Nature vs. nurture debate has dominated the public sphere for the last many decades. As to whether human characteristics are genetically acquired or learned from the environment as a result of social interactions remains an area of controversy. While the proponents of nature argue that human behaviors genetically transmit from one person to the next, only a few of our behaviors can be acquired genetically. However, people learn a larger portion of human behaviors from the environment as a result of social interactions. The kind of behavior that a child adopts is determined by the environmental influences such as the parenting styles which the child learns from observation. Research has shown that children raised in an environment in which parents demonstrate aggressive behaviors grow up to be aggressive and violent when they become adults ( Hammond, Cheney & Pearsey, 2015 ). This is due to observational learning where a child acquires new behaviors by seeing what goes on around his/her environment.
The nurture debate can further connect to the social learning theory, which states that people modify their behaviors based on their social surroundings. When children grow in a social environment where their social partners are aggressive, they are more likely to acquire these behaviors through social learning and become aggressive. Social psychology is concerned with the study of how the thoughts, behaviors, and feelings of individuals get influenced by the presence of other human beings within a particular social context. As a result, how a person behaves and acts is determined by the social environment in which such a person is brought up, and not entirely the genetic factors. One of the most important elements that play a key role in shaping the behavior of individuals is group behavior. Every person wants to belong to a particular social group, and the behaviors of an individual tend to conform to that of the group. Through group socialization, people learn and master certain behaviors and personalities which become part of their characters. The need for conformity and influence of social perception direct the way a person behaves and acts. Learning takes place in a social setting through the influence of the people around ( Fox, 2017 ). A child who belongs to a criminal social group is more likely to engage in criminal activities not because she/he was born a criminal, but because the child has acquired that behavior through social learning.
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Despite the ongoing nurture vs. nature debate, the role of the social environment in shaping the behavior of an individual remains a major aspect of sociology. Even though people can genetically inherit some very few personality traits from the parents, a vast majority of the human traits and behaviors are learned from the environment through social learning and observation. The role of parenting style and the social environment in which a child grows, therefore, remain at the forefront in influencing how a child will behave. Human behaviors are learned in a social setting and adopted to form individual traits.
References
Hammond, R., Cheney, P., & Pearsey, R. (2015). Introduction to sociology.
Fox, B. (2017). It's nature and nurture: Integrating biology and genetics into the social learning theory of criminal behavior. Journal of Criminal Justice , 49 , 22-31.
