Nature v. Nurture

This one phrase has spurred debate among religion, science, philosophy, and politics. Countless debates, arguments, and studies since then have still yet to definitively answer this concept. However there have been great strides of improvement in understanding it. The most common conclusion is that a combination of both nature and nurture accounts for the behavior of people. Let's come up with two operational definitions.

Nature refers to influence on person's behavior by internal stimuli such as genes or physiological composition. Nature implies that behavioral traits are inherited.

Nurture refers to influence on person's behavior by external stimuli such as environment factors. Nurture implies that behavioral traits are shaped by life experiences



Naturally two opposing groups have formed over these two opposing forces. Nativists who believe that most if not all behavior is caused by nature, and empiricists who believe that behavior is shaped by nurture. Often it is battle between biologists and psychologists, each firmly believing that their side is the better approach. However if we go to the extremes of nativism or empiricism there are some obvious flaws. Let's say a person is born into a family of extremely high IQ individuals. Nativists would argue that the child produced would have an IQ as well. However that is not always the case. In fact several times there have been families with high IQ producing children with much lower IQ, and families with low IQ producing child prodigies. Obviously nature would not be the only thing to account for here.

However let's look at the extreme of empiricism. For example we have a man who was raised in a wealthy home, good upstanding parents, had many friends throughout his life, and is an upstanding citizen. He has always been a high achiever making straight A's and is the CEO of his own business company. This man then goes home and mercilessly abuses his wife and children and when he's done he goes out and sexually assaults a young woman. This begs the question how can a man who was raised in a seemingly good upstanding environment have such perceived negative behavior. Obviously nurture isn't the only contributing factor.

There are many more examples of such occurrences happening. So let's avoid the extremes of empiricism and nativism. It is clear that both nature and nurture largely influence a person's behavior. The most likely explanation is that your environment will activate certain genes at developmental points in your life. In fact it is the leading theory of epigenetics. Scientist have discovered that as an organism grows, certain chemical reactions within its body turn off and on certain parts of its genome. Scientists have already determined that diet and stress can rapidly alter our genes. Please watch the below video to understand what the epigenome is.


As you can see this suggests that we can  have genetic predispositions, but the strength those predispositions are influenced by environmental chemical factors. For example, let's say I was born with a genetic predisposition to diabetes. If I leave a healthy lifestyle keeping my diet in balance it would be very unlikely for diabetes to develop with me. This is one example of the epigenome.

Another example would be that John was born with a genetic predisposition to psychopathy. There has been a large amount of research to suggest that psychopaths generally have genes which alter their brain development and cause them to feel lack of empathy. If you were to put a psychopath into a violent environment, his chances of expressing his genetic nature are high. If you were to put him into a environment in which he is ignored, his chances of expressing his genetic nature are high. However if you put him in an environment in which he is given an heavy amount of attention and care, his chances of becoming a psychopath are decreased greatly. A perfect example would be the neuroscientist James Fallon, who discovered that he has the brain anatomy of several psychopathic serial killers.

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So before you go off saying that someone was, "Born that way" or "Wasn't raised correctly." Just know that it was probably a combination of both factors.




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