Over the years, a certain debate has arisen and became a question that circles people’s minds frequently. What influences our personal development: nature or nurture, or perhaps a bit of both? Both sides of the argument have clear, everlasting points, which make it very difficult to come to a conclusion. As many know, both nature and nurture have huge impacts on our personal development, but we have yet to discover whether which one effects us the greatest. When it all comes down to it, nature is our genetics.
Nature refers to all of the genes and hereditary factors that have an influence on who we are. These are things like hair color, eye color, skin color, height, nose size, and many other traits. Things such as personality, intelligence, likes, and dislikes could be coded in our DNA; we just have yet to know. Nature becomes the life that we are brought into. These are things that we received from our parents, things that we cannot do anything about. In the simplest way to explain it, nurture is the environment that surrounds us.
Nurture sums up to be all of the environmental variables that have an impact on who we are and who we become. These things include the way that we were raised, early childhood experiences, interactions with others, and our culture. Both nature and nurture tend to have a huge influence on our personal development, but the question that lingers the most today is whether one or the other has a greater affect. Throughout my childhood, there are many times that I recall experiences that involved either nature or nurture.
Obviously, there are many recognitions of nature throughout my life. I look identical to my mother, which is a natural trait. We have almost the exact facial structure, which has led to people sometimes thinking I am she. I also have many personality traits that I have received from my father. There are times when we both get annoyed at the same things, and there are also times where we will say the exact same thing at the exact same time. There are also a lot of morals, phrases, and views on things that I tend to have in similar with both of my parents.
I believe that these things are because of the way that nature affected my development. On the nurture side of things, I remember when I went to school for the first time and picked up on things that others said or did. Some of these things stuck with me, and I do believe that I grew as a person because of my interaction with other people and also the environment. I also remember times where I had looked at magazines as a little girl and wanted to do things those celebrities were doing or dress the way that they were.
This shows of how our environment plays a role on how We develop. Based on my personal experience, I believe that nurture has a greater influence on personal development. I can recall so many more times where I feel as if my nurture affected me more than my state of nature. Although we do have many traits that do come from our genes, I feel as if the ones that come from the experiences that we with go as we develop are much more affective. Being surrounded by people in this world can be one of the most pressuring situations.
Even after what you were taught from the beginning, others can influence you to a way different than that you were taught, which plays a huge role in our development. I think that when it comes down to it, nurture will always overrule nature because of simply how many more experiences we get from people and the environment. Given that we do get many traits and genes from genetics (nature), the environment can be so persuasive (nurture). People can change their views just because they see that someone or something that they look up to has, which is a part of our development.
We develop in the environment, which is surrounded by others, which to me is nurture. We are surrounded by nurture, even though we were born with nature. The nurture therefore can be so powerful that it truly does overrule the nature. “But none of us is the result of heredity alone. Environmental factors such as nutrition, learning opportunities, cultural influences, exercise, and (unfortunately) accident and illness also determine our phenotypes and whether genetically possible behaviors will be displayed. Behavior and mental processes represent the interaction of nature and nurture” (56).
Although genetics give people many of the traits that they develop into, the environment and the role that it plays causes several different ways that people behave. The argument does come down to one simple, yet strenuous question: Are we born into the way we develop, or do we develop into ourselves over our life experiences? The debate could go on and one, but regardless of what facts may say, we will have traits that come straight from our genes, but we will still figure out who we want to become as we experience our life.