truly are. Here is an article about the debate that I found interesting. Click here to watch the video.

  6. David Ross

    I’ve never sat down and pondered the idea of “Nature vs Nurture” but your article has definitely sparked some interest in the topic for me. While reading the link you provided I immediately thought of twins. There were two identical twins that I knew from elementary school and I had not seen them in years until one day I saw them on Facebook. The differences between them were insane! One of the girls was an innocent looking doll who smiled in all of her pictures and the other girl was a gothic-punk chick that looked like she had just killed someone right before she stood for a picture. When two identical people can be this different, I want to side with Nurture. In this article that I read online ( https://www.verywell.com/what-is-nature-versus-nurture-2795392 ), I discovered that there is no true winner in the battle of Nature vs. Nurture. There are some traits that can be both, such as life expectancy.

  7. Gulianna E Garry

    This post is so interesting! Until last year when my teacher assigned the novel Frankenstein, I never thought much of the nature vs. nurture argument. The book focuses on Dr. Frankenstein’s travels of finding and destroying his monster of a creation. The common theme that often arises in the novel is if the monster is truly evil or if the monster is evil because of the abuse from Dr. Frankenstein. The novel is very fascinating and I recommend it to you since you seem very intrigued about nature vs. nurture.

  8. Anna Josephine Wisniewski

    I love this post mainly because it is so relatable. I just learned about this concept in my psych100 class and it’s actually so interesting. Plato was all about the nature side, while Aristotle supported the nurture concept. When Darwin wrote “The Origin of Species”, he defined natural selection and said that nature is what develops species and gives them the tools to survive. I agree that your examples perfectly show how these concepts are applied. There is some great info on twins and this topic too. Check out this link for more information! http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/nature-versus-nurture

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