nature verses nurture
Published 1 year, 10 months ago in My life.To what extent are human behaviors, ideas, and feelings, innate, and to what extent are they all learned? I would be interested to hear peoples views on this ongoing controversial issue, particularly in reference to childhood development.
4 Responses to “nature verses nurture”
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I think the early years of a childs life are very important. Children learn so much from their parents and their environment when they are young. They are developing at such a quick rate and it is the time when they are most capable of learning many, many new things. I still believe that human beings have certain feelings and emotions that are innate (such as curiousity, sadness, happiness etc), but at the same time they are only brought to the surface by the love (or lack there of) of the parents/guardians. I think that a child with a sound early childhood is more prepared for the time in their life when the decisions they start to make will affect themselves and the people they love. So i guess I haven’t really answered your question at all. Oh well. I tried. Have a nice weekend.
Genetics cannot be discounted as playing a major part in the characteristics of who we are or our abilities, that said nuture impacts significantly, both physical & emotional. Even prior to birth the physical & emotional wellbeing of the mother is impacting on the foetus, Compare a child who is born to a mother in a drought stricken third world country to a child born to a middle class mother in the western world who has access to good nutrition, education & health care. The child who comes from the abusive, violent household as opposed to the child who is cared for in a safe loving environment. The child that is constanly talked to, played with and exposed to various experiences - books, music etc would be expected to have a better opportunity of intellectual development than a child not exposed to these things. By the age of 4 a childs IQ can be changed by as much as 20 points either up or down by the poverty or enrichment of their experience base and nuture is not just the domain of the parents but also of the community/society in which they live as this also impacts on the child. So we are a combination of our base genetic material and the events/experiences that moulded us after birth.
Which leads to the scenario of the kid from the good home, getting mixed up with the wrong crowd, and going bad.
thesahdow
PS one semester of criminology
Hi JBJ.
A medical type of person are you? Clumsy with needles? Scary..
This nature versus nurture question is fascinating, isn’t it? I see a lot of evidence that nature provides the basis building blocks of a person. But I also see the extreme differences in upbringings children are experiencing now and I find that scary, too.
In microcosm a fell that current Bigpond ad on TV says a huge amount - that fathers are expected to know it all and they’re embarrassed when they don’t. And that leads on to the great male ego that seems so fragile today, and thus the effect that has on children.
And that leads on to….. ah, so much. Maintenance of dignity seem to me to be the most valid objective, and in Oz with our egalitarian attitudes we have a very healthy start.
For starters.
You’re working in the field?